Europe

Bled

Posted by Mark Sullivan on July 4, 2022
Posted in: Europe, Slovenia. 3 comments

Stunning Lake Bled and Bled Island

Minnesotan that he is, Jim spent a lot more time swimming in Lake Bled than I did, but here’s proof I made it in too

If you google Slovenia, the first image that pops up is of postcard-perfect Bled. It’s a lovely vacation town that sits on a stunning lake with that oh-so-pretty island with a church in the middle. Though it’s just barely an hour from Ljubljana, we picked up a car and drove here to facilitate the next parts of our journey.

When I was backpacking in Europe in college, my parents and two siblings came over and met up with me for a day in Florence. Before that they had courageously wandered into Yugoslavia to a place called Bled. Yugoslavia sure sounded exotic at that time. And this obscure town of Bled sounded surprisingly nice. It took me another 38 years to get here myself.

Despite having seen all those postcard images of Lake Bled, we were still blown away by the beauty of this place. You can walk around the lake in about an hour, and it’s gorgeous from every angle. The color of the water is stunning. A castle rises over one side of the lake. Pretty chalets are sprinkled all around. It’s all ringed by the craggy peaks of the Julian Alps. And that island church is so perfect.

Bled Castle watches over the lake

Happy people in a beautiful place

Architecture and window boxes remind us of romantic towns in Germany and France

You can’t take too many pictures of this stunning lake. Especially if there is a swan!

Hiking out of town toward the Vintgar Gorge

Just outside town I ran into my first cat of the whole trip. He came running toward me, and when he got close he sort of jumped to get his head closer to my hand for faster petting.

Though we came to Europe to escape the heat and humidity of July in New York, it’s actually been unseasonably hot in much of Europe. In fact, it’s been hotter in Slovenia this week than in New York. Cool blue Lake Bled has been a nice antidote to that.

For another escape from the heat, we hiked about an hour out of town to the Vintgar Gorge. There it takes about an hour to traverse the gorge on a series of boardwalks and footbridges. The air is cool and refreshing, and the river winds and crashes below you. Now we know where the word ‘gorgeous’ comes from. We were again stunned by the beauty of the place. And here we were afraid we were too jaded to be impressed any more!

The gorge was truly gorgeous

Here we are at the gorge — happy, cool, and impressed

More gorgeous gorge

The hike back to Bled took us through a very attractive forest

On one of my walks around the lake I wondered how different it looked when my parents were here in the Yugoslavia of 1984. Was it as beautiful then? Were there as many tourists? Were the pathways as attractive and well maintained? Did my parents walk all the way around the lake? Then I did some math and realized that when they were here they were 11 years younger than I am right now. And 20 years younger than Jim. Now that’s weird.

Jim was pretty excited by the local sausages

A pretty little group of water lilies on the lake

Jim looks pretty happy with the dinner menu

Ljubljana

Posted by Mark Sullivan on July 1, 2022
Posted in: Europe, Slovenia. 1 comment

Much of life in Ljubljana takes place along the lively, lovely river Ljubljanica. At center here is the city’s famed “triple bridge,” designed by the ubiquitous architect Jože Plečnik.

It’s been a long time since we’ve really “travelled,” and we’re pretty excited to be back at it again. Since COVID came along we’ve been on a few trips, but this is the first time we’ve set out on a real adventure since we completed the big one 3-1/2 years ago.

We love New York, but we love it less in July and August when oppressive heat and humidity set in. So this year we decided to take eight weeks off for some of the old travel adventure. We began our trip here in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. We’ll spend the eight weeks in Slovenia, Croatia, Norway, Sweden, plus one little corner of Italy.

Lunch at one of the endless heavenly restaurants that line the river

Why Slovenia? It’s a lovely little country on the edge of the Alps that we’ve just never managed to get to before. It takes a bit of effort to get here. Now that I’ve finally made it, this leaves Belarus as the only one of the 44 countries in Europe I’ve not been to. Jim will be able to make the same claim after we get to Norway in a month.

We’ve looked forward to this trip with some lingering concerns. Will we like this kind of travel as much as we used to? Or will it feel like a chore? Are we jaded after our big adventure a few years ago? Are we now just checking boxes, trying to squeeze in places we didn’t get to before?

Our concerns were quickly abated by Ljubljana’s oversized charms. For a little known capital, it’s got a really nice vibe. A compact historic core is packed with classic architecture, lovely cobbled streets, and buzzing nightlife. The river Ljubljanica is lined with lively cafes and restaurants. And there is an impressive foodie scene.

