Highlights ~ Austria Slovenia Croatia 2012 Cape Maidens

We’re baaaaaaaaack! and Austria, Slovenia, Croatia were glorious!

Here’s an overview of the Tour. Our day to day Travel Tales will follow in due course.

We had three nights independently in Prague, which were absolutely fantastic.

It was freezing there, so when the temperatures hit 10 degrees, we invested in winter scarves. A bit of rain, and cold weather, kept us in our winter woollies well into the tour.

Arrival in Vienna – 7th June 2012

We caught a Student Agency bus between Prague and Vienna. There was free wi-fi all the way. Comfortable and affordable travel, with a very well organized company.

We arrived at the Vienna Hilton Danube to be told that due to us celebrating our birthdays soon we had been upgraded to the Vienna Suite, overlooking the Danube.

Whee!

Our room with a View

More about out delightful pre-time in Vienna in Travel Tales, the highlight being, without doubt, the free Summer Night’s Concert by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra held at Schonbrunn Palace.

8th June – Friday Vienna

At 5pm we had out meet and greet – 32 passengers, mostly Australian and surprisingly, 8 South Africans. (We’ve always been the only South Africans on our other tours) and more surprisingly, only one couple from America. Our TD, Jasmina, a Slovenian, was a really lovely person, with an astonishing knowledge of the history of the area as well as the War, which was discussed extensively. Our first driver left us after Lake Bled and our new driver, Dalibor, a young Croat, demonstrated his expertise on several occasions throughout Croatia.

The Travel Tales by Chech are really extremely similar to our own experiences. In fact, most of the guides used, restaurants visited and even the meals offered, were the same.

We enjoyed our first evening orientation drive and the welcome dinner in the revolving restaurant, despite the thunderstorm!

9th June Saturday Vienna

We did not do the Bratislava optional because we had pre-booked a thoroughly enjoyable Lipizzaner Horse show, after which we re-visited the areas around Hofburg Palace and St. Stephen’s Cathedral which we had covered in the orientation tour earlier in the day.

Most enjoyable. We caught the tube back to the hotel in time to dress up and join the optional Viennese Concert. We enjoyed every moment of that! It was icy cold on the balcony where we sipped champagne at interval.

Day 3 – Sunday - Vienna to Lake Bled via Graz.

It was so cold and although the town of Graz was pretty deserted due to the weather and everything being closed on Sunday, we did still enjoy the short stop there and took the trip up to the Clock Tower for lovely views of the town.

We arrived at Lake Bled and opted out of the 5pm excursion to the Island and Castle. Having done some homework, we realized we could easily do this on our own, as both are close to the hotel. Instead we walked along the lakeside and drank in the beautiful views. We loved all of Slovenia – It really was beautiful beyond our expectations. And the Bled Cream Cake is just divine!

Day 4 Monday Lake Bled

The optional to Bohinj was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. Penny has not been to Canada and has not experienced that type of scenery ever before. She was in awe! Our visibility was really good and the Wild Boar Blood schnapps was delicious and warmed us up considerably.

We were disappointed that we had not had the opportunity to stop for some photos of the beautiful glacial lake on the way to the cable car – we did stop on the way back, but by then the weather had deteriorated somewhat.

We did not do the Postojna caves optional in the afternoon, but instead took the opportunity to do our own Church and Castle Tour which we enjoyed immensely. Good visability again, despite some rain and then a rainbow! 

And our gorgeous oarsman turned a few old gals into giggling teenagers! We did this for half the price of the optional tour price, but you need to be really fit to do the walk up to the castle.

Here we must mention that at lunch today at a café up the hill on the way towards the Castle, the waitress tried to rip us off with E20, by giving the incorrect change. When challenged, without argument, she handed over the shortfall. After that we became much more vigilant, and sorry to say this, but it happened again on a few more occasions. Just a warning to others.

Day 5 Tuesday Lake Bled, Slovenia to Plitvice, Croatia

Our trip into Ljubljana was spoilt somewhat by more rain and even some hail and our guide had us take refuge in a Museum. The doorman was not impressed and so she herded us into an alcove where she continued the history lesson. Luckily the stalls were under an awning and there were shops along the side of the market so one could stil shop a bit for souvenirs. The market stayed open despite the rain, which cleared before our meeting time on the square, and with the sun, out came some buskers and entertained us, turning it into an enjoyable stopover.

Pat was disappointed that we did not stop at Karlovac and see the tanks and planes at the display there. Her grandson is army mad and she was looking forward to showing him photos of real tanks. In fact, it was mentioned quickly, as we mounted the hill and sped through the town. If we had not turned our heads sideways, (and seen it on Chech’s tale) we would have missed them completely. We found the information on the War really interesting and at the same time absolutely shocking.

