Drivers Touring Europe....and Beyond

The Last entry for awhile

2009-11-08T16:40:29Z

So this may be one of the last entries until our leave during the deployment.

Luckily today was gorgeous and a beautiful day for skiing! We got to make more than 1 run down the slopes and spent slightly less time in the lodge.

At one point we went all the way up to the Hintertux Glacier to have a look - you could see peaks go on forever and it was gorgeous. Unfortunately it was getting dark by 4:30 so we went back home to rest.
Dinner was a pizza place and delicious.

Sunday was a quick breakfast, walk and drive home. Next vacation....6 months

The Last entry for awhile remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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One Last Getaway

2009-11-08T16:35:01Z

Thanks to Veterans Day we were given a three day weekend and we decided to go skiing in Austria. Hintertux was the destination we made it down on Thursday night. Friday morning we were up for breakfast and then skiing.

Unfortunately this was the view of the mountain from our hotel - Troppmair in Finkenberg.

When we got up to the mountain after a 15 minute drive it was starting to snow. We thought we could still ski so we bought half day lift tickets and got on the gondola. Our first (and only) run was a white out. We couldn't tell the difference between the ground and sky so we tried to wait it out in the lodge with some hot chocolate.
By 1400 it wasn't any better so we headed up the next gondola and met up with some other people for lunch at the lodge. After eating the visability was only getting worse so we just gave up and went down the mountain.

At the bottom it looked like the gondolas were heading straight into the clouds.

One Last Getaway remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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WhirlWind Tour of Europe

2009-11-01T19:54:39Z

This morning I had in mind to hit the park with the Atomium and Mini-Europe.

We got there at opening time but decided not to go to the top of the Atom. It was built for a worlds fair and you can take an elevator to the top circle. It was advertised as claustrophic and there was a line so we skipped that tour.
Before touring Europe we stopped to have a waffle for breakfast.
Mini-Europe is a collection of 350 miniature models of the most famous sites in Europe. They are 1:25 size and very realistic.
In a about 2 hours we visited.....

Copenhagen, Denmark,

Big Ben and Parliament in London,

The Arc de Triumph in Paris,

a Bull Ring in Spain,

Gondolas in Venice,

the Berlin Wall,

the astronomical clock in Praque,

and I got a better photo of the parthenon than I actually got in Athens.
Brussels is heavy on business as the center of the EU and the NATO headquarters but was still a fun weekend away.

WhirlWind Tour of Europe remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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An Eating Tour of Brussels

2009-11-01T19:25:29Z

Happy Halloween from Brussels, Belgium.
Brussels is about 6 hours from home so we left Friday night, hit the new PX in Ramstein and the Macaroni Grill. I had trouble reserving a room there so we ended up going to Spangdalem Air Base for the night. We arrived in Brussels by 1230 today and found our place, Hotel Bloom. It was a very modern and nice hotel for only 70 euros per night. It was a 20 minute walk from the center of town and that happened to be down a shopping street

Our first purchase was Belgian chocolate. They are so into their Mannequin Pis that they have him in all different flavored chocolate. They also had chocolate potato chips like Pringles that we had to try.

Grand Place is the center of town with the Town Hall, restaurants and a flower market. We sat here and had one of those famous Belgian Beers. Eventually we wanted to see what the hype was with this little mannequin of a boy peeing so we headed that way.

On the way we passed a The Waffle Factory and got another Belgian Specialty. Our waffles were piled high with strawberries, chocolate and banana. We hit some lace and tapestry shops which are famous in Brussels.

Eventually we came upon a crowd on the street and saw what we had been waiting for....the Mannequin Pis. All the assessments were right - he is disappointing.

This little mannequin had been given over 700 outfits by various countries so I was excited to see what he would be wearing. I was sad to find out it was ....nothing! Because of this we decided to go to the museum in the Kings House to see the outfits on display there. It was hilarious to see the costumes he has worn including an Elvis Pisley suit donated by the US.

After this we headed to the comic strip museum because my beloved Smurfs are from Belgium. As it turned out they didn't play that much of part in the museum.

Tin Tin seems to be famous with the Belgians and the museum went thru the making of comics.

