3rd stop - Corfu, Greece

Some of my random thoughts about Corfu:

Corfu is a lovely Greek island. Typically when Americans vacation in the Greek isles, they go to Santorini or Mykonos. On the other hand, Europeans often go to Corfu. And I can understand why - it is lovely, unspoiled. There are beautiful beaches, hills, lush vegetation, quaint small towns, plus history galore. There are picturesque views all over the island. I can easily understand vacationing there, or even living there.

We again had a fabulous local guide. Altho I was quite disconcerted when we first met up with Dimitris. I definitely did not expect a red-headed Greek!!! But Dimitris grew up on Corfu, and his love and pride in his island really shows.

Dimitris took us to some very cool overlooks. Because olives were/are the main industry, we spent quite a bit of time talking about them. We saw olive trees, the nets underneath the trees that catch the olives as they fall, olives that had already fallen, plus we went to the Olive Museum that has old olive press equipment that was used for making olive oil. It was actually quite funny. We pulled into a small town and parked. We started walking, and Dimitris walked into a local shop to get the museum key, and then he was our museum guide too, and was extremely knowledgable. In this little town is the SMALL school where Dimitris went, and where his son now goes. We peeked in the windows when we walked by and saw the kids all working hard. Across the street was another school where you could hear the kids laughing. I think what now strikes me most about this is that the windows of the schools were open. You just don't see business windows open in the U.S. It seems like folks in the U.S. do everything they can to block out nature and the outside while other people welcome it in.

A little sidenote here - it was odd to me in both Corfu and in Dubrovnik - amongst the many flowers that grow wild were many poppies. They are quite beautiful and definitely stand out. Since we don't have them in Wisconsin, it seems weird to me that a plant that is used to make an illegal substance just grows wild... ;-o


We went to a nice Byzantine church in a different small town. We went inside and looked around and took pictures. I just love the Byzantine architecture; it's very pleasing to my eye with nice lines and curves and attention to detail. The inside was beautiful as well. The altar was much more richly decorated than I had expected for the town. And of course, Dimitris gave great explanations on the church and religious items.

We saw a lady using a donkey cart to transport goods. And we discovered on our trip that it wasn't really that unusual. We saw carts and buggies quite a bit more than expected. On the surface the places we visited seemed quite modern, but then we'd see something like that and realize that not everyone and everything has been modernized yet. And perhaps these countries, or at least some of the locals from these countries, are still quite poor by U.S. standards.

Our last stop before going to Corfu City was another scenic overlook area - one of, if not the most, famous view on the island. There is a monastery that is only reachable by boat and/or by walking. It is quite picturesque, surrounded by crystal clear water and hilly islands.

Let's see - Corfu town. The older part of town has a great fort, other older buildings and statues, typical of European towns, pedestrian traffic only. There is also the typical shopping area: narrow winding pedestrian only streets, with a bunch of shops all selling pretty much the same things. Jewelry, locally made wine and alcohol, olive oil soap and tourist souvenirs were definitely most common.

Greg and I didn't do as much in the old town area as I would have liked. We were looking for a post office, and wandered thru a lot of the newer part of the city. In a way, that was interesting too. We saw the locals just going about their business like any other city. We saw their normal business, shops, restaurants, etc., rather than touristy stuff.

2nd stop - Dubrovnik, Croatia

Before we went on this trip, I had, of course, read lots of reviews on the ports, the ship, etc. Dubrovnik is a place that surprises a lot of people - they don't expect much and then find out it's beautiful and full of history.

The four of us decided to get a taxi to get an overview of sorts before we walked the Old Town. We lucked out, getting a taxi driver who spoke English very well. Robert took us to some nice scenic lookout areas, as well as a couple spots that have a little more history to them.

Personally I would enjoy going back to the area, not so much to see the city of Dubrovnik again, but more to see the surrounding area. The Dalmatian coastline and islands are supposed to be absolutely beautiful, and I can understand that from the little bit we could see.

What struck me most was the casual talk about the recent 1991-1995 Bosnian war. The first place Robert took us to was the marina - he showed us a nice little creek/waterfall, and pointed out where the Serb border was. Then after a few photo opps, he took us to an old fort at the top of a hill overlooking Dubrovnik. The old fort area was interesting for a couple reasons.

First, the fort was built by Napoleon. Wow - that was kind of neat. In my mind - Napoleon is "old" history, and I just never thought about seeing something built by/for him. Robert pointed out the stables and a few other structures that aren't as obvious as to their purpose. But the fort itself was still standing too.

More thought-provoking, the fort was basically the "last stand" for Dubrovnik during the Bosnian war. The townspeople used that fort to keep the Serbs out of Dubrovnik. Robert commented about hearing gunfire every day in town. He told us how everyone did what they could to keep their town safe. And I'm not talking about a couple of days or weeks, it was YEARS. We could see the damage done to the walls during the war. Right near the fort was a small building that was the top end of a gondola that brought people up from town - the building was pretty much demolished, and the gondola is gone. Robert pointed out some of the memorials to townspeople who had died during the fighting. It really made me think about how fortunate we are in the States. The thought of waking up every morning to gunfire, the possibility of a sniper or a stray bullet, of friends and family being shot.... OMG. In the city there is a museum, I guess it would be called, that has a "spec" poster on every person who lost their life fighting to keep Dubrovnik out of Serb hands - it really personalized the war to me, seeing the young faces of the men who fought and died there.

On a lighter note, yes, Dubrovnik is a beautiful town. The Old Town, of course, is most interesting to tourists, but even the newer areas are beautiful. The town is built on the sides of hills at the end of the Adriatic Sea. Old Town is on the only flat piece of land in the area, it is right on the sea. It is encircled with a wall - and WHAT A WALL! It must have been incredibly difficult to build that wall without all the modern technology we have now. It hangs right on out over the water, and it's really tall in some spots, with forts on all the corners. From a distance Old Town looks pretty big, but when you actually go into it and walk, it seems like it's only a few blocks each direction.