We had surprisingly great food at every meal in this town. But our last dinner was the best. We went to a place called Çompa. It was a bit removed from the pretty streets that line the river. It was in a grittier part of town, the place looked comparatively downscale, and it was packed with locals. Çompa is renowned for its meats — including beef, pork, and horse. We had some of all three, and we were blown away by how delicious everything was. Pics below.

For a starter at Çompa we had cubes of raw beef with bright, beautifully flavored sauces

Then we followed up with some pork and some horse filet. Here Jim eagerly scoops up some horse. I always think horse is going to be tough and nasty, but we could not believe how delicious this was

We spent a wonderful evening with Zoran and Daniça

One of the highlights of our visit was an evening with two fascinating locals — Zoran and Daniça Kus — who were introduced to us by our friend Kiša back in New York. Zoran recently retired from a long career working with the Slovenian government and international organizations as an expert on environment and climate change. Daniça is a photographer who travels the world to capture great architecture. She is currently commissioned to document the work of Jože Plečnik, the Slovenian architect who rebuilt Ljubljana in the early to mid-20th century, and whose fingerprints are on everything in this town.

This has been a lovely start to our summer mini-adventure. Now we head toward the Julian Alps in Northwestern Slovenia.

Jim followed the river to the outer edges of town one afternoon

Some paddle boarders glide under the triple bridge

Grand bronze doors to the Cathedral of St. Nicholas evoke the beauty of Florence. In this case though they’re quite modern, added in 1996 to mark the Pope’s visit. That’s him at the top.

The exterior of the early 18th century baroque Cathedral of St. Nicholas couldn’t be more boring, but the interior has all the glitz you would expect in a European cathedral

A meat and cheese board, some olives, a glass of rosé, and an outdoor table right by the river. Can it get any better?

Tivoli Park is an enormous green space in Ljubljana with untold numbers of walking trails, grassy picnic areas, shaded walks. Jim loved finding little reading nooks here.

An early morning walk along the Ljubljanica river

Sts. Cyril & Methodius Church, just outside Tivoli Park, is a classic Orthodox church

Jim enjoyed a couple hours at the National Gallery and was particularly taken by this early 16th Century Christ

Speaking of the National Gallery, this mid-18th century Slovenian is pretty happy with his pretzel!

We always love a good market

OK, this was strange. Prešeren Square right next to the river is like a million other beautiful old European squares except for one thing: It has its own weather. See that sign, warning you about rain and suggesting an umbrella? A perfectly warm, sunny day and there’s this little circle of sprinkles. It took us a few seconds to find that little sprayer you see in the upper left corner of the picture, with just the most gentle little drizzle on the circle. Just when you think you’ve seen everything!

Paris 13.0

Posted by Jim St. George on May 30, 2022
Posted in: Europe, France. Leave a Comment
Spectacular view of Paris from the roof deck outside our breakfast area

I went back and looked and we wrote 11 blog posts from Paris during the nearly six years we were nomads, and then I added a 12th in 2019 when I came here with Mark’s dad. I guess that tells you something about how we feel about the City of Light. In fact, as I was walking (and walking and walking) around the city the last few days I realized that to a significant degree Paris really is my Happy Place, the place I feel most comfortable, most complete. I just love the feel of the city, the scale, the climate, and of course the food.

We had four full days after a late afternoon arrival from Saint-Tropez. The train ride was uneventful (that’s good) but we were surprised at how God-awful the food choices were on a four-hour-plus trip. We made the journey on Mark’s birthday, checked into our hotel, explored just a little, then went to a fabulous meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant. To be honest we’re both sort of tired of the Michelin experience: the first few courses are exciting but then they just keep coming and coming and coming. At some point your mind just glazes over whatever fabulousness you’ve just experienced. Now, to be certain, it was a great meal. After that, though, we were really eager to have our future meals at more relaxed Parisian bistros.

Jim with a glass of rosé and classic bowtie for Mark’s birthday

The one specific agenda items we had on our itinerary was the Pompidou Center, the city’s modern art museum. In part that’s because it’s a great museum, but the particular attraction was an exhibit of Shirley Jaffe’s work, an American who moved to Paris around 1950 and spent most of the next 65 years there. What was notable about that change is that she started as an abstract expressionist and just as the whole art world was moving from Paris to New York, she moved from New York (where she got her degree from the Cooper Union, just across the street from us!) to Paris. And what made it even more interesting for us is that we actually have one of her pieces on the wall in our dining room. I have to say, it was a great opportunity to see the amazing body of work she left as well as the transition from abstract expressionism (that everyone was doing) to a decidedly idiosyncratic geometric style and to see just where our piece fit into her life.

