[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

And stunning churches

Referring to http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attach...dsc_8222_l.jpg

Sam, did you hear the pipe organ being played. I have never listened to an actual pipe organ being played. I have only listened to them being played on digital keyboards. I wonder how many churches in India house actual pipe organs.

-Biju

p.s. Venice is beautiful. And Alappuzha (Alleppey) is called the Venice of the East.

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by pjbiju

Referring to http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attach...dsc_8222_l.jpg

Sam, did you hear the pipe organ being played. I have never listened to an actual pipe organ being played. I have only listened to them being played on digital keyboards. I wonder how many churches in India house actual pipe organs.

-Biju

p.s. Venice is beautiful. And Alappuzha (Alleppey) is called the Venice of the East.

Biju, that is a small pipe organ. There are some that deliver sound that makes your hair stand on end with pleasure. No keyboard or synthesizer can replicate this.

I have heard these before. One was played at my wedding ceremony too.

It is stunning.

p.s. Venice is beautiful. And Alappuzha (Alleppey) is called the Venice of the East.

And rightly so. Both Jenny and I are huge fans of Kerala.

I'm wondering how you could leave!

Because where we were planning to go, was unimaginably beautiful.

Stay tuned, I promise this travelogue will be one you will not forget.

[Sam Kapasi]

Jenny had suggested Plitvice (pronounced Plit-vitsey) in Croatia.

What? Inland Croatia?
Yes. This is definitely something we should see.

My vision of Croatia had been islands and beaches with the impossibly blue Adriatic sea. I had not planned on inland.

Plitvice? What about it?

I now refer to wikipedia

Plitvice Lakes National Park lies in the Plitvice plateau which is surrounded by three mountains part of the Dinaric Alps: Plješevica mountain (Gornja Plješevica peak 1,640 m), Mala Kapela mountain (Seliški Vrh peak at 1,280 m), and Medveđak (884 m)


The national Park is underlain by karstic rock, mainly dolomite and limestone with associated lakes and caves, this has given rise to the most distinctive feature of the lakes.
Lakes

The lakes are separated by natural dams of travertine, which is deposited by the action of moss, algae, and bacteria. The encrusted plants and bacteria accumulate on top of each other, forming travertine barriers which grow at the rate of about 1 cm per year.


The sixteen lakes are separated into an upper and lower cluster formed by runoff from the mountains, descending from an altitude of 636 to 503 m (2,087 to 1,650 ft) over a distance of some eight km, aligned in a south-north direction. The lakes collectively cover an area of about two km², with the water exiting from the lowest lake to form the Korana River.


The lakes are renowned for their distinctive colours, ranging from azure to green, grey or blue. The colours change constantly depending on the quantity of minerals or organisms in the water and the angle of sunlight.


The lakes are divided into the 12 Upper Lakes (Gornja jezera) and the four Lower Lakes (Donja jezera)

Whoa.

Here's a satellite photo of the lake region.


And the location on the Croatian map.


That sounded terribly interesting. OK, let's go with it. We're going to Plitvice!

[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Biju, that is a small pipe organ. There are some that deliver sound that makes your hair stand on end with pleasure. No keyboard or synthesizer can replicate this.

I have heard these before. One was played at my wedding ceremony too.

It is stunning.

Wow. You had the pipe organ being played for your wedding.

I have seen pictures of pipe organs as big as a big room and very tall. I used to accompany church singing (English songs) using reed organs (mostly German), accordians, keyboards including some very old hammond electronic keyboards with slider keys, but have never heard or played the pipe organ.

I am sure many of these must be still in use in many of European Churches.

An old Reed Organ

Photo Courtesy: Interests

An old hammond electronic keyboard

Photo Courtesy: Megapost Sintetizadores ((Algo te llevas)) - Taringa!

Waiting for Croatia now and sorry for hijacking your HoneyMoonlogue.

[ashwinsid]

I envy you Sam Kapasi. Really. Sigh. For now, shall soak in all the wonderful pics and your narration and live the trip myself.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Indeed, there are many pipe organs still in use in English churches. Some of them take up more than a whole room full of space. There are also concert hall organs that are absolute monsters. I experienced Mahler's second symphony, played by a big orchestra, with a big choir, and with a finale including the organ, at London's Royal Festival Hall. You get it through every pore of your body and every cell vibrates and... and... there is no amplification!

It's way better than the the Star Wars theme

[roadie_swift]

Sam, waiting eagerly, with bated breath, for Croatia.. Pls don't kill us.

[mathranik]

Sam - oh, man - you've inspired a lot of us to write, and even more of us to travel. And travel in the real sense of the word! You're crazy, and have found a soulmate who'd accompany you in your crazy journey of life. I am sure she feels privileged!
Amazing travelogue! It is not just the places you visit, or the quality of pictures, nor is it the drive - it is the way you do it. Hats off, dude!

