27 April 2015 Monday. So my last blog left off with me finishing writing my blogs for my Balkan trip while waiting for my 7:35 pm flight to Helsinki...yes, that Helsinki which seems to be my curse. You will recall that the last time I finished writing my blogs about my Silk Road Trip, , I ended up having a cancelled flight. So this time I didn't write anything in the last blog concerning the future travels home. Well, my flight to Helsinki went fine. I checked into the Hilton Airport Hotel, just across the street from the terminal, which would give me about 6 hours sleep before catching a 7:30 am flight to Brussels. 28 April 2015 Tuesday. And my flight to Brussels went off without a hitch. Last June when I booked my flights ... read more

25 April 2015 Saturday. We had to return our rental car in Croatia to avoid excessive drop off charges. Zagreb was the nearest town in Croatia where a rental car agency was located, and Ljubljana was on the way there. We left Lake Bled early as this was to be a long day. We wanted to drop off our bags at our sobes in Ljubljana so we wouldn’t have to carry them with us around Zagreb and then back to Ljubljana on the train. This we did with dispatch, and were soon on our way to Zagreb. We arrived at the rental car agency about noon to find it closed on Saturdays and Sundays so we dropped the keys and contract into a slot as directed. Fortunately we weren't charged for any damages to the car; ... read more

22 April 2015 Wednesday. We started the day as usual having café au lait and croissants, but this time on the waterfront of Opatija. Although as with most towns along the Adriatic it has a long history, its current status as a resort town began in 1845 when a nobleman built the grand Villa Angiolina on the sea, surrounded by a large park. Shortly after, the Austrian Empress Maria Anna stayed here. Emperor Franz Joseph followed, to take advantage of the warmer winter climate. One wonders why they didn’t arrive together, it being such a romantic location, but who am I to speculate as I was here without Linda. Soon the court followed, and the town became a fashionable turn of the 20th century resort. General tourism for the hoi polloi began once a railroad line ... read more

20 April 2015 Monday. Another beautiful day without a cloud in the sky. Mike and I left Split for our first stop, Trogir, which was just a half hour north along the Dalmatian coastline. Trogir, one of many jewels along the Dalmatian coast...which town isn’t?...is situated on an island about 100 feet off the coast; easily connected to the mainland by a bridge. The Greeks were the first to settle here in the third century BC, naming the town Tragyrion, after the local goats. The Romans arrived in 48 BC. The town was under the protection of the Byzantine Empire during the Middle Ages, until the Saracens attacked in 1123 and burned it to the ground. The population eventually returned and rebuilt the town; and did a pretty good job because in 1997 the city achieved ... read more

18 April 2015 Saturday. The clouds with light rain that moved into Dubrovnik the previous evening had settled over the city with a promise of heavier rain. Rather than giving me a chance to walk the wall, we decided just to head up the coast and then inland to Mostar before ending the day in Split. Driving up the coast from Dubrovnik the weather improved somewhat. We crossed the narrow bridge of land that provides Bosnia-Herzegovina access to the Adriatic Sea, and then turned inland to enter Bosnia proper...more passport stamps going out of Croatia and into Bosnia and then more coming back...altogether crossing the border 10 times on this trip. So on we drove to Mostar. Prior to the breakdown of Yugoslavia beginning in 1991, Bosnia had been a multicultural country, even hosting the Winter ... read more