Three of Shirley Jaffe’s paintings. The one we have is from this exact period, though I have to admit I like these better…

Otherwise? A lot of it was about food where breakfasts continued to be simply overwhelming, as we were staying at the sister property of the place we stayed at Saint-Tropez. Beyond that every single meal was just this amazing collection of great restaurants. I don’t know if I’d forgotten how amazing the food is here or if I’d somehow started to take it for granted but after something approaching four years since our last visit, we were impressed.

A crazy-good dish at GrandCoeur, practically bursting with spring flavors

And otherwise our four days were spent walking, walking, and more walking as I tried to experience all the parks I love and the neighborhoods we enjoy. It was sort of a Greatest Hits visit but that took a lot of energy. In fact, over the four full days I averaged over 14 miles a day around the city. And just for the record even that level of activity doesn’t begin to compensate for the croissants and deserts and breads and Negronis. We both have a bit of work to do when we get back to New York to work those pounds off.

Every morning there were these to tempt us. And then more breads and more sweets and waffles and pancakes if you wanted them!

Oh, and one final note: France is over COVID. Down in Saint-Tropez we essentially saw no masks. On the train ride up to Paris Mark estimated that maybe one person in 20 was masked and around the city it was measurably less than that. Every now and then you’d see someone in an indoor space wearing a mask but it was pretty rare. The good news is that we both tested negative the day before returning to the states – a negative test is required for flying into the U.S. – so we made it home.

And one even final-er note. We have a fair amount of travel queued up for the rest of the summer. Eight weeks from late June to late August in Slovenia, Croatia, Norway, and Sweden and then two weeks in Bavaria for Oktoberfest and general sight-seeing. So as we settle into four weeks in NYC there’s all that to look forward to!

Todd & Susan are friends from New York, though I originally met Todd in Minneapolis in the 1970s. Here we are celebrating Susan’s birthday – just three days after Mark’s – at the rooftop bar at our hotel.
You can never have too many pictures of the bridges of Paris, right?
Part of the Greatest Hits tour included Parc Monceau, always one of my favorites. This colonnade was added in the late 18th century to make it look ancient and classical.
Mark at Rimal, a favorite Lebanese restaurant near Parc Monceau where we pretty much always have lunch when we’re in Paris
Another morning another park, this one Garden of the Palais Royale. With little green men.
The Garden of the Palais Royale. The morning was surprisingly grey and cold but later that day the weather turned perfect.
No trip to Paris would be complete without at least one afternoon in the Luxembourg Garden
Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, way up in the 19th arrondissement, is another must-see on the Greatest Hits tour. While a large and beautiful park today, it has something of a colorful past. For some 500 years it was the place where the bodies of hanged criminals were displayed. Later it was the place where horse carcasses were dumped, making it one of the most malodorous places in the city. Today, though, I love it.
The Place des Vosges, yet another must-visit park
This is me being artistic. It’s the dome from the Bourse de Commerce, once the Paris stock exchange and now an art museum.
The primary exhibit at the Bourse was of Charles Ray, an American sculptor. His work runs a gamut from this ethereal Jesus to … pornographic.
Mark with another of Charles Ray’s sculptures
An octopus and potato appetizer at Mumi, a tiny little restaurant that wasn’t available for dinner, so we had lunch there
The birthday people drinking some of the best Negronis ever made. Note that while it’s bright outside it was about 9:00 PM at this point.
Mark at Parcelles, one of an unbelievable number of great restaurants in Paris. The meal was great but there was one down side: a really, really loud American woman who you can see just over Mark’s left shoulder. When she and her partner left the entire restaurant just felt calm. Finally.
The view up the Pont Neuf and across the Seine from our room
We booked our flight home for the early afternoon so we could enjoy one last morning in Paris. Then a couple weeks before the trip the airline canceled that flight and put us on a morning flight, so we would have to leave the hotel by 7:00 AM. I got up at 6:15 to shower and pack and saw an email that due to mechanical issues the outbound flight from Newark had been delayed and so our departure was delayed by about three hours. Suddenly we had that last morning, which I leapt at to do one last early walk along the Seine.