July 14: Ljubljana to Home

We caught the arranged taxi for the airport at 6:30, checked in and then grabbed breakfast in the lounge. Our flight for Istanbul was luckily on time because we only had an hour and ten minutes for our layover and we had to go through security since we were coming from the EU. We got to our gate with about 5 minutes to spare before boarding started. Originally all four of our seats were spread out, but luckily when we boarded they had changed our seats so that we were 2x2, one pair in front of the other.

Finally Leaving for USA

The flight was long, but otherwise uneventful, but I do have to add that Turkish Airlines food is one of the better airline foods I've had. For lunch I had köfte with rice, hummus, salad, and a decent roll and white chocolate mousse and for dinner I had smoked red pepper chicken with buttered rice, sautéed zucchini, herbed yogurt and fig mousse. Both meals were much better than expected and the bread rolls that came with them were even better, with a surprisingly crunchy exterior and soft interior with a decent crumb structure. We landed in LA and flew through customs with our new global entry cards, collected our check-ons and re-checked them and headed over to the gate for our last flight. The LAX to SMF flight went smoothly and was relatively empty, with one crying child that wasn't ours, thankfully. We ended up getting home a little after 11pm and into bed a little after midnight. 

A Long Day of Travel

Some general observations from the trip: 

1 - I didn't realize how small Dubrovnik actually is. 

2 - Tesla was born in present day Croatia

3 - Marco Polo was also from present day Croatia, but lived in an area where the Venetian's ruled. 

July 13: Bled to Ljubljana

At breakfast we said goodbye to Yeh-yeh and Ni-ni and then after eating we went back to our room to finish packing. We met up with Brian and Julie in the lobby at 9:30 and then Kelsey came down shortly after. Megan straggled down after her and after we had all loaded in the bus to go to the airport Lindsey came down.

From Brian's Morning Run

At the airport we checked in our car seat bag and then headed to the Priority Pass lounge and joined back up with Brian, Julie and the girls. We said goodbye to them when they had to leave and stayed in the lounge a little longer before heading to our gate. Our flight was a little delayed on arrival, but they started boarding preboard and the first couple of zones. They held us on the jet bridge for about 10 minutes before someone told us we had to return to the gate area. After about 15 minutes of waiting in the gate area they told us there would be an update in about 30 minutes. When the 30 minutes had elapsed they told us there was a mechanical issue with the plane and it was grounded and that our flight would be canceled. Then they told everyone to wait for their computer systems to rebook our itineraries before trying to talk to an agent. After another 30 minutes or so our itinerary was changed to flying out tomorrow morning to Istanbul, then to Los Angeles, then to Sacramento. I started waiting in line to talk to a gate agent and after about another 30 to 45 minutes of waiting in line they told us to retrieve our bags from baggage claim and talk to the agents downstairs, so we went downstairs and waited in another line for about 45 more minutes before finally talking to someone.

Basically they told us the itinerary that was booked was all that was available for tomorrow, then they directed us to someone who would send us to the hotel we would be staying at, the Austria Trend hotel in Ljubljana. Luckily the hotel was very nice and since they didn't have any rooms to fit all four of us they gave us two rooms right next to each other. By the time we got settled in our rooms it was already after 6 so we just ordered some room service for our dinner, which was actually pretty decent. Christal got a beef consommé and saffron risotto with shrimp for Maddy, LB got ravioli and I ordered a burger. After we finished dinner we went to bed.

Making the Best of the Situation

July 12: Bled Day 2

After breakfast this morning we met in the lobby at 9 and said goodbye to the Kim's and then got on the bus to go to Vintgar gorge, which was only about 15 minutes away from Bled.

Vintgar Gorge

The walk through the gorge was about 1.5 km on a wood boardwalk that was built right along the river bank. The river is protected throughout the gorge so we could see all kinds of brown trout throughout the scenic walk.

The End of the Gorge

After the gorge we hiked up out of it and then walked to the parking lot where Nemanja was waiting for us to take us to Bled Castle. It is located on a 100 meter high cliff overlooking Lake Bled. Ksenja told us that the castle was made up of two courtyards, an upper and a lower, with the nobility living in the upper courtyard and all the employees living in the lower courtyard.

Upper Courtyard

The lower courtyard had a printing press that was hand operated, and they printed some neat souvenirs, and the upper structures housed a nice little museum that had a lot of the archeological history of the area. The view from the top was pretty breathtaking and definitely a highlight of Bled.

