Ljublijana (lou blee ah na) Slovenia

This city is a quintessential fairy tale city. Complete with castle looming above!

Beautiful walks along the river Ljubljanica.

Fun, narrow walkways to explore.

Picturesque streets.

Parks with endless water spouts.

Gorgeous squares & bridges.

Laid back people.

Wonderful spires – everywhere!

Dragon bridge.

Hare Krishna’s alive and well!

Pretty, pretty, pretty.

Fun shot.

Running out of adjectives, but you get the idea.

Before we move on

The next 3 images are from the children’s museum in the Habsburg summer palace.

I could have stood there all day to watch these kids pretend.

Photo op!

One night we went to the Opera House to see a Mozart concert.

The orchestra was dressed in period and a joy to hear, even from the fifth balcony!

Not hard to do find falafel here. What a great city!

“Postcards” from Vienna

Beautiful at night

Fountain at Volkspark

Habsburg winter palace

And their summer palace!

Little Mozart (performed for the queen when he was 6)

Johann Strauss

Local market

Rathauss (city hall)

St Michael’s church

Before and after cleaning the fascade

Habsburg Palace

What could we do?

We started the evening out right, eating at a vegetarian restaraunt.

As we strolled home the lights inside this place drew us in like moths!

Innocently, we walked it to look at the beautiful architecture.

Pretty nice, right!?!

But, what’s this?

Austrian delights!?!

Yes, please!!! (In our defense, they were charging $3 extra to share and only $5 for an apple strudel. You do the math…)

Various views of Vienna

This is pretty much how we saw Vienna for the last two days.

There is a ring road around the old town and these trams are a beautiful and fun way to see the city.

Just don’t know…

St Stephen’s Cathedral

Cool pic of St Stephen’s

This little guy couldn’t have been more than 3 yrs old!

With love from Vienna!

Vienna on a rainy & cold day

Best thing to do?

Have a nice dinner!

Beautiful setting

with my guy!

Yum, pikeperch.

A bit of history.

Sad to think about…

Ripon Cathedral – 10th century

Inside Ripon Cathedral

Ripon

Durham Cathedral 11th century

The next four images were beautiful Abbeys from the same time period as the above.

They were intact and servicing people until the 16th century

when Henry VIII, in order to become more powerful dissolved the monasteries. In the process he ordered the roofs to be torn off causing the buildings to decay.

Several hundred of these magnificent buildings would be “alive and well” if not for short sighted people like Henry VIII. Sad to think that close to 1,000 of these structures, like Notre Dame in Paris, could still be standing all around England today…

For my gardening friends

Heading north

Hiked from Robin Hood’s Bay to Whitby today.

Ummm, steep & wet stones. I think I’m going to need the photographer’s hand for this!

All the way down there ‘eh?

Whew, time to make friends!

Check out that blue sky & water. First time we’ve seen this much nice weather since we got to England!

Beautiful countryside.

Couldn’t resist posting this adorable Bug Hotel ❤

Hiking the coast

On the dock at Robin Hood’s Bay

Popular beach here

On the Cleveland Way trail above Robin Hood’s Bay, along the North Sea

Always someone to meet along the way

Didn’t expect to see him up here

Can’t beat the walk along a farmer’s field, above the Bay

Lots of ups and downs

and fun tunnels!