Pat and Norm's World Cruises and other adventures

April 13, 2022

First the good news.  Our Covid tests were negative this morning.  And we saw the sunrise from the balcony.

Today we are exploring Trieste.  This is our port of call instead of Venice which does not allow cruise ships into the city anymore.  We sailed in there when we visited years ago, but they are prohibited now.  Oceania is looking for permission to dock closer to Venice but that has not been approved yet.  So Trieste it is, and we haven’t visited this city before.  Venice is a 2 hour trip from here and many passengers are going there.  We will need to travel to Venice airport tomorrow so our flight has been changed to a later one on a different airline.

Our tour today is Trieste and its Miramare Castle.  Our guide was Katya.

On our way to the Castle, she gave us a lot of information about Trieste.  The population here is 200,000 and the city is bordered by Austria to the north and Slovenia to the east. Croatia is only 19 miles to the south.  There is a long coastline and its location from a plateau to the Adriatic Sea keeps it physically and psychologically isolated from the rest of the Italian peninsula.  It preserves its own culture and dialect, a mixture of Italian, Austrian-German, Croatian and Greek. It has one of the highest standards of living among Italian cities and was named one of the 25 best small towns in the world for quality of life and one of the ten safest cities in the world in 2021.

Actually, we felt pretty safe on this whole trip, no pickpockets or any kind of threat at all.  Of course the crowds were not here both because of Covid and the early part of the season.

The city has mostly one way streets which makes it challenging to travel through.  Our driver is of course familiar, so no problem.

The 17th century was very important here, the Empress Marie Therese made a lot of positive changes and she is much loved by the people.

We went to the lovely Miramare Castle which was the home of the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximillian and his wife, Charlotte of Belgium, later Emperor Maximillian of Mexico.  He supposedly chose the site after taking shelter from a storm in the harbor.  The castle has a surrounding 54 acre park. It was only accessible by sea. It means “look at the sea.” It was finished only after he went to Mexico in 1864 and reigned there as Emperor until he was executed in June 1867.  During the construction he  lived in the Castelleto which still stands on the grounds but is closed to visitors.We spent 45 minutes touring the castle and another 45 minutes walking around the grounds.  The area is isolated and very serene.

This is the view as we approach the castle.

We heard so much history about Marie Therese, Maximillian that it is hard to capture it all. 

Here are pictures of the beautiful interior with original silk wall coverings and intricate furniture. There are 5000 books in the library.

This is a piano forte, an early version of the piano.

Later, the residents of the castle were the family of Duke Amedeo of Aosta and they had simpler tastes!

And here are some shots from around the grounds.

After the castle, we went up to the San Guisto area which is high on the hill overlooking the city.  There we toured the San Giusto Cathedral which is a Roman Catholic cathedral and the main church of Trieste. The first building on the site was in the 6th century and was completely destroyed by the Lombard invasion.Between the 9th and the 17th centuries, two basilicas were erected and in the 14th century the two were joined. Inside you can see the difference in the architecture and décor between the two.

There is an old fortress on the hill with the church and some ruins. The brick is newer, the white is the original.

We didn’t have free time in the town but since we are here overnight and our ship will change locations, we may do a last dinner in Italy. The comedian Mark Palmer will perform again tonight.

We THINK we filled out and uploaded all of the required forms for our flight back to the US.  We are flying on Iberia and we change planes in Madrid, then back to Miami and home. 

April 11, 2022

Slovenia is another country we have never visited so we were looking forward to today. Our sail in was beautiful as most of these Mediterranean countries are, but a difference today was that when we looked down from our balcony into the sea, there were literally thousands of big jellyfish!  We never saw so many before.

We arrived at 10 AM today and our tour was at 10:45 and was a walking tour of Koper.  We could get right off the ship and met our guide on the pier. This was the only place they stamped our passports.  Most ports did not even require that you have them with you, only Croatia and here, and they never checked or stamped them in Croatia.

Marajita was our guide today.  We walked into the old city first.  As we walked, she gave us some of the history of the city. This city was built on an island surrounded by swampland that was later drained. .  It was called Goat Island because of the many goats that lived here.  It was controlled in the 1400s and 1500s by the Venetian Republic and many of the buildings date back to this period.  The main square in the city is called Tito Square. The country is only 10 miles from Italy and both Italian and Slovene are taught in school and spoken by most of the population. Because Italy is so close, many people travel there to work as the salaries are higher.

The country is bordered by Austria to the north and to the east, Hungary.  Croatia is to the south and Italy to the west. Slovenia has barely 30 miles of coastline.

We visited the museum and the Pretorian Palace. The museum is celebrating 110 years. In the museum there were letters from people whose relatives lived through WWII. The exhibits were in Slovene and Italian and occasionally there would be a laminated sheet in English.  It was still interesting, though.  Some of the letters were in English.

Here are some of the sights of the city.

