Month: July 2006

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Europe 2006

The Cost of Travel?

We’ve had an interesting struggle in Croatia, trying to use credit cards to pay for our trip to make sure that we keep lots of liquid cash for ‘just in case’ times that might come up later.  Other countries were easy, but virtually nobody in Croatia other than the big (expensive) hotels and jewelers take them.  We haven’t had a whole lot of luck.

Yesterday, we tried to buy some groceries on my card in Dubrovnik, but the attempt was blocked by Mastercard.  I contacted them today, and found out that my account has been closed because of suspicious activities … somewhere along the way, somebody stole my card number, and has been gambling online with it.  I’m guessing that it happened at an insecure internet cafe somewhere along the way, but, it really could have been anywhere.  I don’t think that this will actually cost me anything, other than the $15 or so that I had to pay to call my bank today.  Fun times.

Otherwise, things are going well.  We just finished a great dinner in an outdoor restaurant here on our last night in Dubrovnik.  We head north to Split tomorrow, and then further east the following day.  Put Croatia on your list of places to visit … just expect to pay in cash, not with credit.

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Europe 2006

Marco …

I never really understood the whole Marco Polo game that people played in the pool … seems popular for some reason.

We’re still in Korcula, at least for a few more hours.  Korcula claims Marco Polo to be their own … apparently he was born here once upon a time.  Loads of shops, hotels, etc. bear his name … hopefully it is what he would have wanted.

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Europe 2006

I need sunscreen

Maybe I should change that last “Wes Knows …” thing to blame Wes.  I’ve somehow landed in one of the sunniest places on Earth … I don’t really get the conversion, but, they keep advertising here that they get more than 2500 hours of sunlight every year … whatever it works out to, it is sunny.  After a few days in Croatia, I’ve learned that there is no need to check the weather forecast … you’re pretty much guaranteed blue skies, sun, no clouds and hot.  I’ve got access to three bottles of sunscreen, which should be enough, provided I stay indoors for the majority of the day.  No bad burns yet, but, I need to stay careful.

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Europe 2006

Wes Knows …

Some of you know Wes Grubbs, some of you don’t.  Regardless, I’ve recently found out that Wes knows his stuff.  He used to live in Croatia, and encouraged Michele and I over and over (and over …) to make sure that we stop here for a visit.  We arrived in Dubrovnik, a beautiful, historic city in the south of Croatia yesterday morning.  The city, the scenery, the surrounding coastline, and the people have all exceeded our expectations.

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Daily Log Europe 2006

And Away We Go

Last night in Rome has come and soon will be gone … after four days here, we are pretty worn out. Lots of walking on some very old, and very hard roads … our feet and legs are tired, and we’re ready for a break.

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Daily Log Europe 2006

24 Hours in Rome

A note from sweaty Rome for you … we’ve been here for a little while now, about 24 hours I guess.  Done our share of sweating, but, we’ve been doing that since London, so we’re kind of getting used to it.

Have managed to see the Colosseum, some of the other ruins, and St. Peter’s Square/Basilica.  All very impressive.  The city is large, crowded and quite dirty.  Having said that, I think that it is a place that pretty much everybody would enjoy visiting, and should make a point of getting here sometime.  I imagine that there are better times of year to visit than July or August … something in the spring or fall would likely be great.

This morning, I got up around 5am, and was on the road by 5:30.  I wanted to get some early morning photos at St. Peter’s Square.  When I arrived, I pretty much had the place to myself … beautiful morning light, and nothing but a few nuns and priests walking about.  It was unbelievable.

The Basilica opens at 7am, and I went in shortly after.  The place is amazing in many ways, the least of which is its size … it can apparently hold more than 60,000 people, and I’d certainly believe it.  When I was in there, there couldn’t have been more than 100 people.  It was great.

Michele met up with me at 9 out in the square.  We were going to go to the Vatican museums with the main goal of seeing the Sistine Chapel.  We got in line (there are lines for everything if you’re not up really early) … Michele went ahead to see just how long the line was.  She returned about 5 minutes later, saying that she wasn’t even able to see the end of the line.  We pulled the plug on that for today, and will give it a try tomorrow.  Back to the Basilica again … this time we had to wait in line
for about 20 minutes to get through the metal detectors (yes).  We were back inside, and it was like a totally different place … more like an amusement park than the center of the Catholic world.  People lining up to take photos of entombed popes, lots and lots of noise … really not a churchie atmosphere.  But, what can you do?  Get up early I guess.  We’ll try the museums again tomorrow.

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Europe 2006

Where in the world is Michele?

Okay, so I’m bad at keeping in touch.  Nothing that you didn’t already know.  Well, the trip so far has been everything — amazing, stressful, awesome, tiring . . . .  In a nutshell, I’ve received what I asked for and then some. 

For instance, I had a couple of near perfect days in Florence — One morning, I toured the Ufizi Gallery and saw with my own eyes Boticelli’s Venus, his Primavera, and the Gift of the Magi, as well as the Assumption by Leonardo Da Vinci. In the evening, we had a great Italian meal followed by coffee and gelati. On ths stroll home, Dennis and I popped into the Church of San Lorenzo to hear a full orchestra play some of the most beautiful music ever written. The next day, in an empty museum early in the morning, I had a private viewing of Michelangelo’s unfinished Florentine Pieta — the one Michelangelo originally intended to be for his own tombstone but which he never finished and in fact partially destroyed in a rage.  Thankfully, one of his students has repaired most of it.  One of the most interesting things about the statue is that Michelangelo carved his own face into the figure of Nicodemus, one of the men who took Jesus’s body down from the cross. 

After that, I had the privilege of seeing yet another of Michelangelo’s works, the David.  Though copied many times, there is nothing like the original.  The proportions, its hugeness, its detail, like the folds of skin on the thumb, and the motion captured in stone, is truly the work of a genius.  This particular day ended with a trip just south of the River Arno to view Florence at sunset.  How perfect is that?

Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash
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Europe 2006 Random Thoughts

Eating in Italy

Italy is famous for good food … we all know that. What I didn’t know is what exactly was involved in eating in Italy. There is a lot more to it than I would have imagined.

I’m not talking about which fork to use when, or which wine to order … there are little things here than I never knew about. For example, there are lots of different names for places … a ‘bar’ isn’t really a bar as we know it. It’s a coffee bar typically, that primarily sells coffee (cappuccino, espresso, etc.) and some alcohol, and sometimes some light snacks like croissants. The idea is to eat and drink while standing at the bar … typical in and out time would be less than five minutes. Some of these places have seats … if you want to sit down, it will cost you. Most items have two prices, and if you decide that you want to sit down, they’ll charge you the more expensive one. Learned that one the hard way.

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Country Wrap-Up Europe 2006

London Was …

Since we never left London, I can’t really comment about England as a whole.  London was much more than I expected … however, coming from Ireland and Scotland, we weren’t really told a whole lot about England that would have given us much hope.

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Europe 2006 Location Update

When in Rome

Cheesie enough title I suppose, but, we are now in Rome.  After a few quiet days in the countryside (except for a few very noisy hours of horn honking and World Cup-related celebrations), we’re back in the big city.  Back in the land of email, and who knows what else … this city apparently has some old buildings worth looking at, so we’ll try to get around to that soon enough.  For now, we’re going to work on tracking down a travel agency that can help us get some ferry tickets to Croatia.

Train ride in was pretty good, aside from the A/C not working very well.  Quite mountainous here … reminds me a little of Taiwan, with very steep, very green mountains.  There must be some good trails in there somewhere. Maybe next time.