Plitvice National Park, Croatia, April 29

An amazing day!  We spent six hours, mostly hiking, in this unique environment.  We took a shuttle bus to the Upper Lakes and hiked down.  Stunning.  16 lakes, all interconnected, separated by natural travertine dams created by moss, algae and bacteria.  The hike went from 2,087 feet in altitude to 1,650 over 8 kilometers.  There were countless waterfalls, more than we have ever seen in one place, by a lot.  The lakes are azur, green, light blue, depending on the minerals, organisms, depth and light. There are extensive underground streams.  Waterfalls dry up and re-form, depending in the dam formations.  The largest waterfall, or slap, is 250 feet high.

   After several hours in the upper lakes, we took an electric, ecological boat to the Lower Lakes, where we had coffee and split a piece of apple strudel.  Then, we hiked along the lakes and to the big waterfall, getting rather wet along the way. (Croatia must be like the US might have been before we were so safety and suing conscious....slippery boardwalks with water bubbling through as we walked right over waterfalls, few safety rails....quite refreshing actually, although we did watch our step!)

We walked mostly through virgin forests of beech, fir and spruce.  We did not see the birds we thought we'd see, but did see a life bird  for us, a Grey Wagtail, which was very cool, as well as a lot of trout and one water snake.

We hiked out of the gorge and got a shuttle back to the car....6 and a half hours....and, it was in the low 80s....a truly glorious day.

Then...back to the restaurant and the same nice waiter...this time we shared a lamb and pork roast, done on the grill.  Four tour busses were also there - Italy, Latvian, Austria.... This is a big attraction and we saw many touring groups of Asians along the trails.

A Lazy Day in Croatia

At the park information , we were convinced that we could "do" the park in a day and save ourselves quite a lot of money, plus she explained that the layout was really meant for a day, so, as today was not predicted to be the better day, we decided to just take a short drive today and then take a day of rest and reading.

We started with a hearty breakfast with Ana and her 15 year old son, Antonio.  After small talk, she told us that they were refugees during the 4 years do Serb occupation, living on the coast and then I Karlovac.  They told us every house on the street, which are mostly sobe, we rebrand new because everything had been destroyed.  But, they also said that two neighbors were Serbs and expressed hope for the future.  Antonio is training to be a policeman.  They both said there are few good jobs around here.
We then drive north along the Korana to a the village of Rastoke, where it meets the Slunj River.  There were bus loads of tourists as there were dozens of waterfalls, some of which had been channeled years ago to power dozens of mills.  Here, too, war took its toll.  The retreating Serbs attempted to blow up the bridge, and dwellings and roofs caught fire. The bridge stood, however.  Furthermore, explosives were thrown in the river damaging the travertine, but we certainly could not tell that.

Then, afterwards, we came back here, had lunch in our room, read and slept the afternoon away!

We went down the road for dinner to Bistro Vila Velebita, recommended by our B & B.  Mark had sausages and I had wood grilled trout.  Very good.

Venice to Plitvice National Park, Croatia, April 27

Today we traveled in 4 countries:  Italy, Trieste, Slovenia and Croatia.  We did not stop, although tempted, in Trieste.
  We traveled about 40 miles in Slovenia on back roads.  I looked, but did not find post cards for Henry and Otis.  We did stop at a Tus Market and got sandwich fixings and had a picnic.  Then, we drove, partly on motorway and partly on a two lane road to the center of Croatia to this national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We had temperature fluctuations today, with a high of 24 C to a low of 12C.  We are staying in a Sobe, or B & B here, House Ana, which has 5 modest rooms.  It is €60 per night including breakfast. The currency
is the kuna which is worth about 17 cents.

It was raining when we arrived around 3:30, but it stopped and we went to find information about the park and took a little drive, looking at the Korana River gorge and waterfalls.

