Lisbon: September 16-17 We travelled by train to Lisbon, which was quite different from what I had expected. I think I’d seen a Sean Connery movie years ago that showed the colourful buildings set into the hill overlooking what I took to be the sea. However, what the water actually was is an really large estuary. The town of Lisbon is much less pristine than the towns I had visited in Spain, and you notice that Portugal’s economic situation must be lower than that of Spain. However, it certainly has a vibrancy to it that was quite different to Spain. No [View Full Entry]

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Coimbra: September 14-15 From Salamanca we caught another bus to Portugal, where we were staying in the Portugese university town of Coimbra. Our accommodation had a terrace on the roof that looked out over Coimbra, affording great views of the houses and university that was built into hillside. The streets were hilly in parts but this is the norm in so many towns that I think I will miss my daily treks up and down the steps. As we arrived late in the day we interrupted our orientation walk to have dinner in a cafeteria style restaurants frequented by the students [View Full Entry]

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Salamanca - September 13 The following day we made the journey to Salamanca, first by metro and then by coach. Salamanca is a university town and is known for speaking the purist Spanish (and therefore gets language students from around the world). We arrived there during their week long festivities for their Saints day. There were food stalls and bands playing in the square that created a lively atmosphere. We wandered the streets of this town and visited the House of Shells which is actually a place that pilgrims would come to stay on their 1000km pilgramage through France an [View Full Entry]

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Madrid - September 10-12 After 2 brief nights in Barcelona, I took the metro to the main train station (Barcelona Sants) planning to just buy my ticket there, as I hadn’t figured out a better option previously. Upon arrival I saw that there were hourly trains to Madrid but the signs indicated many had sold out, or were restricted to VIP passengers. I got to the ticket window and asked for my ticket, and was asked if I wanted business class and I shook my head. The attendant then seemed to be searching for a ticket, and I was thinking I [View Full Entry]

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Barcelona take two - September 8-9 I had an early start to head to Barcelona from Bled, a taxi picked me up at 6:45 to take me to the train station. The hotel breakfast didn’t open until 7 so they kindly packed me a breakfast for on the way. At the station I purchased a ticket for Zagreb, I wasn’t really dressed for the cooler weather and the girl wondered if I was cold. I said no, but after the half hour wait on the small platform I was looking forward to getting onto the train. We all got ourselves ready [View Full Entry]

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Bled - day 14-16 - September 5-7 We had the luxury of a private transfer (two cars) to take us to our final stop in Bled, Slovenia. It was a pleasant journey on good freeways. Our driver was a young guy who had a rafting and other adventure sport business, was a taxi/car-hire person, as well as being a policman. Very hard working! We had a long wait in a queue to cross the boarder into Slovenia and back into the Schengen zone. You can see why the removal of border checks is a high priority as it must be costly [View Full Entry]

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Rovinj - Day 13 (September 4) It was an early start, 6 am to catch the Catamaran ferry to Rijecka which was the largest town we’d seen in Croatia. From here we caught a bus to Pula, where we elected to spend a couple of hours on the way to Rovinj, so we could see the Roman Colosseum here. It was about a 10 minute walk from the bus station where we had stored our luggage. As we rounded a corner a mostly in tact Colloseum towered in front of us. It was the most impressive ruin I’d seen to date, [View Full Entry]

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Rab Days 10-12 (September 1-3) We reversed our local bus trip back to the bus station and boarder our coach for the journey to Rab, I managed to stop in the bakery to get some burek (zeljanica) for breakfast they were fresh from the oven. Even more amazing coastline for this stretch of the journery. Visible from the mainland were long thin islands that were denuded of trees due to a wind that came through the area. These islands were a clay pink in colour and they eflecteion they made in the surrounding crystal clear blue waters created a breathtaking view. [View Full Entry]

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Zadar - Day 9 (August 31) Bus travel again, but this afforded more great views of the Croatian coastline. From the bus station on the outskirts of the town we took a local bus to the harbour and old town. I‘m sure the locals just love it when a group of travellers with back packs cram onto their buses. This one was packed and most of our luggage was piled in the centre trapping one lady in, who panicked that she wouldn‘t be able to get out, and feell over bags and was caught by our leader who wa then stuck [View Full Entry]

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Split - Day 6-8 (28-30 August) We left Korcula at 5:45am taking a Catamaran Ferry for a few hours journey to Split. Split is a larger town on the Dalmatian mainland but it too has an old town, or more correctly a palace compound. We stayed right in the heart of it. The palace was of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who loved Split for it’s beautry and therapuetic thermal spas. He built himself a palace here in the late 3rd century, for holidays and later for retirement. However, after his death it became disused and some time later (7th century) permission [View Full Entry]

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