Alas, No Rossano

I sat in St. Mark's Square with my camera, but Rossano Brazzi never showed up.  I guess that was because (a) he's dead and (b) I'm no Katharine Hepburn.  Or it might have been that I was with a group.

(Char took this)

I loved Summertime as an adolescent and have wanted to go to Venice ever since.  It's a lot different than the magic of that film!  But let's go back to the beginning.

It was a big "event" arriving in Venice.  All the decks were filled with people and their cameras and a guide talked us in, pointing out landmarks as they appeared.  I never realized it was so sprawled out or that it consisted of so many islands,

The Little Tugboat that Could pulled us into the dock.

The best part of being in with everyone watching the landing was getting a photo of our favorite...employee?  Ivana seems to be everywhere and is so sparkling and bouncy you can't help but feel good when you see her.

Walt and I had a big breakfast (sitting next to a couple who had lived for 37 years in our old Oakland neighborhood!) and so I wasn't interested in lunch.  Our afternoon tour was to leave at 12:30.  I suppose I should have used the time to pack (we have to have bags out by 10 p.m. tonight) but I sat and read instead.

At the recommended time we left the ship and started walking to the water taxi.  Walt guesstimates it was the length of 2 football fields.  He had seen a transport for people with mobility problems earlier, but there was none in sight and nobody mentioned any so we walked.  When we reached the halfway point (a building we passed through) I asked  the Compassion rep if this was the end of the tour.  She said no.  No sense of humor whatsoever.

[aside:  As I write this, the 5:30 Angelus bells are ringing from some nearby church.  Somehow it's magic]

While we stood and waited to board the boat, I got this neat picture of the ship between statues.

The boat shuttle gave us about an hour tour of the harbor, pointing out various landmarks (in totally unintelligible English).  The one thing I noticed was that the area of St. Marks Square, the Bridge of Sighs, etc. was mobbed.

(Later at the end of the day, when we were going back to the ship, I noticed that from as far as I could see from the left of St. Mark's square to as far right as I could see--more than a mile, I'm sure, it was wall to wall people.  Reminded me of that old Star Trek  episode, "The Mark of Gideon," where Kirk is brought in to introduce disease to a planet that was so full of people (because they never died) that they had no room to move.)

But we did see some nice sights.

The Bridge of Sighs, which condemned prisoners walked over from the Doge's Palace (left) to the prison where they were going to be executed (you'd sigh too, I imagine!).

Another bridge

Another dome

Even the trees were beautiful.

When we finally got to the dock, we met our tour guide, who picked up his little lollipop, #6, held it aloft and took off, telling us to keep up. That's the last we saw of him.  He got so far ahead of Bob and me and we couldn't even hear him in our Quiet Vox, so we decided to just do our own tour.

We finally made our way down to St. Mark's Square and it was so crowded all we really wanted to do was sit and have a coffee, so we went to a very high priced cafe and probably had the most expensive pizza and cappuccino we have ever (or will ever) have...but it was just right.

(please note Jello shirt)

We sat there for a long while, people watching, pigeon watching, and listening to the bells that rang from time to time. Then Linda and Char went for gelato.  Char got pistachio and was a happy camper.

Eventually, Walt, Char and I made our way down to where we could see St. Mark's itself.

St. Mark's Square is more a place to buy souvenirs than anything else!

No romantic interludes for Katharine and Rossano over a quiet glass of wine while a string quartet across the plaza serenades them.  No quiet anything there!  And the line to get IN to the church stretched at least half the distance from the door down length of the piazza.  Good thing we hadn't planned to see it.  I did see the famous four horses, though.  I had seen a story about them on TV once.

From Wikipedia: They are a set of bronze statues of four horses, originally part of a monument depicting a quadriga (a four-horse carriage used for chariot racing) The horses were placed on the facade, on the loggia above the porch, of St Mark's Basilica in Venice, after the sack of Constantinople in 1204. They remained there until looted by Napoleon in 1797 but were returned in 1815. The sculptures have been removed from the facade and placed in the interior of St. Mark's for conservation purposes, with replicas in their position on the loggia.

At our appointed time, we started to go to the water taxi meeting place....

...on the other side of the blue square...through all that mass of people.  I did, at least, stop to get the requisite photo of gondolas.

When we got back to where we started, there was still no shuttle and we had, they tell us, ~150 m to walk to the ship, which seemed MUCH longer than it did that morning.  I was really hurting, and hobbling and at one point nearly crying.

The warning came a little too late.

When I called and complained to the Explorer Desk, the girl was defensive and told me the notice WAS in the daily newspaper.  Yeah, but where was the shuttle???  Linda also complained and got no satisfaction either.

We went to dinner at 6 and asked for Angelo's table.  Something was just "off" in the kitchen and the restaurant tonight.  Nothing you could put your finger on, but everyone seemed stressed, there were longer than usual waits for food, and though Angelo was fun, he wasn't his old self.  But the food was good.  I was sorry Angelo was nowhere to be found when we left.  I would like to have said goodbye.

We had to have our suitcases out by 10 p.m. so Viking can transfer them to our hotel in the morning.  I hope I have enough space in my carry on stuff to put everything that I did NOT put in the big suitcase. 

