Weekend in Paris

Our December miles trip this year brought us to Paris!  I had been feeling like I missed this city so much and basically willed this quick weekend trip to happen.

Day 1 - Friday
Since we've been to this city so many times before, we didn't really come with a lot of plans of where we'd go or what we'd see... we just expected that we would eat great food, drink great wine, see great art, and take it easy.  We'd never been here during the Christmas season, or even winter, so we were looking forward to experiencing Paris differently this time. We also stayed near the Arc de Triomphe to get a different feel.  We wanted dressed windows, winter coats, and Christmas markets...

What we didn't expect was the protests right outside of our hotel!

Day 2 - Saturday
Apparently there were planned protests every Saturday. Who knew!?! I woke up the following morning to get some tea and a bottle of water, so I left to run to Starbucks and there was something in the air that wasn't quite right.  When I got back, mayhem broke outside our door.  Here is Jason pointing to our hotel on the TV.  You can see the throngs of protestors, the police, the tear gas, it was nuts and right below our window!

With all of this going on, we decided to spend our day in museums, away from the protests and chaos.

In between museums, we waited in line to have the most glorious hot chocolate and galettes. 

Then on our way to more sightseeing

But we could see that it was still crazy outside from the windows.

We were to have dinner is this lovely little restaurant, but we weren't able to go home and freshen up because the roads were closed, the metro was closed, it was unbelievable.  So we went to a cafe and had some wine and a beer and headed to Rue Saint-Georges our amazing dinner at Le Bon Georges.

Walking home from dinner, though, we saw all of the destruction from the protests. Destroyed ATMS, burned cars, downed streetlamps, graffiti, it was terrible!

Day 3 - Sunday
We woke the next morning to a city that looked sparkling and new, overnight the crews came out and towed the cars, power washed the walls and streets, and gave us a beautiful city to wander. We strolled the flea markets of Les Halles, walked the streets of the bustling city like locals. 

And then headed to the same restaurant in Montmartre we had been to before and loved, Le Potager du Père Thierry. We enjoyed the cafes into the night and loved another trip to Paris, one very different from any trip we've taken there before!

Au revoir, Paris!

Natural Beauty of Slovenia

Days 4 & 5 - Lake Bled

Day 4 was a bit more than we expected, we started off by checking out of our Ljubljana hotel, and driving up to Lake Bled.  It was a pretty quick and easy drive through the countryside.  Every little village prettier than the next.  We couldn't help but notice how charming every single house was, with well manicured gardens and overflowing window boxes.  

We got to Bled and checked into our little hotel.  The town had a rustic lake town feel to it, and our hotel was no different. Charming is the only word. 

Once we settled in, we decided to head to the lake and started walking around it.  There is a very nice paved path that goes around the entire lake, about 4 miles, giving different views of the island church and the castle as you go around.  

While walking, we found an entrance to a hike that we thought would give us a better vantage point to see the lake, so we decided to give it a go.  It turned out to be quite a challenging hike.  It was super steep the entire way up, including a staircase that might have been the steepest, longest staircase I've ever been on.  I got dizzy when I looked up! I had to think that going down was going to be way worse, I was dreading it, but the views the whole way up got better and better.  

When we got to the first vantage point, where most people stopped and turned around, we saw that the path kept going, so we decided to see where it went.  Turned out to be another vantage point, and even better.  

Now that was where the remainder of the hikers turned around, but we decided to keep following the trail... it turned out to wrap around the mountain and lead us back down to the path around the lake, just a little further down.  Perfect! As we walked further, we came to the entrance to the trail that led to the castle on the top of the cliff and decided to hit that one, too.  

Phew, that was a lot of climbing! 

Well, we got to this castle, and again, as castles go, it was a little disappointing.  It was certainly cool and very pretty, and actually reminded us of Winterfell, but again, it just didn't have the authentic feel of Predjama.  

After the day that turned out to be longer and more strenuous than we expected, we decided to grab a drink at a restaurant along the lakeside.... until the heavens opened and we had to run back to the hotel! Once we cleaned up, and warmed up, we headed out to delicious dinner at Ostarija Peglez'n.  I had fried cheese that was so delicious I ate it before I could take a pic! 

We then had a nightcap at a bar above the restaurant and called it a night.  We checked the weather for the next day and it looked like rain the whole afternoon, so we spent a lot of time deciding what to do for the few hours of good weather in the morning.  We landed on a bike ride. 

So the next morning I rushed Jason awake so we didn't lose all of our sunlight hours, we had a lovely breakfast at the hotel, and got our bikes and hit the road.  We rode about 25 km (15.5 miles) through the beautiful countryside.  It was steep at times, but so fun.  We saw little villages, sheep, farms, churches, amazing streams from the melting of the snow capped Alps, wildflowers like I've never seen, and a beautiful old mill.  

We rode and rode, until the rains came! We decided to head back once the rain hit, but man was it coming down! We were being pelted from every which way.  The rain, even though it was actually quite warm out, was super cold - basically it was miserable.  When we got to the old mill, I yelled to Jason to pull over and get some shelter, while we make a plan for what to do. 

