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Wednesday June 21st

The 6 am start was unpleasant, but at least it gave us time for a last breakfast. I'm going to miss the breakfasts - we had a buffet breakfast in all the hotels in which we stayed. I'll be wandering into my kitchen looking for the array of eggs, bacon, sausages, different cereals, breads, pastries and fruits, and I'll be disappointed!

There is little to say about our journey home. We drove along the coast again, and i finally got a reasonable photo.

At least this shows one of the charming little harbours and a tiny bit of the beach. Apparently, this area is popular with Russians who often buy holiday homes here, and one can see why.

The journey to the airport only took about half an hour. The plane took off more or less on time, landed at Gatwick more or less on time, and we were home by mid-afternoon.

Day Trip to Montenegro

20 June

Day Trip to Montenegro

We set off early for Montenegro, armed with our passports - or at least some of us did. We drove along more of the spectacular coast, but on the wrong side of the bus for photos.

We did stop for this  panoramic view over Dubrovnik.

Just before the border, our tour manager realised she had forgotten her passport, so we had a problem. Her passport was retrieved from her hotel room by the hotel management and sent to the border post in a taxi, and we waited just across the border until it arrived and she could join us. Then we were off again towards our first stop, Kotor.

Kotor lies on what is called a fiord, with steep sides and a narrow but deep inlet from the sea. (I believe it is actually a drowned river canyon - a ria). Inside, it is shaped rather like a butterfly, and it would be quite a long drive right round. However, we were able to take a small car ferry across the narrowest part, which saved us the drive all the way around.

We were also able to get out of the bus and take some photos, and it was much cooler with the breeze from the water, though I had to stand in the shade.

We drove on to Kotor, which is a charming town and which I liked a great deal more than Dubrovnik. It's smaller for a start, and not such a rip-off. Like Dubrovnik, it is surrounded by walls, 15th century in this case, though many of the fortifications are a great deal older. You can walk the walls - 4.5 km - but it was far too hot and involves a great deal of climbing, as they stretch up to the top of the St. John Mountain that backs the city. 

We entered by the Sea Gate, sometimes called the Maritime Gate. I don't know if you can read the date above it, but it commemorates the end of the Second World War, which ended in Kotor in 1944.

The Gate leads directly into Clock Tower square, surrounded by Venetian style buildings. 

Kotor was part of the a province of the Venetian Republic from 1420 to 1797. Four centuries of Venetian domination have given the city the typical Venetian architecture you see inside, as well as the walls.

Like Dubrovnik, the exteriors of the buildings are protected and can't be changed, and some of them date from the 15th century. Most were modified or even rebuilt in the 18th century, after an earthquake in 1780.

Quite close to this was the Cathedral. Saint Tryphon Cathedral was originally built in 1166, as you may be able to see from the date carved on the front of it. It celebrated its 850th anniversary in 2016, hence the other date carved on the front. It was apparently built on the same site where an older church, built in 809 AD, already existed. The remains of the saint were kept here after being brought from Constantinople.

We wanted to go inside for a quick look, but there was a charge for it and we only had a minute or two, so it didn't seem worth while. So I don't know if the remains of the saint are still there, 

We did go inside the much smaller Orthodox Church of St Luca, built in 1195 by tradesman Mauro Caccafrangi and his wife Bona. 

It may have been originally built as a Catholic Church and it has been both Catholic and Orthodox. Certainly the name of the tradesman responsible for building it sounds quite Italian, and our tour guide told us there are still Italians living in Kotor today, and speaking a kind of Italian.

After our tour, we also paid a visit to the maritime museum, housed in another beautiful old building. Kotor's history as a naval power is housed in this early-18th-century palace. There is quite a collection of paintings, uniforms, weapons, furniture and models of ships. 

The rooms themselves are interesting, with wooden ceilings and shutters, and a balcony overlooking a small central garden.

We didn't have long in the town, and I would have preferred to stay much longer, but we were scheduled to visit the church of Our Lady of the Rocks, so we had to leave.

