Category: Balkans 2023

The weather has finally caught up with us. For the first time we have grey skies and drizzle sometimes with rain. There is no let up, no break in the clouds through which I can optimise my photos. Bled is a tourist town less than an hour north west of the capitol Ljubljana. It sits at the head of a glacial valley at the foot of the Jullian Alps and has a Swiss Alpine vibe to it.
The morning starts with a drive up the hill to Bled Castle. Built in the 15th century it affords magnificent views across the lake and down to Bled Island and its monastery.

Half an hour drive up the valley at Lake Bohinj we take the Vogel cable car up 1000 metres to 1535 metres. In the winter this is a ski complex. No snow today but 6 degrees celsius with a roaring wind that makes it feel subzero. Oposite us the views are close up of the Julian Alps.

After lunch at the cablecar restaurant a short drive then a 545 step climb through the drizzle to Savica Falls. The steady climb ascends through beautiful autumn forest to a the rushing headwaters of the Sava river as it plunges off the rock face. This is the headwaters of the same Sava river that I saw end at the Danube in Belgrade. Quite poignant to witness both the birth and termination of a river on the one trip.

Our crossing into Slovenia is easy and uneventful. Slovenia has a small length of coastline and the tourist jewel on the coast here is the 16th century Venetian built town of Piran. Strangely the only road into the old town has a police car blocking vehicular access. We are on foot and very quickly discover what is happening. There is a distinct tell distinguishing the locals from the tourists today. The locals are wearing gumboots!
The waterfront promenade has the sea initially lapping up to the very edge of the road. Further in the waves actually surge onto the road until there are areas where the road is a couple of centimetres underwater with houses sandbagged. On questioning, this is not an unusual event throughout winter and the locals have just gotten used to it.
The town is picture postcard perfect with a sunny Italianate central square and colourful buildings lining a maze of narrow alleyways.

An hour drive north has us close to the capitol and we visit Postojne Cave. I love limestone caves and will take any opportunity to visit any one that comes within range. On arrival we are told that these are the largest in Europe. The cave has an unusual feature a little train that takes us to the depths of the cave where we proceed on foot for a 1 hour tour. The train ride is surreal. I expected a short run through blasted tunnels but instead it takes us down through chamber after chamber of beautiful limestone decorations. I have visited many caves all around the world and this is the largest I have ever been to. Unfortunately the tour commentary was in German but I have listened to so many in the past that I am sure I was not missing anything. At least it allowed me to wander around and enjoy the photographic opportunities.

Late afternoon has us at Predjama castle, a ridiculously unlikely castle built on a cleft in the cliff face over a network of limestone caves some 800 years ago. There is an interesting story about a robber baron called Erasmus. The full story is too long to relate here but he survived a siege for 1 year and 1 day utilising his caves to get out and acquire food to outlast the siege. Eventually the besieging army bribes a servant who points out the castle toilet. When Erasmus utilises the toilet next the servant signals the army who catapult a rock up there and destroy the toilet and kill Erasmus literally while he is on the throne. Erasmus is buried under a tree near the church. Six hundred years later parts of his tree are still alive.

The long drive from east to western Croatia sees the forested countryside now a pretty russet and golden hue. It is late autumn and green leaves are losing the battle. Walking around the towns the autumn leaves crunch underfoot. This morning we left with steady heavy rain drenching us. My life partner reflected out loud that there will not be much sightseeing today. Gloomily I inwardly agreed.
A 1 hour 40 minute drive takes us to Pula, our first stop. The rain has abated but heavy cloud cover persisted overhead. Google maps took us in circles trying unsuccessfully to find a car park. I decided to strike out on my own and immediately the Roman ruins appear on my right and multiple empty parking spots on the left. We high five each other and walk down to Pula’s main attraction a Roman theatre completed in 64 AD. While this massive complex is smaller than the Colosseum in Rome it is not much smaller, able to seat 23,000 spectators. Just as in the movies it hosted gladiatorial contests to the death and contests between prisoners and animals such as lions. Standing outside to take pictures I notice that bright sunlight is now reflecting off the arches. Over the course of our visit inside and out the cloud breaks and bright sun and blue skies frame our pictures. Once again we have been lucky with this fickle autumn weather.

Forty minutes away is our destination for today and we arrive in Rovinje just on lunchtime. We are a stone’s throw from the Italian city of Trieste and this pretty little town was one of a series of Dalmatian coast outposts developed by the conquering Venetians between the 13th and 18th centuries. Subsequently part of the Austro Hungarian empire until WW1. The result is a beautiful piece of Italy on the coast wrapped around the harbour. Narrow alleyways are lined with colourful buildings and cafes. It is a town made for idle wandering and soaking up the sights and ambience.

The smallest of the Balkan states with a population of only 600,000 this pocket sized state packs a scenic punch. When planning this trip my initial plan was to drive through all 6 independently. For some reason all car rental companies refuse to insure you for half of them including Montenegro and Bosnia. The compromise is to day trip through tour companies from Dubrovnik. For Montenegro in particular this results in a comprehensive overview of the country. So in the darkness at 6:50 am we board the bus and sit back and enjoy the tour.
Montenegro’s capitol, Kotor sits on a wide beautiful bay. A compact old walled city is perfect for aimless perambulation past palaces, cathedrals, orthodox churches and, of course, tourist shops and cafes.

