Day 16 - 18.06.2017 - Stopover in Trieste

And our journey continued to Croatia. With freshly washed laundry and well-packed suitcases, we headed towards the second half of our trip. We wanted to make a stopover in Trieste. It should have been just a 1.5-hour drive on the highway. But there was traffic even before we reached the highway - always these toll booths :-o So we took the country road, which made the journey painfully long... But eventually, we reached Trieste. It was Sunday and even before Trieste, we saw many dozens of cars parked along the road - all on their way to the beach - not a single free spot left. When we arrived at the center, we saw a huge cruise ship at the port, really impressive. Unfortunately, it was gone later when we walked along the harbor. First, we visited the San Giusto Cathedral and the nearby San Giusto Castle. Beautiful buildings and you could see the city from above. After that, we walked a bit laboriously with a stroller along various bumpy badly built roads down to the center/harbor. At Piazza dell'Unità d'Italia (Unity of Italy Square), which is the main square of the city, we saw many representative buildings/palaces. Truly impressive and it reminds a bit of Vienna, except that the square goes directly to the sea. But historically, Trieste was under Austrian-Hungarian rule, which explains this J Then we walked a bit along the harbor again - with two sleeping children in tow - Juliane in the carrier and Henriette in the stroller. One last time, we treated ourselves to delicious Italian ice cream at a gelateria - of course, the children didn't miss out on that ;-) After that, we continued to Umag, Croatia, through Slovenia. The journey, which should have only been about an hour, was also difficult because Juliane decided to scream the whole time :-o But after we gave her a milk roll, etc. and she turned the car into a battlefield, it was quiet ;-) We were actually checked at the border to Croatia - but it only consisted of checking twice if we had ID cards, the content didn't matter :-P