Wednesday, September 19th.  We went to a World War I museum this morning in Kobarid.  It was really worthwhile.  As our guide said "I don't think they teach much about this war in the US, it's mostly World War II" and that's true in my case.  Learning about what went on in Slovenia/Croatia during that war was so interesting.  I'm going to have to get some books and read about it when I get back.

After the museum, we started for Croatia and crossed the border about two hours later. We were on a very windy road along a river.  I normally don't get carsick but I was a little queasy because the roads here have no shoulder and there are trees right next to the pavement.  After seeing trees rushing by the window, I  moved to the aisle seat from the window seat.  That helped.  At lunchtime, we stopped at a winery for wine tasting and lunch.  The wine was excellent.  After four different varieties were poured for tasting and a hearty soup for lunch (with cheese, olives, proscuitto and some sort of sausage plate), there were 26 half-tanked people on the bus.  Boy were we a happy group.  And a lot of wine was purchased there, too.  We continued onto the border of Croatia where we had to produce our passports for the border patrolwoman to stamp.  She came on the bus to do it so it didn't take too long.  Then we drove to Motovun to stay in a castle for two nights.  As in most countries, the castle was on a hilltop and our bus could not take us right up to it.  Another "heart attack hill" hike.  This one was at least a half mile, maybe a little more, over cobblestones.  A van took our luggage but my backpack was heavy by the time I got there. 

It had started to rain on us after lunch and was getting heavier.  We went to ANOTHER wine tasting here.   At 6 pm we met in the lobby and hiked halfway down the hill to a restaurant for wine and truffle tasting.  We sat outside on their terrace that had a canvas roof.  By this time, it was pouring rain, and when the wind came up, it blew the rain onto the tables and chairs of everyone sitting on the outside of the terrace. We were against the wall and protected but it was like a waterfall coming off that canvas.  That ended the party in a hurry.  I felt bad for the restaurant owner because it certainly ruined his presentation of the truffles. We all tried them and they were good.  Not good enough for me to pay as much as they wanted for them, but that's okay.  Croatia has a higher quality of truffle than France does.  We just hear about France in the US.  We looked out the door at the narrow one-lane street that we had to hike up to get back to the castle and there was so much water running over those cobblestones, that our shoes would have been completely wet so we stayed and shopped for awhile in the gift shop there.  It tapered off a little bit so we made a mad dash for the castle.  I was sopping wet by the time we got here like everyone else.  It just doesn't rain like that in Idaho.  We could not see more than about 30 feet.  Amazing.  I heard it rain again about an hour later.

After two wine tastings in one day, we told the tour guide that they needed to change the itinerary to only have one a day.  Even the hardcore wine drinkers felt that way.  I'm not really a wine drinker but I tried them all anyway.

On our way here, we were on the coastline and saw the Adriatic Sea for the first time.  Bright blue color.  A number of large ships were not too far off the coastline.