Day 55 - Three Countries in One Day

I started the day in Slovenia. Pleasingly, when I woke up, it was not raining. It was even only spitting by the time I made it to the bus, and then the train station. I was very early for my train, as there was a gap between the check out time of the guesthouse and the departure time of the train. Ah ha, I thought, I shall go and find a geocache! There is one that is 500m away as the crow flies - that is fine with my big rucksack on my back.

I am, however, not a crow. So it was not 500m. I did get there, but it involved some interesting detours to avoid major roads. I do love the fact that the cache was a celebration of a monument to the band Slavko Avsenik who composed the ‘hit’ ‘Na Golici’, among others. Just in case it isn’t one that you immediately know, here it is, as well as a photo of me with the monument in the background. https://youtu.be/qJcevebMrqU

You might notice that I look a little damp in this picture. This is because by this time it had started to rain. A lot. Luckily, once I had logged the cache (it was a virtual), I was able to find a cafe nearby to take shelter. I then scampered back to the train station between showers.

Once at the station, I had an emergency shoe and sock change, and was pleased to be under shelter as rain of biblical proportions came down.

By the time I had crossed the border into Austria (yes, today’s objective was Italy, but seemingly all (rail)roads lead to Austria) there were clear blue skies. Hooray! I was delighted that my third trip to Austria, albeit a fleeting one, would be to one in which I could adventure.

Having left my bags in a luggage locker at Villach station (which was very reasonably priced at just 2 euros!), I walked into the centre, stopping for a late lunch - note, not late enough to be dunch. I then had a very nice wander through the centre of what is a very nice city.

Highlights included:

1) What appears to be a statue of Dad

2) Random hanging umbrellas

3) A pretty river and bridge view

4) A very sneaky geocache that I had to get some help with from the cache owner!

5) A trip up the church tower. Obviously! If there is a church tower to be climbed, I will climb it. At 94m tall, it is the highest church steeple in Carinthia. There were 239 steps to be climbed over 10 floors. A particularly amusing part was the staircase that had a traffic light system in place so you didn’t meet someone coming down as you went up and vice versa. Anyway, the views from the top were lovely, especially with the mountains in the distance.

I made it back to the station in plenty of time for my train to Treviso. ‘Why Treviso?’, I hear you ask - well, it is just 30 minutes from Venice (where I shall go for the day tomorrow, on the advice of both Dad and Chat GPT), had good reviews online, and had a parkrun for Saturday!

The journey was pretty smooth - it was on a ‘Railjet’, and had some nice views when we weren’t in tunnels!

I arrived in Treviso in the early evening. With roadworks at the station, it was all a bit confusing, but luckily my hotel had a nice big sign that could be seen from a way off! By staying in Treviso rather than a tourist hot-spot, I had been able to find a nice hotel that is close to both the station and the city centre.

Once checked in, I just had to pop out to find my first Italian geocache, just so I can have got caches in three different countries in one day. There was one very close to my hotel, but sadly I could not find it in the dark, so had to move on. Pleasingly, not only did this lead to a quick find, but also to a bit of the centre, allowing me to both get a flavour of the city, and also an ice-cream.

Unfortunately, the mosquitoes did find me as I walked, and seemingly took a liking to me, but getting the cache was definitely worth it!