Miramare Castle, Trieste

This Castle and extensive gardens is in the outskirts of Trieste.

We were up early as usual and breakfast was at a nearby bakery and Cafe which was very good. As you would expect in Italy we’ve never had a bad coffee here.

We decided to visit Miramare Castle which we saw from the train when we arrived in Trieste which seems like months ago. The public bus runs to there, and the stop is near our apartment. Got a seat on the bus which steadily got busier and busier. There was a lot of youngsters getting on and they were heading to a physics conference at the international centre for theoretical physics. All youngsters were Cameron’s age there is a research centre here in Trieste for physics. Sharing a bus with lots of Sheldon Cooper’s lol!

The castle and its gardens are set in 54 acres were superb, I loved the gardens, all laid out in specific themes and were given a map to follow the paths. It was completely redesigned to feature lots of trees and plants and statues, fountains and water features. It had a really interesting history .

It was built from 1856 to 1860 for Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian and his wife, Charlotte of Belgium, later Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico and Empress Carlota of Mexico, based on a design by Carl Junker.

We really enjoyed wandering here and spend over 3 hours!

Bus back into Trieste and went to the Illy Cafe sitting out at the Grand Canal. We had a lovely waiter who had lived in London you could really hear his London twang mixed into his Italian accent.

We had a good walk around seeing areas we hadn’t been to when here at the beginning of the holiday which seems many weeks ago!

I’m trying to remember where we went for our tea but I can’t recall. What I do remember is that we were having a walk and heard the cruise ship horn bellow and I said let’s go and watch it leave the harbour. There was a wee crowd watching it leave. Loads of cruisers at the stern waving to the shore and as I love a wave I certainly gave it my all . It made me want to be on it. It was on an Adriatic cruise and next stop was Dubrovnik.

Walked home and did some rolling of my clothes ready for packing proper in the morning. Tomorrow we head home.