When we finally got to the Smurfs they had a poster with all 100 listed - however no Female Smurf. They also showed a little model of their house, hefty's work out equipment and what I think is Gargumels Cookbook calling for a few Smurfs!

For dinner we had the famous mussels in Brussels at Chez Leon. It is a bit of a touristy place but along the restaurant Row it was the busiest. They crank out tons of pots of steamed mussels.
After all the walking we did today we were exhausted and headed to the beautiful room in Hotel Bloom.

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Chimpanzee Reserve

2009-10-17T19:33:55Z

Our last day before the 2 day trek home we spent at the Jane Goodall Chimpanzee Reserve in Nelspruit. The reserve has 30 chimps, all who have lived a heartbreaking life before being rescued.

Our tour started at 1000 which is feeding time for the chimps. This one was just waiting to get his breakfast.

This young male looked like he was doing some serious thinking in the tree.

Then he decided to pose for his glamour shot.

The reserve had three different enclosures so three different communities. This enclosure had a male, female and lots of young chimps. When the dominant male came over for breakfast the female ran up to him and greeted him with a hug.

Because these chimps are usually taken away from their mothers when they are murdered the don't have a parent to spend their youth with. So they end up making close friends with a "sibling". Many of these would walk around with their arms around each other.

The young apes spent most of their time after eating playing and wresting.

At the second enclosure the scene was dominated by a male that had been brain damaged by humans who kept hitting him in the head. He was also taught to suck his thumb and still does it frequently. But because he is brain damaged he doesn't know any better than to run up and down throwing rocks at us and clapping his hands. He had actually bit off part of the finger of our guide in the past.

The next enclosure was what the guide called the real chimps. These are the adults and as soon as we got there a couple of the females got in a fight and the dominant male tried to break it up. Because we were standing so close to the enclosure he also threw huge rocks at us and a large tree branch that got stuck in the fence. We had to move early so no one got hurt.

Luckily for these chimps they were rescued a brought to a place where they can live out a healthy life. These will never be allowed back in to the wild.

On the way back thru Marloth Park we saw some more zebras and I got to practice my black and white shots again.

Unfortunately our trip is over and we have to start home early in the morning. However we had one more excellent meal of ox tail which is popular in South Africa but actually just a stew. One more night drive did not prove to be very productive for us so we called it an earlier night.

Chimpanzee Reserve remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I get another day in Kruger!

2009-10-17T18:59:30Z

This will be our first day in Kruger in an open safari vehicle so I'm very excited about that. Its a little chilly at first in the morning but I get over it.

I have now taken several pictures of most animals in the park so I start practicing with black and white. I liked this one of the warthog.

It wouldn't be a day in Kruger in the spring without seeing a baby elephant. This one for some reason was carrying this branch along as they walked.

And this one thought if he couldn't see us we wouldn't be able to see him.

Another group of babboons crossed the road in front of us.

I took so many photos of giraffe last time that I laid off a little but I couldn't resist this one.

Sometimes I think they find us more interesting to watch.

Little did I know that my best Kruger moment was about to happen. We turned on to a dirt road and saw the tail end of a lion disappearing into the bush. When we got up to the spot another lioness was coming out on the other side of the road.

And then another and another and another. Us and the car on the other side of the road were the only ones to witness the event.

There were 14 lion cubs that crossed all in a line.

A total of 20 lions crossed before it was over. The sad part was that the huge male was at the end of the lion and that is when my camera decided to quit taking photos.

Nothing much could beat this sight but we did stop at a river crossing and see these turtles resting on a rock.

This monitor lizard was the last interesting thing. Two of them actually met up and we thought there would be a great fight. But in the end they just bobbed their heads at each other and took off in opposite directions.
Before the day was over Monet fed us another great dinner and took us on a night drive around Marloth Park. This amounted to putting plastic chairs in the back of Andre's truck and driving around with a spot light. Our big find was a hyena near their dump site.

