Our gondola ride

Last night treated ourselves to a gondola ride. Mr. Snootypurse and myself shared a pre-gondola dinner while watching boats pass back and forth through the lagoon. As you can see, Mr. Purse is winding up to deliver a stiff right hook. Too much togetherness, I guess.

We started our ride around 9:00pm which was just about perfect. We had some twilight starting out and things were almost completely dark as we finished up. I enjoyed the ride more than I expected. It’s so quiet and peaceful as you glide along Venice’s back canals. Quite a contrast to how things are during the day. And it is very romantic to share the experience with someone you love.

Benvenuti a Venezia

  
We arrived in Venice a couple of days ago. The weather has been quite hot and humid and temperatures remind me of Hawaii. We parked the car in the Tronchetto garage and arrived at our hotel by vaporetto (water bus). We are staying in a clean one-room apartment close to St. Mark's Square. It's sparsely furnished but is quiet and air-conditioned. It's associated with a hotel so we have the benefits of daily breakfast and concierge service.

Yesterday we toured the Accademia gallery. It was somewhat disappointing because they are renovating a few of the important rooms. They are in the process of moving the paintings to other rooms but this won't be complete until July 1 :-( We tried to view some modern art but this area is closed on Tuesdays. The nice thing was these streets weren't very crowded and there were some fun windows to peek into including wood sculptures of clothing and fabric.

In the afternoon, we toured the Doge's Palace. The middle picture is a photo of the courtyard. This complex served as the Capitol Building, White House, Supreme Court, and Sing Sing prison for the Venetian republic. It was a beautiful building jam-packed with art and exhibits. In retrospect we could have skipped the Accademia and spent more time here.

Austria and the Dolomites

On our route from Bled to Cortina, Italy we stopped at the Worther See in Austria to look around and grab some lunch. It was an interesting stop because although it was a large lake, it was built-up like a seaside resort. There was a Euro sportscar rally scheduled for the following day so we got several glimpses of Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches, etc racing by.

From Cortina we took the chairlift(s) to the top of Monte Cristallo. There are two lifts. One goes up to about 2000m and the second covers the additional 1000m up to the summit at 3000m. We took both lifts up to the summit where we snapped some photos. Unfortunately the camera failed its high altitude drop test.

It sounds trite but the photos don't do the area justice. The peaks are magnificent and rival any mountains we've seen in North America. The wooden building shown in the last picture is called a refugio. They are the Dolomite version of a ski lodge. We spent some time at this one sharing a light lunch and soaking in the views before hiking down the bottom half of the mountain.

A day of caves and bees

We drove to Postogna Caves today. This is a huge series of underground limestone caves in the Karst region of Slovenia. As a geography geek I wanted to see this example of Karst topology. The cave tour was quite an operation as they take you into the caves on a train/people mover. You walk for about 1km in the middle through the caverns before being transported out via train. The formations were stunning and unlike anything we've seen before.

Closer 'home' to Bled, we made a stop at the apicultural aka bee-keeping museum in Radovljica. It's hidden away in the town hall and is a tribute to the industrious species. They even have a working bee-hive in the museum. This is a picture of one of the fancier beehives on display. Apparently many bees in the U.S. are descended from Slovenian bees. No mention of colony collapse at the museum but Mr. Snootypurse reports reading about it somewhere along the line during our trip.

We will drive through Austria today on our way to Cortina Italy. I was struck last night on how strange it is to be traveling freely through the former Yugoslavia. Prior to the fall of the Iron Curtain these folks were the 'bad guys'. I can only hope that the future brings such peace to parts of the world that are under fire today.

Lake Bled

Today we visited the main attractions of Lake Bled. We walked around the lake first thing in the morning. About halfway around, we rented a rowboat to row to a small island in the middle of the lake. This picturesque little island is home to a church and cafe. It was a glorious morning.

After lunch we indulged in a slice of cream cake that is the signature dessert of the area. I'm not a big fan of whipped cream so I thought it was so-so. I think I'll stick with the ice cream.

We wrapped things up by climbing the hill to Bled castle. You can see the castle on the left-hand side of the second photo. Views of Bled and the surrounding area from this vantage point were outstanding. We could even see large fish in the lake when we looked down. If only I'd had my fishing pole and a really, really long line!

