Slovenia!!!

Last Tuesday the Lomshek family embarked on a much-anticipated trip to the country of
Slovenia. With the help of Grandma, we made it to the airport by 5:00 AM to get on our first flight to Chicago. After a 4 hour layover in Chicago, we flew to New York. Ziga slept almost the entire flight. Then.....we had the long flight from New York to Zurich. I was pretty sure, since the kids got up early that morning, that they would crash on the flight to Zurich. So, I left the Benadryl at home. I think Janez would agree-----that flight was about the longest night of our lives. Zala, unfortunately, had a hard time settling down and did some of her lovely screaming thing. Strangers gave us their keys to let her play with. Ziga had a hard time settling down and kept kicking us. I probably would pay for a seat for Zala next time. The kids finally fell asleep probably around 10:00 or so our time, a few hours before we landed. Janez and I---a couple of hours of sleep the night before we left was about all we got. 4 people in 3 coach seats was definitely a crowd. But---no delays, we made it in to Zurich and all of our luggage made it and that was a positive. We got our rental car and strapped in the 300 pound Britax carseats to find that whoever had to sit in the back would be pretty crunched. Oh well, not worth another $400 for a minivan. When Jerry, Janez's dad got in, we took off for the beautiful country of Lichtenstein. The kids slept the entire way. I cannot even tell you what a beautiful day it was to drive. It made me (kind of, not really) forget about the horrible flight over from New York. I was wedged between the kids in the back and alternately dozed/took in the green mountains and sunshine. We spent some time in Lichtenstein at a little kid festival they were having and got some lunch. Then, we started heading down to Slovenia. Janez drove, then Jerry drove. Then, I got a little iced coffee in a can (love Europe) and drove on the Autobahn. So fun! We drove down to the Slovenian coastal town of Portoroz and checked into our hotel, Hotel Lucia, around midnight. The kids were so, so good. On Wednesday we got up at 12:30 and spent the afternoon in the neighboring coastal town of Piran, which is an older town with Venetian style architecture. It was a beautiful day, a little overcast at first but then sunny. We dipped our feet in the Adriatic and had lunch, and then walked around all the alleys. Wednesday night we discovered that "we (read: Ali)" forgot the adaptor, which we would need to get on-line, charge camera battery, etc. American adaptors aren't that easy to come by, so we were quite relieved to find one before we left Portoroz on Thursday. Thursday we checked out of our hotel and headed to a nearby town to see the famous painting "Dance of Death" (to symbolize that death touches everyone, despite rank/age/etc.). Then, more driving to the town of Lipica, which is the original breeding location of Lipizza horses, which perform worldwide. We went on a little tour there (camera battery died). Then.....we drove up to Postojnska Jama, a huge cave. Camera battery still dead. It was freezing cold during the train ride and tour but the kids had coats and loved every minute of it. Then, we drove to Lusa, outside of Skofja Loka, to begin our stay at Lojza's Bed and Breakfast, up in the mountains. It is so beautiful here--green, green mountains, deer, wildflowers. We hiked up Lubnik today and Ziga did great. We carried Zala a borrowed backpack. At the top we had some sauerkraut soup, Kielbasa, and streudel. On the way back down, Zala fell asleep in the backpack. Tonight we check out a Slovenian music festival in Skofja Loka. Then, we put our exhausted, overstimulated children to bed. We're having a blast but we might have a little more down time tomorrow. I have taken a zillion pics but need to re-size them all, and really need to get to bed to get on Slovenian time. Ciao!!!