Our Lady of the Rocks is one of the two islets off the coast of the town of Perast in the Bay of Kotor. Parast, pictured below, is a tiny place where you can catch a boat across to the church.

On the way to the church, you pass another small island which looks much more attractive. Unfortunately, you can't go ashore there, as it is privately owned and houses a Benedictine monastery.

The island on which the church is situated is extremely flat and bare, because it is entirely man made. It was originally a rock sticking up out of the water, but in 1452 two fishermen found an icon of the Virgin Mary on the rock, so it was decided to build and island there with a church on it.

The island was made by sinking boats and then piling up rocks, and our guide told us that it took 200 years to complete, though the first known church was built in 1452. The present Church was built in 1632 and modified in 1722.

The church is small inside, but the walls and ceiling are completely covered with paintings, all done by one man. The church contains 68 paintings by a 17th-century baroque artist from Perast. There is also an icon (painted around 1452) of Our Lady of the Rocks, by a painter from Kotor. 

One section of the walls inside the church, half way up, is completely  covered with plates of silver - votive offerings to the Virgin Mary in thanks for survival at sea.

There is also a small museum attached to the church, which houses more of the offerings, and also some historical artefacts and some bones of the earliest inhabitants of the land nearby. The bones are 2500 years old. Amongst the other artefacts from these early times was this stone quern for grinding grain into flour.

It is 2000 years old.

Another artefact is the embroidery of the Virgin Mary, done by a local woman. It took her 25 years while her husband was away, and when she ran out of embroidery thread, she used her own hair. So some of the angels have brown hair, and ones embroidered later have white hair.

We returned by boat to the coach, which then took us back to Dubrovnik. On the way, we were on the correct side of the bus for taking photos, so this is a typical view of this part of the coast. 

The hillsides are steep and covered in trees, and there are little towns built of pale beige stone, small harbours for a few boats and sometimes tiny crescent shaped beaches. The deep blue sea is sprinkled with little humpy islands and small boats sew seams of white wake across the otherwise unruffled surface.

It was a very hot day indeed, and we were hot and sweaty. We were glad to get back to the hotel for a cool shower and dress for our farewell dinner. Then it was packing and bed; it's a 6 am start tomorrow, as we leave early for the airport. I was far too tired to post anything, and it will need to wait for another day.

A Day in Dubrovnik

A Day in Dubrovnik

Monday June 19th

Today we didn't have to catch a bus - a hazardous business as it's a long walk to the nearest bus stop and there are no pavements and a great deal of very fast traffic. A coach took us down to Dubrovnik and we met our tour guide just outside the Pile Gate. 

She was an interesting woman, who lives just outside the city, though she used to live in the city itself. She told us that 10 years ago, there were 5000 people living in the city, but today there were only 800. This is because prices have risen so high that people have sold their houses and moved out. She also told us that the rent for a shop on the  main street was €25000 a month, which explains the rip-off prices.

Once again we went inside the Pile Gate through the city walls. I forgot to mention yesterday that the walls were built between the 8th and 16th centuries, and are quite massive. You can walk round them, it's 2 kilometres. We didn't, it was really far too hot today.

Once inside the gate, the guide took us first to the Franciscan Monastery, originally built in 1337 and rebuilt in 1667 after the great earthquake. It's still a monastery today, though there are now only 6 monks, instead of the original 300. The cloisters are still in their original state, though the frescoes have been repainted and restored. 

The Old Pharmacy, located inside the Franciscan monastery, was opened in 1317. It is the third oldest pharmacy in Europe.

In the open space just inside the Pile gate and very close to the Franciscan Monastery is a large 16-sided drinking fountain built by Onofrio de la Cava, hence called Onofrio's fountain. 

It was built in 1443, but suffered heavily in the 1667 earthquake. You can see that the dome is now brick, but apparently it was originally marble. 

