Malta

Moving to Europe six months after we got married has meant that each wedding anniversary so far, we've been able to travel to interesting places.  The first anniversary we did Salzburg, Austria, the second one we went to Dubrovnik, Croatia, but this anniversary we wanted to do something a little different.  I figured we'd be a bit burned out on sight seeing after going non-stop for two weeks in Slovenia and having friends from the US come visit.  I wanted to pick a place where we could sight see if we felt up to it, or just relax if not.  I've heard great things about Malta, so I found a hotel right on the water and booked it.

Wednesday was the actual day of our anniversary, but since we both worked, it was pretty low key.  Shanna gets home usually a few hours before I do, so she picked up a few things and started cooking dinner.  When I got home, we had a delicious meal of crab cakes, green beans, and bread baked with onions, apples, and brie inside.  It was delicious!  For dessert, she picked up my favorite kind of cake...Coconut.  It went great with some Pumking beer from the US that our friends brought us when they visited the week prior.  As I've said before, American micro-brew is a rarity here, so when we get our hands on some, we savor it.

Friday we flew out of Stuttgart around 1pm, and it was a short 25 minute flight to Munich, then a two hour flight to Malta.  When we landed, the Malta airport was so small that there weren't gates to dock the plane with, you just stepped off the plane and a bus took you to the terminal.  The first thing we noticed was how warm it was.  It had been in the mid-50's when we left Stuttgart, and it was in the mid-70's now.  When booking the trip, I considered renting a car in case we wanted to drive around the island.  As soon as we got in the car of our driver from the hotel, I was glad I hadn't.  I knew Malta had been owned by the British until the 1970's, but didn't think about their roads.  Sure enough, they drove on the left side of the road and the drivers side in the car was on the right.  It would have been a nightmare trying figure out how to drive there.

When we got to the hotel, we checked in and headed up to our room.  I'd opted to upgrade our room to a harbor view, and am glad I did...it was BEAUTIFUL.

After getting settled, we headed down to the front desk to look for something to do that evening.  After looking through some brochures we decided to head to something called the Birgufest.  It's held once a year in a town nearby, and it sounded like fun.  The hotel had a taxi service where they'd drive you anywhere on the island.  We had them drive us there, and they dropped us off right at the entrance to the old town area.

The first thing we noticed was it didn't seem to be filled with tourists.  There were all kinds of families out there, and you could just tell they all lived in the area.  There were food vendors everywhere, both on the streets, and in buildings that you could walk through.  We found one little building that opened up into a small courtyard when you walked through.  We bought a Malta Platter and something to drink, and sat down and enjoyed the music in the courtyard.  It was all lit with red lighting and candles, and the moon was over heard, so it was pretty in there.

After the snack we walked further into town.  I knew the island was predominantly Catholic, but the number of churches everywhere was staggering.  Each one we went into was beautifully decorated with an amazing amount of hand carved wood, gold, silver and more.  There were also a handful of exhibitions we walked into with relics found in the ruins of churches bombed during WWII.  One of the neat things they had was a printing mold from the 16th century used to make playing cards.   We walked around the streets for the next few hours, stopping at various vendors and inside old buildings, and just relaxing in the festive atmosphere.  When we were done for the evening, we called the hotel and they came & picked us up.

The next morning we headed down to the Spa in the hotel to make reservations for Sunday.  The plan was to do some sightseeing on Saturday, then on Sunday get massages and relax at the pool until we had to head to the airport later that afternoon.  Unfortunately they were all booked for couples massages on Sunday, but they had one opening at 3:15 on that day.  We figured that gave us 5 hours or so to sight see, then come back to the hotel.  First, though, we went up to the breakfast floor to get something to eat.  The amount of food they had was overwhelming!  And the view was beautiful.

After breakfast we used the hotel shuttle to get to the center of town, and bought tickets on the hop on/hop off tour bus.  We had to wait a few minutes for the next bus to arrive, so while we did we chatted with the guy selling the tickets.  He told us that Rolex was holding their annual yacht race, so we would probably notice a lot of yachts around.  We'd already seen a ton of the massive ones, but shortly after he said that we noticed a bunch of yachts with sails going by.  The race is 606 nautical miles long, starting in Malta and going north and all around the island of Sicily, then returning to Malta.  I couldn't remember the exact length of the race, so I just looked it up...in doing so, I found out that the winner just crossed the finish line this morning.  The race started when we were there on Saturday.

