Surprising Slovenia ‼️

 

Slovenia is a beautiful Mediterranean country full of history, seafood and ancient buildings. Every city is built around a town square with a church, tiny shops and restaurants. Visitors roam around the historic cities sightseeing. 🇸🇮 There are many guided tours and buses available in this scenic, historic country. 🚢

We are visiting old friends who grew up near the capital city of Lubijana. Katja was our babysitter many years ago when we lived in Holland and England. She is now a successful business woman with a wonderful husband Marco and two adult sons. Time flies by and it was so special to see them again. 🥰

Lubijana is a Mediterranean city with rich history. In 1991, Slovenija became independent from Yugoslavia and is now a member of the European Union and NATO. 🇸🇮

We visited many local wineries in the hilly countryside. The Owners have their own vats and wine bottles. This winery also makes and sells rock wine holders and keychains. The local owner proudly showed us around his shop and we left with souvenirs and wine of course.🍾🍷

 

Slovenia sits above the beautiful Adriatic Sea where you can sail, swim, and walk along the rocky shore. In the winter you can ski and play in the snowy Alps. It is neighbors with both Italy and Hungary. 🇮🇹 🇭🇺

Tonight we drove across the border to Trieste, Italy for pizza. It brought back  memories of Spritz and aperitivos. At the end of the meal, the Owner gave us complimentary tastings of his after dinner drinks. 🍷🍕

Trieste is a mixture of rolling hills, sea views and outdoor cafes with pizza ovens. Customers wait in long lines to dine under the Italian stars. ✴️⭐🍕

In the morning, we drove further into Trieste to a castle by the sea. There was a huge park surrounded by an historic, marble castle. 🌊

Miramar Castle was built in 1856 on the Gulf of Trieste, Italy. It has a sad story about King Maximilian who designed and built this castle for his wife Charlotte. When they were in their 30's, he was called to fight in Mexico for its freedom. Unfortunately, the King was captured and executed in Mexico. They had only been married for three years with no children. 

Charlotte returned alone to the castle and continued with the renovations. She never remarried or had children. 🏰

They say Charlotte's ghost still walks the grounds calling for her dead husband. It is a picturesque, but spooky spot in the Mediterranean. 

These paintings of Charlotte still hang in her study overlooking the Gulf of Trieste. 🖼️💕

Next we drove around Slovenija visiting wineries along the way. A unique winery had an automatic wine machine where you put in a euro and get a glass of wine. Viva Narezige, Slovenija! 🍷

We also had a wine tasting at the scenic "Kozlovic Winery" at Buje in the hills of Slovenija.

A local resident was our wine tasting expert. She brought flights of local white wine and explained each one. She grew up in this region and said it was boring just looking at vineyards and mountains until she became an adult. Now she loves sharing her wine knowledge with customers from around the world. 🌍

Our final day was spent driving across the border to Croatia. We walked the cobblestone streets along the seaside at Porec, Croatia. We watched fishermen and swimmers in the beautiful blue ocean. We saw the Gerald Ford Aircraft Carrier in the sea port. It's the largest military ship ever built. What a perfect way to end our visit to Surprising Slovenia! 🇸🇰