The city walls climb steeply up the surrounding ring of mountains, which of themselves are a natural barrier from enemy forces, in particular the Ottomans who controlled the areas north for 450 years. Climbing 800 steps up the rampart yielded panoramic views of Kotor and the bay.

For lunch it was the local speciality of mussels farmed from Kotor bay with a lovely glass of the intense local red wine known as “black wine”.
After lunch we took a boat out to the church of “Our Lady of the Rocks”. The story has it that a pair of mariners started depositing rocks into the middle of the bay in the 15th century. Beyond their death the locals continued the work until an artificial island was created. Stabilised by scuttling ships around it they built a small chapel.

A wander around the picturesque bayside medieval town of Perast completes a perfect day.

Have not watched it but anyone who has, has seen Dubrovnik as much of the show was filmed there. A point not lost on the multiple souvenir sellers in the city. I remember back to 1991 in the aftermath of the collapse of communism the artificial construct of Yugoslavia fell apart. The furthermost states of Slovenia and North Macedonia slipped into nationhood uneventfully. Closer to the Serbian state it was a different story. Then communist leader Slobodan Milosevic seamlessly assumed the power of post communist Serbia. He also found himself in total control of the Serbian military and used it to ruthlessly wage war on the ethnic groupings he hated most. Serbian Croatian tensions go back over centuries. In 1991 he invaded Croatia and laid siege to Dubrovnik. The media coverage of that was my first exposure to Dubrovnik. The cultural vandalism of serb shelling of the old city was distressing. Some 55% of buildings in the old city were damaged, 11% severely. The siege lasted 7 months and in response to coordinated international pressure Serbia backed off. Thirty years on I wondered if there would be evidence of the war. Fortunately there isn’t.
The Dubrovnik Republic started in the 3th century and continued to function until the early 19th century. Most of the buildings date from the 16th century. Known as the Jewel of the Adriatic the old town encircled by massive intact city walls has an almost fairytale ambience, albeit over touristed by virtue of the regular massive cruise ship arrivals. Nonetheless in the off season the main street is less of a “human zoo” than during the peak summer season.
I hope you enjoy the photos.

Cable car up to Panorama Restaurant high above the old city

Bosnia and Herzegovina has to be one of the most screwy countries on the planet. Two capitol cities, 2 states within a country with independently functioning political and administrative functions. Three presidents are elected, one from each of the ethnic groupings and each serves as president rotating every 6 months for a 5 year term. Makes one grow cross eyed just thinking about it.
The genesis of the muddle is in the diverse ethnic mix. To the west is a large minority Croat population, to the east Serbs, in the middle are Bosnians who are a muslim grouping a throwback to the 450 years of Ottoman control here. After beating up on the Croats the Serbs turned on the Bosnians. The civil war here was particularly brutal with genocide perpetrated by the Serbs at its worst was the butchering of 8000 Bosnians in 3 days at the town of Srbenica. The “solution to the civil war was a tripartite agreement that encoded these odd divisions.
Again we are on a tour. Bosnian roads reflect the poor status of this country after neglect from the communist time and the aftermath of the subsequent civil war. Our first stop is in the rustic medieval village of Pocitelj. We bound up the hill to the fortress overlooking the cobblestone village. Freshly squeezed pomegranate juice refreshes us on the way back.

Throughout the 1990s my lifesaver locum was a chap called Peter Ferwerda. He was a thorough compassionate GP, a devout Catholic who attended mass daily. While I had developed an obsession with trekking in the Himalayas he developed an obsession with a town called Medjugorje here in Bosnia. In 1981 6 local children/teenagers claimed to have seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary and the story they related to the local Franciscan monk was very similar to the sighting of Mary in Fatima, Portugal. At a time when the children were in atheist, communist then Yugoslavia and before the advent of the world wide web it seems to be a strong case to be accepted as a pilgrimage site which is what it has become. Years of communism and civil war has hampered any church investigation and the passage of time adds to the difficulty in establishing the veracity of the claim. In the meanwhile Dr Ferwerda has becoming Fr Ferwerda and this place has become a pilgrimage site. Having said that, there is a gentle spirituality to this place which I enjoyed a lot more than the mass of humanity at Lourdes all those years ago.

Our final stop is the raison d’etre for our day trip, the visit to Mostar. As with Dubrovnik I first became aware of this town in Bosnia during theBalkan wars between 1991 and 1995. When it was completed in 1566/67, the bridge had the widest arch in the world and was a masterpiece of Ottoman architecture. So much so, that the city of Mostar is actually named after the bridge and is derived from the Slavic word – mostari – for ‘bridge keepers’. In the messy Balkan war of the 1990s it was not just the Serbs who were the aggressors. Croats and Bosnians faced off in Mostar. The city was divided in 2 west for the Croats and East for the Bosnians. Pockmarks on buildings bear evidence of gunfire. In 1993 the Croats blew up the historic Mostar bridge in another act of cultural vandalism. Incorporating material from the demolished bridge it has been carefully reconstructed. It remains the centerpiece of the historic old town.