Eventually the bus came by and picked us up.  It was one of those buses where the top had seats and no roof, so we got lucky and found seats up there.  It was another beautiful day, about 80 degrees with a nice breeze blowing off the water.  The tour lasted a few hours, taking us all over the southern part of the island.  Since our massage was scheduled for mid-afternoon, we didn't have time to get off and sight see, but we were ok with that.  I was glad that from the road we could see some ancient ruins that are credited by Guinness as the oldest free standing man made structures in the world, dating back to 5,000 B.C....that's older than the Pyramids.  We also drove by cliffs that dropped off into the water, which was absolutely stunning.

We got back to the hotel around 3, then headed down to the Spa area.  It was nice down there...we spent the first 30 minutes relaxing in a jacuzzi, then got out and had an hour long massage.  I was so relaxed that I nodded off a few times.  Once we were done, we headed out back to the pool area.  It was a huge pool and sat right next to the Mediterranean Sea.

We swam around for about an hour, then headed back up to the hotel room.  Shanna had scheduled another spa treatment for herself Sunday, and we wanted to go swimming again Sunday morning, this time in the pool and the sea, so we didn't go out Saturday night.  Instead we cleaned up, put our "nice" clothes on, and headed down to the hotel restaurant.  It was a great dinner...we had delicious seafood from the area, a bottle of wine, and had a beautiful view of the harbor at night with everything lit up.

The next morning we got up early, and after eating breakfast, headed down to the pool area.  First up, though, we had to swim a bit in the sea.  We've been near the Mediterranean Sea a few times, and never gone in, so we had to say we did it.  It was cold at first, but it didn't take long to adjust.  I don't know if this sea is saltier then others, but the first thing we noticed is how buoyant we were!  With no effort at all, we were floating.  There were also a bunch of small tropical looking fish swimming around us.  After a dip in the pool, it was time to pack things up.  While I checked out, Shanna went down to the Spa for her next session, and I sat in the lounge area playing on my iPad and sipping a beer.  We both were enjoying ourselves. :)  Once she was done, we hopped on a shuttle and went to the airport.

This is a shorter post then most, partly because it was only over a 3 day weekend, but also because sight seeing wasn't the main goal here, it was just for the two of us to get away & relax.  There's only so much I can write about when it comes to "we went swimming", "we sat around the pool", etc...  But it was a much needed get away, and we had a great time.

To see the pictures, click here or any picture above.

This will probably be the last post for awhile...we're both getting a little burned out on constant traveling, so there's nothing planned between now and when we fly back to Texas in December.  We might hit a few Christmas Markets in the Netherlands, though...if we do that, I'll post about them!

Slovenia

For Columbus Day weekend, Shanna and I had four days off, so we decided to travel somewhere.  I pulled up a map of Europe and Slovenia stood out for some reason.  I started doing some research on it, and it looked absolutely amazing.  After looking up all the things to do on Slovenia's Tourism website, it made me wish we had a few more days to see everything.  Once it was settled, I booked our hotel with the plan being to drive down there first thing in the morning.  I had mentioned to my Mom about it, and she asked if we minded her & Dad coming along.  Of course we didn't, it would be great to see them again, so they booked their flight and landed a few days before we were supposed to leave.

I picked Mom & Dad up from the airport on Tuesday, and over the next few days while Shanna & I worked, we recommended various places for them to visit.  We'd rented a car so it'd be a more comfortable drive down, so they drove that to Ludwigsburg, Tübingen, and a few other places.

Friday morning came WAY too early.  We hit the road about 6:30am.  The plan was to arrive in Lake Bled, Slovenia, around 12:30 or so, and tour the area that afternoon, then head on to the capital city of Ljubljana that evening, where our hotel was.  That plan was changed as we approached Munich, and came to a halt on the Autobahn.  I did a search on a Traffic app on my phone, and it turns out a tractor trailer had flipped and was blocking all lanes of traffic.  So the police were routing everyone through a single exit.  We sat in barely moving traffic for 3 hours.  At that point we decided it wasn't going to work out with us stopping in Lake Bled, so we decided to visit it on the way out of town on Monday.  Once we detoured around the accident and got back on the Autobahn, the trip was smooth all the way to the Slovenia/Austria border.  Apparently coming from the north there's only one entrance into the country because of the mountains.  It was an 8km (5mi) tunnel that was down to one lane.  So they'd stop traffic from one direction for 30 minutes to let people drive from the other side, then they'd stop them and open traffic back up for 30 minutes from the side that had been closed.  The result was for 30 minutes people were walking around on the Autobahn chatting with each other.

