Lake Bled, Sovenia

Pat Feeding Swans - Lake Bled, Slovenia

Swan & Bled Castle - Lake Bled, Slovenia

Traditional Lector House Restaurant 
- Radovijica, Slovenia

Traditional Slovenian Meal 
- Radovijica, Slovenia

99 Steps at Church 
of the Assumption
- Lake Bled, Slovenia

Lake Bled, Slovenia (4/19-20/2011)

Picture postcard is the best way to describe Lake Bled. 

Lake Bled is backed by some of the highest peaks of the Julian Alps. Everywhere you turn you see a beautiful view - turquoise water, white swans, 1,000-year old medieval castle high on a rocky cliff, and baroque church built on an island in Lake Bled.

Lake Bled was made famous for being the finest spa town in the Austrian Empire and more recently the site for the 2011 World Rowing Championship. 

We climbed the very tall tree-lined cliff to 11th-century Bled Castle and had a trout lunch overlooking spectacular Lake Bled. On the way back Pat fed the Swans and ducks (see photo). 

We also took a boat that is slowly rowed to the island in the middle of the Lake Bled to visit the Church of Assumption. Many weddings take place here and it is a tradition for the groom to carry his bride up the 99 steps to the church (see photo). 

After climbing the steps, we wondered what the bride does for the groom - it better be good.

We took a short bus ride over to the pretty town of Radovljica where in their old town square (Linhartov trg) they have wonderfully resorted manor houses with painted murals. 

In Radovljica, we visited the 500-year old Lectar family house and their workshop/museum where they still make gingerbread items just like they have been doing for 200 years. They make many in the shape of hearts that are given (never eaten) to love ones. We also enjoyed a traditional Slovene meal in their period-decorated restaurant.

Lake Bled is a wonderful place to visit and it is no wonder that it is Slovenia’s most popular destination.


You must also see our other blog post on:

Slovenia's beautiful capital, Ljubljana

 

 

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Venice, Italy

Gondola Traffic Jam 
- Venice, Italy

Festival Masks - Venice, Italy

Pat Listening to Music at Caffe Florian
in St. Mark's Square (Piazzo San Marco) 
- Venice, Italy

Women on Grand Canal - Venice, Italy

Canal in Venice, Italy

Seafood Pasta Dinner 
- Venice, Italy

Pat with Mask in 
St. Mark's Square - Venice, Italy

Rialto Bridge & Grand Canal 
- Venice, Italy

Venice, Italy (4/16-18/2011) - OH BOY!! – Venice is our favorite city in world.  

Please view the photos on this wonderful beautiful city - Pat says Venice is romantic!

Built on 118 small islands in a lagoon, Venice has about 150 canals, more than 400 bridges, and no cars (one of the world’s only total pedestrian city!). 

People get around by walking or taking boats and Venice's famous gondolas. You can glide along 700-year-old canals in the shade of historic mansions. 

We like to toss the map and just wander Venice's beautiful alleys along the canals and small bridges. Wonderful romantic sites appear everywhere taking you back in time.

This is our third time coming to Venice so we spent 2 days just wandering gorgeous canal to canal and bridge to bridge admiring the unique architecture and eating remarkable Italian food – we love the pasta in Italy. It is easy (and fun) to get lost in Venice and we had a romantic full moon to explore Venice at night. 

A visit to Venice should not be done without a visit to the center of excitement of Venice, the Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square) with its Basilica di San Marco and Doge's Palace. 

Although often crowded, St, Mark's Square is one of the most beautiful squares in Europe. Of course we had to have $10 glasses of wine listening to romantic music at the Caffe Florian in St. Mark's Square (San Marco Piazza). Venice's Caffe Florian, established in 1720, was one of the first places in Europe to serve coffee. 

We also had lunch at the Rialto Bridge along the Grand Canal. The Rialto Bridge and Venice's buildings surrounding it are magical (see photo).

The Grand Canal, Venice's 'main street', is a 2-mile long, S-shaped water thoroughfare lined with hundreds of weather-worn Byzantine and Gothic palazzos and bussles with gondolas and delivery boats (see photo). Taking the water bus for a tour of Venice from the Grand Canal is a wonderful experience day or romantic night. Somewhat touristy, a gondola ride is fun and takes you through some of the 150 back canals.

Ariel View of Venice, Italy

Venice has become much more expensive than the last time we were here 12 years ago. Even so, everyone should put lovely Venice on the top of their travel wish lists.

Lovely Grand Canal in Evening - Venice, Italy

Some history... The Venetians ruled a large part of the Mediterranean Sea with their peak of power in the 1300’s and Napoleon ending their independence in 1797. They accumulated great wealth and gave the world this amazing city. Marco Polo left Venice in 1271 for his 20 years of travel – he has a few more nomadic years than we do.

