p Aaron at Balaton, then drove the rest
of the way to Croatia to meet Joe and Penny. We had a room next to theirs at the Hotel Adriatic, with a stunning view of the Adriatic Sea. Opatija is a fun, touristy little coastal town on the northern shore of Croatia. We had a nice time walking along the coast and through their outdoor shops. We tried a few different gelato places, and also found a great place that had the yummiest hot dogs baked inside warm, melt in your mouth bread. Heather doesn’t even like hot dogs, but loved these.After Joe’s conference we left Opatija and drove through Croatia’s capital,
Zagreb. It was interesting, we didn’t see any place where we wanted to get out and spend some time, so we kept driving on to Slovenia. Who knew Slovenia was such a strikingly beautiful country…. so green and mountainous. We drove to Ljubljana and walked around this historic center. We happened upon a big festival where there were bands playing and vendors set up along the street. There was loud music blaring from large speakers, and booths set up with soccer ball kicking contests, and the like. The girls ran around the town square and we took pictures on the bridge (what great European town doesn’t have a quaint town square and a bridge?). We really liked Ljubljana, but decided to get a little further before finding a hotel.When we crossed over the Austrian border and drove through the breathtaking Alps (we couldn’t believe the view), we found a little bed and breakfast nestled on a mountain road. We ate weinerschnitzel for dinner, and spent a
comfortable night in one of their rooms. Katie and Ashley shared a bed, which was nice for Aaron and Heather to have a little space. We were served a typical European breakfast in the morning, with meats, cheeses and bread. As we left we noticed the back side of the B&B had a beautiful mountain river that ran through it, and tons of farm animals (which made us a little nervous about what we had just eaten). They had food for the girls to feed the animals, and the little goats were eager to be fed! There were pot-bellied pigs and chickens and billy goats. Katie pointed to an animal and exclaimed, “Hey! That looks just like a llama!” Well funny, because it was a llama! The girls loved to see a llama like the one they had seen on Go Diego Go! After a lot of hand sanitizer, we got back in 
the car and headed for Baden, Austria. There is a Roman Bath in Baden that Joe and Penny had been to years ago that they wanted to return to. We spent a couple of hours in their thermal baths, enjoying the warm water and fountains that spontaneously spouted. Ashley enjoyed it a little too much and swallowed quite a bit of water, which instigated her throwing up in the pool a few times…. fun.We drove through Vienna on our way back to Budapest to get Zanoni’s gelato, and we drove by the Economics University, where Aaron attended for a semester in 1996. We had a very fun-filled and busy 4 days, but were happy to get home to our own house and beds.
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