And finally, here is proof that Mr. Snootypurse did indeed accompany me on this trip. It's so hard to get pictures together when you're traveling.

Hvala Chemoexpress

The sun shone brightly on our last morning in Ljubljana. We took another spin around the old town. Sladoled before lunch is okay, right? The middle photo is the Dragon Bridge in Ljubljana designed by Plecnik.

If you've ever traveled for an extended period of time, you know how reassuring it is to have a suitcase full of clean clothes. Before leaving Ljubljana we gratefully picked up our laundry from Chemoexpress. It was clean, pressed, and nicely folded. If only they had a Portland location...

We made our way to Lake Bled which is near the Austrian border. If you look closely you'll see me on the balcony of our B&B in Bled. You can tell by the architecture that the feel of this area is much different than our earlier stops. We're definitely moving into the Alps.

Dober dan Ljubljana

We spent most of today exploring Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. The first photo is taken in front of city hall where we met our walking tour. The weather was cool and drizzly, just like home. Although it would have been nicer without the rain, the cool was refreshing. The tour took us up to Ljubljana's castle that looks out over the city. We dropped our laundry off before meeting the tour. Hopefully it will be there when we go to pick it up this morning...

Jose Plecnik is the architect of much of the city and designed the triple bridge you see which is in the heart of the old town. We had sushi for dinner last night figuring we probably wouldn't see it again as we head up to Lake Bled and then into Italy.

The kindness of strangers

Today was a travel day as we made our way from Plitvice Lakes NPK, Croatia to Ljubljana, Slovenia. I was worried when I woke this morning about navigating downtown Zagreb in the rental car, getting to/from the respective train stations, etc.

Since it is Sunday, traffic was light in Zagreb and we had no trouble finding the Hertz office. The Hertz rep offered to drive us to the train station with our luggage. Then on the train to Ljubljana, Mr. Snootypurse started talking tech with a Japanese ex-pat currently living in Ljubljana. This gentleman generously offered to drop us off at our hotel on his way home. So, I needn't have fretted about anything.

It's raining here but it's not cold and the rain is refreshing after the heat of Dubrovnik. We look forward to exploring Ljubljana tomorrow.

Plitvice Jezera National Park

We'll let these pictures speak for themselves. This is a small selection of the 101 photos taken by Mr. Snootypurse. Enjoy!

      

Bad news from home

We had a panicked e-mail from my sister, Betty, saying that our bank had called because of suspicious activity. So we called them, which wasn't easy from Croatia, and someone had made a purchase at an Apple Store for $650! Hopefully they need their new iPad more than we need to use our credit card for the next month. Ugh!

And the bank's security department was decidedly unhelpful. You'd think a card associated with a major airline would be experienced at dealing with international travelers and people on the road. Not!

I suspect it happened at the Chicago airport but who knows? I do wonder how much they investigate these things or do they just give you a new CC number and move on. I'd like to see these guys caught.

Fortunately Croatia is a cash economy and we've grown accustomed to it. There are ATM's everywhere. We've resolved to switch to cash for everything but hotels to protect our two remaining credit card numbers.

Enough whining for now. I'm just glad my sister was house-sitting. Otherwise who knows how long the thieves would have gotten away with this?

Lokrum Island

Today we took a day trip to Lokrum Island. Lokrum is a 15 minute ferry ride from Dubrovnik and is within view of the city walls. It's a nature reserve with a peacock population, a botanical garden with specimens from around the world, and an old fort and monastery. Most folks were there to go swimming in the sea. The approach is quite rocky but there are mounted ladders along the coastline for access.

Mr. Snootypurse went swimming and pronounced it nice and warm. I was only brave enough to wade as you can see in this picture. We hit the local farmer's market before getting on the boat so we took a picnic over. Cherries, peaches, and apricots are already in season in this area.

Mostar and Blagaj

Today found us off the beaten path in Bosnia-Herzogovina. This was the location of some of the more intense fighting in the 1990's. They are rebuilding but it still feels poorer than Croatia (squat toilets) and you see many bombed out buildings and houses that were never reclaimed by their owners.


We had the pleasure of spending the day with Stoya, a retired Bulgarian musician who has made his home near Dubrovnik for many years. Stoya helped us navigate the border crossings (there are two) and gave us insight into the conflicts of the 1990's.