Sunday lunch the sun is shining and the Adriatic sea is behind us. We are in a cafe in Trogir half an hour drive from Split. We had booked a Blue Cave boat tour but the “monsoon” from yesterday and a similar, erroneous, forecast for today led to the cancellation of the tour.

We awoke to bright sunshine and drove into the Diocletian Palace in Split to get some sunshine pictures as opposed to yesterday. Diocletian was born in Salona 5 kms away from present day Split. A fearsome warrior, he rose in the ranks of the Roman army and eventually became Emperor of the Dalmatian section of the Roman empire. As emperor he moved to Split and built a massive palace complex the foundations of which are still on display today. Over the centuries people moved in and especially when Venice ruled here multiple levels were added on. The result is a beautiful amalgam of historical structures and a tourist wonderland.

When our cruise was cancelled I had to do some quick research for alternative destinations to fill our day. I stumbled on the town of Trogir a 30 minute drive away. The pictures and blogs showed another medieval town with a thriving old city, cathedral and even a castle and it did not disappoint.

We finished the day with a side trip to Salona where Diocletian grew up and the remains of a 300 AD Roman city housing 60,000 residents is on display.

Our day concludes with a 7 course degustation dinner at a Michelin nominated restaurant. It’s a tough life but someone has to do it.

Morning and evening pictures from our beachside accommodation.

Mid morning has us driving through a deluge of biblical proportions. The 130 km/h motorways are reduced to 80 km/h and even at that the bucketing down rain and aquaplaning surface water make even 80ks dangerous.
The morning out from Plitvice started out with low cloud and no rain. The first 90 minutes was over winding rural roads up and down over successive foggy ranges. All seemed easy until the motorway . Close to our destination of Split and through the rain bands we stopped at a petrol station for a toilet stop and some drinks. Bad call as the toilets were outside and we emerged soaked as drowned rats from the experience.
Nonetheless our smart Air BnB priced at $70 per night is 10 meters from the beach and the Adriatic see and we made it on time for our guided walk through the centrepiece of this town Diocletian’s palace dating back to the 4th century AD.

Two weeks in and we have a routine going. It is a well oiled machine and we are a team. Breakfast is a simple cup of coffee. We have our small suitcases to pack, supplied by the larger suitcase from the boot of our rental car. Google maps directs us (most of the time) with Suzanne as co pilot monitoring the maps especially in the bigger cities. She has quickly learned to ignore my anxious curses when maps refuses to tell me which fork to take and I need to take a punt. She helps me by getting out and directing me in the tighter European city spots. We both involve ourselves in the planning for ongoing accommodation and we have regular “duelling banjo” contests, me with AirBnB and her with Booking .com. To date Air BnB has delivered in spades with great apartments often less than $100 per day.

The drive from Novi Sad to Plitvice is one of our longer ones but most is on motorway. We arrive at a quirky complex with multiple chalets clearly designed for winter ski season tourists. The national park is a 5 minute drive from our chalet and we are blessed with soe lovely mid autumn sunshine and warmth. 

All around is the sound of cascading water. It is if the earth below is bursting with the water pressure and all around the earth erupts with flowing water ranging from large waterfalls to bubbling cascades. Geologically the upper lakes system is formed by a series of cascading lakes resulting from collapsed limestone caves which also accounts for the emerald blue coloured waters.

The park has 8 walk circuits. The entry tickets include a boat ride across the top lake and a train trip between the two main gates but there is no one circuit that incorporates all of this including the distinctive upper and lower lakes areas. With Suzannes foot issues I have opted for the lower lakes  2-3 hours circuit. Amazingly, halfway through we were both cruising and happy to continue beyond our track to the boat trip. Beyond that we easily progressed through the pretty upper lakes and then I spot a short cut up to the train back to our entrance. In just over 3 hours we have serendipitously cobbled together  a “best of” route for the park. The views and pictures are amazing. Hope you enjoy.

Upper Lakes

Novi Sad, an hour north of Belgrade is Serbia’s second city. It is a lively city with wide avenues and is a very easy driving city. We arrive mid morning and easily drive up to and park just beneath the Petrovaradin Fortress with easy, very unlike the rest of Europe. Nicknamed the Gibraltar of the Danube it is located on the right bank of the Danube with commanding views across Novi Sad. Built atop of previous forts dating back to the Romans the present day structure dates from 1692. Entrance is via a tunnel and a quirky fact is that the clocktower has the hands reversed, the small hand shows minutes and the big hand hours. This way it could be easily seen by fishermen on the Danube.

There is an extensive old town here with squares, churches and outdoor cafes aplenty. he day of walking is completed with a visit to the beach on the Danube. The sand is surprisingly good but as it is now mid autumn there is no one brave enough to brave the cold Danube water today.

Catholic Cathedral