 We took a little, tiny side road into a little town, Smoljanac.  (J is pronounced as a Y and C as TS). We are in an area which saw intense fighting as it is a border area.  Croats are mostly Catholic, but there were a lot of Orthodox Serbs here.  In WW II, the Croats sided with the Nazis, hoping for independence and thousands of Serbs were killed in concentration camps.  In the 1990s, when the Croats fought for independence, the first shots of the Serbs, trying to prevent the secession happened right here in this park.  Many Croats were killed.  The Serbs controlled the area for 4 years and the park was closed.  During that time, many Croats were killed and villages destroyed.  Then, when the Croats Gaines independence, many Serbs fled and their churches burned and land lost.  Most have not returned.  In the little town, we read that 15 were killed, we presumed Croat and saw a memorial. It made the war feel very real and very recent.

Another full day in Venice, Part 2, April 26

After a break at "home" we ventured back out, determined to see as much from the water as possible. We walked though our Cannaregio, back into the first ghetto in the world where Jews were restricted. The word is from the Venetian dialect, veto, meaning "foundry" as it was the area of foundries.  The area is quiet and much less touristy and it was. A lovely walk to the San Alvise vaporetto stop which took us all the way around the last part of Venice which we had not seen.  We took it all the way back to the island of Lido (pronounced leedo) where we were yesterday.


Once again,we found it very pleasant and quiet.  Agree a short stroll, we got back on the vaporetto home.  We sat with friendly Italians, two women teachers with three kids.  They laughed practicing their English and teaching Mark Italian...quite hilarious.  I was sitting with a young Saudi couple and he practiced English and I struggled to remember Arabic.  They were grateful to be treated with friendship as they felt awkward with her in a head scarf and being Moslem.  We all had a great time and it was a long ride.
 
The Italians encouraged us to jump off and ride a tragheto, gondolas that just cross the Grand Canal for €2.  As we would not splurge on a gondola ride, they said it would give us the gondola experience, so we jumped off at San Tomas and did just that. Gondoliers must donate a few days every month giving tragheto rides.  Then, we walked back through the Rialto district and had another chichetti at one of the little places from earlier, then back on our last vaporetto of the trip back to San Marcuola or our temporary home.

Time now to pack up for our trip put of Venice to our car.

Another full day in Venice, April 26, Part One

We had another day on our vaporetto pass, so we headed out early to St Mark's Square and got in line to get into San Marco Basilica, which is quite Byzantine, full of mosaics and icons.  All over this city are St Mark's lions, holding the Bible.  St Mark is supposedly buried here, having been stolen from
Alexandria in 828.  The floor of the basilica is absolutely beautiful mosaics...and, toads to the whole effect, it undulates.  The most revered icon in the church is the 10th century Madonna of Nicopeia, which used to accompany the army of Constantinople, but was stolen by the Venetians in 1204.  It is only about 15 x 12 inches big.  We sat in "her" little chapel for a while.We did not go into the Doge's Palace,

having been to enough museums for a while, but did go around to look at the Bridge of Sighs, supposedly named for the sighs prisoners made when they passed from sentencing into the prison, but the truth is that they have been more likely to have been sighs of relief as those condemned to die or serve long sentences would have gone to the subterranean cells or the sweltering cells under the roof.

The bell tower is the tallest building in Venice and very impressive.  Amazingly, it collapsed in 1902 and was rebuilt. The other bell tower in the square is also impressive with two "wild men" hitting the bell every hour since 1506.

Enough of monuments...we took yet another vaporetto, this time down the other major canal, between
Guidecca and Venice, past where the cruise ships dock, the bus station and the train station, all the way back to Rialto, where we hopped out a d miraculously found the tiny streets and tiny little bars where he recommended eating chicheti, which are Venice's version of tapas.  We ate at 2 different ones...yummy.

festivals, Part Two, April 25

After lunch, we took a noisy vaporetto which was really low in the water, to another side of Venice, to San Michele, the cemetery island in the lagoon, only a few minutes ride from Venice.  It had  a church in the 10th century and a monastery in the 13th.  The Franciscans look after it still.  Most of the island, once you pass through the cloisters is Venice's cemetery.  Napoleon decreed there could be no more burials in Venice.  Most people are only buried for 10 years as space is at a premium.

