This  morning, Thursday, September 20th, dawned bright and sunny.  No trace of the heavy rain from last night.  We were finally able to see the view from here.  It's a different terrain here.  We've left the mountains and are in rolling hills, it's very green by Idaho standards but apparently they've had quite a drought this summer because the wine and truffle industry both say their production has suffered.

We took a group picture with the castle in the background.  When we get somewhere that has better internet connections, I'll upload some more pictures to the blog.

We got back on the bus and drove to Pula where we had a city tour with a local guide.  Pula has an amphitheater that is from Roman times that is still intact.  It's about 2/3 the size of the Colesseum in Rome but the outer walls are intact, about half the seats are still there and the lower level is intact.  I was more impressed with it than the one in Rome, actually.  We even got to go to the lower level. Pula is a harbor town and there were two large cruise ships here so it was more crowded with tourists than the other places we've seen.  There are still a lot of Roman era buildings and wall segments here.

After lunch, we got on the bus again and drove to Rovinj where we had about two hours of free time.  Beverly, Stella and I entertained ourselves by having dessert at an outdoor cafe, then shopping for souvenirs a little bit and then we sat down by the harbor to watch the ocean.  One large cruise ship here, it might have been one from this morning.  Anyway, we were fascinated watching six men try to come into the dock with a large catamaran.  It took them a half an hour to get it tied up to the sea wall.  First they came in too far and couldn't get the front of it (they backed in) tied up to a buoy.  They went back out and tried again.  After 15 minutes of maneuvering, they finally managed to get close enough so one of them could snag the buoy and get a rope through the ring on the top of it.  He knotted the rope and tied it off.  Must not have been to the satisfaction of the others because one of them then proceeded to undo it and retie.  Then they started to back into the spot they'd chosen to dock at.  More maneuvering around.  Finally one guy threw his rope to a guy on the sea wall who tied it off but the other side was too far away for it to be tied off.  They swung around again.  Six men were doing this, mind you.  Stella decided they would have been tied up and off having a beer by that time if they'd only had a woman to direct them.  Another 15 minutes go by and they have finally tied the boat to the sea wall so they could get off.  It was time for us to go to the bus and when we walked past this boat, there were 4 others inside drinking.  Apparently, the six outside were the flunkies.  By the time they were done, there were about 25 people watching this operation.  And one of the "sailors" had probably the worst comb-over I've ever seen.  Oh, and they were German.

We were off to another restaraunt for dinner tonight.  We had lamb, followed up by grappa.  Four different "flavors" to choose from.  Grappa is like brandy.  We all got a shotglass full.  I chose honey grappa and it had a smooth burn to it.  Stella had fig and it was a stronger burn (I tasted it), the herb one was really strong, and the "nonflavored" one had a little bite to it. 

We made the hike back up to the castle again after a half hour drive back.  It was a long day but a good day.  Beautiful weather, good people to travel with, and good food.

Tomorrow we're off to Plitvice National Park.  Everything I've read about it says it's spectacular scenery.