We finally arrived in Ljubljana, 12 hours after we left Stuttgart.  Our hotel was by far one of the best hotels we've ever stayed in.  There are plenty of hotels that can offer a comfortable bed, nice shower, etc...  Where this hotel stood out was it's customer service.  The front desk receptionist said it would take a few minutes to process our passports, so she offered us a complimentary drink from the hotel bar while we waited.  And I don't mean a glass of water...Dad & I had a beer, Mom had a glass of wine, and Shanna had green tea.  By the time we finished our drink, our rooms were ready.  Lyza, the receptionist, walked us up to our room and asked if this was our first time in Slovenia.  It was, so she pulled out a map and showed us how to get to the old town area, some good places to eat, and suggested things to do on our trip.  She then told us the hotel restaurant would be closed for the weekend, but if we wanted to go tonight, they'd take 10 percent off our bill.  We were exhausted, and had no desire to go find a place, so we took her up on it.  The restaurant did not disappoint...I had an amazing spicy penne pasta dish with crispy bacon on top.

The plan for Saturday had been to drive to Piran, a coastal city, while stopping at some caves along the way.  While sitting at dinner, Shanna looked over the brochures from the front desk and found a day trip excursion for 45 Euros a person that took us to the caves, Piran, as well as several other stops.  It was a small van, not a giant bus, so we decided to do that instead.

The next day we got up bright and early since the van was picking us up at 8am.  The breakfast, which was included with the cost of the room, was amazing.  In addition to a delcious spread of meats, cheeses, fruit, & cereal, they also had eggs to order, and pancakes.  We had a big breakfast, and the van picked us up right on time.

We've done small day trip excursions on previous trips, and in that small environment of a car, you can't help but get to know the people you are spending the day with.  I'm bad at remembering names, but we had a guy from Australia, two girls from Australia (not with the guy, just happened to be from Australia) and a guy from Gainesville, FL.  Our first stop was at the Škocjan Caves.  You descend into the caves with a guide, and they explain everything you're seeing.  It was an amazing display of Stalagmites and Stalactites.  Unfortunately, though, no pictures were allowed until you reached the end of the cave, so we only have a few pictures from there.

It took about 2 hours to walk through the caves, so when we were done we took a cable car back up to the top and met up with our group.  We then headed on to the grounds where they raise the Lippizaner horses.  I'd never heard of them, but Shanna & Mom had and loved the stop.  They were fenced in, but had HUGE pieces of land to roam on.  They would come up to the fence when people approached, so you could pet them too.

When we were done there, we headed to a small family run Slovenian restaurant for lunch and to sample some delicious local wine.  From there we headed on to Piran.

Piran did not disappoint, it was BEAUTIFUL.  It sits on the Slovenian coast, surrounded by the Adriatic Sea.  From the city you can see the coast of Croatia.

We walked around Piran for about an hour.  The city itself was pretty, and on top of a hill over looking the city was a beautifully decorated church.  It had the best spot in town, over looking both the town and the sea.

When we were done, we had one more stop.  We arrived at Predjama Castle right as the sun was starting to set.  I'd read about this castle while researching things to do, and it looked really neat, but I didn't think we could fit it into our itinerary.  It's a castle that's built halfway into a cave in a mountain.  It was designed like that to make it harder to take in a battle.  Our guide told us the story of the knight who originally owned the castle.  Apparently he got on the bad side of the Austrian king by killing a relative of his, so the King sent his army to kill or capture him.  He holed himself up in the castle for a year.  There was a secret back entrance the army didn't know about, so he would escape that way to collect food and supplies.  He'd then taunt the army by throwing food down at them.  The only reason they were able to get to him was his servant sold him out.  The weakest part of the castle was where the bathroom was.  So the servant put  out a flag when he was using the bathroom, and the army then fired a cannon shot right at the bathroom, killing the knight inside.

After we walked around the castle grounds, the tour was coming to an end.  We then were driven back to our hotel around 8pm.  It was a long day, but we were ready for dinner.  We decided to head over to the old town area and see what we could find.  We found a small cafe, but they only sold dessert.  The guy that ran the place, though, recommended a place called Sokol for good Slovenian food.  He was right, it was good...and the house beer was delicious.  We walked off dinner, then called it a night.