The city is shaped like a shield and Marajita pointed out all of the places we visited on this map that is in one of the squares.

This wall is where people could come and make their complaints!

The winged lion is the symbol of Venice and is seen all around the city. The large homes have wells outside to guarantee that they will have water. The sun represents the jellyfish and Medusa.

After our walking tour we went to a restaurant, Kapitalita which was along the harbor and we were served wine, potato chips and olives. The corner has the trunk of a vine and you can see the shadow of the vines on the roof.

Next door was a salt shop. They have a lot of salt flats here and the salt is famous. I bought some to take home.

Marajita said that the cyclists and other sports figures are excellent here and greatly respected. Of course she also mentioned Melania and Fiorello LaGuardia who were both born here.

Tomorrow is our last day of the cruise and we will visit Trieste Italy which is a short distance away.  We don’t leave here until midnight which means the shops and the casino will be closed.  It is a nice treat for the crew to be able to get off and walk into town.

I had a lovely facial today and tomorrow morning we will get our Covid tests.  We have a tour of Trieste and then sadly, we will need to pack because we leave for the Venice airport early in the morning for our flight home.

April 11, 2022

So many people have told me how beautiful Dubrovnik is.. well it certainly lived up to expectations and then some! George Bernard Shaw visited the city in 1929 and said “If you want to see heaven on earth, come to Dubrovnik”. Just sailing in was spectacular.

Our guide today was Tony, who was born in 1986 and grew up in the Old City of Dubrovnik.  His English was amazing and we noticed he counted in English which in our experience is rare.  People usually count in their native languages.  It is compulsory to take both English and Croatian in school here from the age of 6.

Croatia is a country of 56,000 square kilometers. The population is 3.8 million with 43,000 living in Dubrovnik and only 1000 living in the Old City. Croatia borders 6 countries and the longest land border is with Bosnia. Dubrovnik is a UNESCO heritage site so no changes can be made to the buildings here.

They are not on the Euro yet, they will be next year but their currency is the kuna and 1 Euro is equal to 7.5 kuna.

The country is mostly Catholic but there are 45 Jewish people in Dubrovnik and they do have a synagogue but no rabbi. The patron saint of the city is Saint Blaise (Catholics know of the blessing of the throat which dates back to St. Blaise.) The most beloved church here is dedicated to St. Blaise.

The third oldest European pharmacy dating back to 1317 is located here and is still operating.

Few of Dubrovnik’s Renaissance buildings survived the earthquake of 1667 but there are enough left to understand the architectural heritage.

We went by cable car to the top of a mountain where the War Museum is located.  It is in the old fortress and is lined with pictures and narrative of the war with Serbia and Montenegro.  There is also a short movie about that war and the extreme damage it did. They have meticulously reconstructed the city after both the earthquake and the war. The images of the current war in Ukraine came to our minds.  What a tragedy.

The views from both the cable car and outside of the War Museum were amazing.  Tony told us that the roofs of the buildings in the Old City will let you identify the buildings that were destroyed and rebuilt because their roofs are orange and the old ones are brown.

Then we were invited to a café overlooking the city for a refreshment.  The servers were so friendly and we were served either blueberry juice or orange juice and what they called a muffin.  They were more like cupcakes with icing and were delicious.

We took the cable car down and then walked to the Old City. There are so many wonderful sights – I will just post photos of some of them.

There was one church that survived the war and there are bullet holes on the outside.

One church is called the “cat church” because of the many cats that congregate here.  The cats are fed by local restaurant owners and in return they keep mice and rats away.

One item of interest was the first orphanage, from the 1400’s.  Women could bring babies they either couldn’t care for or were products of a relationship they wanted to keep hidden to this window and simply hand the baby into the box.  No one was allowed to watch so it was anonymous.  If the mother wanted to later be identified, she might leave a note or a necklace with the child.  Then when the children reached 6 years of age while in the orphanage, they could be adopted or returned to the mother.

Much of the HBO series Game of Thrones was filmed here and of course many shops sell items related to the series.

This gargoyle is said to guarantee a wonderful love life if you stand on it and take your shirt off.  No one that I saw did it, but the walls are dark from the people who try to hold on.  It is slippery and slanted which makes it almost impossible to keep your balance.

We walked through the Old City and then had free time on our own.  We chose to climb and walk the City Walls.  They are 2 km long and are famous around the world.  They were protection from the enemy in the past but now they are an attraction that is sort of a city museum offering views from above the city.  The walls are so thick!

We had to have a gelato before we left the city at 2.  I guess you could call it lunch.

Both weather and scenery made this a real highlight of the trip for us.  Tomorrow we arrive in Slovenia.

We saw this sailboat as we relaxed on our balcony before sail away.

April 10, 2022

Our port of call today is Corfu, Greece. 

We arrived while it was still a bit dark outside but you could still see one of the forts as we sailed in.