Bird's-Eye View of Venice, Italy

Please see our other posts on wonderful Italy:

Lake District Gardens, Italy

Lake Como, Bellagio, & Menaggio - Living Around the Lake

Lake Como Villas & Villages, Italy

Lake Maggiore & Isola Bella, Italy

Pompeii, Naples, Pomero, & Taormina, Italy

Bologna, Italy

Verona, Italy 

 

Tirano and Bernini Express, Italy

 

 

 
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Spain (Canary Islands, Cadiz, Malaga, & Valencia)

Beautiful Park Promenade - Malaga, Spain

School Girls - Malaga, Spain

Playa de la Malagueta 
- Malaga, Spain

Pat with Paella Pans - Valencia, Spain

Cafe - Valencia, Spain

Beautiful Streets - Malaga, Spain

Restaurant - Cadiz, Spain

Black Sand Beach (Playa Jardin)
- Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

Tapa (Tape) Menu - Malaga, Spain

Spain (Canary Islands, Cadiz, Malaga, & Valencia) (4/11-16/2011) - After 7 days at sea on our trans-Atlantic Ocean crossing on a Royal Caribbean cruise, our ship made four stops in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea along the Spanish coast.

We stopped at Malaga (see photos). What a beautiful city - Malaga is the kind of place we could live in! It was lovely to walk around Malaga's beautiful streets with it's upscale shops, restaurants, and apartments in a beautiful old historical quarter. There is a wonderful park promenade running along the town that we walked to the local beach (Playa de la Malagueta) - see photos.  

In additional to all this, Malaga is famous for being the birthplace of Picasso and its Moorish castles (Castillo de Gibralfaro and Alcazaba).

Malaga is the southernmost large city in Europe with a population of a little over half million. Located on Spain's Costa del Sol, Malaga has a subtropical-mediterranean climate enjoying one of the warmest winters in Europe. It's history spans about 2,800 years making Malaga one of the oldest cities in Europe.

We first made landfall at Tenerife, the largest of the seven Canary Islands about 100 miles off shore from Morocco. The Canary Islands are a territory of Spain with a population of 2.1 million, hosting about 5 million tourists (many British) every year coming for the sunny black-sand beaches, resorts, lively nightlife, and the second largest Carnival in the world. 

The Canary Island's main island of Tenerife is a diverse island with forests, mountains, and a volcano. We took a bus to Tenerife's old harbor of Puerto de La Cruz, had lunch in the central Compostelana Plaza, and walked on the black sand beach of Playa Jardin (see photos). The ocean water in the Canary Islands was still a bit cool this early in the season when we visited in April. 

Our next stop in Spain was picturesque Cadiz, said to be one of the oldest cities in western Europe founded about 3,000 years ago. Columbus departed from Cadiz on two voyages of discovery of the Americas. Cadiz became the wealthiest port in Western Europe from the gold and silver imports. We had visited Cadiz before on our journeys so we took a ferry to Puerto de Santa Maria, an old fishing town.

Our final stop on our cruise was Valencia (see photo), the third largest city in Spain and birthplace of the Spanish dish paella! Valencia hosted the 2007 and 2010 America’s Cup sailing race. We wandered Valencia’s attractive old town visiting the central food market (Mercado Central), cathedral, and the UNESCO World Heritage Site of La Lonja (the old silk market). Valencia is where rice was first cultivated in Spain in the 8th century and therefore not surprisingly, the birthplace of paella.

Please see our other 3 posts about interesting Spain:

San Sebastian, Spain

Pamplona (Running of the Bulls), Spain

Ibiza, Cadiz, & Almeria, Spain

 

 
Please enjoy 250+ wonderful places around the world, with award-winning photos, from our BLOG ARCHIVE down on the right ---->

Travel for half the cost for all levels of travel and 100's of other unique travel tips! From a former Economic professor, experienced traveler (106 countries), award-winning travel photojournalist/blogger, featured speaker at large travel shows, host of the travel TV show Plan Your Escape® TV aired on the CW network, and travel columnist for the Huffington Post, our popular 5-star customer rated groundbreaking and comprehensive how-to world travel book Plan Your Escape, Secrets of Traveling the World for Less Than the Cost of Living at Home reveals secrets how you can travel and see more for half the cost for all trips from a weekend getaway to longer vacations and trips, experience more adventure and romance, safely realize your travel dreams with comprehensive planning tools and checklists, travel the world for less than $100/day for a couple, and much more!
Buy this popular book on Amazon.com (also available as Ebook for $9.99), CLICK HERE