I get another day in Kruger! remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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No hiking for us

2009-10-17T18:34:44Z

Today's schedule had us hiking in the Drakensburg Mountains. However overnight it rained and the morning was very cloudy. The point of the hike was to get to a scenic overlook that would not have been visible with that weather. So instead we drove back to Marloth Park a day early. The drive was 8 hours without much excitement. Lunch was at Wimpy which is a restaurant similar to McDonalds and very popular in South Africa.

When we got back to Marloth Genie's son, Monet, had arrived for his vacation. He is a chef in Cape Town so for the next three days we ate really well. I was a little bummed about not being able to hike but the bonus was that we would get another day in Kruger and this time it would be in an open vehicle...and I got another day of seeing my bush babies

No hiking for us remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Midlands Meander

2009-10-17T18:25:45Z

The Midlands Meander is a set of roads in the Midlands of South Africa that have all sorts of small shops and craftsman. There was everything from furniture we would love to have, leather goods, jewelry, antiques, African themed goods and wines. I had a blast driving from one shop to another. Lunch was at a brewery in a gorgeous mansion. The beer left something to be desired as most of it was cold but the food hit the spot. When our meander was complete we were on the road to Escourt and our next overnight stay at the Blue Haze. It was another gorgeous place with a large lawn overlooking a lake. It was the prom that weekend in South Africa and some teens were there taking their photos by these palm trees.

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St. Lucia

2009-10-17T18:19:38Z

Early this morning we were on the road again for St. Lucia, another world heritage site. We were in town for a cruise on the lake but stopped for some breakfast first.

The town is well built up for tourists with lots of restaurants and shops. It also has the greatest donut I ever ate.

The focus of our cruise on the lake was hippos and crocs and we saw one right away. There was a family of three to include a little baby right under the bridge when we got started.

The next thing of interest was the weaver birds that make these upside down nests.

The males make the nests and if the females don't like them they take them apart until its done right

The focus was crocs and hippos but this is about the only croc we were really able to see.

We did see tons of hippos again.

They were very playful just like in Kruger!

They compare the sizes of their mouth to see who is the most dominant.

They also were chasing each other around in the water.

We were also able to see several fish eagles relatively close up - they weren't catching any fish though

The guide on the boat passed around a huge and very heavy hippo tooth. It is easy to see how they could kill someone by biting them in half!

After the cruise we hit the highways again for the midlands. Our hotel was absolutely adorable and a nice change from the rustic accomodations in Sodwana. The place was a B&B called Penny Lane and it was run by a French expat. He was a very talkative guy and recommended the restaurant St. Ives for dinner. It was a very good choice and a beautiful location.

St. Lucia remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Last day of Scuba

2009-10-17T16:07:55Z

We made our second effort at scuba today but by the second dive today we both vomited. I am never going to go diving again without dramamine!
The first dive today was the most productive and we saw a large octopus and more eel along with lots of other fish and the tail of a HUGE ray.
The second dive we could barely see anything in the water. A huge sea turtle was about 3 feet from us and we could barely see it. Its kind of scary to be diving in water that has sharks when you can't even see whats right in front of you. But we made it with all of our bits and pieces. In the end we weren't very impressed with Sea Escapes but we would definately go back to Sodwana Bay, hopefully on a clear day.
The next activity was to ride 4-wheelers that Curt was despirate to do. The ride was awesome! The trails were all sand and wide which were easy to navigate.

The sand dunes in the back ground of the photo are the largest living sand dunes in the world.

Here is Curt driving up one of the monster hills.

The guide got cool points from me for stopping to take our photos frequently

Around dinner time Lindsay, the dive master, had invited us to a location good for sundowners. We brought our beers and watched the sun set over a lake with tons of other people.

We went off track tonight and had dinner out at Mi Casa. They had great mixed drinks and pizza. I also liked the sign on the door for the dress code.

Last day of Scuba remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Finally we see something underwater!

2009-10-17T15:50:24Z

So I don't have an underwater camera yet so I can't show you what we saw today but it was way better than Croatia. It took about 20 minutes to get to Sodwana Bay which is a World Heritage Site and the launch site for our dive.
There are many Africans that need work so we didn't have to lift our tanks or anything. We just got in the boat when it was time. The ride out to the first reef was wicked. It was not the best day for diving because according to them the water was cold and green. Green means poor visibility but for our first dive it didn't seem bad to us.
We saw so many colorful fish, a blue spotted ray, trumpet fish and huge honeycomb eel.
The waves were pretty stong I was getting sea sick as soon as we got back to the boat so we went back to shore. In the end there was something wrong with his boat engines so we didn't go back out for the second dive of the day.

