From Bled to Trieste!

Wednesday May 29 was a beautiful sunny day in both Bled and Trieste.  High of 23C.  We started our day in Bled.  Katja, the host, had offered us a ride to the bus station at 11:00 a.m.  Our plan was to have brunch at a restaurant near the bus station called Art Café and then have coffee and share one last piece of Kremšnita (cream cake) at the highly recommended Slaščičarna (pastry shop) Zima also close to the bus station.  

Before we left, we went out for a short walk near the Pension, which is in a small enclave of homes near country fields.

Allan walking around the corner from our Pension.

The fields behind the house opposite our Pension

View of mountains from our side of the street

Allan with Katja's cat, just before we were going to leave

We had omelettes at Art Café.

Allan had goat cheese, arugula and asparagus

We then went to the pastry shop, Slaščičarna Zima, which has been making the wonderful Kremšnita (other name is Kremna Rezina) cream cake since 1966.  All the locals recommend this family run business for their pastries.

Signage outside the café- they also serve ice cream which explains the brown bear 

So many amazing cakes: there are three Bled specialties: Kremna rezina, often referred to by its German-derived name kremšnita); grmada- developed by a Hotel.  It has day-old cake, rum, milk, custard and raisons topped with whipped cream and chocolate syrup; and gibanica which originated in the Hungarian corner of Slovenia- pastry with poppy seeds, walnuts, apples and cheese, drizzled with rum.  We only sampled the kremšnita, but the pastry shop had all three and more.

So good..... very addictive, one person came in while we there and also had the cake and coffee

On our way--the pastry shop also had another room and an outdoor section, but we had already been exposed to too many smokers at the Art Café, so we stayed inside 

We had a wonderful time in Bled.  Such a change from even Ljubljana, which is just an hour away.  The Alps, the chalets, the peace and quiet and beautiful Lake Bled was a great break.  There are many other hiking experiences in the area and it is so Green!  We are very glad we did the Vintgar Gorge walk- an excellent  experience.  Katja also said the people in Bled are wonderful.  The city of Bled's population is only around 5,200 so local folks get to know each other.

We caught the 12:40 p.m. bus, which was a faster one than the one we had taken to get to Bled.  Just an hour highway ride with no stops back to Ljubljana.  We then caught the 2:35 p.m. FLixbus to Trieste.

Beautiful scenery en route to Trieste

After the border stop, we descended from a very high plateau to the city of Trieste.  The bus was going very fast, but it was an incredible bird's eye view of the city.

Looking down on Trieste (from the bus)

The Bus and Train stations are located on a very large square.  We knew we were only a four minute walk from the station, but we were unsure of which street to go down (Google Maps are not great on exiting large squares).  We finally asked a group of women of which one spoke English.  They walked us to the street, which really was just a few minutes from the station.

We are staying in a beautiful 4 story apartment building in a large, very modern unit.  It is the only Airbnb on this trip that we have not been greeted personally and entry was with a lock box outside the apartment door.

  

Large, modern kitchen and full fridge

Living room

Large bathroom and shower

Bedroom--- full closet with drawers 

Small balcony patio out back

We really prefer being met, as the WIFI network name the host had given us did not work.  We contacted the woman whom he works with who gave us another name.  It didn't work.  Finally, the third name and password she gave us worked!  It was also the first place in our travels that didn't have a map or info page on nearby supermarkets, restaurants or other amenities.  However, the apartment is very clean, large and well-equipped and in a very good location.  We decided to hoof it over to the Tourist Information Centre, which was closing at 6:00 p.m.

We are only a 15 minute walk from the Tourist Centre which is located in the grandiose Piazza dell' Unità d'Italia which is the largest sea-facing square in Europe.  It looks over the Gulf of Trieste and is bordered on three sides by ornate buildings, reminiscent of the buildings of the Ringstrasse in Vienna.

The Town Hall- famous for its beautiful clock tower- two Moors on the top of the tower

The Palace of the Government with incredible gilded decorations on the façade

Lloyd Triestino Palace- building constructed between 1880-83 by a Viennese architect as the permanent location of the Austro-Hungarian Lloyd shipping company, founded in 1836, which since 1922 took the name of "Lloyd Trestino".  After the construction in 1986 of new corporate headquarters, the building was sold to the Regional Administration in 1991 and is now the seat of the regional government.

The Piazza is the heart of Trieste and the locals affectionally call it the "city's front parlour."

The sea side of the Piazza

Alonso with the flag

Talking to the woman on the shore

One of the cafés on the square

We got a map of the city and a list of all the Museums and their opening times- very helpful.  Sunday 

June 2 is Republic Day in Italy, so there will be celebrations in the Square.  We stopped at a supermarket, made a reservation for dinner at a recommended fish restaurant and then went back to the apartment to settle in before dinner.  

En route, we pass these wonderful canals, reminiscent of Venice

View the other way

Elevator in our building and wonderful wrought iron rails

Hallway in building

Later pic of Alonso at the inside entrance

Our reservation for dinner was at 9:00 p.m.  Walking past the canals just after sunset at 8:45 p.m.

Sunset in Trieste

We had a lovely dinner at Al Bagatto, which has been in business since 1966.  It was a quiet Wednesday night.  

Alonso awaiting our dinner

We ordered two main dishes which they were kind enough to split into two separate portions.

Paccheri (type of pasta) with shrimp ragout, seared shrimps, fava beans, pea sauce

Stuffed squid with potatoes, green beans, calamari ragout, pistachio pesto, spring caponata, calamari sauce and pistachio crumble.

Both dishes were wonderful modern twists on classics.  We also each had a glass of very good local wines.  As we were the only ones in the restaurant after they stopped serving at 9:30 p.m., we had a long chat with our waiter who turned out was from Frankfurt with Italian parents.  He has lived in Italy for most of his 30 years.  He gave us some great suggestions of what to do and where to get good fish and meat.  We also had a discussion about the unique pistachio stuffed squid.  He told us that each region in Italy uses leftovers to stuff squid and that these vary across Italy.  The restaurant decided to do something unique with the pistachio filling.  It was delicious as was the accompanying caponata.

We walked back on a different street-- passed the James Joyce statue on one of the bridges over the canal

The outside of our apartment building at night.  Very quiet.

Wonderful introduction to Trieste.  Free Tour on Thursday.  Allan is now Alonso for our time in Trieste.