Today, we had breakfast and then packed for Kozana. After driving through town a couple times, we stopped to ask people at a hotel where the place we were looking for was. The person in the hotel was able to tell us how to get to Albin and Majda's. We surprised Albin and Majda as we arrived and they were confused at who we were. However, once it sunk in, they were so happy to have us. They had just finished picking grapes with friends who were helping them. Down in the basement, we enjoyed wine fresh from the wine tank (see bottom left picture) and fresh sliced prosciutto (see Majda slicing on the bottom right). Then, a homemade meal (see bottom right) was pulled together - fried chicken, pork, salad, potatoes, and other yummy dishes. Such a welcome that allowed us to meet Albin and Majda's friends. One of their friend's daughter (Christina) who could speak English joined us for lunch so she could translate for us since Majda is pretty proficient in English and Albin is more limited. We spent some time on the back porch enjoying the wonderful weather.
) and then take a quick nap. This area of Slovenia is just like California - vineyards, rolling hills, and amazing homes and buildings. We walked around the hotel and the pool for the sunset. Since we enjoyed such a lovely lunch, we were not hungry for dinner so we had STRUDEL #6 with a glass of wine. There was church in the town (well there is a church in every little town in Slovenia) and the church bells were ringing all night long!!!!!!!!!!
Albin and Majda decided to take us sightseeing around the Brda region of Slovenia. We went to a sightseeing tower that gave us a great view of the region. Frank climbed the tower first and as he got to the top there was a swarm of bees. The rest of us stopped climbing and he was okay and started climbing down.
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| Sightseeing Tower |
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| Street in Smartno |
Next, we headed to Smartno for a tour of a church (Church of St. Martin) and old house (the Brda House). This city is in the center of the Brda region. The church is the largest in the redion and the house is one of the oldest in the region.
After Smartno, we went to Dobrovo for a tour of the
Dobrovo Castle. We then had lunch with Albin and Majda at a local diner. It was a delicious family style meal of the most amazing pork, chicken, salad, baked beans, bread, and Coke with ICE!!! So happy to have ice in our drinks!!! We probably had a gallon of ice cubes for our drinks. After lunch, we headed to the local grocery store to pick up a few items, then back to the hotel for a short nap.
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| Castle and Lunch in Dobrovo |
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| Enjoying a drink at Kromberk Castle |
Albin and Majda picked us up at 4 pm and we head to
Sveta Gora (Holy Mountain), which is a church on top of a mountain. After walking around, we drove to
Kromberk Castle and toured the castle along with a lovely art exhibit. We enjoyed a glass of wine and a tasty snack at the restaurant within the castle. There were two black Scottish terriers that were running around the restaurant. Cheryl was really missing her dog, Maggie at this point! Then, we headed back to Dobrovo where we were meeting Sidonija and her family.
Dinner was fantastic! We went back to the same place we had lunch. We enjoyed amazing food, tasty wine, and extraordinary company. In addition to Albin and Majda, we were joined by Albin's cousin Sidonija and her family (daughter - LIlijana, son-in-law - Zlatko, and granddaughter - Mija). An amazing translator and friend to the family, Viola, joined us during the dinner and provided great communication between all in attendance. We spent many hours together during this dinner getting to know each other. During lunch, we had asked if they served strudel and they said they didn't. Well during the day, the cooks at the restaurant made us strudel for dinner and we enjoyed STRUDEL #6. We drank, ate, laughed, talked, and had an amazing night.
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| Dinner Highlights |
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Dinner
Front row - Ashley, Mija, Majda
Back row - Zlatko, Lilijana, Albin, Ruth, George, Sidonija, Frank, Cheryl, and Viola |
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| Cousins with Viola |
However, the night wasn't over. We all headed over to Sidonija's house to enjoy some Jagermeister and walnut liqueur. She had a lovely house and we sat out on the patio with grape vines growing all around us. Someone in our party didn't know how strong jager and walnut liqueur were, may have done a few too many shots in a short period of time, and may have had a little too much to drink!
Tuesday, September 13
Today was our last full day in Slovenia. We drove to Albin and Majda's house to meet them along with Sidonija and her granddaughter, Mija (she skipped school to serve as our translator!). The agenda for today was to become vineyard employees, go to the source of the
Soča River, and meet Sidonija's other daughter.
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George and Frank
picking grapes |
First, we went to a vineyard owned by Albin and Majda's friends. We all became workers for about 45 minutes. It was fun (since we only had to do it for such a short time and got to leave). George and Frank enjoyed it the most since they are the natural farmers of the group. It is lovely that it is still a manual process and you capture the love and care that goes into making wine in this region.
Next, we drove through the amazing countryside of Western Slovenia. We stopped to drink water from the Soča River. Once arriving at the source, we had to hike up to the actual source - let's just say the two youngest (Ashley and Mija) and Sidonija made it there. To get there, it was like scaling the side of a mountain with no safety gear!
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Left side - hiking to the Soca River source
Right side - picture of our drive out to the Soca River source |
We then had a lovely picnic with fresh bread, prosciutto, cheese, and wine poured out of a liter plastic bottle! Sidonija surprised us with STRUDEL #7, which was delicious.
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| Picnic Lunch |
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| Sidonija, Agnes, Mija, Majda |
After lunch, we headed to a World War I museum - Kobariški Muzej - located in Gregorčičeva. After walking through and watching a video on the role of the region in the war, we headed to an ice cream shop for a treat. Then, we headed to see Agnes, Sidonija's other daughter, her family, and her home. We relaxed on her back porch (which was covered by kiwis growing as the roof!). We were able to meet her husband very quickly and then her son, but her daughter was at work and we did not get to meet her. Next, we traveled back to Albin and Mijda's home before finishing the busy day. Albin and Majda packaged up a bottle of white and red wines (they call it white and black because the grape color isn't really red but a dark purple) for each of us. They also gave us a CD of the group Albin played in. We had such a lovely time with them and are so thankful that fate brought us together.
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Departing gifts from Albin and Majda - Homemade Wine
Last photos in front of this year's harvest |
Wednesday, September 14
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| Last picture from Belica |
On this morning, we had to get up early to get to the airport down in Venice so we could return the cars. However, Cheryl's clock was set incorrectly, which resulted on her knocking on our door with panic as to why weren't ready yet. However, her clock was a hour fast and we had plenty of time! Albin and Majda met us so they could show us the easy way to the autostrade (interstate). We passed an Ikea along the way! The trip back was uneventful and next we head to Paris - the city of Lights!
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