When we got home we went for a drive to check out some shops and try to go ride 4-wheelers. We couldn't ride them that day but we made an appointment for the next day and went home for another braai.

These tuck shops were numerous and sell little snacks.

Finally we see something underwater! remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Driving thru Swaziland

2009-10-17T15:04:54Z

We were up early this morning to drive to Sodwana Bay and it was a good thing because otherwise I would have missed the Kudu females that came by for a snack.

Genie gave me an apple I got to feed them by hand.
To get to our scuba diving site we had to drive pretty much the length of Swaziland. The border crossings were some of the most confusing and slow I have ever experienced but then again the slow pace is one of the reasons we love Africa so much.

There is really no great announcement welcoming you to Swaziland other than this sign. The country is extremely clean and forces people to drive very slowly but not otherwise that much different that South Africa.
After several hours we arrived in Sodwana and stopped at a grocery store for some braai materials. Lets just say we were different than everyone else in the store. Our digs for the next 3 nights was with Sea Escapes and their lodging. It was a bit rustic but had a bed, shower and braai area which works for us.
We met our dive guide, got equipment and spent the night listening to him work on his boat. Whe were wondering if we were actually going to be diving the next day.

Driving thru Swaziland remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Waking up in Kruger!

2009-10-17T13:06:20Z

Several times during the night I sat up in bed a tried to make out what was right outside our hide making so much noise. But the morning was magical with the sun coming up. I really wanted to see a hippo getting back in the water so I was disappointed to see they were already back in the water by 0500. I was really excited when Genie woke me up to show me the one late hippo that was making his way back to the water.

Right outside the hide there were klipspringers on the rocks and buffalo in the bushes.

These birds were gathered in the tree bright and early.
The majority of the rest of the day was spent driving thru Kruger back towards Marloth Park.

On the way we saw zebra,

more baby ele's,

wildebeest crossing the road,

and a babboon hang out.

I was also excited to see the baby babboon's. The mom would groom this one when he allowed it.

I'm not sure what this baby was planning to do with the stick.

This was decided to be the trip of the hippo because they were the animal we seemed to end up watching the most. It was cool to see these guys gathered outside the water.
I was sad to leave Kruger but ready to see what old friends would be waiting at Marloth. For right now we only had one night before leaving for Sodwana Bay and scuba. Andre had another magnificent Braai for us and I got to see another of my favorite animals - the bush babies.

They seem to be doing just fine here but we had to wait for the vervet monkeys to leave before we could feed them their bananas. They sound like little squirrels sitting in the trees whining for their treats.

Waking up in Kruger! remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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My Favorite Place on Earth....

2009-10-16T19:25:21Z

...Kruger National Park. Bright and early this morning we headed into Kruger. The landscape looks much different that last visit. It is just coming into spring so most of the landscape is still dry and many of the trees have been destroyed by elephants.

I didn't remember seeing these "Lion King" birds last time but they were all over now. These hornbills have a strange method of laying eggs and building a nest. The female goes into a hole in the wall and the male seals her in. She sheds her feathers that provides the nest. The male feeds her thru a hole in the sealing. If something happens to the male the female will die because if she gets out of the nest she has no wings to fly away and gather food.

I wasn't disappointed in my hopes to see babies - The little elephants had to work so hard to keep up with the adults. Baby ele's don't go more than a few minutes without some contact with an adult.

It wasn't long before we came across this lion couple.

The large male appeared drowsy but the female was just plain knocked out.

We were lucky enough to come across some rare antelope including this tsessebe

and these roan antelope.

We saw a large herd of buffalo several times, these were happy just to be having a snack.

At the Mopani Rest area we had lunch and visited this baobab tree. This has many uses and has been there for hundreds of years.

Elephants are another favorite of mine, especially the babies.

