Olsztyn with Paweł and Ada

Our friends, Paweł and Ada

Getting friendly with Copernicus

At Malbork Castle, home of the famed Teutonic Knights

This gargoyle's crossing his legs because he's located 100m from the privy. Seriously.  I heard a tour guide say it.

We ate very well.  This was just a snack between meals.. (Note the US and EU flags -- nice touch by Ada's parents!)

After catching our breath for a week in Krakow, we took off with our friends Paweł and Ada to their hometown, Olsztyn, in northern Poland. It was a great trip because we got to see a side of Poland we wouldn't normally see. That is, we were fortunate to enjoy our friends' and their families' warm hospitality on this trip. We met Paweł and Ada's parents, were given tours of their city and the local sights, including Malbork castle and a farmstead museum in nearby Olsztynek, and were fed seemingly every time we turned around! And was JR ever loved on by Ada's parents! I think they're ready to be grandparents!

A few more pics from the trip

Here's a picture that I scanned from our trip to Lake Bled.

And a video of Jill and JR ringing the wishing bell in the chapel on the island in the middle of the lake.

The view traveling from Lake Bled to Salzburg

In Salzburg, with the old town and castle in the background

Trip home

So after the overnight train from Florence (changing trains in Villach, Austria at 4:15 am.. ouch), we tracked down the brake pads finally and got the car fixed the next day.  Our friends and fellow Olmsteders in Ljubljana were awesome and super helpful.  If you have a choice of where your car breaks down in central Europe, I suggest somewhere near the Johnsons.

Anyway, as soon as the brakes were fixed, and I mean within an hour, we got on the road and high-tailed it back to Krakow.  We got in around 3 am, but if felt good to be home.  All told, we spent 34 days on the road, traveled to 6 countries, visited 12 cities, and consumed untold amounts of gelato.  The revised map is posted above!

Now we're gonna hang up our traveling shoes for a couple weeks.  Time to re-learn Polish!

Florence

With a few more days to burn, we decided to visit Florence, where we were lucky enough to have another Olmsted couple, the Flammia's, to stay with. They were great hosts and super guides to one of the most economically and culturally important cities of the renaissance.  I'm very glad we went.

For the trip back to Ljubljana to reunite with our car we took an overnight train from Florence. Luckily we were able to get a compartment to ourselves and JR had no problem sleeping on the train.

I broke the rules and took a picture..

Outside the Duomo.. this is a block from where our friends live!

Rubbing the boar's nose, making a wish..  Mine was that the brakes get fixed.

JR wanted to sleep on the top bunk.  Didn't happen.

Trieste

Castello di Miramare, near Trieste

At an ancient Roman amphitheater

Is that Neptune or Poseidon?

Delizioso deli foods

Having spent about two weeks in Austria, we figured it was time to move on to another country, so Italy was the choice. We had heard good things about Trieste from our neighbor and a few friends, so we figured we'd give it a try.

Sitting in the extreme east of Italy, Trieste has an interesting history, being an important part of the Hapsburg empire for hundreds of years, but becoming part of Italy after WWI. It is historically a crossroads of Italian, Germanic, and Slavic cultures (so says Wikipedia), but definitely felt more Italian than the other two to us.

Maybe we were spoiled after spending so long in Austria where things work and people are generally helpful and civic-minded, but Italy, it seemed to us, has a cultural mindset about 180 out from that.. And that helps explain why they're in such deep fiscal doo-doo.

But, despite that, there were some cool sights in Trieste.  And Italian food is legit.

Schwimmen im Wörthersee

In Klagenfurt..

Klagenfurt

The fearsome Lindwurm

A model of the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev

We used to do this...

Japanese tourist?

Klagenfurt was a short bus-ride down the Autobahn from Graz, moving from the Austrian state of Styria to Carinthia. I think we've visited all but one of the Austrian states now..

One cool thing about Klagenfurt, apart from its location next to the resort lake Worthersee, and the well-kept and attractive old town area it has, is... the dragon sitting in the middle of the town square! JR did about 50 laps around this statue before I finally corralled him for a picture.

Another cool sight is Minimundus, a park founded 60 years ago that has miniature models of over 100 famous buildings and cultural sights from around the world. We went around taking pictures in front of the ones we've visited. We're big dorks, but it was fun. We figured out we've visited about a third of them. JR's on track to see them all!