Final Thoughts About The EPW

“These views are beautiful!”

“That was delicious!”

“Do you see an arrow?

“We have to go down THAT path?”

“They’re putting their pant leg bottoms on. This can’t be good”

“What are we doing out here?!”

We embarked on another walk this year that was dubbed the European Peace Walk. And although this newly organized path seemed to be created with good intentions, unfortunately it needs a bit of work. According to the EPW website, “The European Peace Walk was started 100 years after the beginning of World War I as a way to celebrate the current European culture of peace and honor the past war-torn history.”  What we found was if we wanted to understand the history of the countries and the effects of wars, we would have to do much digging and searching on our own to find it. The trail may loosely follow the old “Iron Curtain”, but it didn’t necessarily lead us to many memorials, museums or specific sites to learn about what happened. We did much exploration on our own, as we always do, but the walk itself was more about getting point to point. That, in and of itself, is not bad. We enjoy meeting the people of the regions and learning about their lives and cultures. But the EPW organization has a ways to go before coming close to fulfilling their purpose statement.

What You Haven’t Seen

Posted a few pics that we didn’t include in our blog or our video slideshow: Austria to Italy Extras

Thousands of Words

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then watch the video about our adventure:

Austria to Italy 2017

Treviso

After our experience in Venice, we felt compelled to do anything except go back. Our decision was to take a short train ride north to Treviso. The smaller city with far fewer tourists was a much better option. We arrived mid morning, went by the tourism office and got a map with a walking tour. Perfect for us. We ambled around taking in the sites of the town with many narrow streets, cafes, markets, old churches and quaint waterways. The city is supposedly the place where they invented Tiramisu but darned if we could find any. But we were happy to have spent the day there as opposed to dealing with the mass of humanity in Venice. We felt like we got a truer taste of a typical Italian town. We are back at our hotel now, preparing for our flight home tomorrow.

Trieste to Venice

We enjoyed our time in Trieste but we had covered the town pretty well. We had reservations in Venice so after a leisurely morning we hopped a train. The ride there was a bit marred by two loud, annoying Americans (it’s no wonder we get a bad rap in Europe). We arrived late morning and quickly found our hotel in the Mestre section. We eventually hopped on a local bus and got to the famed city. But what an eye opener! We had read that it had become mega-touristy but it was a bit beyond our expectations. Don’t get us wrong, it’s a neat city but it’s dirty, graffiti-covered and not the romantic city that it’s portrayed in the media. We wandered, as we do, and took in the normal Venesian sights of canals, narrow streets, and people eating pizza, pasta and gelato.

Trieste

Went to bed late (10:00 p.m.) and didn’t get out of bed until 7:00 a.m. Glorious. We are people who stay fit year round but our bodies and our minds are spent. We are ready for rest and decompression. Rolled out of our room for a lovely breakfast and then slowly made our way out the door to meander the streets of Trieste. We knew we wanted to see the castle so, we headed uphill (haha). On the way, we stopped at the cathedral Santa Maria Maggiore. A quite interesting place. Slightly different vibe than most we have gone in. We then made our way to the castle but it didn’t open until 10:00 so we checked out the Cathedral di San Giusto Martire. This place was even more unique than the first one. 

Day 19: Ocizla to Trieste

As we arose this morning, our feelings were mixed and hard to describe. The finish line of the EPW awaited but in our minds and hearts we were already trying to figure out what we had just done. But 18 kilometers separated us from Trieste, Italy and it was time to walk. But first, a very nice breakfast was provided by our host, Jana. It was a redemption of sorts for somewhat of an odd hostel stay. We started walking shortly after 6:30 a.m. It was a cool morning with a few nice wooded paths and plenty of steep downhill that brought us to a small bridge.  The bridge separated Slovenia from Italy and we crossed around 8am. Next was the one kilometer climb that took us to views of the Adriatic Sea and a herd of mountain goats.

Day 18: Gornja Košana to Ocizla

Today was to be the last big day of walking. Approximately 30 kilometers plus some adventure trails and we wanted to stop and see the caves. Early to rise, grabbed our packed breakfast/lunch and set off. It was a pretty nice walk in relatively cool temperatures. Of course the path we followed and Dr. Lynch’s Plot-a-Route map didn’t match….again. No worries. We know how to navigate. We stopped after a couple of hours at a 24-hour cafe that was closed (nice) and had a bite to eat on the terrace. We continued and made our way to the river gorge where we had to use some cables and ladders. Not really that hard but we had to use caution.

Day 17: Postojna to Gornja Košana

A slow start to our day. We “slept in” and left just before 7:00 a.m. Found proper coffee at the Time Out Cafe and then hit the road. Pretty uneventful walk early on. Our highlight, if you will, was our escort dog who walked with us for maybe four kilometers.  Gentle countryside and we ticked off some k’s before we stopped for coffee again but even though we asked for espresso twice, for some reason they didn’t bring us any so we moved on a few meters and found a shaded spot for a rest and some nurishment. Again, a dog (this time we named him brown) joined our walk for three or four kilometers before he turned back.  

Day 16: Bistra to Postojna

Cooler weather has come so we slept in until 5:30 and we were away by 6, even though it was a longer day.