Then, they are dug up and their bones put in ossuaries. If your family can afford to pay, you can stay longer!  We strolled for about half an hour...very quiet, kind of creepy.  And, the last vaporetto leaves at 6, and you would NOT want to be stranded!  (We left at 5:30 to be on the safe side!)

Then, we hopped back on the vaporetto for another short rode out to the island of Murano.  Their glass-blowing factories are its claim to fame.  The island was not crowded because of the time of year and because it was early evening.  It was incredibly pleasant to stroll along its canals. We saw beautiful glass, but mostly just wandered.

Then, we returned home and went out for pizza in our neighborhood.  I had eggplant; Mark had spicy sausage.

Not wanting to waste our vaporetto pass, we hopped back on and went to St Mark's where little bands and orchestras were playing.  The moon was full, so the aight of that over the Geand Canal and the chuches and palazzos was truly beautiful.   The square was mellow and fun and festive!  But, we could not get back on the vaporetto as it was so full, so we walked back home.   Whew!  A really full day!  

Festivals and a day on the water, April 25, Part One

 Today was a day of holidays, both here and in our lives.
1.  St. Mark's Day, patron saint of Venice.
2.  liberation Day - when Italy was liberated after WW II
3.  Red Rose Day here when men give their love ones, especially their moms, red roses.  They were on sale everywhere.
4.  Nick's 40th birthday!  How can we possibly have a child that age?
5.  Full moon

We had a busy day with our 36 hour vaporetto pass, meaning we can ride the water busses wherever. Not cheap.  €25 each.  But, we got our money's worth today!

   

First, we went to Saint Mark's Square, but the crowds were thick and the weather wonderful, so we hopped on the vaporetto for the island of Lido, which became Italy's most fashionable bathing beach, Lido, which is an island about a 15-20 minute ride from St Mark's.  Beautiful!  We walked across the island, about half a mile and found a beach where many people were sun bathing and, a few swimming.  We think it must have approached 80 degrees F.  We rolled up our pants and walked along in the water.  (And a gelato was in order!)

After, we took the vaporetto "home" for lunch.

Florence to Venice...more Renaissance, April 24

We got up pretty early and went to a local bakery for a croissant. Then, we walked to where we parked our car, never having paid, trusting Gian that it was okay....and, it was...whew!

Then, we drove about 240 kilometer to Mestre....on the motorway...cost €18.  Mestre is a town outside Venice.  We parked the car at a helpful garage for €24 for the time we will be here and also sold us train tickets.  The train goes every 10 minutes, so it was easy and then it was about a 10 minute ride to the train station in Venice.  When we got into the square in front of the station...there was Venice and the Grand Canal in front of us!  Amazing.  And, not a cloud in the sky.  Ylena met us after a few minutes and we walked about 15 minurptes to our little studio on Calle Erizzo, number 2126, in the Canneregio district.  We have to wind down little alleyways to get to it.  It is a ground floor apartment with a tiny courtyard.

After a little rest, we walked to the Rialto bridge and then to St Mark's Square.  It was crowded with tourists, but beautiful.  I never knew Venice had so, so many little squares and so many little bridges and canals. And, we did not realize there were so many gondolas!  It has to be seen, despite all the photos I have seen of it all my life.  We walked today 7-8 kilometers, but it was just so beautiful around every sinuous corner...you can see how people get lost, that's for sure.  We probably walked at least an extra kilometer by taking a wrong turn. The city is not a grid!

  

Then, we shopped at Billa and Mark made, fittingly..spaghetti Bolognese.

Overdosing on Art! Florence, April 23

Today, we continued to see a great deal of art.  We were really lucky to get in at the Uffizi Museum as we did not call for advance reservations, but we were able to jump the line by being smart and savvy, having read that, for €4 extra, you can reserve a time.  We were there at just after 9 and there were only 4-5 people ahead of us and we got tickets for 9:45!  And, by that point, the line was 2 hours long.

We followed Rick Steves guide on my iPad mini which helped a lot.  Highlights:
-collection of Roman statues collected in one amazing room specially designed by the Medicis to show them. 
-the Botticellis especially "The Allegory of Spring," "the Adoration of the Magi" with Botticelli in the painting along with Lorenzo de Medici and "The Birth of Venus".  The last Botticelli, "Slander" was painted during the repression of Savonarola and was much gloomier, ending the Florentine Renaissance. tricky! 