Admiring the View

When we were done at the castle most of us walked down from the castle to town, but Christal, Maddy, Yeh-yeh and Ni-ni all rode back to the hotel on the bus. Those of us that walked found some food stalls along the lake to eat at and then I went and found the ones that had taken the bus and we all ate next to the lake.

Time for Lunch

I ended up ordering a Bled hot dog that was really good. It had coleslaw, aioli and good bread for the bun.

The Bled Hotdog

After we finished with lunch we went back to the hotel for about 45 minutes to rest. After our short rest we got back on the bus and rode a few minutes down to the lake to catch a boat out to the only island in Slovenia and to see the church that was built there. Once we got on the island Ksenja told us there were 99 steps to get up to the church and there was a tradition of new grooms having to carry their new brides all the way up to make sure they were fit to be a husband.

In the church they had a long rope that was connected to the "wishing bell" and the legend goes that you ring the bell three times and make a wish and it will come true.

LB Was Almost Too Light to Ring the Bell

After the church most of the group went to climb the bell tower, but I had bookmarked the cafe on the island, called Potičnica, because they were supposed to have good potica, which is a traditional Slovenian cake, so Christal, the kids and my parents went to the café to try some.

Carob Potica

We got a slice of hazelnut and fig and a slice of carob. They probably weren't my favorite pastry or dessert we had, but I'm definitely glad we got to try them.

Hazelnut & Dried Fig Potica

After our snack we had to go down to the boat to ride it back to shore and then we took the bus back to the hotel.

The View From the Boat

From the hotel most of the group walked over to a small ski hill that had a toboggan mounted on a rail to ride on in the summer, while Christal and Maddy went to the hotel pool. 

Waiting Patiently for the Slide

There was a pretty long line to ride the toboggan but it was worth it. LB was pretty cautious going down and Megan ended up kind of catching up to him, and Wyatt lost his hat on the second turn, but we all had a lot of fun. After we were done Wyatt ran up the hill to get his hat in what seemed like record time and then we walked back to the hotel to retrieve everyone.

Hurry Up LB!

While I was getting Christal and Maddy from the pool Julie happened to go down to one of the restaurants I had bookmarked and luckily they had room for all of us. It was called Old Cellar Bled and it was one of the better meals of the trip I thought. Some of the highlights were the mushroom cappuccino soup, my beef cheeks and a local pasta called pljukanci, with beef, leek, porcini and sundried tomato.

Pljukanci

After dinner the big kids wanted to go to the pool before it closed, so I took LB with them. Christal took Maddy back to the room and the rest of the adults walked around town a little bit. While the kids were swimming I walked down to check out a couple of souvenir shops and came back up to the pool right as they were finishing, so I took LB back to the room and we got ready for bed.

July 11 - Plitvice Lakes to Ljubljana & Bled

This morning we woke the kids up so that we could eat breakfast and then get on the bus on time. We left for Plitvička Jezera at 8:30 and arrived there around 9 and met Koral to take a tour of the lakes.

We started at the Great Waterfall, which is the tallest waterfall in Croatia and walked down from the top of the canyon to the bottom where all the lakes are.

The Great Waterfall of Plitvice Lakes

We took a bunch of pictures at the base of the Great Waterfall and then hiked up the canyon along the boardwalk past all the small lakes that have been formed over the millennia. The whole hike took about two hours or so and we ended up at a rest area with a restaurant, cafe, ice cream stand, souvenir shop and bathrooms.

Looking Just Left of the Great Waterfall

After we rested a little and got some ice cream we hopped on a boat that took us across one of the large lakes and then hiked up to a hotel to meet up with Ivan and Nemanja. It would have been nice to spend the whole day in Plitvička Jezera and see the rest of the limestone waterfalls, but we had to drive to Ljubljana, Slovenia to pick up our next area guide and to drop off and say goodbye to Ivan.

On the Boardwalk

The drive to Ljubljana was about four hours so we stopped at a rest stop somewhere in the middle and grabbed some lunch at a Burger King there. Unfortunately we didn't realize there was a Marche rest stop that would have been better food and probably quicker because the Burger King got slammed with a couple of tour buses in addition to ours.

They Don't Look Too Happy to Be Eating Burger King

After we finished lunch we got back on the road and made it to Ljubljana. It was kind of abrupt, but we said our goodbyes to Ivan and hello to our Slovenian guide, Ksenja. She took us around Ljubljana for a quick tour of a few different places and then showed us an open kitchen that happens every Friday in a small square.

Friday Market Night

A bunch of different restaurants and vendors set up stalls and cook and sell their food every Friday and she said people come from all over to go to the event. We walked around, but didn't get much since she said we would have plenty of places to eat in Bled, but Maddy saw the paella and yelled, "RICE!!!" So we had to get her some.