After walking down the main street, our next stop was the Sponza Palace, built in a mixed Gothic and Renaissance style between 1516 and 1522 

The palace has served a variety of public functions, including as a customs office and bonded warehouse, mint, armoury, treasury, bank and school. It survived the 1667 earthquake without damage. It is now home to the city archives, which hold documents dating back to the 12th century. Paul and I went in later after the tour to look at the room dedicated to the siege of Dubrovnik in 1991 and 1992, when 300 people were killed. The photos of the damage were horrifying, though you can scarcely see it now. Our guide pointed out the holes from shrapnel in various buildings.

Below is the cathedral of Dubrovnik, dedicated to St Blaise, the patron saint of Dubrovnik. It was built in 1715 by a Venetian architect on the foundations of the earlier medieval church which was badly damaged in the great earthquake of 1667. A legend relates that some of the money for the original church was donated by Richard the Lionheart, possibly in gratitude for his surviving a storm at sea.

Before we went in to the cathedral, I noticed this rather nice statue of Marin Držić, a Renaissance playwright and prose writer who lived in the 16th century. He was trained and ordained as a priest, though he later lost interest in this.

Rubbing his nose is supposed to bring you good luck - hence his shiny nose. 

We went into the cathedral, which is Baroque in style, so Paul did not like it at all. It was, however, rather simpler than some other Baroque churches we have visited. The main altar has a triptych of the Assumption of the Virgin, said to be by Titian and probably dating from 1552. 

Personally, I would doubt the attribution to Titan. Our guide felt it was more likely to be 'school of Titan'. 

During the tour, our guide made many suggestions of other places in the city we might visit, and also suggested cafés and restaurants which might not be quite such a rip-off. Paul sat by the harbour in the shade and watched the ships for a bit, strolled through the market, and stopped for a much needed coffee. 

We wandered through some of the streets we had not visited before. Dubrovnik differs from other cities in that there are no modern buildings at all, which is a refreshing change. It does suffer from a surfeit of visitors though, so wandering the narrow streets can be frustrating and taking photos is difficult.

This is one of the side streets, narrower than the main street but not as narrow as some of the side streets, which are often so narrow there is only room for 2 people, one in each direction. 

I was only able to take this photo because yesterday's cruise ship had left and today's was a little late in arriving. Later, once the people from the latest cruise ship arrived, the side streets became impossible.

As you get some distance from the main streets, you get to the stairs; the streets on both sides of the city rise up towards the walls.

And yes, I did climb up all those stairs because we were following a recommended tourist trail round the city. It's also a way of escaping the crowds - most tourists don't want to climb all those stairs. You might notice that there are no banisters. Croatia is a country which does not, by and large, seem to have banisters on stairs. I imagine there must be lots of accidents.

It was extremely hot, so we left the city and the coach took most of us back to the hotel for the remains of the afternoon and evening.

Split to Dubrovnik

Split to Dubrovnik 

Sunday 18th June 2017

We were sad to say goodbye to the beautiful hotel in Split when the coach arrived for us this morning after breakfast.

We set off, on an initially rather dull day, to drive along what always used to be called the Dalmatian Coast. It is certainly very scenic, and rather like the Amalfi coast, where high cliffs plunge down to the sea, and charming little towns with pretty little harbours or little crescents of beach nestle at the water's edge. Photographing something like that isn't easy though. You are often on the wrong side of the bus, you fail to get the camera switched on in time, trees jump into your viewfinder, or reflections in the bus window ruin your photo. All of these reasons, along with the really dark skies, are the reason for my failure to have any charming photos.

I did manage one photo of the sort of terrain - steep rocky hills falling down to the sea. 

This wasn't the steepest, but it shows the general idea. It's so dark because it was a very cloudy morning.

After some time we stopped for morning coffee in a little town called Makarska. This is the town fountain.

It dates from 1755. It is in front of the church, which we didn't enter as there was a service in progress, it being Sunday.

There was also a market.

The fruit and vegetables looked lovely, but I took this photo because those pale green, almost lime green coloured things behind the cucumbers are in fact peppers, and I've never seen peppers that colour anywhere before.