Our guide is Zita who was born in Hungary but has been working here for 23 years.

Locating Corfu on the map – if you picture the heel of the boot of Italy and the west coast of mainland Greece, Corfu lies just between them.  It faces Albania on the east, and we got a notice on our phones “Welcome to Albania”, that’s how close it is.

The position of Corfu at the entrance to the Adriatic Sea makes it a strategic location as well.

First, we traveled through the town and heard from Zita that the population of Corfu is 100,000.  It is very fertile and is called the Emerald Island.  It has a wonderful climate and many beautiful beaches.  Before Covid, Zita said that about 78 planes a day landed here in summer.

We stopped for a view of a small island called Mouse Island due to its small size.  Mythology says that it was the ship of Ulysses that was stoned by the god Poseidon. It is near a church and monastery called Panagia Vlacherna which is linked to the land by a small bridge. 

There is a forecast for some rain today but so far it is sunny.

The Venetians occupied Corfu during the period when Christianity was introduced and most of the so called pagan structures were destroyed and the worship of the gods decreased.  Many stories remain though. 

We visited the Mon Repos Palace which was actually the birthplace of Prince Phillip of the UK.  He was born on the dining table in the villa which belonged to Greek Royals in 1921. There is a plaque marking the site as his birthplace. Mon Repos is now an archeological museum. We had a tour through the museum and learned the importance of olive oil and wine in the country.  Much of the old pottery was used for oil or wine.

One room had these paintings of local flowers.  The large one is the so called Judas tree where Judas hanged after betraying Jesus.  It is plentiful on the island.

The grounds are beautiful and we saw lots of runners on the roads around the palace.

There are two large forts on Corfu aptly named the new fort and the old fort!  The old fort on the east side of the town overlooking the sea was built in the 15th century by the Venetians and is one of the most impressive fortifications in Europe.  We didn’t go in but had lots of photo opportunities.

The new fort is also called the Fortress of St. Mark and was built  between 1576 and 1645. You still see the winged lion, symbol of Venice, on many of the buildings.

So you see, they are both quite old!

We had time to walk around the old town.  Even though it is Sunday, many shops were open.  Apparently a big thing here is Donkey Milk soap, so we had to buy some.

We also saw these men load this large object into their small car.  No idea what it was or where it was headed.

We visited a small ornate church and the man inside gave us candles to light and also some bread. 

Just as we were getting ready to return to the ship, there was a rain storm so we got kind of soaked.  It wasn’t too cold though, and we did have our waterproof windbreakers on.

We say goodbye to beautiful Corfu and Greece.  Tomorrow we visit Dubrovnik in Croatia and we are really excited to see it because everyone says it is so beautiful.  Our clocks go back one hour tonight.

April 9, 2022

We arrived at our first port in Greece this morning.  The village of Katakolon is on the western coast of Greece’s largest peninsula, the Peloponnese.  It is best known as the gateway to one of ancient Greece’s most notable historic landmarks ancient Olympia.  It is famous as the location of the first Olympiad, and that is the site we visited today.

Our guide was Marietta, and she was really terrific.  She says she is close to retirement and our whole group decided she should not retire, she was that good!

Greece is made up of 3000 islands, the largest is Crete.

As we traveled the countryside, Marietta told us about all of the many things that are grown here.  The largest is olives and this peninsula has 22 million olive trees.  Second is watermelon and we passed several farms on our route. 65% of the fertile land in the country is found in this area. The prize in the early Olympics was an olive tree branch, a symbol of peace.

96% of the population is Greek Orthodox.

1700 years ago, Olympia was buried by an earthquake and a tsunami and the site of the Olympiad was buried under 15 – 30 feet of land and it is still being excavated.

The last Olympics to be held here were in 393 AD. Back in the day, no women were allowed to compete, only Greek born males could compete, later Romans were allowed.  I didn’t know that the men competed naked! The games lasted 5 days and after the games ended in those days, women were allowed into the site to honor the goddess Hera.

The games inspired the Olympic truce when all hostilities were temporarily suspended in honor of the games.

The Olympic torch is still lit here and carried by a series of runners.

The 5000 acre site was made a national park in the 1970s.

Here are some pictures of the site:

This is where the torch is lit.

Norm did a start and a finish, but didn’t run the length of the course, we both walked it!

N

The red bud trees and other flowers combined with a nice clear and warm day with few tourists made this a wonderful day.

After our visit to the site, we went to the modern city of Olympia for shopping and strolling. There will be a big motorcycle race here soon,  Here’s the banner that is all over town and also some of the bikers.  Check out the boots!

Marietta gave us information about the prices and inflation in the country. It seems to be the same in most places that we visit.

In 2007 there was a big fire and 3 million olive trees burned.  60 people died.  Marietta and her husband had 1000 trees and lost them all.  There was another fire in 2021 but no lives were lost.

Tomorrow we head to Corfu, our second Greek port.