Now for Neriya

As you may already know, Neriya has been travelling around the Republic of Georgia for the past couple of weeks. Located at the crossroads of Western Asiaand Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of Georgia is Tbilisi. Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 square kilometres (26,911 sq mi), and its population is almost 5 million. Georgia is a unitary, semi-presidential republic, with the government elected through a representative democracy.

Tblisi

 He is with three high school friends, celebrating their graduation and life in general as they hike and horseback ride their way through Georgia.  They have spent the last two shabbatot in Tbilisi enjoying the hospitality of the Bet Chabad.  The pictures below are some of the areas I believe that Neriya is travelling in.

Last week they were in a place called Samati which I have not been able to locate.  This week they are in Tusheti  north of Tblisi, horseback riding in the Causcasus mountains.


And here are many more pics of the area.

This is the one photo Neriya sent me:


He sure looks like a happy camper!

Shoshi and I set out for Dubrovnik tonight, so more to follow!

Family Travels

We are a peripatetic family this summer, with most of us on the road for various periods.  Just a quick update to let you know who is where and what they are doing.

Shuey met Mor at Victoria Falls and sent some beautiful photos that I will add in a day or so.  Meanwhile enjoy this one from the internet.







After  that they went on to Chimanimani.  There is  a big national park here.


and they did a lot of hiking this past week.  This shabbat they are staying at a farmhouse here.  Some nice photos from hiking (on the internet) here.


Here is a pic of the farmhouse.

Neriya has also been travelling.  He is with four friends in Georgia (former USSR) and having a wonderful time.  Pictures will come next week.
Shoshi and I are due to set out to Dubrovnik on Monday, God willing.  We are hoping for a very quiet shabbat.

Lublijana and Beyond

We have had such a lazy time since Sunday that it is hard to get me to write.  On Monday we slowly and regretfully bid good bye to "our" apartment, and set out to Lublijana, capitol city of Slovenia.  I left my camera in the car, so the photos are from my i-phone- if I can figure out how to bring them over....ahh-I got it!

old town of lublijana

the river that runs through the town

art noveau building (one of many)

We moseyed around town for about two hours, enjoying the sites, the main square, the interesting buildings and then we headed on to Rimske Toplice, near Lasko, the site of the Rimske Terme.

You might be saying to yourself at this point- what?? Where is that?? And why go there?  So to answer your questions in order:  It is about one hour from Lublijana due west in the direction of Austria.  It is a very small town. The reason we went was for the magical thermal waters that are supposed to be rejuvenating, healing all that ails you.  As you probably know, we love spas, and this is a lovely Slovenian spa, as yet undiscovered by English speakers (very few English signs, and no English speaking guests) and definitely not by Israelis.  It is very refreshing!!  We got here on Monday, and although we had made a reservation for only one day, and were not sure about our plans, we were easily convinced to take a "wellness package" and signed on for three nights, which take us through tomorrow midday when we start driving back to the Vienna airport to make our 7:45 PM flight.

So what have we done here- not a whole lot- some nice walks in the nearby woods.

 Some spa and massage (great massage).

A candle light romantic dinner (part of the package- and all employees insist on calling it "Romantic Dinner") where we enjoyed fish and salad.

Note the Candle

Yesterday morning as Mike was exercising on the lone treadmill, I took a walk up to the local sheep farm and tasted some wonderful cheese as well as had a tour of a typical Slovenian farm house from at least five hundred years ago.  It is well preserved because the poet laureate of Slovenia grew up there in the 1800s.  His name was Anton Askerc, and this has become a national landmark.  The 26 year old son of the people who farm there showed me around and talked with me about the place and about his life in rudimentary English.

I can't get the captions to work today - so you will have to figure out what these pictures are on your own.  In the bottom picture notice how the window only fits in half the frame.  The windows were boarded up when some queen in the 18th century put a tax on all windows!  At least that is what I think I understood.

The weather here has been pretty cloudy and rainy, but we are enjoying and storing up as we know it will be a long time before we see rain again.  We planned to take a bike ride today, but have as of now we rearranged our busy schedule and will do midday massages with the hope that the weather may clear by the afternoon, allowing us to set out through the beautiful countryside.  We will let you know....

If it's Sunday it's Bohinj

We set out for Bohinj at the leisurely hour of 11 AM.  This is the gist of slow travel.  Take our time. No rush.  Wake up without an alarm.  Learn the daf. Eat a nice breakfast on our beautiful porch.

After that we set out for a beautiful 30 minute car ride to Bohinj, where we rented  bikes and set out on a bike path that was both scenic and relatively flat.  Mike was pleased that there were only 6 gears this time, and a wide seat!

Pictures from along the route- about 25km total circuit.

At the 12.5 km mark we decided to turn left to Vogel, a steep climb/walk to a cable car that would take us to the ski resort of the same name.  After purchasing our tickets we boarded a gondola for the 1000 meter ride up to some wonderful views of Lake Bohinj and the Julian Alps, once again.

We enjoyed a beer at the mountain top and then started the descent, and our return bike ride.  The remarkable thing was that the road felt like it was down hill in both directions.  Go figure....

We were able to make the bracha - oseh maaseh bereshit.

Driving into Bled we remembered that yesterday we had seen a sign for a tavern of sorts that makes home made beer.  How could we pass on that?  We stopped off at a renovated farmhouse and had some nice beer and elderflower "wine" (no grapes involved here).  There was excitement right next door to the farm with a 100 year celebration of the local fire house, including a concert with Slovenian musicians (sounds like what I would call and "umpah band.")

the beermaker and hostess

happy Mike

A happy fire truck

At the farmhouse there is also a museum with all sorts of "ancient" implements, tools and household items.  Now I am really beginning to feel old.  Some of the household implements I remember my mother using:  coffee grinder, meat grinder, and some I even used myself: typewriter.  But the museum was charming and my guide was informative.

the museum

my guide

the bell that is rung before entering the house

ceramic stove that heats the house

Mike and some elderberry wine

So that's it for today folks.  Tomorrow we take off for Lublijana and the spa.