If we kept going, there would be no shelter for a long way, so we thought we'd wait it out.  But when the rain had been steady and hard for about 30 minutes, I decided to call the bike rental company and have them come get us.  Jason wanted to just ride back, but it would have been over an hour and this was really horrible.  The company was already out getting other unlucky bikers out of the rain, so we had to wait another 30 minutes.  A full hour of downpours, thunder, lightning, and even hail for a short bit! No way we could ride in this! 

Of course, he picked us up and 8 minutes into the drive back, we came into the most beautiful weather!  It was sunny and warm and Jason got so mad at me! As we backtracked our steps with the man from our rental company, I mentioned how beautiful all of the homes were, and he said that in their culture, they care a great deal about their homes.  That explains why in every town we passed, all I could do was marvel at these pretty homes.  

Once we got back, I figured it out, and we burned over 1,500 calories on that ride, so that meant we could eat and drink whatever we wanted for the rest of the afternoon, and after such a long, cold journey, we earned it!  We took long, hot showers, got dressed for the afternoon, and spent the rest of our time hitting cafes along the river, having cocktails and food all night.  

We went to a restaurant that we had passed on our ride called Labod for dinner, and it was really so good.  We couldn't decide which night's dinner was better between these last two, but certainly, the views, ambiance, service, and food here were excellent.  Jason even tried the traditional cake from Bled, and loved it! 

After changing spots for one last drink and one last view, we hit the sack because we had to get up early for our 3 hour drive back to Venice the next morning. 

With the 6am alarm set, we packed up and were out before 7.  We decided to take a slightly longer (20 minutes more) route through Austria and Northern Italy rather than backtrack the way we came, and it was the right choice.  The drive through the Alps was really stunning, from amazing bridges to long tunnels through towering mountains, passing little Alpine villages, and beautiful trees, it was a great ride back.  Not to mention, the incredibly well cared for roads! We had to pay about $25 in tolls for this way back, but if that's what it takes to have such well maintained roadways, I'd say it's worth it.

If I could sum up Slovenia in one word, it would be "pretty."  I was so tired of hearing myself say the word pretty the entire trip, that by the end I was really trying not say it anymore, but you just can't help it. Ever where you turn, it's just pretty! The fields of wildflowers, the architecture, the natural wonders, the quaint towns, the incredibly tall and old trees, the unassuming churches, the medieval castles, the towering mountains, the clear and colorful streams, even every tunnel we went through, everything was so pretty. 

Well that's it! We're writing from the plane, heading home and longing for our next trip already! I'll be heading to Morocco with my daughter and mother in September, and Jason and I will be visiting San Miguel de Allende in October.  If I could squeeze more in, I would.  We really do just love to explore and see all there is the world.  

Until next time!

Sue and Jason

Natural Beauty of Slovenia

Day 3 - Ljubljana

The view from our room! That's the castle we visited today.

So much in one day! Today we explored all there was to see in the town of Ljubljana.  Before I start into that, though, I want to say that the people here are among the nicest we've encountered anywhere.  Just friendly, happy help, everyone speaks English very well, and super accommodating.  And, they love dogs here! We've seen so many very well behaved dogs, and the city is happy to have them.  They walk off leash and are like any other residents of the city.  We saw dogs with collars just exploring around even without an owner in sight, just getting pet by shop owners and cafe goers.  Another reason to love this country.  Anyone who loves dogs that much has to be great!


Onto our day... We started with the castle on the top of the hill.  It was a steep climb to get to it, but it was fun.

The beginning of our steep climb

Once we got there, I have to say we were a little disappointed because the castle yesterday was so cool.  This one was an Epcot version of a castle, almost nothing authentic left in there, just pockets of original walls.  We did get a nice view of the town from the top of the viewing tower, though.

This castle was all gussied up for tourists with restaurants in it and lots of gift shops.

The view was pretty cool, though.

During lunch we saw these river boats and decided to take one of them after we ate, and it was a sweet way to see the city and all of it's pretty bridges.

Champagne please!

The remainder of the day was spent exploring, then stopping at a cafe for a drink, then walking and a cafe, then walking and a cafe.  It's the perfect city for this because it's small enough to get it all in without the pressure of feeling like you missed something.

This city is obsessed with dragons! They are everywhere!

In our exploring, we wanted to see the neighborhood of Metelkova Mesto.  This place is the abandoned army barracks turned punk graffiti art and outdoor party space.  The young rebels of Slovenia took it over, and the when the government wanted to take it down, the neighbors fought to keep it.  We went during the day to take pictures of the art, but I can see how it wold come alive at night.  We are too old for that, but if we were younger, it would have been where we partied one night for sure.

Dinner was spent at a little restaurant tucked into a street we didn't know existed.  Easily our best meal of the trip, Gostalina As was built around a beautiful tree.  The food was incredible and the atmosphere was so romantic.  They served us a 4 course meal (including dessert) that catered to my allergies.  They were so accommodating.