This Kudu bull looked gorgeous with his long hair that matched the trees.

We got to spend the night in the Shipandane Hide which is basically an observatory by day and campsite at night. It was overlooking a water hole that was residence for many hippos that kept us busy.

The adults spent most of the time like this. They are actually laying on their bellies in the water.

These little ones, probably boys, playing ALL night long.

The adults occasionally would show who was in charge. These animals kill more people that anything else and they do it by biting you to death with those huge teeth.
They eventually came out of the water and fed on the grass directly in front of the hide.

This bushbuck was also eating in front of the hide when we showed up.
Dinner was a braai (BBQ) in the eating area of the hide. It was the most magical night with beautiful stars, eating by candles and listening to jackals call and elephants feed in the bush.

These elephants were on the ridgeline behind the hide and made a great vision.

My Favorite Place on Earth.... remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Wildlife Viewing

2009-10-16T18:02:43Z

Overnight the rain was heavy but the morning was beautiful and after breakfast we headed for a day of wildlife viewing. Our first stop was the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Center. They specialize in cheetah and wild dog rehab and breeding but also have many other animals. After a video we load into a game viewing vehicle and drive thru the park.

The King Cheetah is rare and has black stripes on his back rather than the spots. It was feeding time for some of the animals as we drove by so here is a photo that shows the difference in the two cheetah.

In another enclosure were lots of wild dogs, many taking a nap like this one.

These puppies were hidden behind a bush and ran out to chase our vehicle down the road. They were adorable after waking up from their nap with leaves stuck all over them.

A couple of the puppies sharing a good morning kiss.

We learned the easy way to tell the difference between the cheetah and leopard is that the cheetah has the black tear marks. These are intended to deflect sunlight like the black marks football players put on their face.

This is a photo of the vulture restaurant. All bones are deposited here for feasting by these huge birds.

This zebra was caught under a fence and injured so the center took him in. This sheep ended up being the surrogate mother.

We had lunch at a nursery and tea garden called the Garden of Eden.

The garden was so beautiful and had a resident dog that took to me and looked as if he was smiling up at me.

THe second stop for the day was the Moholoholo Rehabilitation Center. After another presentation we walked thru the center and had some up close encounters.
This center is focused on birds and had lots of birds of prey. Most of these had been injured by man somehow and were recovering.

I thought this black eagle was gorgeous.

We were able to get very close to some very ugly birds like this vulture.

In this vulture cage some visitors got to feed them a piece of meet while it sat on their arm.

The birds were very heavy and you had to drop your arm down quickly or they would try to crawl back up.

Because of these I was too scared to feed them.

We were to be watching the vultures get fed at their restaurant but as we were walking that way we saw this baby rhino running laps in his enclosure. It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. He just kept running his "laps". I named him skippy because he looked so happy even though he was at the center because he was rejected by his mother.

Next up close was a couple of lions.

This large female came over to the fence and the guide fed her a snack thru the links. The big male did not come over - he was probably aiting for her to bring him something back

The "purring" noises she made when so close to us could vibrate your insides and you could feel her incredible power. Yes - I prefer the big cats

The center had many cheetah that we also got to virtually stand right next to even thought they were on the other side of a fence.

The animals were extremely tall and appeared very skinny.

They paced back and forth in the cages given us time to gaze in their eerily orange eyes.

Lastly we made it back to Skippy who was tired from his laps so we got to touch his rough skin. We were not allowed to touch his face because if we do we pass on infection and these animals get very sick.

Our overnight location was the Moholoholo Mountain lodge at the edge of the Drankensburg mountains. We had an adorable lodge and their was a resident maltese that I got to play with.

Wildlife Viewing remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Just getting there is exhausting!!