We have to be off the ship by 8 a.m. tomorrow and then a new part of our adventure begins.

Another Day, Another Palace

It has reached the point it usually does in these jaunts.  You start to reach information overload and can no longer tell Romans from Greeks, Turks from anybody, Gothic architecture from Medieval architecture, Doric from Corinthian, etc.  I think I have finally realized that a walled enclosure in the middle of a city is a palace and the building inside the palace where the ruler lives is a castle.

Again, it was a beautiful day to start our tour, today of Split, the 3rd largest city in Croatia (behind Dubrovnik and Zagreb).  The city gleamed when we opened the window and looked out on the port.

Today's excursion was called "Cetina River Cruise and Split Walking Tour."  I'm getting blasé about these walking tours.  My feet don't hurt any more; now it's a battle of wills between my knee, my hip, and my back, but if I find enough places to sit down, it seems to be OK.  Bus drivers and other people are being so good helping me down out of buses...that last step is a killer!

We started our tour in the old part of Split, the first of four gates to Diocletian's palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that spawned 17 centuries of construction..

As are all walled cities, this one has cobble stones and narrow streets that wind this way and that, though it seems larger than most, and I'm sure that Medieval residents didn't get neon signs directing them to the nearest loo.

In one of the shop windows I fell in love with a drawing of a little girl -- kind of like a Croatian Keane painting.  There were smaller versions, but the group was moving too fast and there was no time to buy it...and by the time we had free time I couldn't have told you to save my soul where that shop had been.

The palace had several courtyards, and the biggest one was actually pretty cool, with all sorts of architectural styles which somehow blended together nicely.

Note that I've circled a statue in the back.  It's a sphinx and it even has the nose worn off like the one in Egypt.

We finally got a chunk of free time and found another sidewalk cafe along the promenade to sit and have a cappuccino.

We're trying to get rid of our Kuna, so Walt and Char took stock on how much the drinks cost and how much they have left to spend before the end of the day today.

Then it was time to head for the Cetina River.  We really didn't know quite what to expect. The description reads, "drive to the town of Omis and the banks of the Cetina River.  On a 45 minute cruise, you can witness the natural beauty of Croatia as you drift through picturesque canyons."  The last Viking group that took this tour, maybe 2 weeks ago, did it in the rain.  We had the most perfect weather.

First there was a flurry of excitement.  Walt had to use the restroom, so went to the one on the bus...which the driver didn't realize. Everyone got off the bus and the bus took off, with Walt still inside yelling "Wait! Wait!"  By the time he finally escaped, the first boat (with the rest of us on it) had loaded and he was left at the dock to get the second boat.  As our boat pulled away, I wanted to shout "I can't come back!  I don't know how it works!"

I have to say this was one of the most beautiful experiences we have had.  Far better than the calanques in Cassis (and smoother water, too!), better than a lot of things on other tours.  It was autumn and the trees were changing color, the water was smooth and reflective, and we had no tour guide pointing things out to us.  It was just us, and the boat and the water and the beauty around us.  It was magic.  Linda became the keeper of the canes while Bob and I snapped photos like crazy.

We rode down the river to a restaurant, Kastilslanica.  

Walt's boat arrived shortly after we did.

They had food and wine waiting for us.  It looked surprisingly like our two winery meals yesterday.  

(They are very big on Prosciutto here!)

We enjoyed our snack and then climbed the stairs to the road so we could take the bus back to Split and to the Viking Star.  Linda, Bob and Walt went off to augment their lunches.  Char went upstairs to the lounge.  I had been feeling kind of "iffy" so I stayed behind in the stateroom to rest a bit until time for the ship's afternoon "tea," which I had not had an opportunity to check out before today...and today would be my last chance.  What a delightful event, and how glad I did NOT discover it until today, or I would have been there every day, calories I did not need!  We got there and every chair was set up, ready for tea.  There were a bunch of pots ready to be filled.

Then came a full tray of "tea" goodies, followed by scones with clotted cream and jam, and your choice of about 6-8 different flavors of tea.

We left there in time to get two floors down for the Captain's farewell.  We were among the first to arrive, and, remembering his greeting 2 weeks ago from the steps of the Atrium, I picked a spot with a clean view of the steps.  Only this time he talked facing the steps and by now the crowd was so thick I couldn't even see him.  After he talked, some of the crew reprised a number they had done at Halloween.

Then they had the entire staff of the ship paraded in to applause, including our stateroom attendant, Mohammed (third in line in this picture)

These two crazy ladies were on our boat tour this afternoon.  They were so funny.  We enjoyed them a lot, for the brief time we were with them.  The one on the right is named Elaine and she runs a spay and neuter clinic in Mississippi.  I never did learn her friend's name,

Next on this busy day we went to a beautiful dinner, with our favorite waiter (Angelo), who says he is very shy (don't believe it).

We topped off the evening in the theater again, with the Viking singers and dancers doing a tribute to ABBA.  I saw all these old, grey/white hairs, with walkers and canes standing and waving their arms and clapping like crazy teenagers and wondered what those young kids on stage thought of all of us old farts.  Walt pointed out that someone who liked ABBA when they were popular would be in his or her 70s or older now.

