Europe

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Dubrovnik. Croatia. 3rd July, 2010.

What little bit of research I did on this stop basically told me that Dubrovnik was an ancient walled city in the old Communist country of Yugoslavia and after the fall of the ’Evil Empire’ it reverted to it’s old Slavic name of Croatia. In the civil war a few years ago Dubrovnik was almost wiped out by Serbian artillery except for the old walled city section, so my info was somewhat limited and I had no special interest in it after the highlights of Venice so after seeing the Doc about my knees I ventured forth trying to find Linda who had stepped off earlier with friend. I then discovered an absolute gem of a city. Wow and double wow. Had I been wrong in my assumptions about this place.

After seeing the ships Doc about my knees I left the ship a little late and decided to follow Lyn who had gone off earlier with friends. I boarded the shuttle bus and started to see some of the sights as we drove. I was amazed to see a picture perfect, clean, beautiful city on the shores of a fantastically blue Adriatic sea.
When I got off I stood looking at the fortress walls and thought to myself “seen hundreds of castles before, give this one a miss, go into the city centre instead” and started to walk away when this bloke said “Don’t miss the castle, there is an old city within the walls which is great” so I walked through the Portcullis and drawbridge into a time warp that took me back 400 years. What an amazing place, ancient houses, churches, shops, museums, with lovely cafes, restaurants in these winding, small alleyways and a sea port that was absolutely brilliant with views to the mountains and the sea.

I wandered around this magical place with it’s narrow alleyways and tiny shops for hours until I located Lyn. Sitting drinking a beer at the port and looking at the mountains it was hard to believe that a few years ago the artillery of the Serbs had been raining down on the city outside these walls from what is now Herzagovina and was almost totally destroyed and rebuilt. The old walled city was saved as it had a UN world heritage order on it so was left undamaged. The locals were extremely friendly, the majority able to speak English and surprise of surprises, they were meticulous about being honest when it came to giving change in the local currency after a purchase. This was unlike most of the other countries visited where the locals tried their very best to rip of a few dollars from the unsuspecting tourists. A lovely refreshing change.

This place caught my imagination and I think that it, Kusadasi and Muscat, were up to this point the best stops we have had. These places have caught me completely by surprise and I would gladly spend holidays in all of them. They are not as big and glamorous as the bigger cities such as Venice, Istanbul, Athens etc but they have a character and uniqueness that the others don’t quite measure up to, even though they are fabulous cities in their own right.

People on the ship have since told me that Croatia has some wonderful sights and scenery and after seeing this gem of a place I can well believe it. A place I would love to explore more sometime in the future.




Rome. Monday, 5th July, 2010.

There is an old belief that if you visit the famed Trevi Fountain in Rome and throw a coin into the water you are guaranteed to return to this fabled city. Didn’t throw a coin in. Why you ask ? Because I don’t particularly want to return here.

I have been trying to find suitable words that describe this city to me and he only ones I can come up with are dull, yet frenetic, lacking in meaningful character, arrogant, rude, denuded of humour, dry, heartless, oh dear, I can just see Kerry and Tim reading this in a state of shock and saying ‘WHAT IS HE TALKING ABOUT”.

To be honest I, and the majority of others on this cruise are ‘OUT’, we are ‘Ancient ruined out’, ‘statued out’, ‘mosqued out’, ‘museum’d out’, ‘cathedraled out’ etc. and after seeing some of the historical sites in some of the wonderous places we have already visited, Rome sad to say comes in a poor second.

The day got off to a bad start when we stood in front of the Vatican in St Peters square and we saw
The line of visitors stretching 2 ks long waiting to get a butchers of the Popes house with nary a smidgen of shade provided to protect them from the 100 degree heat and sun by the Government or authorities. Their place has been usurped by the hundreds of Italian and Sudanese Spivs sticking paper umle.brellas In your face every two minutes wanting you to buy one or five. Then you have the hundreds of ‘tour guides’ sticking flyers in your face wanting to give you a guided tour around anywhere that looks historic or closely resembles a run down ruin.

We then queued up for half an hour to catch a hop on - hop off bus in the blazing heat and when one finally arrived we were placed on it in a trickle flow system that was extremely slow by bus staff who were arrogant and rude and had no customer service skills whatsoever. They just didn’t care. There are that many ‘customers’ visiting each day they have an endless flow of money coming in and they don’t give a stuff if they upset a few along the way, they will easily be replaced. They have tourists by the thousand each day. Customer Service was 100 times better in Mumbai with the Indians and Athens leaves this place for dead as a spectacle and for hospitality. If it didn’t possess it’s historical ruins Rome would be like Manchester, but on steroids.

We finally got to the Colloseum which must admit was quite impressive, but after the splendor of Ephasus the glitter had faded somewhat. I enjoyed my tour around there and we then proceeded by taxi to the Trevi fountain. OK, that chewed up 5 minutes watching tourists throwing coins into the water so off we went to the Spanish steps. That was another 5 minutes chewed up, I mean, how long can you stand in a crowded street in the heat watching people sit on some concrete steps with a few statues on it ?

The most exiting part of the tour was the two taxi rides we had. I can honestly say I have never seen such madness. Crossing a pedestrian crossing was like a suicidal version of ten pin bowling, with the pedestrians as the skittles. You took your life in your hands crossing a crossing. The other sport played by taxi drivers is the one where they get three points for hitting a pedestrian, 5 points for hitting a scooter and 7 points for hitting a car or bus.

To be honest and to be fair to Rome, as a child who was born in the UK I had grown up in a country that was invaded by the Romans and who had the opportunity of visiting Roman cities such as York, Chester and others where there is a plethora of Roman ruins and fortifications so it was all old hat to me. Ephasus was something quite different and totally unexpected so it was sort of unique.


Florence, Italy, 6th July, 2010.

Well, Italy has redeemed itself by presenting Florence to me in all it’s splendor. If Venice is the beautiful and fun place and Rome the centre of all things crass, then Florence is most certainly all class. And how could it not be a class act with stars such as Dante, Michaelangelo, Galileo, the Di Medici’s and others in it’s cast ? We had a wonderful day in this quaint, picturesque and interesting city and spent many hours just wandering it’s palaces. museums, markets and alleyways.

Although quite hot the weather was not stultifying as it had been in Rome so it was quite pleasant roaming the streets. The Medici Palace was something quite special as was the Doges Palace in Venice. Again, this is a city that a person has to experience for themselves and is a city which I could spend a few weeks in. Another highlight of the cruise so far.

Cannes and Monte Carlo tomorrow so we will see how France matches up.

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Comments

[kerry Elliott]

Ok! wasn't expecting that!
You were right, we were surprised to read your response to Rome! Although I have heard it's pretty horrendous in Summer there! I think our experience was very different because we had the kids with us and were treated like royalty. The italian's love the kids! Glad Florence was enjoyable for you though. Hope you enjoy France xoxoxox