2009-10-16T17:31:49Z

I loved South Africa so much on the first visit that when block leave time came I begged Curt to go again. Even though as I tell him Europe is right above Africa it took us almost 2 days to get there. We took the train to Munich and an overnight flight from Munich to Dubai.
Dubai is a very fun airport and we had 6 hours to spend there eating Dunkin Donuts and shopping. It is the most international of any airport I have been to. From Dubai we arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa. The airport in Nelspruit is so expensive to get to that it was cheaper to spend the night in Jo'burg and take a shuttle van the next day.
We stayed overnight at the Africa Center which is a budget hotel that I chose because they would pick us up at the airport. We were lucky to find them because they came to pick us up 5 hours before our flight actually arrived. It was just an overnight but safe and provided a ride....and had sme good Windhoek beer for Curt.
THe next morning the lodge took us back to the airport and we caught the City Bug. This is a shuttle van that will take you to Nelspruit for about 1/4 of the price of a flight. It was nice and comfortable but about a four hour ride.

Genie and our driver Frank were at the destination to pick us up and whisk us off to The Gecko Lodge in Hazyview. We stayed here last time and much enjoyed it. Dinner was a braai with delicious meat, salad, bread and malva pudding for dessert.

Just getting there is exhausting!! remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Pottenstein, Germany

2009-09-27T18:42:07Z

Pottenstein is known as "little Switzerland" and is only about one hour from Ansbach. We drove up there around lunch time and had some Radler and pizza at a beer garden. We got to enjoy what will probably be one of the last warm weekends here.

I loved this painting on one of the buildings downtown.

The entrance of town is marked by the strange rock formations.

After lunch we went down the road to the Pottenstein Luge Park. They had various different rides that you could go on for 2 euro per person and fly down the hill. It was nice to have this kind of silly fun with the deployment looming in the future.

The area has tons of walking trails and we hit an easy one that went back a small lake with paddle boat riders and lots of ducks. Trout in the water waited around by the feeders for guests to buy them a snack.
We had heard a legend that somewhere in Pottenstein was a restaurant that served steak on a stone. Along our walk we found it and decided it would be an awesome dinner - and we were right! The waiter brought out a HUGE filet on a sizzling stone. While you sit and chat your steak cooks the way you want it. The meat was perfectly seasoned and a good end to the weekend.

Pottenstein, Germany remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Worlds Largest Wine Fest - Bad Durkheim

2009-09-21T18:56:41Z

I will start off my saying we are not alcoholics. The worlds largest beer fest and wine fest just happened to be in the same weekend. Bad Durkheim is about 2 hours away in the wine region so we headed for the fest around lunch time. It wasn't quite what we expected.

The wine tents were similar to beer tents and served the equivilant of about 3 glasses of wine in one.

As has been the theme for the weekend we found a table, some drink and some food. This stand had every sort of meat but the grounds had even more food than Oktoberfest.

Fests in germany are very similar to a fair in the states and even have rides. After the "glass" of wine this ride gave me nausea to look at.

This very large wine barrel that could hold millions of gallons of wine is actually a restaurant inside.

We went inside for some ice cream and....wine. This is our friend Matt that went with us. The tables made it feel like you were inside a wine barrel.

After we left the giant barrel we headed up the hill for a look over the fest...but not without getting cotton candy first.

From above we could see most of the fest site.

Everyone loves a ferris wheel in the middle of the wine fields.

It wasn't long before this cloud started to roll in and we headed for the car.

Worlds Largest Wine Fest - Bad Durkheim remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Worlds Largest Beer Fest - Oktoberfest

2009-09-21T18:15:37Z

Last year we hit Oktoberfest on the last day and this year we hit opening day. We left the train station at 0530 in order to be to the fair grounds for the opening parade. Crowds gathered to watch all the beautiful horses pulling the beer wagons. The police had to come in first and make sure everyone was in order..

I loved this horse with the branding on his back

Then there was this one with all that decoration on - it looks heavy

Only a few more horse pictures, I promise - but I loved the blond hair on this one

And these german guys look almost as cool as the horses..

I think this girl must have been important somehow but she looked awesome on that horse

Near the end came a man pulling cows....

....who were pulling a giant keg

The best part about Oktoberest is the outfits. Last year I loved the dirndls so this year I got one too!

The old guys don't look as good in their Leiderhosen as the young kids though.

Cookies with writing on are huge at Oktoberfest and I thoght it was a miracle to get this picture with only one other person in it.

