From Bled to Rovinj - Continued

... as I was saying, you can't really compare the two cities, so I'm not.
One funny thing I hadn't mentioned about Slovenia is, that they seemed to be celebrating Asparagus Holiday. We arrived smack in the midst of asparagus season; asparagus featured prominently in every menu, every restaurant, every market. The restaurant at the Mayer Penzion had a special, green, high-quality glossy asparagus menu, with a delightful selection of asparagus dishes. Yes, they were delicious. I fully approve of asparagus season.

After we "did" the Julian Alps (a gross exaggeration, of course), we continued through narrow, winding country roads through places with names like Bovec, Zaga, Kobarid, Most na Soci, and others that are too small to appear on our map. Our destination was the car train -- Autovlak, leaving from Podbrdo and cutting through the mountain, emerging at the unpronounceable yet very real Bohinjeska Something, some 35 km south of Bled, i.e. saving us a lot of driving on the way back. Getting to the boarding point was nerve racking, due to roadworks that forced us to stop in our tracks and wait while the minutes ticked away and we thought we might miss the train. (As I explained on my other blog.) We, and two other cars, drove carefully onto the flat train carriage, put the car into first, pulled the hand-break, and away we went into the dark tunnel for a 15 min claustrophobic ride...

All this seems ages ago...

Here in Rovinj, the trick seems to be trying to find a restaurant that isn't a typical tourist trap. There's one in the old city that obviously tries to cater to just such tourists who are tired of the typical tourist places... It calls itself The Creative Restaurant, and boasts that it serves no pizza and no calamari, but I'm not sure we'll take their word for it. Last night, after imbibing a decent amount of the local pivo called Ozujsko, served by the lovely Adriana at Cafe Feniks (I kid you not; it even has a Facebook page), we strolled over to a restaurant slightly hidden behind the others for a decent seafood meal. Sorry, didn't write down the name. Which would be unprofessional of me were I a professional travel writer, which I'm not. But which brings me to today's pleasant new acquaintances -- Andu and Victoria Keddis, travel writers and paragliding aficionados from Vancouver, Canada. Got to talking over breakfast this morning.

Andu and Victoria agreed that this B&B -- Villa Ladavac -- isn't the tops... We've seen better. Some small additions would make a big difference. For instance: towel racks in the bathroom; plain soap in the shower and/or the washbasin; a bulb in the reading lamp; a blanket that's actually big enough for a double bed; a few more human touches of that sort. Oh well -- better luck next time.

It's getting windy and a bit cloudy out. Better get the heavier sweatshirt, and perhaps an umbrella, before we go out for dinner. Tomorrow we're off to Slunj. TTFN.