We picked up our guide on the way into Plitvice and had a beautiful tour through the lakes, although we found it a bit rushed, with not enough time to just stand and drink it all in. Luckily for us (but not for him!) one of our group had a broken toe, so he hobbled along at the back. The guide said he would be her back-marker – and the Cape Maidens were always near him and sometimes having to even catch up! Stunning!

The trek up to the Jezero hotel had us huffing and puffing.

We had been advised against the trout for supper, so most had the meat. It was fine. I found the Wi-Fi best in the dining room, which I discovered only after breakfast the next day, just before we left.

Day 6 Wednesday - Plitvice to Hvar via Split

Today we reached Split and this is where we belong! This is our kinda weather too!

What a beautiful promenade. It reminded us of being in Capri, all the beautiful people, but on flat ground.

We opted out of the Diocletian Palace tour, although we did pass through it several times, doing alleys and markets, and bumping into our fellow travellers a few times. We enjoyed a beer on the prom and at 5pm we all sailed away on the ferry to the Island of Hvar. 

Now you’ve all seen the beautiful pics of Amfora Hotel, and it is as good as the pics. Unfortunately, this is where we had our worst triple-share room experience. We put in a complaint here as the bed was a pull out sleeper couch with steel springs and a four inch soft mattress! They offered to deliver another bed to the room while we were at dinner and we could choose which one we preferred. It was a child’s divan which was even worse than the couch, and just made the room even smaller. Anyway we padded the couch up with the spare duvet and Penz took a sleeping pill and survivied!

Day 7 Thursday – Hvar Island

Besides the spare bed, we loved every single thing about Hvar. We are water babies and if I had one euro for every boat, ferry, cruise liner, yacht and canoe that we photographed, we would all be able to go right back and do the holiday all over again!

Today was our Be My Guest Dinner, and Yes, the drive really was as scary as Chech described on that narrow road. The meal was exceptional, and Yes, it is the first time we’ve seen octopus prepared like that and NO, we didn’t try it.

And then Surprise, Surprise, when the ginger biscuits came out, so did the birthday candles and the birthday hats too. Ooh! We each received a lavender gift pack from Trafalgar and everyone joined in singing and wishing us! 

When we made out wish, it was to return here one day.

Another absolute highlight of our trip. Thank you Trafalgar!

Day 8 – Friday 15th June - Hvar Island

Today was actually our birthday. We didn't join the optional of the Island Tour to Stari Grad, Vbroska and Jelsa as we wanted to do our own thing today and it really was a memorable day. 

First we walked into Hvar Town and took a local bus to Jelsa via Stari Grad where we had fresh grilled fish at an aptly named restaurant called “Paradiso”. The views were spectacular. 

The meal was really enjoyable despite the hefty bill! Only afterwards we read Pam’s “research notes” which said “Beware of extremely over-priced fresh grilled fish….” Oh well, luckily it was our birthday celebration….. . Later we found Stari Grad to also be equally gorgeous, but also extremely quiet. A well kept secret, which deserves more attention.

Back in Hvar, we swam in the sea, drank wine, took a boat trip back to the Amfora, and watched the sunset at the Hula Hula bar,(but we were out of our league there – best left to the likes of Prince Harry and the young party animals!) 

We enjoyed a light snack on the hotel terrace overlooking the pools while the piano player tickled the ivories.Bliss!

When we eventually went back to our room at about 9pm, we were surprised to find four pieces of delicious chocolate mousse cake and a birthday wish from hotel management. Really Yummy! Thank you Amfora!

Day 9 Saturday - Hvar Island to Dubrovnik

Transfer to Dubrovnik by bus to Sucuraj, by ferry to the mainland, and then by bus all the way along the spectacular coastline – and we were lucky enough to be in the front seat.

Ooh! We thought the rest had been beautiful, but they saved the best for last. Dubrovnik is enchanting. The hotel was gorgeous. We immediately had a swim in the sea below the hotel. The sunset cruise optional was just awesome and so enjoyable. Our only wish is that we could have walked through the walled city at a slightly slower pace, but hey, there’s still tomorrow! – Another highlight for sure.

Day 10 Sunday - Dubrovnik

Because of the extreme heat, we opted out of the Dubrovnik orientation and walked the walls immediately. It was terribly hot and starting at Pile Gate and it being “one way” we only managed the south side. The tower at the other end looked so far away, that we decided to exit near to the harbour and we found our way to the Buza Bar instead! Ooh! The highlights are piling up! Wear a costume wherever you go as there are so many incredible opportunities to just get in the water. We really enjoyed this swim. The water was so incredibly blue and clear and so refreshing and the views from the sea were awesome. 