After the parade the horses and carts hang out for photo ops...which of course I took

I don't know but they don't look like the are enjoying Oktoberfest as much as the people

After I got finished admiring the horses we had some beer and ate a lot.....fried mashed potatoes, chicken, peanuts, cotton candy, bratwurst, pommes and a donut. I don't know if I will fit in that outfit next year

Worlds Largest Beer Fest - Oktoberfest remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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More Lipizzaner Stallions

2009-08-01T19:02:10Z

Kranj where we wake up in the morning just happens to be about half hour from Postojna Caves and an hour from Lipica so we head that direction.
Postojna Caves are a system of caves that are about 20 kilometers long and a national historic landmark. Entrance to the caves is on a cave train that goes just fast enough to make it exciting. The rock is cut just high enough to go over your head. We go about 2 km into the cave before getting out for the guided tour. The system is HUGE and the caves are so much more interesting than any I have ever been in before.

They are also home to the Human Fish or Proteus Vivarium which is a blind salamander that can live on land or water. The eyes are atrophied and the gills are red. They are very strange looking things that can be up to 12 inches long. They are in a special exhibit and you get flashlights so you can see them.

When the cave experience is finished we finish the drive to Lipica, where we were supposed to have been last night. Lipica is the home of the Lipizzaner stallion.

I first saw these horses when my dad took me to see them perform in Hershey park so they have been special to me ever since. It is amazing to be at the place where it all started.

Lipica used to breed the horses for the Spanish Riding School in Vienna but now they are bred just for Lipica which has there own riding school. Here as opposed to in Vienna you can tour the farm.

Mares and foals are kept in pastures together and it was a treat to see the foals playing together.

We didn't get to see the stables where the school horses are kept but we did see where the ones who didn't pass muster as a show horse. These are used for tourists to ride.

The signs on their stalls display their names, first name from father and second name from mother. Females only get the mothers name.

Next we see the most beautiful and oldest stables where the retired horses get to stay. These horses still get to go to pasture daily. The stud farm has about 400 horses here and they are all beautiful.
After I got my fill of horses we took off towards home where we arrived at 0230. Do we really have to go back to work now?

More Lipizzaner Stallions remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Beach Days are over:(

2009-08-01T18:02:31Z

This was some of our morning view.

After the night dive we sleep in a little before packing up the car. The ferry doesn't return us to split until 1315 so we have a bit of time to enjoy a few more rays and have one more short lunch with Jenny. She went diving again this morning. When her group was asked where they would like to dive they said the blue hole and another location. When they actually went on the dive it was to a totally different place. Atleast we hadn't wasted any more money on that dive shop.

The inlet we had to walk around. Our hotel was on the right side and the restaurants, etc on the left.

We hit the ferry back to Split and kept driving back to Kranj and our Creina hotel. We were actually supposed to end up in Lipica but due to there being two of them in the GPS we ended up at the wrong one.

Beach Days are over:( remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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More of the Same

2009-08-01T17:56:49Z

So we decided that today would probably be a better dive day because we are doing our Deep dive and a wreck dive. We ended up doing both of these in the morning. The deep dive was to about 27 meters and we did get to see some more colorful corals. There were also a few more fish swimming around including schools of sardines and these tiny bright blue fish that were quite pretty. The wreck dive was basically a sunken restaurant boat and basically looked like a bit of trash at the bottom of the ocean. We did see a lobster here though!

Divers taking a course at the front of our hotel.
The afternoon was off for us but spent running a bunch of errands like getting our ferry ticket for the return, money to pay the dive shop and doing our "homework" to get our advanced certificate.
We were going to give the Adriatic one more chance to show us something cool on a night dive. Supposedly people see rays and octopus among other things more easily at night. NOt for us however. We saw a pretty cool white fish with blue fins but Curt's flash light went out. THere were about 6 people on the night dive and 3 of the flashlights went out. Doesn't bode well for croatia divers. It was still a neat experience and not as scary as I thought it would be. We are now advanced divers so atleast if I couldn't get tons of photos of colorful fish atleast I got a certificate.