[SafeDrive]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Wow, I love Venice already --- and I haven't even been there. I'm wondering how you could leave!
Gondolas? well, I guess I'd have probably spent all day on gondolas!

Thad, that woould probably be only until you convert the cost into rupees . After that you'd probably spend all day looking at gondolas. Unfortunatley this habit is built into almost all of us.

Sam - from your pictures, Venice looks really crowded. Is it always so?

And as pointed out earlier, parts of God's own country was also similar not very long ago. The main mode of transport then was the waterways and almost all the houses (at least of the better off folks) were constructed along them. The main enterance to these were also from the waterway. So you would "park" your boat, step through the gate into the courtyard and then to the living room. When the roadways took over this represented a peculiar problem as most of these houses now had to open up at the back to get an enternace. So the net result has been that these houses ended up having two living rooms and often enough you can see the kitchen towards the front of the house which from an Indian stand point looks odd.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Converting the cost of anything European to Rupees is painful.

It works the other way around, too, when buying something like an imported food item in India. Only the other day I was heard to say, "Rs.240! But that's more than three quid!". The only way I justify very occasional purchases like that is that the mark up may be silly, but it's still cheaper than the air fare!

No doubt I'd be extra sad after comparing the cost to a day aboard a boat in and around Alleppey, but I'd probably still do it. I just love boats!

[Sam Kapasi]

We pick up the car from the Park house and begin to drive to Trieste.

Right after we cross Trieste, we will cross the Italy-Slovenia border (but as I have mentioned before, there is no physical border or checkpost between the 2 countries.

We will drive past Trieste and enter Slovenia at Kozina. Kozina is already off the map of the Navigation device.

From here we will continue on the state highway for a short while cutting across to Pasjak. At Pasjak will be the border between Slovenia and Hrvatska (That's Croatia in the regional language, just like Deutschland is Germany) and officially we will have left the Schengen states and will be out of the EU.














To answer the many previous questions, I DO have a valid visa for Croatia. I had a great desire to visit Split island in Croatia and had planned on this earlier. I had applied for a Croatian visa in India before leaving.
Croatia has no embassy in Mumbai (they do have an honorary consul) and the passport had to be sent to New Delhi with all the necessary papers.

Let me say that it was as difficult to get a Croatian visa as it is to get a visa from any west european country. In fact I would say that the paperwork required is even higher (strange, considering that I already had many many Schengen visas and many visits too)

Here's a long road video from Italy to Slovenia, enjoy.

YouTube - Italy to Slovenia

Soon we're at the border and it is time for passport control. Ashish see, a proper road immigration counter.

We're leaving the EU.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Sam, what is the origin of "Park House"? is this a translation from German or Italian?

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Sam, what is the origin of "Park House"? is this a translation from German or Italian?

I'm not sure. I'm not even sure if that is the right name. You see, the German word for it is "Parkhaus" - and so while driving with Jenny, we simply look for or address the need for a

Park House. Simple and easy. I guess some might call it a "Garage" - in india we usually refer to garage as a place where you get your car repaired.

It doesn't matter what it's called in any language I guess. All one needs to do it look for the big blue "P" sign.

[pjbiju]

Sam, I have heard quite a few people say that driving in Italy is like driving in India. You have people driving like crazy, cutting lanes, jumping signals etc. Is that still true? I hope as a part of EU, this has changed.

-Biju

[Sam Kapasi]

We're stopped at 2 places.

Starod in slovenia, where our passports are examined and mine is stamped with an exit sign. It is a most unusual stamp as it has a car sketched on it, as opposed to the plane symbol I am used to.

Jenny's is returned to her unstamped. European passports are not stamped during exit and re-entry. Which is a saving of a LOT of pages if you consider how many times Indian immigration stamps my pssport.

We drive though 100 metres of no man's land and then must stop in Pasjak, Hrvatska. Jenny's passport is quickly examined, stamped and returned. EU nationals have free access to Croatia.
My passport is examined, visa examined, passport stamped and returned.

We're in Croatia! Dobrodošli!!





Croatia has some pretty good Autobahns, starting from Rupa.



From where?

Rupa.
I begin to sing RUPA, Ruuupa, Rupa frontline hai aaramdaayak...
Blank look.
Yeh aaram ka maamla hai. It's hilarious. For me.
What's so funny?
Rupa is an underwear brand in India.
So? She looks back at me straightfaced. Suddenly I feel a bit immature.
Nothing.
I take the ticket from the toll naka.

From here we are to first go to the coastal city of Rijeka (pronounced Riyekah), but we will not stop here, we cannot stop today.

We are to cover in excess of 400 kms, which would have been easy on the Autobahn, but we do not have Autobahns all the way.

But yes, the road from Rupa to Rijeka is probably the most beautiful curvy and delicious Autobahn road I have driven on.















Beautiful construction, fantastic location and some really great mountains and tunnels.


It is getting dark, sunset is here. We still have a long way to go on narrow roads.