KarenWoo

We've used the squat toilets in China. Not a fun experience, IMO, but sometimes that's your only choice. I am not sure I could use a squat toilet now. I have too many aches and pains due to arthritis, etc. I would probably fall in! Once we had to use a trough in China! Very little privacy! And not a pretty sight!

We spent 3 nights in Ljubljana and took a drive across beautiful mountains to Lake Bled for a day. Ljubljana is so pretty. Would love to see more of Slovenia.

Flwrhead

WOW! In another life, I must have been an archeologist because I find it fascinating!

Adelaidean

What a wonderful trip, and joyful wedding.

hetismij2

You still find squat toilets in France, though thankfully not as many as there used to be.
We stayed in a couple of places in La Palma where the loo paper went in a bin, and one in France as well.

Looking forward to the rest of this report. Greece has never appealed for some reason, but you are converting me!

Debbielynn

Today we drove from Trikala to Farsala, about an hour away. It is easy driving, all flat. I can’t say that there is anything famous or special about the city, except apparently Achilles was born and baptized in the local river there. His father, in his younger years and until he was over 80 was the foreman of a cheese factory on the outskirts of town. Everybody in the city knew him and he was well respected. The cheese factory isn’t there any more.


As I said, no place that any tourists are about to visit!

This area in Greece was wealthy, due to the crops of cotton, wheat and tobacco. Not many people from the area came to the US for better opportunities. A great majority of the Greek people who came to this country were from poorer regions of Greeece and the many islands.
Today we came to visit from elderly relatives, go to the cemetery and see his childhood home. The house was never sold after his parents died and has been abandoned since the 1990s. It was recently sold and the old house and outbuildings were torn down and it is now just a pile of rubble. So sad. Lots of memories from visiting there to meet his family on our honeymoon in 1978 and with the kids in later years. Time marches on!



the city from afar

Debbielynn

Last night we ate at the nieces house. Her husband is a really good cook. He made pork souvlaki. So juicy and crispy! Then, in the morning , a stroll in the city, goodbye to family and we are off to the beach!



Wonderful food. Looks we could feed an army but 4 people ate almost all of it!









That’s me in the reflection


Everything looks so yummy!

Debbielynn

Spending a day and night in Platamonas. It is a little beach resort town at the foothills of Mt Olympus. The beach was small, clean, shallow and warm and we rested for the day and went out to dinner at night. The sand was so soft, like flour, unlike other beaches in Greece we have been to, which are very pebbly. We stayed at a local hotel by the water, Hotel Rastoni, which I believe either costed 70 or 75 euros for the night, with a balcony and breakfast. The area and beach are not fancy or exotic but served our purpose for rest and swimming ( really more floating) in the water. There are also shops and plenty of little restaurants but we didn’t really walk around. There is an old castle up on the hill overlooking the beach.
On the recommendations of the tavern owner, in the early evening we went to see Old Panteleimonas, an old style village high in the hills. It is now a popular tourist attraction, with many restaurants and many shops. We didn’t have much time to explore as it was approaching sunset and because the roads where so windy on the way up, we were afraid to drive down them in the dark. But I do hope I will be back, maybe next year.

https://www.neiporihotel.com/what-to...d-panteleimon/




The view



The castle on the hill



The Greeks call this bathing suit a”fart-splitter”!


Balcony view

View from hotel

Breakfast on the patio

Patio


Old Panteleimonas





Shops with lots of expensive gifts


Which way should we go?



Little shops

KarenWoo

I am really enjoying your photos of these unknown villages in Greece that are so interesting and charming, and where people actually live. Love the photos of the stores. I always take photos of interesting displays in storefronts.

Debbielynn

KarenWoo, so glad you are enjoying. Almost finished with the the Greek part of our trip. One more night and we will be on our way to Austria and Slovenia via Munich.