More of the Same remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Advance Diver course begins

2009-08-01T16:14:12Z

So okay....we just finished the Open Water Diver course a few weeks ago, should we really be in the Advanced Diver course??? I think not. My first dive is pretty much evidence that I shouldn't......
So 7:30 in the morning we are to be at the dive shop to start. There is lots of confusion and questions as about 8 of us assemble dive gear and wiggle our way into wet suits. The first destination is a site called the Aquarium. This is to be the AWARE dive portion of the course. AWARE means to think about and be cautious of what impact we have on the environment and also to identify fish. Sounds like a place that would have an abundance of fish, right??? Well this is the best thing we saw...

After a less than thrilling dive in which my weight belt falls off and I fail to sink requiring the instructor to put his weight plus a rock in my weight belt, we are back on the boat.
THe second dive is a "drift dive" at Smugglers cove. Sounds cool right...not so much. A drift dive is supposed to be when you get into the water you immediately start to drift and watch the fish without much effort of swimming. However there was really no drift or fish. However I had fixed my weight belt and felt much better about it.
Back at the dive shop we get lunch around the corner before our afternoon "navigation dive". This is the worst of them all because it is right in front of the hotel and the visibility when we all land on the bottom is next to zero.
Today we did meet a pretty cool british girl who I am very jealous of. She is 22 and was teaching english in Japan. Now she is taking 2 months to travel her way from Japan to England. She gets some pizza with us at a place called Alpha which is where the dive instructors usually eat. One seems to have a crush on her so we take her with us to get some ice cream. THe guy at the ice cream shop runs it like a Japanese Steakhouse and turns my cone upside down and throws one at me! Quite a show!

Advance Diver course begins remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Split to Vela Luka, Korcula

2009-08-01T15:54:04Z

At 1015 this morning our ferry leaves the beautiful port of Split and heads to Vela Luka on the island of Korcula. The ferry takes about 3 hours and is a nice smooth ride. It doesn't take us long to find the hotel we have booked as part of a package with the scuba diving shop. Hotel Posejdon is a basic hotel but with a view over the inlet and the scuba shop next door.
We are not sure if we are to dive that afternoon so we go right to the shop. This is when we realize that this shop is the most chaotic and unorganized business we have ever seen. Our first hour is spent with Bobby the owner trying to convince us to do the Advanced diver course while at the same time taking care of other customers and answering the phone. Somehow he still gets us and we are set up with equipment to start our dives the next day. The afternoon is spent relaxing by the water with our books. The different part is that many beaches in Europe do not seem to have sandy areas like we do. Here there is an area of tiny pebbles but most people are laying on the cement right up against the water. Luckily we brought our chairs!
We walked to town for dinner which is actually quite a long way. Despite the walk it is nice to be away... and WARM!!

Split to Vela Luka, Korcula remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Back in Split??

2009-08-01T19:03:13Z

Part of me wonders how we got back to Split again when we didn't like it that much last time. But the ultimate destination is Vela Luka on the island of Korcula and Split has a car ferry directly there. It also saves us about 2.5 hours driving by not going all the way to Dubrovnik. So anyway we woke up this am and piled into the car for another 5.5 hours driving. We got in a bit of trouble at the border between Slovenia and Croatia. Since Croatia is not in the EU we had to stop and show passports. Apparently we were to have bought a Slovenian Vignette (a sticker that says you have paid to drive on the roads basically). So at the border the guy checking our passports told us to go park and buy a vignette. When we pull off to the parking lot we get yelled at for not stopping at the police. It was all very confusing even though most people spoke in English!
After about 30 minutes we were on the way again. Split just appears from the middle of the mountains when you are driving in. Our hostel was CroParadise which basically rents out private rooms around the city. We had to pay before getting the room and had no Kuna so instead of getting to our room we went in search of an ATM. The first one we were directed to did not work so we went down to the pier and got our ferry tickets for the next day.

Our room ends up being a small bedroom, kitchen, living room and bathroom for 400 kuna about 50 meters for Diocletians palace.

We head to dinner thru the palace area and end up sitting across from this beautiful balcony.

I think the city seems prettier this time maybe because we are warmer. At any rate dinner is great and we spend the rest of the evening sitting by the water watching people play in the frigid ocean.

Back in Split?? remains copyright of the author ErinDriver, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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