We thought we might have some trouble on the road after Markarska because there was a forest fire, and it had jumped the road in some places. However, the firemen had put most of it out by the time we drove past. We sat a plane passing over very low, carrying water to help put it out, and we could see a lot of embers still smouldering on both sides of the road as we passed.

We continued along the coast, and reached an area where the land was lower and there were inlets of the sea stretching far inland.

This land was more fertile, and eventually we reached an area famous for fruit where we stopped to buy some - I bought the most delicious strawberry jam.

We reached our hotel outside Dubrovnik before 3, and checked in.

This is the view from our room, and is of a small harbour close to Dubrovnik. We are some distance away from the town.

At 4 o'clock we went off to catch a bus into Dubrovnik, a 10 minute ride, so it wasn't long before we were in front of the main gate.

This is called the Pile Gate - pronounced peel-eh. At least you can get a good idea of the fact is is a medieval walled city. There are no vehicles, and most of the streets are very narrow.

We took a walk down to the old port.

You can see how heavily fortified it was. I couldn't resist the photo of this replica sailing ship coming into the harbour. It is used for excursions and tourist trips round the area.

I'll be able to write more about the town tomorrow, because we have a tour and will undoubtedly learn some of the history.

Some of the building look almost Venetian, like this one, the Rectors Palace.

However, it was Ancona rather than Venice with which Dubrovnik was allied.

This is the main street, Stradun.

It is completely filled with tourists, the only locals you can see are in the shops and restaurants, both of which are very expensive. 

At the end of the main street is this clock tower.

I can be more specific tomorrow about the more important buildings - though photos are difficult with so many people. And I hope I won't be quite so tired tomorrow - I'm almost too tired to write anything tonight.

A Day in Split

A Day in Split

Saturday 17 June 2017

A boat trip was scheduled for today to go to the island of Brac (pronounced Bra-ch) but it wasn't due back until 2.30, and I thought I might be too exhausted by then from wandering round Brac to spend any time in Split. So we elected not to go to Brac, and caught a bus down into Split instead.

Split harbour is currently full of expensive boats. These are the cheaper ones!

We were both anxious to see Diocletian's Palace, so we headed there first. The Roman Emperor Diocletian built the massive palace in preparation for his retirement in 305 AD. The word palace is a bit misleading as it is absolutely massive and in fact  resembles a large fortress: about half of it was for Diocletian's personal use, and the rest housed the military garrison.

After the Romans abandoned the site, the Palace remained empty for several centuries. In the 7th century, nearby residents fled to the walled palace in an effort to escape invading Croats, and the palace has been occupied ever since. People  made their homes inside it and and started businesses in the palace basement and built inside its walls. Most of the palace was demolished and rebuilt over the intervening centuries, but even today shops and restaurants, and some homes can be found inside the original walls.

This process of turning the palace into the town of Split destroyed much of the structure of the residential part of the palace, but the basement halls, which reflect the structure of the palace above, have been relatively well preserved. The emperor's halls were partitioned, rebuilt or demolished during the medieval period, but the basement was filled up with rubble and rubbish. Excavations here began in 1956, and the majority of the basement has now been cleared and gives you an idea of what was originally above.

There are shops on either side of the main walkway in the upper part, which is the part most in use.

The photo below gives a good impression of the main hall in the west wing. 

I think it was in fact used as a set for 'Game of Thrones' with the addition of a set of steps at the far end where what looks like a window is in fact a door.

There are various sarcophagi from Roman times, and the occasion medieval artefact.

This is a medieval olive press. 

While we were exploring this underground part I suddenly heard marching feet, and a troop of Roman soldiers marched past at the end of the passageway. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get my camera out sufficiently quickly to photograph them, but later we saw a couple of them outside in the peristyle.

It was a very hot day, so I didn't manage to photograph them both with their helmets on. One of them kept talking his off.

A monumental court, called the Peristyle, formed the northern access to the imperial apartments. One side was nice and shady, so we sat on the steps at one side to eat our picnic lunch.