Paella

Charlene got the boys some fried pizzas, Julie and Charlene got gyros and my parents got some pad thai that LB ended up liking.

Pizza!

After we got our food we went back to the main square to meet with our guide and then walk back to the bus to go to Bled.

Ljubljana

It was only about a 45 minute drive to Bled and when we arrived Ksenja had Nemanja drive us around the lake a little bit so that Paul and Andrea could see it more, since they are leaving tomorrow morning. After we checked into the hotel we showered the kids before heading out because it was getting late.

On the Way to Bled

We ended up leaving a while after everyone else so we decided to have a family dinner with just the four of us. One of the restaurants I had bookmarked was just at the bottom of the stairs from the hotel so we decided to try it and luckily they had room. It was called Ošterija Peglez'n and it was good. Christal got the fish soup and fortunately Maddy wanted that too, LB got the kids pasta pomodoro, which he finished even though he said he wasn't hungry, and I had domači skutini štruklji z gobicami, which were cheese filled dumplings with a mushroom sauce.

Domači Skutini Štruklji z Gobicami

After LB finished eating he was getting tired and wanted to go back to the hotel so I took him up and got his toothbrush and floss out and then headed back to the restaurant. When I returned Maddy and Christal had finished eating and we got a text from Julie telling us where they were eating and it happened to be one of my bookmarks because of their Bled Cream Cake, so after we paid and changed Maddy's diaper we headed over to Kavarna Park to join them for dessert.

Bled Cream Cake

The cream cake was made up of four different layers, starting with puff pastry, then a thick layer of pastry cream, a layer of whipped cream and topped with another layer of puff pastry and powdered sugar. For how thick it was it was relatively light tasting and went really well with coffee.

Yeh-Yeh Enjoyed the Cream Cake

We also tried a gelato flavor, sladogled which translates to ice cream with a view that they advertised as being the number one flavor in the world. It contained chocolate ice cream with raw cacao nibs, quinoa ice cream with almond, cinnamon and raisins, and mascarpone, topped with caramelized walnuts. The sladogled gelato was good, but it didn't really knock our socks off, I think we all preferred the cream cake more.

Sladogled Gelato

After we finished we walked back up to the hotel, and I snapped a few nighttime pictures of Bled cattle on the way up, and then headed to bed. 

Bled Castle

July 10: Brač to Rastoke & Plitvice

This morning I was finally able to sleep in until my alarm woke me at 6:15, then I got up and started packing up. We woke the kids up at 6:50 and headed down to breakfast at 7. Maddy didn't really start eating her breakfast until 7:40 and we were supposed to meet Ivan in the lobby at 8 to leave, so LB and I went up to the room and brought our luggage to the lobby and checked out.

Driving to the Ferry

The bus left Bol and drove to Supetar to catch the ferry back to Split, but there was a pretty big line for the ferry so we all walked onto the 9:30 ferry and Nemanja had to wait for the next ferry, which was at 11, so after our ferry ride we had a little over an hour to wander in Split.

July 8 Storm Aftermath

We all walked to the open market area and from there we all kind of dispersed our separate ways. We stopped by the grocery store for a few drinks and snacks and then we went to a bakery to get a beef burek and a piece of pizza for LB and Maddy's lunches.

Beef Burek

Then we got the kids some ice cream and found an ATM for Ni-ni to use. By this time it was close enough to 11:40 so we walked back to the ferry terminal to wait for Nemanja and the bus.

The Brain Rot Crew

Once they arrived we loaded on quickly and then started our drive to Rastoke, which is a small town past Plitvice National Park, or Plitvička Jezera. Nemanja dropped us off at Rastoke where we met up with our area guide, Koral, who took us around the town, which was built basically on top of a wide waterfall.

Rastoke

Koral said there were originally something like 50 small family mills on the waterfall, but when Napoleon came through he needed to feed his army so they built larger mills, which brought more people to the area and that's when it became a town.

The town was very quaint and scenic, with waterfalls coming out from under all of the buildings in the town. After Rastoke Nemanja drove us to our hotel, Hotel Lyra, in a small village outside of Plitvička Jezera.

After checking in we headed down to the hotel restaurant and met up with everyone for dinner. Luckily our hotel's restaurant was pretty good because there were no other food options in our town.

Seabass Fish & Chips

I had seabass fish and chips that were really good, and Christal and LB both got the truffle spaghetti, which was really good too with a healthy dose of shaved white truffle on it. After dinner we went back up to the room and got ready for bed.