Debbielynn

Thursday, June 23
We went for a swim in the am and then went up to the castle on the hill. It is called Platamon castle and was built by crusaders in the early 1200s. It reminded me of my mothers hometown castle in Bielefeld, Germany and I thought of her fondly as I watched it from the water. It was a long , steep walk but I made it. It was also again very hot. I have had 3 joint surgeries since 2018 and then came Covid lockdown. I was so terribly out of shape so I lost about 18 lbs before the trip and practiced my walking with and without Nordic walking sticks. Definitely a help. I could feel myself getting stronger each day we walked around. If we weren’t traveling. We averaged 2-4+ miles a day and one day, in Graz, we walked 6 miles! As I was doing better, my husband was declining. He ended up with cellulitis in both feet by the time we got to Slovenia. More about that later.
Then we drove to Litochoro, a town on the slopes of Mt. Olympus. My daughter, her husband and family have been there several times and love it, so I wanted to just get a glimpse. We had a quick lunch of pork gyro and gelato, walked around a little and then we were off to Thessaloniki for the last night.

https://greecetravelideas.com/litochoro-greece/


For those of you that are waiting for Austria and Slovenia, this is prob the last post about Greece. We have an early morning flight out of Thessaloniki on Friday morning. Rental car was returned without a problem in the am and they drove us to the airport. No problems with security or flight to Munich. For those of you waiting for the next countries, my next post will start with them. I will put a post up in Austria and Slovenia to invite anyone who is interested in those countries to join us but will continue to post under this trip report title. Thanks for joining me. I hope you enjoyed the trip!



Castle Platamon



View down to the water and beach of Platamonas









I love flowers!



Litochoro





Yummy gyro

Can’t remember what flavors but wonderful!

geetika

Debbielynn, thanks so much for your TR about little towns and villages off the beaten path, have enjoyed the minutiae of rural life and your gorgeous pictures. Looking forward to the next installment…

Adelaidean

This has been a wonderful journey, I’m glad you persevered with the difficulties of posting a report.

uppsala30

Thanks so much for taking the time to write up this trip report.. I am just starting to plan my trip for next May.

Debbielynn

Welcome to the Austria/Slovenia portion of my trip report. Before I start posting pictures, I have to give all of you a general history of my family. I called this portion of the trip “walking in my father’s footsteps”.

My father was born in Yugoslavia in 1928. The story of his people dates back to the 1300s, when they came to the region from Tirol and Carinthia. You have to remember the present countries didn’t exist at the time and over the hundreds of years, the area switched possession and rulership many times. They maintained their German origin and language but with their own dialect and the area was considered a German-speaking “island” in Slovenia. I have included a several links for anyone who is interested in reading more about it. The main city was Gottschee, now known by the Slovenian name, Kocevje.

History | Gottscheer Heritage & Genealogy Association

Gottscheers - Wikipedia

Gottschee - Wikipedia the really long explanation

The people of Gottschee were farmers, and in the non- farming season, many of them peddled goods and ware in other portions of the region and in Germany. They were hard workers, and held their families and the Catholic faith in high esteem. Many people had emigrated from the area in the early 1900s (also maybe earlier) so at the time of WW2, my grandfather, who was the youngest of 12, owned the family farm. All the other siblings had left.

In 1941, whoever was left in Gottschee, was ordered to leave by Hitler. My family was sent to Brezice, Slovenia and then Villach, Austria. My grandmother, at some point, was on the run alone with the children, hid instead of boarding a train that had an unknown destination. Eventually, the British found them. The people on the train were never seen again.

From Wikipedia: During the Second World War, Brežice and the adjacent countryside to the north and west were known as the Rann Triangle (German: Ranner Dreieck), an area intended for the resettlement of Gottschee Germans that had been evicted from the Gottschee region in the territory annexed by Italy.[6][7]


My father was ordered into the German army at the age of 16 but didn’t finish his training before the war ended. He escaped and was eventually reunited with the family through the Red Cross. My grandfather was a prisoner at the Sterntal concentration camp in Slovenia and was lucky to have survived. After the war ended, they were again relocated to Graz, Austria, where they lived from late 1945 to late 1949. All that time they lived in a displaced person’s camp. They were now considered “stateless.” They couldn’t go back to their village, as it had been burned by the Italian army and that country no longer wanted them. My father didn’t really speak about those years and most of what I know is from his youngest brother, who did all the family genealogy and documented the family history. In Jan of 1950, with the help of family members in NY, they took a boat from Genoa, Italy, by way of South America and eventually to NYC.