The next morning we slept in, then headed down to the old town area for a free walking tour of the city.  We'd done free tours before, and they are usually great.  I think it's because the tour guide is only paid in tips, so the more informative and interesting they make it, the more tips they get.  I can't remember our tour guide's name (I think it was Neja, or something like that), but she was fantastic.  Very knowledgable, but at the same time she kept the subject matter interesting.  We walked all around the city learning about it's history for 2 hours.  The last part of the tour was when she got to more modern times, talking about the end of World War II, and creation of Yugoslavia and communist rule, as well as the brief war for independence in 1991.  She also had us pose for a picture...the resolution is small, but if you look closely, you can see us on the right.

Once the tour was over we grabbed a small snack, then headed up to the castle that over looks the city. There's a cable car that takes you to the top.  Once up there, you have an amazing view of the city.  We weren't interested in taking another tour, so we just walked around the castle grounds and enjoyed the scenery.  We then headed back to the hotel to take a nap.  It'd been a long day, and it was much needed.  That evening we asked the front desk for a recommendation for a good restaurant to eat at.  Not only did the receptionist make a recommendation, he then called the place to make a reservation for us.  We started to walk there, but then it started down pouring rain.  We ducked into a small cafe to have a few drinks to wait out the storm.  It subsided a bit, but never really stopped, so the cafe waiter offered to call us a cab.  When we finally arrived at the place for dinner, we were seated, and then the waiter brought us a round of champagne, courtesy of our hotel.  Again, it's the little things like that that really made this hotel stand out.  I wish this hotel was a chain, because I'd stay at it every place we travelled to.  Dinner was delicious.  I had rabbit wrapped in bacon, and Mom had an interesting dish...horse meat steak.   It was surprisingly tender and tasty.  I was expecting it to be tough, but it wasn't at all.  It was our last night in the city, so we had a few bottles of wine, some amazing food, and then headed back to the hotel to call it a night.

The next morning we hit the road early, around 9am, because the plan was to tour Lake Bled, then head home.  The previous day we'd run into some people from our Saturday tour, and they mentioned how amazing Vintgar Gorge was.  I looked it up, and it was only a 5 minute drive from Lake Bled.

When we first got to Lake Bled, it was beautiful.  It was cloudy, but still looked amazing.  We got on a small ferry boat that took us to a small island in the center of the lake.  It's the only island in Slovenia, and is one of their most famous destinations.  We got to the island, and walked up a bit to the top of it where a church was.  Inside the church was a beautiful altar, and a huge rope.  It was attached to giant bells in the bell tower, and was called the Wishing Bell.  You ring the bell & make a wish...so we'll see if it comes true. :)  They also had a mailbox and a gift shop that sold postcards, so you could send a postcard with the postmark from Lake Bled.  Mom bought one and mailed it to our Grandma.

After about 30 minutes we'd seen the island, so we got back on the small ferry and took it back.  Next up was the Castle that sits up and over looks the lake.  By this time the sun had come out and lake was even more stunning.  When we got to the top of the castle, we had an amazing view of the lake and the surrounding country side.  Of course we took pictures, but they just can't capture how beautiful the place was.

The castle itself didn't have much in the way of a museum, but they had some neat little shops.  There was a section where you could fill an empty wine bottle with wine from their cask, cork it, dip it in wax to seal it, then the guy there dripped hot wax on the bottle and let you put a stamp on it.  There was also a printing shop with a medieval printing press.  I ended up getting a neat bronze hand made picture of the lake.

From there it was on to the Vintgar Gorge.  We grabbed a bite to eat along the way, then got to the Gorge.  It was absolutely stunning there.  They'd built wooden walk ways all through out the gorge, so you could easily travel through an area that would have been impossible to traverse otherwise.

It was about a kilometer and a half to the end, then you had to walk back, so all told it was about 2 miles of walking.  But you were so mesmerized by what you were seeing that it flew by, and didn't seem like 2 miles at all.

From there we hit the road, and drove home.  The next day Mom & Dad flew home.

This trip was a lot of fun, and we saw some amazing things.  I'd never heard of Slovenia before we moved here, and prior to researching this trip, knew nothing about what the country had to offer.  The scenery was beautiful, the people were incredibly friendly and helpful, and it was all capped by one of the best hotels we've ever stayed at.  If you ever visit Ljubljiana, make sure to stay in the Hotel CUBO. You will not be disappointed.

We have some friends in town from the US for the last weekend of Volksfest (Stuttgart's version of Oktoberfest), then next weekend we're heading to Malta for our anniversary.  I can't believe it's been 3 years already.  I won't put up a post about Volksfest because there's not much to write about, but I'll definitely post in a few weeks about Malta.

To see the photo album, click here or any picture above.