Daytrip to Slovenia & Italy
01 August 2009
Our friend Annie from the Australian catamaran "Gone With the Wind" joined us for a road trip to Monfalcone, Italy. We would scope out the Nautec Mare Marina as a possible "over-wintering" home for Sangaris and Annie was meeting her crew at the Trieste/Monfalcone airport. Our three hour drive took us north along the coast of Croatia's Istrian peninsula and thick green rolling hills. Local farmstands with fruit and honey were tempting, but we carried on to the Slovenian border, driving about 40 minutes before it was time for a cappuccino stop in Italy.
We found the marina with little difficulty on the east side of Monfalcone and soon met up with manager Karl Keller who was happy to greet us and show us the facility. Positioned about 4 miles up a river with well maintained docks and shore-side facilities, including a wonderful marina front estaurant on the pine tree lined creek, it looks like a "bullet-proof" setting for an in-water or "on the hard" winter storage. The surrounding area is industrial and not all that enticing, but the businesses are all marine! ... so parts and services are plentiful, possibly a good choice as the rigging and other project list is a long one for Sangaris next Spring.
After a quick stop at a local Italian grocery store (how could we not stop to get sundried tomatoes, pesto, olives and wine?) we found the airport. And boy was Annie's friend Pete happy to see us after many, many hours of flying from Australia! Soon we were off to drive to Trieste, Italy, through a narrow section of coastal Slovenia and, with many vacationing Europeans campers, south to Pula.
You must think all we do is shop for groceries wherever we go! and you're right!