We "did" almost the entire museum and were mighty footsore and ready for lunch.  We had a really great meal at Bistro del Mare, recommended by our landlord.  It was along the river in an old building, but sleek and modern, too.  Mark had a fish and rice first plate, followed by a big tuna, egg, olive salad as his second plate.  I had gnocchi pesto as my first and tuna as my second.  It was elegant, delicious, with attentive service and only €13.90 each.

Later, we took another walk.  I bought two pairs of gloves from a street vendor, one green, unlined, and a black lined pair.  We strolled the river bank in the sun, sat on a bridge and watched people.  We also saw a limousines pull up to a posh villa with well heeled, highly dressed attendees.  Trumpeters in old dress heralded their entrances.

Fun fact about Florence.  House numbers are in black.  Business numbers are in red and, very confusingly, they do not correspond, which can make locating an address very
 

Florence...Duomo Museum, April 22

It was supposed to be a rainy day, but it was mostly sunny with two showery interludes, but never a soaking rain, so we had a lovely day walking around.

We started with the Duomo Museum, opting out of the long dome climb, partly (mostly due to knees), partly due to long lines.  But, the museum (€6) was great.  The first real highlight was Michelangelo's last Pieta, which he sculpted on his 80s, intending it for his grave.  He put his face on that of Nicodemus.  He never finished it, and actually took a hammer to it as the stone would not cooperate.  We saw wonderful works by Donatello, both early and late. He added realism, furrowed brows, frowns...
.  One highlight was his one wooden carving, Mary Magdelene in intense mourning and suffering.  Haunting.  We saw the restored golden doors, The Gates of Paradise, by Ghiberti.  Amazing that the scenes are only fingertip deep,but so full of perspective and depth and detail.  They took him an astonishing 50 years!  The choir stalls by Donatello and Della Robbia were also impressive.  The Florentines appreciated the joy of children and saw children as individuals.  Finally, we saw the models and tools used to build the dome.  Brunelleschi invented many techniques  to build the dome that spans 180 feet, including the use of chains to encircle it.  we went into the Duomo And looked up at the dome, saw the famous portrait of Dante.
From there we walked to the big Mercato  Centrale Market where we bought freshly made spinach ravioli, asparagus and tomatoes

   we got take out delicious hamburgers at a tiny restaurant nearby and ate at home.

Then, we walked along the river and across to Oltrarno where we walked to the Pitti Palace, had a gelato and looked across at the hotel Balestre where we stayed 29 years ago.  Then, we strolled the Ponte Vecchio with its dazzling jewelry stalls.  We also found a grocery store, hurray. Mark made the ravioli, asparagus with prosciutto and fresh tomatoes for dinner.  Yum.

          We are "over" beating ourselves up for the dual renting

Beaulieu to Floence, via Portofino, April 21

We left Beaulieu fairly early after a lovely breakfast of croissants from the nearby patisserie.  We drove the middle Corniche as far as Monaco where we could overlook the tennis courts. We saw a helicopter take off from the deck of a yacht which had gone to sea to let it take off.  (It returned to harbor right afterwards)

The drive has dozens and dozens of tunnels...they became quite tiring.  We did NOT take the back roads as it was a long drive.  We decided to stop in Portofino out of nostalgia from our visit there 29 years ago when I was pregnant with David and nick was 12 and Jecca was 10.  The twisty, traffic-filled road was a surprise to us both.  And, we went there in the summer last time.  Could it have been empty then?  And, we stayed in luxury at the hotel Nacionale, which was way too expensive for us.  It was the first time any of us had pesto, served with thin, flat sheets of pasta called lasagne which looked so different for the lasagna with which we were familiar.  Anyhow, today it just seemed crowded and over priced, but we did have the pesto on the harbor anyhow.  Nick says it was that memory that made him think about being a chef.  Interesting.  (As an example of the cost, it was €5.50 per hour to park.). Anyhow, it was great to sit in the sun in a beautiful spot.

