A MAGICAL DAY AT THE SLOVENIA-ITALY-AUSTRIA BORDER OF MOUNTAINS AND LAKES

I was visiting my friends BB and D who live in a small village of Sankt Mikael near the small town of Bleiburg along the Austrian alps. Both are natives to the area.
Two things apart from their company that I enjoyed mostÑ
the spectacular scenery, various mountains and the easy access to the the three countries surrounding these mountains
the second was to discover the history of Austrian Empire and how this corner of the world was moulded by that Empire, Romans came and went and I was astounded to learn that Austrian Empire stretched all the way to Ukraine and down to the Adriatic (much like the Persian empire stretching to Armenia and Egypt and India)
we set out in the morning, leaving the valley and climbing up into the mountain ranges.

 The local people regardless of their nationality are deeply religious and sacred structures were strewn along the mountain highway which was well maintained with its multitudes of tunnels.M

 Mr D told of the time of the cold war when this border was heavily fortified but now one is not aware of crossing the border, lest one notice the spelling of the words such as Restaurant changes, yes we are in Slovenia.
The geological formation of these mountains are much more chalky than rocky and one could see landslides on the sides of the mountains like scars.
My International phone is based in Miami, so whenever I cross a border it sends me a message to say: welcome to ...such and such country.. This is an excellent service offered by T Mobile which allows me to use my phone in over 160 countries with notable exceptions so far of Cuba, Morocco and Jordan ..I am sure North Korea is not also part of the plan neither Iran.. but i have no plans to travel there in the near future.

 We were headed to the lakeside village of BLED .. I scratched my head, that name is so familiar .. then Mr D enlightened me, this used to be summer home of Josep Broz Tito, the strongman of Jugoslavia. We had a substantial proportion of Yugoslavs in Australia when I was growing up so some of these names had stuck in memory.

 Most of the tourists to this lovely town were european but i could detect the early sightings of Chinese tourists. You need a car to get here so there were many young and old people who were motoring around these parts.
The lake is magnificent with a castle overlooking. Tito's estate is well out of the view but one could guess and the postcards with its aerial view can be bought in souvenir stores.

Mr D and BB are serious mountaineers and they often come here to begin their trek of parts of these mountains and they know the area. They insisted that I try the local sugary sweet dessert and the local coffee which is strong . With the lake for a backdrop, the midmorning snack was welcome..

 While there were many tourists and most of the shops were to cater for them, didnt feel overwhelmed by the tourists, despite the spectacular scenery of lake the mountains.

 On the Slovenian side we snaked through the mountains crossing some picture perfect villages and closer to the Italian border ahead (with Austria on your right over another mountain range), came across some serrated mountains so sharp and regal that I was reminded of the poetry of Pablo Neruda whose thin country in South America reminds one of the eternal fire and mountains. No wonder that presence is seen in his poems, the mountains, rain of Temuco and the sea and his favourite home of Sebastiana facing the Pacific Ocean. I told my friends, I too would write poems and prose if I were living surrounded by such majestic beauty

At one time these villages may have been isolated and poor and agricultural but infusion of European money and free borders have brought visible development along the triple border area. Austria is definitely richer of the three but you can see the recent climb on the prosperity ladder both on the Slovenian and Italian sides.

I am a Jew but my devout catholic friends both in Miami and in Fort Cochin chide me saying that I have been to more christian churches than them. I am not religious so very rarely step into the jewish or christian places of worship for worship but when you are travelling these sacred places are part of the scenery and I enjoy visiting them.

 Tervisio for the ordinary tourist is the typical tourist trap, but for my mountaineering friends an ideal place to set off to the mountains. The restaurants were full of tourists with slavic nordic and teutonic faces, with poor quality food and cheap plonk like we would say in australia with inflated prices. 

 Why should they are when you can offer such magnificent mountains:

I felt genuinely happy 

 Interesting to see brews with  faces of Bob Marley and Che among others..both Bob and Che  were for emancipating yourself from mental slavery ...and they ended up as icons of cheap capitalist brewery promotions..

 One can return to Austria from Tervisio rapidly and the highways are very efficient and very soon we were passing by the tranquil but very large lake, WertherSee.. on our way back to the small village ..

It was such a wonderful day
Man can never match the magnificence of Nature ..
Mother Earth, the Indians call it..