Today, refreshed from a good night's sleep, we explored Old Town with our guide Sean. Not a czech name you say. You're right, he is an American who has been living in Prague for the last 2 years to finish his masters degree in Central Europeen Studies. As with all tours they take you to the major sights and tell you the history. I never remember the historical facts but I do remember the stories and legends, and Sean told us quite a few. One of the must see attraction is the Astronomical Clock. The clock is a 600-year-old marvel of medieval engineering. The clock is mounted on the southern wall of Old Town Hall in the Old Town Square. The clock mechanism itself is composed of three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position ... read more

This will be my last blog for this trip. We finish our trip in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, population 1million. From Zagrb we visited Plitvice Lakes National Park. On our way there we stopped in Rastoke. What was interesting about this village is that streams and waterfalls run under the houses. The Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia’s most popular tourist attraction, and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979. My niece had told me that you can't go to Croatia and not visit the lakes and she was right. The lakes are a definite must-see in Croatia. There are a series of sixteen lakes, inter-connected by a series of waterfalls, and set in deep woodland populated by deer, bears, wolves, boars and rare bird species. The lakes join together over a distance of 8 km. ... read more

April 29, 2016 - Today we left Croatia and crossed the border into Slovania. On our way to Bled we stopped to visit the Postojna cave. Wow!! Absolutely amazing. The cave was discovered in the 13th century, though never properly explored until the early 1800s and opened as a tourist attraction in 1819. The cave is a network of 24 km of passages, galleries and chambers. Only 5km are opened to the public. The first 2 km are travelled by train and you walk the remainder, then take the train back out. The visit lasts 1 1/2 hours. The railway lines were laid in the cave in 1872 and the electricity arrived in 1884. The cave got electricity before Ljubljana, the the capital of Slovania. The constant temperature in the cave ranges from 8 to 10 ... read more

April 24, 2016 -Mostar -- Today on our way to Split we detoured through Mostar, Bosnia. The city was the most heavily bombed of any Bosnian city during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina following the breakup of Yugoslavia. You can see a lot of the ruins still. Not everything was rebuilt. Our guide was 3 years old when the war started. She and her mother lived in a refuge camp for 2 years while her father stayed behind. Then they retuned to Mostar and lived in the basement of their apartment building for the remainder of the war. There was no electricity and they relied on humanitarian aid for food. During our walking tour we saw a cemetary that used to be a children's park. They needed more space to bury the dead. We also ... read more

So about the 2nd shooter. At the end our first day in Dubrovnik, we had a home hosted meal. We had a great meal and laughed a lot. The family that hosted us are farmers. Everything we ate and drank they grew, raised and made themselves. We started with home made brandy shooters. Still not sure if this is the drink for me but I had to try it anyway. My whole body shakes and I make a funny face. Maybe it's one of those things that you have to acquire a taste for. The meal comprised of an appetizer of home made cheeses (one made fresh that day and one that was 2weeks old), proscuitto (it was the best I ever had), pickled red peppers and bread. The main meal was pork, chichen and beef ... read more