Tuesday, September 24th.
What a difference a day makes… woke up today to totally overcast skies, low clouds over Lake Bled, drizzle and heavy rain later in the day. Not exactly what you want, but way better today than yesterday, and it really didn’t affect our day too adversely.
After breakfast we loaded up in the coach and drove about 40 minutes to the ski town of Kranjska Gora where they hold a World Cup skiing event every year and many of the world’s top skiers come to train for the Olympics. We spent about an hour there wandering around the two beautiful little glacial blue lakes set in a valley and surrounded by mountains, all of which would have been nicer if the clouds were off the mountains and the sun was out…. But I’m not complaining because we needed the weather more yesterday to illuminate the beauty of Lake Bled.
Then we loaded up for our next destination. Amanda and our driver Urska, decided to take a different route to the next town because of road construction. As a result we drove into Italy for about an hour and then back into Slovenia via the Predit Pass which was a beautiful, winding road through tree covered mountains shrouded in cloud. It would be an amazing motorcycle ride. Both times we crossed the border from one country to the other, the customs guy was on a cellphone and just waved us through, very casual. The we drove to another ski town called Bovec nestled in the Soca Valley and near the Kanin ridge, the highest ski resort in the country. This is where we stayed at the Hotel Alp. We were dropped off to wander the town and have lunch. Breakfasts and dinners are all included in our package but lunches are not. We can choose what we want to do, cafes, grocery stores or packing lunches from the breakfast buffet. Today Shayna and I made sandwiches and bought some yogurt at a local store and sat on a bench in this small pretty town.
Then we boarded again and drove about an hour to We finished our day just down the road at Kobarid, known for the Battle of Caporetto where the Italian retreat was documented by Ernest Hemingway in his novel 'A Farewell to Arms. We watched a short documentary about this major battle of the First World War between Italy and Hungary and Germany that was fought in the Soca Valley in what is now Slovenia. Then we wandered around reading and looking at the exhibits. One section focused on the challenges of supplying large armies as they advanced and we read about heroic women who carried supplies to troops and thousands of dogs and horses that were used as pack animals or draft animals. The women apparently fared well, with only one casualty but many of the animals died of overwork, malnutrition or were slaughtered when no longer needed. This museum reinforced how fortunate my country and my generation have been.
We were to walk up to the Italian Charnel house and Church of St. Antony, located on a hill above Kobarid town. It houses the bones of over 7,000 Italian soldiers killed here during World War I. The church was redesigned in the 20th century by an Italian architect, when the bones were gathered from the surrounding valleys and placed here; Mussolini himself dedicated the church and Charnel house in 1938, but unfortunately it was raining too hard and the view would have been obscured. So, we drove back to our hotel for a bit of down time before dinner. It gave us a chance to catch up on our journals.
Tonight we had our dinner in our hotel as the local restaurants cannot accommodate large groups. We had a buffet dinner with a nice salad bar. Off to bed early this evening as we are up earlier tomorrow.
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