We are now in Split in Croatia. It is beautiful here. Today is supposed to be 75 and sunny, and I see lots and lots of sun. I am uploading photos in the hotel room while the husband takes some students to museums and other students lay out on the beach. Priorities.

In between now and the last time I wrote, we spent more time in Graz, went to a couple of buschenshanks (wineries basically), had some wonderful dinner with friends, hopped a private bus to Zagreb, and then yesterday hopped on a public bus for Split. Buses normally don't bother me, but I was not happy about being sandwiched into my seat for 5 hours. The 14 hour busride from Sarajevo makes me want to scream.

These are pictures taken from the Sattler Buschenshank, which is just outside of Graz:

 And these are from the Kieslinger Buschenshank, which is about 30 minutes into the countryside. It was fantastic. I got kinda artsy here.

Some wine was served in this - how lovely 

The Kieslinger buschenshank, which you can also stay in

Flowers for my Auntie Em

Wine and water for the two tables

Artistic wine shot

This is the kaeseplatte, a platter of spreads and cheese. Very tasty.

Dessert - yummy!

On the way home from Kieslinger:

Eggenberg

On Wednesday, we went to Schloss Eggenberg. Schloss means castle or palace. Parts of Eggenberg date back to the Middle Ages. It boasted 365 windows throughout the entire castle, rooms for each hour of the day and night, 31 windows just in the staterooms. It was a very mathematical castle, and really beautiful.

Walking up to Eggenberg

Schloss Eggenberg

This is how Eggenberg looks from the air - photo by University

A peacock met us by the door

  

The bell tower as seen from the courtyard

The oldest part of Eggenberg, the Gothic Chapel of Our Lady dating from the Middle Ages

The planet room - the 4 seasons were portrayed in each corner and the room boasted images for each month as well as the planets

One of the corners - fall, I believe

A picture of the Pisces painting

The next pictures are all of Eggenberg as we walked through. There were over 300 Italian painters who painted these pictures, but proper credit cannot be given because they didn't sign their names. Sign your names, people! My pictures don't do these justice, but it's all I have.

This is a pic representing all the planets

The painters didn't know what an Indian looked like, so they painted a European in a parrot costume

The whole room

Looking outside from Eggenberg

The workroom where paintings are lightened (they darken due to age)

Looking back through all the rooms we've walked through - notice the doors are now blue - the 12 night rooms have blue doors

This is the only bed that survived Russian occupation after WWII. 

Notice the white doors now - these are daytime rooms

Chinese porcelain

Outside, we got to spend a little more time with the peacocks:

Ever wondered what the back of a peacock looks like? Wonder no more.

The garden was beautiful. They had many peonies in bloom:

And of course, dessert: eis schokolade: