Blogs from Dalmatia, Croatia, Europe - page 61

Korcula, Croatia to Civitavecchia, Italy Our tour in Korcula (pronounced Kor-chu-la) was both good and bad. Our tour guide was wonderful: the weather; raining and “cool”. We started with a walk through the old town walls into the ancient part of the city. The town claims to be the home of Marco Polo. What they do know is that there was no family Polo in Venice at the time, but there was a Polo family in Korcula back then. We sought refuge from the rain in both the museum and cathedral where we saw a magnificent Tintarello (sp?) painting above the altar. The painting had recently been restored and the colors were brilliant. Another of his paintings hung on the side of the church and it was very dark and difficult to make out. It is ... read more

The Dalmatian coast of Croatia is fast gaining a reputation as the new playground for the rich and famous. But the thing is you have to get there first! In my case the journey entailed catching a midnight bus from Zagreb in freezing temperatures, only to pull an all nighter on the aforementioned bus before a weary group of passengers arrived in Dubrovnik the next morning. The odd midnight bus ride is an unavoidable part of life on the road, and just goes to show this travel caper is not all supermodels and speedboats! Let's rewind just a fraction, dear reader, to bring you up to speed on the journal. The Balkans adventure left off in Ljubljana, from where I caught a morning train to the Croatian capital of Zagreb. It was a scenic and enjoyable ... read more

Saturday, October 22 We had to leave House Tereza early because we had to drop off the car rental in Dubrovnik by 10:30 am. It was great having the GPS system to find both the apartment to drop off the luggage, and then the Imperial Hilton Hotel to drop off the car. After I dropped off the car, I walked back through the old town of Dubrovnik to the apartment--about a kilometre. Our place is up the hill from the entrance to the old town--about a 5 minute walk. We met our host and started to unload the car. We were carrying luggage up the stairs, turned a corner, then up more stairs, more corners, and more stairs! Finally we got the apartment after nearly 70 stairs! We then turned around to go back for the ... read more

Thursday, October 13 We left Zadar at 8:00 am and motored for 30 minutes to the town of Preko on the island of Ugljan. From there we biked south, across a large bridge to the island of Pasman. We continued our undulating ride south along the coast to the town of Tkon where we had to load the bikes in a hurry as the ferry was due and we were using its slip. We left the dock heading south to an unknown (by us and the crew) town because the weather was changing and the proposed destination might be too windy to stay there. Eventually, we cruised for 3-1/2 hours back to Primosten where we spent the night. We wandered the town, this time going along the seawall out around the north part of town. There ... read more

Ristiretki Balkanille alkaa Vuosia sitten tuli vierailtua muinaisessa Jugoslaviassa ja jo silloin etenkin Adrianmeren rannat viehättivät kovasti. Mieleen jäi myös ajatus rannikon koluamisesta vähän tarkemmin autolla joskus myöhemmin. Sota ja muuten levottomat ajat alueella sitten tekivät pakollisen tauon tähän suunnitelmaan mutta nyt vihdoin aika sitten oli sopiva uuteen retkeen. Syksyn matkaa suunnitellessa useita eri vaihtoehtoja kävi mielessä mutta yksi ylitse muiden toistui vähän väliä. Koska Kroatian rannikkoa on mainostettu yhtenä maailman kauneimmista autoreiteistä, oli se sitten lähdettävä itse paikanpäälle toteamaan. Ja helpoimman lentoreitin vuoksi alkupisteeksi valikoitui Kroatia ja siellä Dubrovnik. Dubrovnikin lentokenttä sijaitsee laaksossa pienen vuorijonon takana rannan suuntaisesti. Jo lähestyttäessä kenttää kävi selväksi, että lento tulisi päättymä... read more