Next stop--Venice!  The end of the line.  We sleep here on the boat tomorrow night and then transfer to a hotel the next morning.  I hope to keep up the journal schedule as usual, but in case I disappear for a day or two, that's why.

Wine...and Song

 

 What a day!  And I only participated in half of it.  It was another beautiful, sunny day when we arrived in Dubrovnik this morning.

Lots of people were out on their balconies taking pictures.  I caught Bob in the act.

Char called early to remind Walt to bring his Kuna.  I told her nobody had ever told him that before (Kuna is the monetary unit here, as they are not on the Euro).  I decided not to go on the 4 hour walking tour of the city.  I was thinking of skipping it and then when Bob talked about all the stairs he remembered from his last visit here, that made up my mind.  So the others went off and I stayed at home.  We didn't know what happened to Char.  Walt, Linda and Bob waited for her at the bus...

Turns out that Char, who waits for no one and is always blocks ahead, had already gotten on the bus, which then filled up before Walt et al. arrived, so the others were on a different bus. They didn't figure this out until the end of the day when all were back at the ship. I got a text from Walt saying she wasn't with them, and I couldn't find her on the ship.  I even checked her cabin when Mohammed was in there cleaning, to make sure she hadn't collapsed or something.

In the meantime, I took a shower, had a delicious breakfast, did a load of wash (we are set now, until we get home), and sat and read a lot of my book while waiting for the dryer to stop.

My breakfast had been big, so I didn't have any lunch because our 5.5 hour "Vineyards and Vistas" tour was leaving at 1.  It turns out that the first hour or so of the tour covered a lot of the same ground that this morning's walking tour had covered, so I got to see all the Old Town after all and Char and Linda used the time to go shopping.  I thought it interesting that our tour guide, Marijan, tells us that about 4 million tourists a year visit Dubrovnik, which, coincidentally, is the number of olive trees our tour guide yesterday told us were in Corfu!  (There are also more than a thousand islands in Croatia, which I certainly didn't know before!)

Tourism in the major industry in Dubrovnik and so important that all construction (new buildings and repairs) is suspended from May to October, the high tourist season, so that nobody has to complain about noise or construction mess.  (So, Ned, you can go to Dubrovnik--it's NOT under construction!)

Like all the cities we have visited on our cruises with Viking, Dubrovnik has had its share of destruction by conquering armies.  Much of their destruction, however, is more recent.  Here is a map of the sites of destruction by "aggression on Dubrovnik by the Yugoslav army, the Serbs, and the Montenegrins in 1991-1992."

There are a lot of stairs in the old town, but climbing them is, thank goodness, not a part of the tour.

(One of the shops up this alley is a photo shop which advertises "selfie accessories."  I never knew selfies had accessories!)

We actually had free time that didn't require a mad dash for a far-away bus, so we finally did what I have been looking forward to doing ever since we started this trip.  We sat at an outdoor cafe and had some gelato and I had a capuccino.

(Linda and Bob found us there and joined us for a bit)

But then we had an hour drive through the Konavie Valley to the village of Komaji. We had gorgeous panoramas along the way.

(Char's photo)

We went to a private winery owned by the Crvik family, where the patriarch, Andro, gave us an introduction to his 300 year old family winery and how he produces his wine (his 2010 Merlot won an award).

(Here he is with tour guide Marijan)

Then, of course, we had wine tasting in his old cellar.

Over tasting (poured by Mrs. Andro), we made new friends of Dennis and his wife Elma (on the left).  They live in the Durango area of Colorado, but had lived in Hayward in the late 60s and we chatted about all the flower children in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury. Dennis was also impressed to hear Walt's grandfather had lived in Ouray, Colorado and that Walt knew how to pronounce it properly.

Then we drove to a smaller family-owned winery, Cilipi, where we saw their lovely garden and were invited to taste their wine and share some cheeses and olives.

They had musicians who performed for us, and got everyone clapping and singing along to an odd selection of popular American songs like "Take me out to the ballgame," "Country Roads," and "Que Sera, Sera"

After dinner, on our way to the bus, we stopped in the small gift shop, where everything is homemade.  We decided to buy a little bottle of cherry brandy, which was delicious.  The price was 37 Kuna and Walt tried to pay the woman with two 20-Kuna bills ($1 = 6 Kuna) but she had no change, so she gave us our change in postcards!

On the way out, Walt made a new friend.

It seemed like it must surely be 10 p.m. by the time we returned to the ship, but it was only a little after 6:30.  Nobody was hungry but we decided to "snack" at the World Cafe at 7:30.  I really wasn't going to eat anything until I saw the crab...

Char went off to sleep after our "dinner," but the rest of us went back to see Paul Fredericks again, another really fun show.  Now it is nearly midnight and I am despairing of getting this posted before 1 a.m. since the connection is so very slow!

But this ranks up there as one of my favorite days so far on this trip.  Tomorrow, still in Croatia (we have to spend the rest of our Kuna), but in Split, which Marijan says is 200 km from here.