Europe 2007                                           
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Venice (cont.)

St Marks Square

The art and architecture here are undeniably excellent, but I find it hard to gain any kind of affinity with the religious side of Venice
I'm not religious anyway, but I can feel more spiritual empathy when I'm in the mountains and lakes than I
 ever could among all this man made clutter.

 
Once away from the crowds and main tourist areas, Venice becomes a different place altogether. We take ourselves 
 down the back streets (canals!) and passages where we discover an old and very historic Venice which is much nicer to stroll around. 

 
The city becomes a lovely old place away from the masses. Taking time to seek out the heart of 
Venice is well worthwhile I'm beginning to warm to it.

The Lace Market 

Take
Taken from the boat on the way back from Lido

Back to the crowds - The Rialto Bridge

The Grand Canal, taken from the Rialto Bridge...............

              ..............and t'other side

On the Rialto bridge there are all kinds of shops, and as you come off the bridge on the north side there are market traders
selling fruit and veg. This display catches my eye so I just have to photograph it.  Imagine eating that lot,
 you'd have an arse like a Japanese flag in the morning!

So that's the world of Venice according to Oldgit! Would I come back here? Probably not, but if I did I'd stay at an hotel in Chioggia and get the boat to Venice, Chioggia is a far nicer place to stay.

Off to Slovenia next...............

Slovenia

Crossing the border into Slovenia - we got told off by the border guard for not having the car lights on!

Deciding to cross the border into Slovenia on the back roads rather than on the motorway, we're now just north of Udine, one of the last outposts in Italy. We've called at a wee garage a few miles before the  border to tank up with fuel, where yet another Super Mario lookey likey appears and proceeds to tank up the car - speaking a strange mix of Italian and what sounds like Slovenian,  not a lot of vowels here!   There's just two pumps at the garage - one petrol and one Diesel. It's only after the tank is full I realise that the fuel I've just got is only 91 octane!  The next few days is spent with an underpowered car whose engine insists on knocking like a hookers bedpost on even the slightest gradient.

Slovenia.......Why here?  Well we had planned originally to leave Italy and head up to Austria to spend a few days, but looking at the map I suggested to Wee Jim that to get there we could take a run up through Slovenia. I was looking at some places on t'interweb with a view to stopping off and doing a bit of sightseeing on the way through and it struck me what a beautiful looking country this is.  So much so that we ended up booking a hotel at a place called  Ribcev Laz at the Eastern end of Lake Bohinj. Not much to say about this part of the world except it's probably one of the most beautiful and peaceful places we've ever had the pleasure of visiting. Have a look......................

Almost as soon as we cross the border the landscape changes into deep valleys and rolling hills
Even if you crossed an unmarked border you'd just know you were in a different land

Driving to Bohinj, we follow the Soca River for a few miles. the colour of it is striking.

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