The peristyle also gave access to Diocletian's mausoleum on the east - it's now the Cathedral of St. Domnius. We visited that later. On the west side it originally gave access to three temples. Two of these are now lost, and the third, originally the temple of Jupiter, has become a small baptistery, which we also visited later.

Outside you can see some of the homes which have been built in to the palace walls. These ones have been heavily restored.

The bell tower of the cathedral can be seen here in the background.

Some of the homes have not been restored.

The roof of this one looked as if it was about to fall down, and I'm sure it must leak!

We visited a small folk museum, which was built into part of what had been a nunnery, also built into part of the palace. Quite a bit of this museum was given over to the history of tobacco growing and cigarette production in Croatia. I had not previously realised that tobacco was grown in Croatia - we haven't seen any growing - but it was apparently an important cash crop. 

Other parts of the museum had old costumes from the 18th and 19th centuries, and beautiful rugs and painted chests. There was also a loom, and this beautiful old river boat.

Inside it are nets, a basket on a stick which was for catching crabs, and two fish traps.

After that, we returned to the peristyle and went down a passageway to the erstwhile temple of Jupiter, which was turned into the baptistery of St John the Baptist in the 6th century AD.

It is just one small rectangular room, with a barrel vaulted ceiling. The statue is a modern one of John the Baptist, by a Croatian sculptor, Ivan Meštrović, who died in 1962.

We crossed to the east side of the peristyle to go into the Cathedral of St. Domnius. 

This is as you might suspect, Baroque.

It's a astonishing symphony of marble and gold. As I am too polite to take photos while people are praying, I had to wait quite a long time to get this photo. There are a lot of devout people in Croatia. 

We spent some time wandering round the old town at the far side of the palace. It's a fascinating area with very narrow cobbled streets and thankfully there is no room for cars. This is one of the squares.

Some of the buildings have a renaissance air. The one below looks almost as if it had come directly from Venice.

It has been heavily restored of course, quite a lot of the old town has been restored like this. 

I was very tired so we stopped for an iced coffee in order to give me the strength to go and find the bus stop and tackle the 15 minute walk from the bus stop to the hotel. The day was very hot and sunny, well over 30 degrees, and it was a relief to be back in the air-conditioned hotel room.

Tomorrow we are up early again to set off for Dubrovnik.

Split

Friday 16th June

Split

Today began far too early, necessitating a 5.30 alarm. We were collecting our picnic breakfasts at 6.30, and at Zagreb station not long after 7. For such a big town (1 million people) it has a rather small station, and because there are no lifts, you are allowed to walk across the tracks, as at Bled. In this case, because there is also an underpass with lots of steps, there is a gate between the tracks preventing you walking right across, but a man will unlock it for you. Or at least, he will if your Tour Manager explains that she has thirty elderly people with heavy suitcases who will undoubtedly drop dead in the heat if they have to heave the suitcases up and down lots of stairs.

The train from Zagreb to Split is supposed to take 6 hours, but ours took more than 6 and a half. It began by crossing the plain to the south of Zagreb and, as the scenery wasn't all that interesting, I fell asleep.

When I woke up, we were in the mountains and the surroundings were more interesting. The land was wild and often completely empty. We passed many small settlements which seemed to consist entirely of derelict buildings. The soil in many places was obviously poor as it was very rocky and only scrubby bushes grew. You could see that the land had once been worked because it was often divided up by dry stone walls around fields with no crops or animals in them, and empty houses, if there were any at all. The train made many stops at tiny stations where nobody got off or on, and the only person we ever saw was the station master. Goodness knows what had happened to all of the people. Our guide round Zagreb had told us that people no longer wanted to work the land, and preferred to come into the towns, and I suppose this is the result.

A coach collected us to take us to our hotel, and we checked in. Paul went out to find a bus stop for a bus into town while I put my feet up - my feet were very swollen by the journey - and came back to say that the bus stop was a 20 minute walk away up a steep hill. So on balance I decided to take a day of rest and allow my poor swollen feet and ankles time to recover. So we visited the swimming pool instead of going out.