Truffle Spaghetti

July 9: Boating Around Brač & Hvar

This morning we went to breakfast at about 7:15 and then we gathered all our swim stuff and walked to Bol to meet up with the boats we were going to ride on all day. They were both Colnago boats and they were outfitted really nicely. The back deck had lounge cushions that we could lay down on and the inside cabin had nice couches to lounge on.

Living in Luxury

We split up into two boats and at first both Julie and Paul were going to stay back because it was a little breezy this morning and they were worried about getting seasick, but luckily we were able to convince Julie to get on the boat. Unfortunately we couldn't convince Paul to come too. The captain of our boat was Simon and the other boat's captain was Rocco and they had a deckhand named Dora. We set off across the Hvar Channel to explore some locations on the island of Hvar, the first being the town of Stari Grad.

Stari Grad Harbor

It was an old port town that has been populated since close to 400 BC according to some of the archeological discoveries they've made. The kids and Andrea explored a fortress that had a fish pond in it where they would feed small fish from the sea and as they grew they couldn't leave the fish pond, much like the fish ponds in Hawaii, but on a much smaller scale.

The Fish Pond

The adults and Maddy wandered around the town through most of the old streets and we bought a few souvenirs along the way. Eventually we met up with the kids a few minutes before we were supposed to get back on the boats.

Strolling Through Stari Grad

Our next destination was the town of Hvar, which is also the largest town in the island of Hvar (imagine that). It was definitely much larger than Stari Grad and there were quite a few very nice houses in the surrounding area. There was a fort at the top of the hill just behind town so everyone but Maddy, LB, Christal and Yeh-yeh hiked up to it and we took some pictures from the top.

Hvar From Above

Unfortunately there was a long line to get into the fort and we didn't have time so we walked back down and walked around the main square and harbor area for a little while before being picked up by the boats again.

Hvar Town

Next the captains took us to a little cove with a restaurant that they said was only reachable by boat or foot, called Notos Beach House.

Beef Tagliata

The food and service was very good and we all enjoyed ourselves. I had the Pasta Adriatic that included mussels, clams, prawns and scampi with a slightly sweet tomato sauce.

Pasta Adriatic

LB got the tagliata steak and almost ate all of it and Christal got the sea bass filet with vegetables.

Sea Bass

After we finished lunch LB went down to the water and skipped rocks until the slippers came and picked us up, which was only a few minutes.

Waiting to get Picked Up

From the restaurant area we rode to another location known as red rocks where we were able to jump in the water and swim around a bit. The kids and Vaughn and Andrea did some cliff jumping and we could swim into some small caves.

The water at the red rocks was quite a bit cooler than everywhere else we have been swimming, probably low to mid 70's instead of high 70's to low 80's, so it was quite refreshing and a little cold for some.

Evolving to New Heights

After the red rocks we went back across the Hvar Channel and visited the Pomorski tunnel over on Brač Island, which was an old Yugoslavian submarine dock where they could attack ships in the channel and Adriatic sea and then go hide quickly. It was pretty eerie going into the tunnel and then docking pretty much all the way in.

Eerie

We got off of the boats and walked around the tunnel and through some of the passages and then some other people that were on a sailboat found a rope swing at the mouth of the tunnel.

More Inviting from this View

All the kids enjoyed doing the rope swing, trying to make it to the other side, even LB did it multiple times. When Yeh-yeh tried it he made it to the other side, but there was no one there to catch him so he missed the landing and had to fall into the middle of the water. Unfortunately when he did that he lost his phone in the water.

Way to Go Charlene!

Eventually everyone made it back onto the boats and we headed out of the tunnel and then back to Bol for the conclusion of the tour. After the boats dropped us off we walked back to the hotel and took showers before meeting up in the lobby to head out for dinner. We walked back into town and just found some little random places to get food and then ate on the sea wall while the full moon rose. Most of our group ended up getting food from a seafood place called Fish Delish and Luke didn't want that so he got a beef burek from Mlinar, which is a bakery chain, that was pretty tasty. Maddy really wanted the fried shrimp and chips and Christal got some mixed veggies that turned out to be deep fried, and I just ate some of everyone's food for my dinner.

When we were done eating Wyatt, Cedric, Evan and LB went to get shirts with some pictures and sayings that are AI generated and apparently very funny to the young kids. Eventually Maddy joined them and wanted a shirt too so she could match them. After we finished souvenir shopping we walked back to the hotel and turned in for the night.

Brain Rot Poster Children