Later, we had a delicious shared pizza and salad for lunch in one of the alleyways and tried the local Pivo beer. 

Then we went up Mt Srd by cable car, with its stunning views of the walled city and later caught the convenient No 6 bus back to the hotel.

Tonight was the highlight dinner. We had to meet at 5pm to pay for our excursions. This was a manual process and was so drawn out that we eventually left the hotel at only 6.15pm, after all sitting around in the hotel foyer. It was frustrating because all we could think about was how we had rushed to get ready, and had also foregone another lovely swim in the sea.

The highlight dinner was delicious and dessert was pannacotta with berry coulis.

Day 11 Monday Dubrovnik - Montenegro

The Maidens are not totally in agreement about the Montenegro optional but in hindsight, we would rather have stayed in Dubrovnik, gone back into town again and lolled around in the sea at the hotel. In our opinion, there is not enough time spent in Dubrovnik if one takes the full day Montenegro optional. As we love the water, we were disappointed to travel miles and miles along the fjord and only have two short photo stops, but not one single opportunity to swim (unless one broke away from the Old City tours). It was so terribly hot in both Kotor and Budva and eventually, when quite a few travellers had fallen by the wayside, Jasmina had to ask the local tour guide to cut the Budva old city tour short by at least half an hour. Even then, the group had walked both ways along the main road rather than along the beachfront promenade or along the shaded avenue through the park. 

Day 12 Tuesday Dubrovnik to Zagreb

Today we spent a full day on the bus and travelled 400km to Zagreb.

We enjoyed Zagreb but we are still perplexed as to why we did not stay there directly after leaving Lake Bled seeing as we virtually passed Zagreb to reach Plitvice Lakes.?? That way, without needing a full day on the bus to double back to stay in Zagreb, the Dubrovnik stay could have been extended by a day and the tour end there instead. Perhaps it has something to do with the trip previously going to Budapest after Zagreb.Without a doubt everyone would have liked more time in Dubrovnik. The entire group just loved it there! Just a thought…….

Jasmina sent around a list and we could ask any question about anything and she would try and answer it. Very interesting. Her overall knowledge is astounding. We had a lunch stop at Krka and arrived at the Best in the West(in). Wow those beds! Those breakfasts! Even Champagne and caviar were available. The fish supper at the hotel that night was mouth-watering.

Day 13 Wednesday - Zagreb

Today our elderly local guide joined the coach at the hotel and took us on an interesting orientation, including St Michael’s Church and past the Museum of Broken Relationships, and back down to the Cathedral. Then he set us free in the market place and that’s pretty much where we stayed until 3 pm, while the others returned to the hotel for the Kumrovec excursion. The guide had assured us that it was an easy tram ride from the town centre back to the hotel – 3 stops. We got ourselves completely lost and after three tram rides and KN126 spent on tram fares, we were thankfully directed to our hotel. At 5 pm (two hours after we had left town) we fell onto our beds, exhausted.

Two hours later, we were at the Farewell Dinner in town and speeches were made, Thank You’s were offered, group photographs and presents distributed, email addresses exchanged. For some reason we were not regarded as “return guests” but we did not question it as the “new travellers” were also given token gifts. We all received red hearts – ours were just smaller!

Dalibor left us tonight. He had been fantastic and we hope he was suitably rewarded by everyone.

The food tonight however, was really forgettable - as all the uneaten food proved - and Trafalgar needs to re-look at the restaurant they have selected. The fish was over-salted. Many felt the risotto was under cooked.The cheese cake was stodgy and tasteless. The “fish eaters” also did not appreciate the fact that the “meat eaters” were served delicious creamy chocolate mousse cake instead!

Day 14 Thursday - Zagreb

Today, after sad goodbyes, 20 of the 32 on Tour took the complimentary bus ride back to Vienna with another new driver. This included Jasmina, who left us in Slovenia.

As the Trafalgar brochure states that the bus arrives at the Renaissance Hotel in Vienna, some of us had booked in there for the night, so he dropped us off first. The hotel is near Schonbrunn Palace and was lovely. 

The next day we bumped into some of our fellow travellers at the Vienna airport. They said it had taken a full hour to get across town to the Hilton Danube Hotel where the rest were staying. Most of the Australians and the South Africans flew home via Dubai. We arrived there at midnight and had a 5-hour layover before departing for our 9 hour flight home.

So, our overview of this tour is ‘JUST DO IT!’ If you have enjoyed Italy, (which seems a very popular destination) then you will simply love Austria, Slovenia and Croatia.

They are much more friendly, much more accommodating and welcome you with open arms to experience their recovery and to appreciate their simple life and natural beauty. 

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