Blogs from Dubrovnik, Dalmatia, Croatia, Europe - page 10

I have had a rather magical couple of days here in Croatia. I drove across the hilly border from Slovenia two days ago. I was pleased to receive a Croatian stamp in my passport. The countryside here seems rockier and the towns less well-to-do, but despite warnings I had heard about the grumpy natives, I have found the Croatians to be almost uniformly pleasant and helpful. Yesterday I drove to Plitvice Lakes National Park. It is quite remote from other tourist sights, but is such a big draw in itself that its many hotels do a big business and the park is generally crowded. Tour groups, primarily from Europe and Asia, flock there. It apparently remains largely unknown to Americans. It is a natural wonderland consisting of a series of small lakes connected by numerous small ... read more

Our last stop before Venice was Dubrovnik, a place we have been eager to see. We eschewed the expensive cruise ship shuttle and took a public bus into town, arriving at the famous hole-in-the-wall. We decided once again to start with coffee and internet research at a cafe right there. The waiter gave us a passionate speech on Croatian history and the young man sitting next us chimed in and told us that Croatia had banned slavery early in the fifteenth century, before any other country. What a great introduction to Croatia! We had noticed a "Game of Thrones" tour offered, and realized that we recognized locations from scenes in the series. Some history of Dubrovnic: "The prosperity of the city was historically based on maritime trade; as the capital of the maritime Republic... read more

Geo: 42.6537, 18.0948K and I had visited Dubrovnik for a long weekend way back in 2003, while we were living in Vienna. K's cousin Allison and Ann came to visit, with their daughter Abby, who is a few months younger than Anna. They stayed with Anna while we took a weekend trip, and then we watched Abby, while they went to Salzburg. Certain parts of that trip remained in our memories, but it was not until we returned to Dubrovnik, that K and I realized how much we had forgotten.This morning we were to have our formal whisper-enabled tour of Dubrovnik, and then the remainder of the day was at our discretion. The weather was much like the previous day, with cloudy skies and a brisk wind, but it was in the high 50's/low 60's. We'd ... read more

Christmas in the Balkans It’s mid-December already and time to begin my final adventure of 2015…..another new location for yours truly – really looking forward to this one. It’s a very cold morning here in Las Vegas, with the mercury hovering around 27f, probably colder than where I’m headed over there in the Balkans. I was checked in, cleared security and waiting for the first of my three flights to Europe by 5am. The Minneapolis flight departed on time and three hours, breakfast and a couple of bourbons later, we landed on time. I had a short connection time so hoofed it speedily thru MSP and boarded my transatlantic flight to Amsterdam just before takeoff. It was an uneventful 10-hour flight to my favorite European airport (Schipol) and I managed to watch a couple of new ... read more

After a lazy sea day it was a bit difficult to rise this morning, but we made it up to the Lido anyway as we approached the ancient walled city of Dubrovnik in Croatia. I got myself a bowl of Irish Oatmeal and a banana, and two of their tiny demitasse cups of Swiss muesli each crowned with one raspberry. Sharon waited in line to get her scrambled eggs, potatoes and white toast. The Nieuw Amsterdam is definitely fuller on this leg of the cruise. We’ve been meeting many people at meals that are also on a Collector’s cruise, as we are, who embarked in Venice when we did some two weeks ago. There are still some on board who came before us who lived thru ‘the incident’. We came to dock in direct view of ... read more