It is possible to walk on the wall the entire length around the Old Town. It's almost like a sidewalk on top of the wall, with sidewalls to protect people from falling off. The views from the wall are incredible - gotta love the tile roofs - so colorful!! And the water is just fab - clear and vibrantly colored. The picture to the left is from a tower of a corner fort on the wall.

It was very intriguing being on the wall overlooking the Old Town. We could see laundry flapping in the breeze, reminding us that it is still a living city - people really do live there, it isn't just a museum for tourists. Most of the homes had satellite dishes. Sometimes as we walked and looked, I felt like a peeping Tom, looking down into people's yards and gardens. Sometimes their windows were only a few feet away from the wall. It made me wonder how I would feel about living there - do you get used to being on display to tourists all the time?

Just like Venice, the streets in Dubrovnik are narrow. The town was obviously built when travel was done by foot, not even by horse. The buildings are beautiful, and there are neat courtyards and squares.

There are wonderful restaurants with outside dining. In fact, we had a light lunch at one - very good as a matter of fact. But the funny thing - after we paid, the waiter came up to us and told us we left too much tip. We told him we didn't, and he said yes. Back and forth, finally we convinced him and he left. As we were leaving, he ran up to us, again, saying we gave him too much tip. His manager insisted he talk to us. We said no, the amount was right. So we left. A while later we walked by that same restaurant again. And guess what? You got it! The waiter AGAIN came up to us and said we left him too much tip. argh! We think that his manager was watching that third time... but again, we said no, it was the correct amount. It wasn't until later that it dawned on me that the usual tip in Europe is 10%, not 15-20% as here in the States.

For a little history lesson - most of the town was leveled in an earthquake in 1667. Only two buildings, both palaces (in photo with arched entrance), survived with their Renaissance architecture. The rest of the city was rebuilt in a uniform baroque style. Because almost the entire city was rebuilt at the same time, it is all the same stone, same style, so it is pleasing to the eye. It was perfectly preserved, with the wall keeping out autos.

However, the town suffered a lot of damage during the Bosnian war - estimated at US $10 million at the time. Pretty much every building had some sort of damage. The streets and the wall suffered many direct hits. The town has been restored as authentically as possible, and it looks beautiful once more.

the trip of a lifetime - 1st stop VENICE

hmm... haven't been good with the blog updates recently... for shame, for shame. Guess I've been too busy living life to record it.

The biggest news recently - we took our fab vacation May 12 - 28. And yes, it really was a trip of a lifetime. The highlights included the pyramids in Egypt, the Acropolis/Parthenon in Greece, Istanbul, Dubrovnik (Croatia),and the ruins of Ephesus in Turkey, amongst many other wonderful sights and activities. Yes, we've been back a while now, but I've only just started going thru the hundreds of photos to determine which ones to print. argh... digital is definitely good AND bad!! ;D And Donnie (my bro), who along with his girlfriend travelled with us, took WAY WAY WAY more photos than I did! We each have 9, yes NINE CDs full of photos - the CDs include Don's and my pics. Pretty much every night we downloaded our photos to Donnie's laptop and burned them to CD, so that we could clear our camera memory chips for the next day!

So anyway, without further ado, here are some photos and random comments about Venice.

We flew into Venice for one night pre-cruise. We took public transportation from the airport to the hotel, first a normal land bus, then a waterbus. We wandered around Venice both on foot and by waterbus. We stayed at a hotel right near the Rialto Bridge, one of only three bridges that cross the Grand Canal, and also one of the most famous Venice landmarks. (yep, that's our hotel on the right - the pink buildings!)
We were originally supposed to stay at a hotel on the other side of the Rialto, but the rooms there are really small, and the hotel manager moved us to their sister hotel where we enjoyed nicer accommodations. The only problem was dragging our luggage up and over the Rialto - twice within a half hour!!

Venice is a neat city, the buildings are old and beautiful, altho some do show their age.

As you may have heard, Venice is "sinking" - a tiny little bit each year. In actuality tho, it's the understructure that is causing the problem. Venice was built before motorized boats - it is the continual beating of the boat wakes against the understructure that is creating more and more damage. Venice is working to fix the damage, and many buildings show evidence of this work.


The "streets" and waterways are like a labyrinth. It is very easy to get lost in Venice, at least in the evening when you can't get a sense of direction from the sun. Greg and I tried to get back to the hotel, and it seemed like most paths dead-ended at small canals as well as the Grand Canal.

Venetian latte is NUMMY! Thick yet not bitter at all. Starbucks needs to take a few lessons over in Italy!

There are pigeons all over, but particularly at St. Mark's Square. Many tourists feed them, and you could see the pigeons literally crawling on folks to get food. It gives me the creeps just thinking about it!

St. Mark's Square and the surrounding area is SUPER crowded. People everywhere, pushing, shoving.

The Doge's Palace is a very neat building, very cool to see, but the audio tour focused almost entirely on the artwork in the building. I guess that's appropriate in Italy, a country known for the arts, but it became really boring after the first few rooms. However, the walk thru the prison and over the Bridge of Sighs was neat. I guess I would recommend to folks to take the "Secret Itinerary" tour (book ahead of time as it sells out!) if they want to hear about more than just paintings and stuff.

Talking about paintings and stuff... it was neat seeing artists at various locations around Venice, just drawing/painting away!

Venice is known for its glasswork, ok, well, actually it's Murano glasswork. But anyway, it IS beautiful! And there are shops, kiosks, stalls and booths everywhere that sell the glasswork, as well as Venetian masks, t-shirts and other souvenir type stuff.