blauboy’s posthaven

Just a few picture memories of another wonderful stay on the island of Crete. Or, as we tend to say: our second home - 'cause we are part time locals, that stay in Chania for two to four weeks every season, while the rest of the year we have to work for our living in Germany... (13 pictures).

I found Atlantis!
I saw its vagabonded foundations, touched its old columns and I wandered its lost streets. The magic place is located on the peninsula Akrotiri, not too far away from the airport of Chania, between Chorafakia and Stavros. The huge areal spreads in the burning mediterrean sun over dozens of acres: abandonded, rotten, dirty, overgrown. But one can still see the structures of the bold idea, that was behind this compound: to build another waterpark like Limnoupolis on Crete, barely 30 kilometers away from the original.
The guy, who planed this waterpark "Atlantis", son of the owners of a nearby hotel in Chorafakia, wasted lots of time, effort and money from the bank to make his vision come true, but still failed: His waterpark never ran. That was about ten years ago. The ruins of his dreams may not last as long as the historical mansion, I explored last autumn. But long enough to witness this guy's personal Greek dilemma. (28 pictures)

Our last destination: Ljubljana. Immediately we fell in love with the vividness of Slovenia's capitol. Beautiful old houses, cosy streets, nice people, lots of pubs and cafeterias, great beer, a river that runs through the historic city, bright sunlight - all this creates an open, heartwarming atmosphere of the university town. We loved to just sit, sip and watch!

This Whitsun break we travelled to a European country, which hoisted four different banners within the last 100 years (Hungarian-Austrian, Italian, German, Yugoslawian) before it finally, just 25 years ago, became Slovenia. The "green heart of Europe" comes up with alpine mountains (Karavankas), sea (Adriatic Coast), downs, woodlands and karst.

Our fifth destination was Piran, the most beautiful village at the Slovenian Adriatic coast! Once part of the Venetian empire, the picture-perfect seaside settlement ist the most gorgious place for a day of recreation in one of its cafes at the central Tarini Square. Or you climb up those rotten stairs of the campanile (entrance: 1 Euro) - if you dare. The prospect up there is overwhelming! And dont't drop your mobile or your camera, when out of a sudden the giant bells right behind start to toll!

This Whitsun break we travelled to a European country, which hoisted four different banners within the last 100 years (Hungarian-Austrian, Italian, German, Yugoslawian) before it finally, just 25 years ago, became Slovenia. The "green heart of Europe" comes up with alpine mountains (Karavankas), sea (Adriatic Coast), downs, woodlands and karst.

Our next destination was supposed to be Bled, the "pearl of Slovenia". Unfortunately, we tried to get there on the weekend. Not a very good idea. So, after more than an hour stuck in traffic jam, we decided to skip the pittoresque sight of the ancient church on that island in the middle of the beautiful Bled lake - and visit the summer park Krvavec instead. We took the cable car up to Gospinca, 1480 meters high, enjoyed the hight, the fresh air and the gorgious view. And for the rest of the afternoon, we spent shouting with glee on the 100-metre tubing course (scroll down for a video of my ride!).

This Whitsun break we travelled to a European country, which hoisted four different banners within the last 100 years (Hungarian-Austrian, Italian, German, Yugoslawian) before it finally, just 25 years ago, became Slovenia. The "green heart of Europe" comes up with alpine mountains (Karavankas), sea (Adriatic Coast), downs, woodlands and karst.

Our third destination in Slowenia was the craddle of all Lipizzan horses in the world: Founded in 1580, the Stud Farm of Lipica is breeding and selecting pure horses for more than four centuries. Today, around 350 of those white beauties live in the shade of picturesque old linden trees and white fences and are visited by horse freaks (mainly very young females...) from all over the planet.

So this Whitsun break we travelled to a European country, which hoisted four different banners within the last 100 years (Hungarian-Austrian, Italian, German, Yugoslawian) before it finally, just 25 years ago, became Slovenia. The "green heart of Europe" comes up with alpine mountains (Karavankas), sea (Adriatic Coast), downs, woodlands and karst.

So this Whitsun break we travelled to a European country, which hoisted four different banners within the last 100 years (Hungarian-Austrian, Italian, German, Yugoslawian) before it finally, just 25 years ago, became Slovenia. The "green heart of Europe" comes up with alpine mountains (Karavankas), sea (Adriatic Coast), downs, woodlands and karst. All within just barely 7830 square miles!

Our second destination: the impressive mediaval Predjama Castle with its underground bat cave.

So this Whitsun break we travelled to a European country, which hoisted four different banners within the last 100 years (Hungarian-Austrian, Italian, German, Yugoslawian) before it finally, just 25 years ago, became Slovenia. The "green heart of Europe" comes up with alpine mountains (Karavankas), sea (Adriatic Coast), downs, woodlands and karst. All within just barely 7830 square miles!

Our first destination: the most impressive cave of Postojna - 9 miles (24 km) of underground passages, galleries and halls, a tourist attractions for more than 200 years now, seen by 36 million visitors and the only cave with an underground train. So exciting, so breathtaking!

Not only that we had run out of our favourite wine (pinot gris, "Grauburgunder"). We also needed sun after a long dismal winter - needed it badly! So we followed the invitation of Sandra and Karl and drove back to Leutschach in Southern Austria for the Easter holidays to witness the Styrian style of celebrating Jesus' resurrection. But besides Easter bonfire, egg dyeing, consecreation of groceries ("Gott, segne die Kräuter und den Kren!" - not really translatable), lots of hiking, fantastic vistas and excellent wine tasting: above all we experienced the warmth and hospitality of our hosts, who let us forget our everyday solicitudes. Thank you so much, Sandra and Karl, Irene, Maria, Sophie, Hanna and Katja of the Pronegg-Kristeindl winery!

Near Astrikas, district of Kolymvari in western Crete, the Dimitriadis family renovated the old olive mill of their family and specialized on organic products under the name of Biolea. The mill, amidst a beautiful landscape, usually is open to the public. Visitors are given a free guided tour and learn about the production path for organic olive oil - starting from receiving the olives, washing, deleafing and weighing them up to the actually milling, malaxing, olive paste loading, cold pressing all the way to the natural separation of oily water and olive oil and the final olive oil receiving and bottling.
By the way: The olive pomace (German: "Trester") is dried and used for heating in the winter. Simply bio.