Debbielynn

After arriving in Munich and picking up our rental car, we took to the roads of Germany. However, George took a little too eagerly and in no uncertain terms, I told him the rest of my vacation was not going to be at the Indianapolis 500! His driving was fairly calm and ordinary in Greece and the moment he hit Germany, all bets were off. There are areas of the autobahn that do not have a speed limit but I was not going to be the passenger in the car going over 160km per hr. Eventually, he calmed down. Some of the drivers liked to drive fast and came up right behind you but you should do your passing and go right back to the right lane and let them by. When there was a posted speed limit, everyone adhered to it immediately. I find the driving in Germany, as well as later in Austria and Slovenia, quite civilized. There is no beeping, no weaving in and out. Do your passing if the car in front to you is slower, then move back. No problem. I just love orderly!!

It took about 4- 5 hrs of driving to reach Graz. We stopped for a bite to eat at one of the autobahn rest stops on Austria. A far cry from our rest stops here. Also, if you are driving in Austria, you need a special sticker, called a vignette, that allows you to use the highways. You can buy it at a gas station as soon as you cross into Austria.


Mountains in the distance





Rest stop on autobahn in Austria



They cook some of the food from scratch. A far cry from rest stops in US. George had pasta bolognese and I had goulash.



Dessert anyone

And beer! But watch out, legal limit for alcohol is .50 in blood

Debbielynn

Graz is not on the radar for most Americans. In Austria, it is know for its beautiful architecture, restaurants serving delicious and locally grown food. As I had previously mentioned, I wanted to see where my father lived when he was in his late teens and early 20s, before he came to the US. I was in the city in 1970, as a child, with my father ,mother and 2 brothers but I don’t remember anything except the hotel along the river and that my youngest brother got sick and was visited by a doctor at the hotel. My father, at that time, also looked up the teacher who taught him his trade of locksmithing, which eventually lead to him doing auto body work in the states. Needless to say, I definitely saw more of the city this time!

https://www.austria.info/en/where-to-go/cities/graz

First glimpse of Graz

Debbielynn

We stayed here. Clean, homey and typical Austrian.
https://steirerstubn.at/

I loved the hotels in Germany, Austria and Slovenia because they had duvet covers, not top sheets. I felt so much better knowing the blanket was completely covered and all the sheets and covers were newly washed for me. I always feel skeevy in the states in a hotel because I am absolutely sure they do not change the blankets between customers. And I hate bedspreads on the beds and some of the hotels in Greece still use them. I don’t like the blanket to come in contact with me and try to curl up into the smallest ball possible. I grew up with duvet covers and still use them to this day. My mother had to order our covers from Germany or she sewed mine from sheets that matched my bedding. Now of course, you can buy them everywhere here too.

We ate here for dinner. George had schnitzel topped with pumpkin seeds, which was one of his favorite meals, and I had a salad with roasted pumpkin seed dressing. This area of Austria grows pumpkins specifically for their seeds and oil, a greenish pumpkin with dark seeds, not like our orange ones. Very tasty, nutty in flavor and dark, dark green. The restaurant was very good. It was right next to a clock that chimes and has little dancers that come out 3 times a day from the upper clock and dance. We did not get to see them, unfortunately.

https://www.gloecklbraeu.at/





Schnitzel

Walking around in the evening in Graz


Mariahilfer church, near our hotel

Debbielynn

Saturday in Graz

After coffee at the hotel, we hit the city, walking! Our destination was the farmers market but lots of stops along the way. The city has beautiful architecture; renaissance , baroque, medieval and modern. It is also known as a university city. It’s historic center is on the UNESCO world heritage list. Further out of the city, you can visit the farm where they breed The dancing Lipizzaner horses. This is also Arnold Schwartzenegger’s hometown!




The Mur river and the Murinsel, a structure straddling the river. You can walk through here to get to the other side. Inside is a cafe , which didn’t seem to open when we were here

The clock tower, on the hill, the symbol of Graz



My favorite picture of Graz

The city hall

City hall square

Cable cars run through here

Debbielynn

Some of the intricate decorations on the buildings

Called “ the Painted House”



Elaborate stucco

Painting on a building in the main square

The Landshaus- parliament buildings of center of the regional government

Renaissance

Debbielynn

Heading to the market