And, after we left, it bucketed with rain.

BIG CONFESSION coming!
We had a dickens of a time finding where we were going in Florence.  We were torn between parking outside the restricted parking zone and taking a bus in, or taking our chances with Gianluca, our landlord who encouraged us to just drive in.  After an hour of being lost, we did find a parking garage at €14 per day, but saw no bus stops, so took our chance and drove in.We parked along the river and Gian met us and took us to the studio at 19 Ognissante.  We met his wife, who does not speak English.  After they left, Mark said, where is the mezzanine in the photo?  Hmmm.  And, the address was not on Via  Rondinelli.  We assumed Gian had put us in a different apartment.  But NO!  In the evening, I got an email from the OTHER place I rented!  Yes, I rented TWO places, put deposits on them both, so wasted €180.  So embarrassed, humiliated.  And, I am sure the other place was fancier. But, we are settled in and they are lovely people.  Chalk it up to...what?  dumb?
We strolled along the Arno and by the Uffizi and returned "home" still upset at my mistake

Hanging around Monaco, April 20

Today we took the bus to Monaco.  It was supposed to rain, but the weather was just cloudy and a bit blustery, so it was a great rainy day!

                     

We strolled around, mostly around the harbor.  The boats there are indescribably large.  It makes Nantucket's marina look like it only has relatively small boats...millionaires as compared to billionaires.  One had a helicopter on it and several had other boats (not dingies) on board.  We had a coffee along the Grand Prix route and watched many high powered cars zip around.  Then, we got back on the bus and came back "home" for the last time.  We have really enjoyed our stay here and hope to return.

Just hanging around Beaulieu, April 19

Today we got up with the intention of taking the bus to Nice, possibly to bike along the waterfront.  But, we started walking and, one foot in front of the other, found ourselves walking along the road toward Cap Ferrat.  We did see an amazing sight, three huge, French military seaplanes landing in the bay twice. Too bad we were quite far away to take good photos, but it was pretty awesome.

We did not want to walk around the whole peninsula whichnit seemed likely if we stayed on the road, so took quite an abandoned Chemin des Moulins over the ridge, past the Rothschild gardens and down along the sea walk.  We walked for about an hour before finally getting back to the sea and sitting down for a rest.  We watched life go by on land and sea.  Then, we turned around and walked back to Beaulieu. We were gone over three hours.  We went to the store and made a huge salad and spent the rest of the day reading and following the events in Boston as one of the bombers has died, but the other is on the run.                  

Beautiful day driving in the Riviera, April 18

Today, we drove on all three of the Corniches between Beaulieu sur Mer and Monaco.

We started on the Middle Corniche driving to Eze Le Village, perched on a mountain top with amazing views.  The place was inhabited as far back as to the Phoenicians. It was Roman and also under the Moors for 80 years.  Louis XVII destroyed the walls in the War of Spanish Succession.  It was in the Duchy of Savoy and did not become French until 1860 when the town unanimously voted to join France.  Today, it is one of the most visited medieval villages in France and we were happy to be here off season as we were able to have a stroll in weather that got into the low 80's.  The oldest building, 1306, was a little chapel.

We then climbed, by car, to the Upper Corniche where we stopped in La Turbie.  It is at the highest point of the old Roman road into Gaul.  Augustus Caesar had a monument built to commemorate subduing the Ligurians in 6 BCE which still stands.  The road was an amazing feat.  We walked around the medieval, narrow streets and then ate at La Terrasse, recommended by Rick Steves.  We chatted with one of the owners who really appreciates Rick Steves and what he has done for business.  He considers him a friend.  At any rate, in our first meal out since arriving here, we had the plat du jour, which was a couscous dish with turnips, pork, chicken and sausage...not even close to vegetarian!


Then, we took the hairpin turn road down to the Lower Corniche, the road where Princess Grace Kelly died in 1982, stopping along the way at what looked like an old Roman amphitheater to take photos looking down toward Cap Ferrat and Monaco below.

We drove through Monaco and back to Beaulieu sur Mer.