My only plans on Friday morning was to meet up with Ruth and go from there. I hunted the conference breakfast room and the lobby to no avail. Finally I decided to knock on her door. I didn't know her room number but knew she had a corner unit. Of course, I picked the wrong unit and had to apologize to an elderly couple who showed no signs of speaking English.
Rattled, I decided to go off on my own instead of banging on another door. Probably just as well as Ruth was in the shower when I came knocking so she would not have answered.
I wandered the back streets of Bled, some of which bordered the surrounding farmland until I came to the main road to Ljubljana. I thought this might lead me to the golf course so I followed it. We had booked a tee time for Saturday morning but I wanted to check out the 'lay-of-the-land' before we played. I never made it to the course because an intersecting highway beckoned me.
This road went pass an apple orchard and several schools. It was recess time and so the children were out enjoying the sunshine. The road curved so I told myself that after I saw what was beyond, I'd turn around. That's when I stumbled upon the cemetery. It was a lovely place and I was not alone strolling past the stone memorials. What fascinated me most were the red glass lanterns, sometimes four or five on a grave.
By this time, I had lost sight of the castle. Remembering our problems in Germany, I retraced my steps instead of heading down side roads in the direction of the lake. I came back to the hotel to find Glen in the room honing his talk. He was to give it at the end of the day. We had lunch and I finally connected with Ruth so we spent part of the afternoon touring the jewellery and souvnier shops then hit our favourite Pub Bled for a beer before going back to our rooms to prepare for the banquet.
I wasn't back in the room five minutes when it began to rain. The banquet was at the Grand Hotel Toplice right on the lake, and we were to have drinks on the terrace. Remember the stairs? Now I had to climb them in high heels and carry an umbrella (not sure when I last used our travel ones so we've been lucky).
Glen's talk was well-received so several people wanted to talk to him before and after dinner. We sat with Ruth, Tom, George and Tanis. The meal we had was elegant. It began with prosciutto, goat cheese and tomato paired with a Slovenian Pinot Rose, then came buckwheat krapi, which are like pirogi, served on grilled mushrooms. The main course was veal served with cheese strudel. I drank the Benedict Red wine and it flowed freely. We'd just finished the veal when the conference organizer came around with the DJ to asked for dance music suggestions.
Glen said Bony M and Rolling Stones. Someone else suggested ABBA to which Glen said, yes but not The Dancing Queen. We hooted when the first dance played was The Dancing Queen. Of course, we had to get up and dance to it. We were the first on the dance floor but were quickly followed by another couple. The next song was Rasputein by Bony M so we had two good dances. By this time the dance floor was packed so we went back to our table. Maja, the conference organizer, came over and thanked us for getting the dance going. Hey, it's what we do.
By this time, it was 10:00 so cognisant of the fact we had to be up early to golf, we had one more dance then left. I hobbled up the stairs in the pouring rain. Note to self: never wear open-toed shoes in a rainstorm.
Comments for this post