The 'Old Bridge' you see is in Mostar and was originally built by the Turks in 1557. It survived WWII only to be destroyed in the 1990's. It was rebuilt and reopened in 2004. Due to its Turkish history, Mostar has an Eastern feel and many mosques. We poked our heads into a mosque near the bridge.

Our final stop was a lovely restaurant on the shores of the Buna River, also in Bosnia. This is a spring-sourced river that comes out of a cave. The thermometer pushed 100 degrees in Mostar so this shady, cool spot was a welcome respite. Kevin and I shared the Yahoo! which was huge plate of Bosnian food. I think we may have eaten 2/3 of it!

It's hot!

Dubrovnik has been surrounded by stone walls since the 15th century. Today these walls are the city's premier tourist attraction. It's about a 2km circuit with ups and downs as you make your way around the city. The views are stunning of the Adriatic sea, the town itself, and the surrounding hillside. If you look closely, you will see collapsed buildings still not rebuilt following the Serbian siege of 1991-1992.

Unfortunately the weather has been quite hot and humid so the trek just about did me in. We cooled off at our hotel and tried Bosnian food for the first time in a shaded alley with a refreshing breeze. The restaurant was called the Taj Mahal. Go figure... We also visited the Franciscan monastery/pharmacy which had lots of trees and was cool and tranquil.

The hot weather has been a shock for us as we were still waiting for summer when we left Oregon. I have a feeling it may be like this until we get to Scotland. Perhaps we'll get a break in the alps...

Dubrovnik

We awoke this morning in our home for the next few days, the Hilton Imperial Dubrovnik. Our incoming flight was late which was fine because our flight from Chicago to Frankfurt was also late so the delay allowed our bags to make it on the flight with us. The bus ride from the airport into town was beautiful. The vegetation and terrain are unlike anything I've seen elsewhere. The hills are quite rugged and the vegetation lush. Of course the town is nestled against the Adriatic so there are dramatic seaside views from every bend.

Our hotel is only a couple of blocks from the Dubrovnik's 'Old Town.' Last night we had our first look at the 'Old Town' while searching out a dinner spot. Restaurants aggressively pursue their customers by luring people in off the street. Of course, those are the places you don't want to eat.

It seems we will be very well-informed about the World Cup and the BP oil spill as the only English TV channels are news channels and the only news stories they are currently covering are the aforementioned two.

Chicago

It's always a little hectic getting away and today was no exception. Being gone an entire month makes it even more stressful. I kept thinking that decisions I made this morning would 'haunt' me for the next 30 days.

PDX was very, very busy. So this is what it's like to travel during the summer :-) There was a mix-up with the catering so no lunch was catered for our flight. The captain whipped out his wallet and someone ran to Laurelhurst Pub next to the gate to buy some sandwiches and salads. We are flying first/business class with award miles so this is why they cared. Otherwise I think it would have been tough love time.

We're now in the Red Carpet club at O'Hare eating our second round of cheese, crackers, cookies, and yogurt covered raisins. Same snacks as the club in PDX. The food will be different soon enough as we wake up in Germany and make our way to Dubrovnik.

Small change of plans

As our trip draws closer I am feeling uncertain about the number of times we are moving. One of the benefits of a long trip is to dig-in where you are staying rather than waking up in the morning thinking, "It's Tuesday, this must be Venice".

Thus we've decided that we are not stopping in Split and will add these two nights to Dubrovnik and Venice respectively. This also means skipping the 8-hour ferry ride between Dubrovnik and Split. My feelings on this are mixed. I'm sure it's a gorgeous ride but would be quite a long day. Airfare between Dubrovnik and Zagreb is surprisingly reasonable.

So far we are green-lighted for our departure on Sunday afternoon. Any suggestions on what to do during a 3-hour layover in Chicago are appreciated.

Introducing Piccolo

our newest traveling companion. Piccolo is an ASUS Eee PC otherwise known as a 'netbook'. He is smaller and less powerful than a regular laptop computer but is also much less expensive so we don't have to worry quite as much. He feels almost as heavy as my MacBook but is about 25% lighter. And... of course... Intel is inside.

We're hoping that he will help with blogging, e-mailing, and trip planning along the way. We'll be using WiFi connections in our hotels and cafes as we make our way through Europe. And here's hoping he doesn't hog the bathroom!