Venice, Ljubljana, Opatija

i spoke too soon about having a good night's sleep. Julie was really tired last night so put herself to bed about 8.30and was snoring softly by 8.40. I was reading and finished my book about 10.30 so lights off and I figuted I would get snother good sleep after our more than 8k walk today. Somewhere around 12.15 as I was more asleep than awake, I remember turning over at which time I hear Julie ask me 'Are you awake?' I instantly think there is a problem, so am now wide awake. 'Yes' says me. Julie then regales me at great length with how she can't get backto sleep, has been awake for ages, has been sitting on the side of her bed with her feet on the floor, ya da, ya da. I ask her if she has used the bathroom. She tells me she dirsnt'tneed yo go. Itell her that sometimes when I can't sleep I get out of bed and then come back to bed and put myself to bed again rather than tossing and turning. With that Julie gets up and goes to the bathroom. I think thatI may now be able go go back to sleep. But no, this is Julie we are talking about.I hear her get back into her bed and then she tells me that she thinks we can't sleep because we are so excited about the cruise tomorrow. What'swith the 'we' bit??? I can't sleep because she won't shut up! With that I ask her if we really have to have this conversation now, and tell her to goto sleep. Within minutes I hear her softly snoring again at which point I then lie awake for the next 2 hours... At about 2am, Julie gets up to go to the bathroom. When she gets back into her bed, I saythat I am STILL awake. She says, Oh well, you can sleep on the bus.... Give me strength! So after a poor night's sleep, we are breakfasted, packed and ready to depart Venice. Would have liked a couple more days here to do our own thing, but that just means that if the opportunity to come to Venice arises in the future, then I'm in. We are put into water taxis to go to the coach and I enjoy my last views of Venice waterways.

We hope that our luggage has arrived at the same spot, and get on the coach for our drive to Croatia to join our cruise. It is about 2 hours until our lunch stop at Lubljana. Traffic getting out of Venice is horrendous but then we are passing lovely scenery again. A few more tunnels thrown into the mix.

Lubljana is in Slovenia which certainly has a marked history of being subsumed by different countries until it gained its own independence in June 1991. It is a really pretty place that has all the new modern buildings and high rises, plus the old city along the river. Neither of us are very hungry but find a nice little cafe wherere Julie has cheese pie and I have a toasted sandwich.... plus the obligatory glass of wine.

We then wander around the quaint stores. My photo of the dragon shop didn't come out, but the dragon is a symbol of the city.There are 4 dragon statues on the bridges,and supposedly the legend goes that when Jason of the Argonauts fame, stole the golden fleece, he was making his escape through Lubljana where he was met by a dragon defending the city. Jason slew the dragon, but it remains a symbol of strength and loyalty. Can't think now why I didn't buy a little dragon... We have a lovely wander around the open air market. Julie has had to buy a large carry on bag which will be used to load all her Venice purchases into for the plane. All iems currently being cinveyed in my back pack, which again brungs up delightful memories of Jo and I after my Murano glass buying frenzy where my back pack was sooooo heavy but we kept trying to pretend it was as light as a feather so that I wouldn't get caught carrying overweight cabin luggage on the plane! Had I fallen backwards with the backpack on I would have suffered the same fate as a turtle in its back!

(Matilda, Roxy, Baxter and Simon, there's a photo just for you included) Back on the coach again as we now make our way into Croatia. At the border we are stopped by guards, but when the driver informs them that we are Australian, we are waved through. We never admitted we had two New Zealanders on board. Not sure if they would have let us in then! LOL! Not much opportunity fir photos as lots of high trees on side of roads and when we are goung through tiny little villages with hair pin bends and traffic coming the other way,I had my eyes closed! About 4ish we arrive in

We are able to board our little ship (35 passengers) and head to the bowels of the boat to our cabin 22. The room has plenty of storage space and a reasinable sized ensuite. This was the only cabin available when we booked a year ago, so we don't have decent windows at all,just 2 small portholes that high up the wall. It will certainly be fine for our needs for a week. We weren't impressed though with the 2 used metal water bottles on the counter along with some paperwork from last week's cruise. Julie told one of the crew and askedfor the items to be removed. That was at 4.30. We went to the safety briefing at 7, then had dinner and by 9 pm they had still not been removed. Dinner was nice, although the sea bass was very salty. Loved the vegetables!

We asked to speak with Nora who is our young tour guide on the ship and when I showed her the lipstick on the lip of one bottle and mould spots on the inside of the other, she was horrified. I asked if theyhad simply been left by the previous passengers but she said that they were drink bottles left behind previous passengers that are collected up and sanitised and given to the next lot of passengers! She asked if we wanted replacement water bottles as we can't drink the water in the taps and have to fill up water fromthe tank near reception, but I told her in no uncertain terms that we didn't want any one else's bottles as we had our own. I am really mystified with Travelmarvel who provide travel folders, zip up-packing bags or even back packs each time you book with them, but they can't provide a $2 drink bottle with their logo on it on a ship that you can't drink the water on! Anyway, Nora asks us if we would like a complimentary drink as way of apology and Julie says that we would both like a Cointreau on ice. Nora walks off with the offending bottles and paperwork and 20 minutes later, still no drink. As we were sitting at a table near the bar, I go up to the barman and adk himif Nora had told him to provide us with a complementary drink. He says no, so I say, do you want to go and get her, but he says that he will give us a drink. When we look at the cocktail list, it is very limited. I ask him what a Moscow Mule is but apparently he dudn't have one of the ingredients for it. Even though a martini isn't on the list, I ask could we posdibly have one of those. He reckons he knows how to make one, so I tell him we want it gin based (not vodka) and a few minutes later we are provided with a lovely dry martini each. Back to our room we go. Internet access is very hit and miss, so blog updates are taking forever. We talk until midnight and then it really is lights out, with Julie knowing not to dare ask me anymore if I am asleep or not! (Me looking at the yellow moon out of our porthole!)