You can see the pool in my photo, in fact my photo shows the view from the balcony of our room. So an afternoon of rest was no hardship!

Plitvice Lakes

15 June 2017

Plitvice Lakes

Plitvice is pronounced more or less as 'Plit-vee-chay' 

A coach called for us at 8.30 in the morning, so we were up early in order to shower, dress and breakfast before that. 

Today is a public holiday, Corpus Christi, so it seemed much of the population of Zagreb was on the motorway and our progress across the flat plains south of Zagreb was slow. After just over an hour, we left the motorway for narrower roads through the hills and the roads were much less crowded. Thankfully, it seemed that not everybody in Zagreb was visiting Plitvice Lakes!

Plitvice Lakes National Park, founded in 1949, is one of the oldest national parks in Southeast Europe and in 1979, was added to the UNESCO World Heritage register. The national park is formed of lakes and cascades. There are currently 16 lakes which result from the confluence of several rivers, both on the surface and subterranean. The lakes are all interconnected and are separated by natural dams of travertine, a porous carbonate rock formed by the sedimentation of calcium carbonate from the water. It builds barriers and sills, creating waterfalls both large and small. Over time, the water changes its course, so everything is in a state of change. We last visited Plitvice Lakes in 1975, and it was somewhat different then - there were hardly any visitors, for a start!

The Lakes can vary in colour, but tend to be varying shades of green, blue and turquoise. 

We began by descending into a canyon - rather slowly, as the paths and trails were very crowded with hundreds and hundreds of people. There are a myriad of streams cascading down the canyon.

Some of the trails are on boardwalks, and you may be able to see from this photo the hundreds of people surging along the boardwalk at the far side of the canyon.

The water in the lakes and streams is very clear; I have several photos where you can hardly tell where the water begins. You can see the fish (mainly Chub, Rudd and Trout) clustering near the boardwalks in the hope that tourists will feed them. You aren't supposed to, but people obviously must do so, or you wouldn't see so many of them looking hopeful!

Once down in the canyon, we were able to admire Veliki Slap, the tallest waterfall in Croatia at 78 m.

It was almost impossible to take a photo without an awful lot of people in it. The whole park seems overrun by people with selfie sticks and taking photos can be difficult at the good viewpoints - you have to queue!

You can see that the waterfalls and cascades vary in size.

This is a view from one of the boardwalks.

Some of the lakes are calm and peaceful.

It was possible to find quiet spots from time to time, and appreciate the gorgeous colour of the water. The colour does change with the light, so it can be much brighter when the sun comes out, and darker when there is cloud cover.

Sometimes the water makes channels down through the abundant vegetation

At other times you can more clearly see the travertine sills

Sometimes the waterfalls are so close to the path that conversation becomes difficult - the water is very loud.

There were places where the water was even closer to the walkway than this, but they were often places where it would have been dangerous to stop to take a photograph. There was often quite a press of people going in both directions, and you are so close to the water there is always the worry that some impatient person will inadvertently shove you in!

After a couple of hours we reached a picnic spot, where we stopped for lunch, after which we caught the boat along the lake.

The boat takes 100 people, but we had to queue for a very long time as there were more than 300 people in the queue in front of us. After that, you climb and descend some stairs to catch another smaller boat across the lake. Then it's a lot more climbing to get back towards the road.

These upper lakes have fewer cascades and are altogether quieter and less scenic, and you can hire a rowing boat to get closer to nature than you can on the bigger boat. But our coach was waiting for us at 3.30, as it was a 2 hour trip back to Zagreb, a rest from the heat and then dinner in the hotel. 

I have always wanted to come back here, ever since the first time we visited. Now I'd like to come again and spend longer and explore more of the park. But I'd try to avoid a public holiday and hope it wouldn't be quite so crowded.

We have to get up at 5.30 tomorrow, it's a 6.30 start! We are off to Split next.

Every time I post this and then preview it, the text has changed in some paragraphs in either font or size or both; I've tried 3 times so far, so if it happens this time, I'm just leaving it - I have a case to pack!