Happy Easter!!!
It rained most of the day here, like the last few days but it is still beautiful and lots of people out and about strolling with umbrellas and enjoying the sights.
After breakfast I walked to the town center and St. Jacob's church but didn't realize that daylight savings time happened here in Europe so I got there just as it was ending but the church was packed beyond capacity. I stayed near the door and there wasn't room to move and they couldn't even get through to all the people for Communion there were so many.
They had a gorgeous choir and a soloist from Asia who sang like an angel she actually had to do a few more songs after mass for all those still waiting in the church and for those who were now able to take Communion when a priest came out a few minutes after mass to accommodate those who had missed out. And I did see one women with a tiny Easter basket to be blessed with I imagine food but she had a tea towel over it.
I took a long hour and half walk along the water and got totally drenched but it was worth it to enjoy a little more of the seaside and since I wasn't the only one out there it's just too beautiful for anyone to miss.
It took awhile but I got to the small inlet outside of the Opatija town center heading to Rijeka that I had seen from the bus the other day. It caught my eye because of all the charming terracotta roofed homes going up the hillside and the marina below.
The town was pretty quiet with a few restaurants open but for the most part people were in their homes getting ready for the holiday dinner. I could smell all the great cooking as I walked along the winding streets just above their marina.
I walked another 20 minutes or so before getting the public bus back to my hotel. I was just too wet to do anything else and need to change clothes and let everything dry. I enjoyed the warm salt water pool for awhile talking with a Slovenian family who were down for a few days. They live outside Ljubljana and the son, only 12 years old spoke English pretty well and had lots of questions about life in America. So sweet and his mom and grandmother were happy to talk about life in Slovenia and the beauty of their home town Idrija which is a little over an hour in the mountains out side the capitol. And they were very excited to tell me they recently, about a year or so ago, had their town was officially included on the
UNESCO World Heritage list because of their mercury mine which is one of the biggest decommissioned mercury mines in the world, since about 13% of all the mercury ever produced worldwide came from Idrija, where mining was the main industry for five centuries. The production of mercury ended in 1994. When the closure was launched in 1977, the main reasons were low prices of mercury and partial depletion, while later environmental concerns prevailed. I'm sure many people who still have mercury thermometer have them filled with mercury from this town.
After a quick shower and back in warm clothing I'm in the lobby creating my blog and just happy to be out of the rain but now, as I look in the distance I see sunshine so hopefully we'll see some of that tomorrow on my way from here to Zadar, a town 4 hours south and on the way to Split.
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| Interesting old brick wall at the top of the hill near a restaruant |
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| View of inlet town from the hill |
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| View of inlet town from the hill |
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| Interesting house with lots of artistic embellishments on the walls and if you looked really, really closely you'd see the women of the house cooking up a storm in the window |
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| Garden behind a home in this hillside town |
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| Pretty terracotta roof tops |
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| Dusk with interesting cloud cover and what I believe is Italy in the distance |
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| Pretty roof tops with a modern sculpture (on the wall below the pillar holding what I believe is a birdhouse) |
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| View tonight from hotel lobby toward Pula in the distance |
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| View from my hotel lobby toward Rijeka with snow covered mountains soaring above the sea and sitting close below the beautiful cloud cover |
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| Marina outside my hotel lobby window. Large yacht in the distance seems to be occupied this week with a family who I see coming and going |
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Small outdoor pool at my hotel clearly in need of some cleaning. The hotel is only open now for the Easter holiday and will close again until the official opening of the summer season
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An old but beautiful building
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After breakfast I walked to the town center and St. Jacob's church but didn't realize that daylight savings time happened here in Europe so I got there just as it was ending but the church was packed beyond capacity. I stayed near the door and there wasn't room to move and they couldn't even get through to all the people for Communion there were so many.
