The Garden

Today was a completely easy day. We spent most of the day on the terrace. Frank and Adrie have the most beautiful view! You can see the mountains sloping down to a small town which sits at the edge of a magnificent lake.

In the afternoon we finally roused ourselves enough to take a walk to Frank’s garden. We were happy to walk among the rows of grape vines and the various fruit and nut trees. They have walnut and hazelnut trees, plums, apricots, cherries, olives, kiwi, apples, pears, and even pomegranates. They also have a vegetable garden with tomatoes, zucchini, onions, herbs, and more. It was rather educational to see all the plants. I thought the nut trees and kiwi especially interesting. The kiwi is a vine that has fuzz over it much like the fruit!

Despite all the fruit and nuts, Frank’s real passion seems to be his grapes which he uses to make his own wine. They make about 600 litres each year.

The girls had great fun picking plums and apricots. We picked a bowl full, but there is much more on the trees, in fact more than they can eat. We’re very happy to help them with that task!

Late in the afternoon we took a drive to the lake and to the nearby town. We stopped for a nice view which just happened to have an ice-cream shop next to it! With Italian ice-cream, real salami, cheeses, and all the other goodies that Frank and Adrie are feeding us, I’m thinking I’ll need to loosen my belt by a notch or two by the end of the week!

CM

Venice & Murano

We went back in to Venice this morning. We couldn’t get enough! The small canals are so cute. Around each corner is another picture perfect moment!

The large canal is such fun to watch with little gondolas, taxi boats, barges, and public transportation boats! It’s all so busy below the colourful houses with their pretty window boxes full of flowers.

We took a boat to Murano which is a smaller island that is famous for its glass making. We had a little tour of the factory and of course this was followed by the show case room.

We did end up buying some Venetian glass, or at least we hope it is! The guide book says that some of the shops sell the real thing while others sell products that are made in China.

The gondola rides are extremely expensive, and we almost skipped it but after some hard bargaining we decided that perhaps it wouldn’t break the bank after all! It was so nice to see the city as we quietly glided through its canals.

The girls thought it was funny that the gondolier would call out “oy” as we approached corners, to warn other that he was coming. They also thought it was funny that he would tilt the boat a bit as we went under some of the shorter bridges. This was so that the bow wouldn’t rub the underside of the bridge! It was a great way to end our trip to Venice.

We have now arrived safely in Tormini where we are staying with my aunt and uncle. So nice to be with relatives again!

CM

Venice

We drove three hours from Pula to Venice and arrived by lunch time. The drive was smooth and we weren’t delayed at either the Slovenian or Italian border crossings. We quickly booked ourselves into a hotel in Mestre and took a bus across the causeway to Venice.

We got off the bus at Piazza Roma and slowly wandered through the streets on our way to Piazza Saint Marco, one of the most famous squares in the world. While wandering the streets and canals we found an exhibit on some of Leonardo daVinci’s inventions. There were all sorts of replicas of various machines he had built. On some we were able to pull ropes, or turn cranks and see how pulley or gear systems worked. Fun for all of us!

Soon we made our way over the Grand Canal with all its business and on to the square. I was a bit disappointed because there was a stage and equipment in the square, taking away from its beauty. We stood in line to see Saint Mark’s Basilica. It’s quite beautiful from the outside, but even more so on the inside.

We went through the church with a huge crowd of people. It has mosaics all through the ceiling. Those tiny gold tiles are pieced together to make some pretty spectacular images! We climbed the stairs for the view and the gallery at the top of the church, but it wasn’t that great because of the previously mentioned stage.

The square is not really a square. It’s really more like an “L”. The larger part had the stage, but the smaller part made for a nice picture. The architecture here is so gorgeous.

The large canal is pretty spectacular, but the small ones are very romantic. We looked in at some souvenir shops. They have beautiful coloured glass jewellery and decorations. I didn’t buy anything because I want to visit the glass making factory first.

We didn’t take a gondola ride today. Maybe tomorrow. We did stop our souvenir shopping to take a look at the gondolas. Nadim, ever the romantic, said “ah, it’s just a boat, kinda like the one we had in Kerala (India),” but Yasmin pointed out that these ones had much nicer seats!

We had some pizza at a street-side restaurant for lunch and pasta at a nice place near the square for dinner. When in Venice, ...

CM

Play Day

Near the apartment is a water play park. I was out for a walk this morning checking out new paths and coves and I noticed it. Of course I had to tell the girls about it and they were excited to try it out.

It had a big floating trampoline to jump on, a water teeter-totter, an iceberg to climb, a ball with a ring to balance on and a blow-up pillow to jump on.

Of course the girls had to try them all. They had great fun, but then it started to cloud over and so it was a bit cold.

Later in the day we played mini-golf. The course and putters were not in such good shape, but it was fun none the less. These last few days we’ve concentrated on fun things for Yasmin and Roya. They’ve been so patient with all our sight-seeing and driving, we thought they deserved it. Besides, it was pretty fun for us too!

Tomorrow we’re off to Venice. It will be sad to say bye to Croatia. It’s been such a great visit here.

CM

Sun and Sea

We are staying in a tourist complex with a swimming pool, beach access, a grocery store and a play area. We started the day by having a dip in the pool, which overlooks the Adriatic Sea. It seems like they have filled the pool with sea water because it is quite salty.

We got a chance to meet some of the Baha’is in the afternoon. Tahereh and Ahmad, a sister and brother, came to the complex to use the beach and we had a nice chat. Their family came to Croatia from Italy some years ago and settled here. They are on their way to Haifa in a few days for pilgrimage.


The beach front is rocky, with little pools and inlets for swimming. You can dive right off the rocks into the deep water. Yasmin and Roya even found a little pool just big enough for their dolls to have a supervised swim.

We ended the day with another swim in the pool, which had warmed up quite a bit since this morning.

NM

Pula

It was cool this morning so we skipped another swim in Posedarje and instead got on the road toward Pula. The drive was about four hours, and some of the views along the way were beautiful. At one point we came through a tunnel in the mountain and found ourselves looking over brilliant white islands that were jutting out of the sea – yet another “wow” moment!


We got to Pula in the early afternoon and after a quick trip to the information centre, we did a little walking tour. Pula itself is not an overly pretty town, but it has some ancient Roman ruins that seem to spring out of nowhere.



There were a few city gates that had been maintained, but many of the ruins were really not well preserved. There was an amphitheatre that was crumbling and full of graffiti. What a shame.



The most impressive ruin was the coliseum that dates back to the first century! The girls weren’t too impressed with the rest of the walk, but they were eager to hear about gladiators and the sorts of “entertainment” they would have within the coliseum walls.

Apparently it once seated up to 20,000 spectators. The outer walls are still very much intact, but the inside is in ruin. What’s kind of amazing is that they still use it for concerts. Sinead O’Connor was just here and Elton John is going to be playing there this summer. Too bad we won’t still be here!

CM

Plitvice Lakes

Plitvice Lakes National Park is amazing! Turquoise blue lakes and ponds that cascade into each other creating dozens of waterfalls – it was gorgeous.

The weather on this side of the mountains was cooler than along the coast. It made for perfect walking weather, and there was certainly a lot of walking today. We entered the park and took a bus to the upper lakes where we started our walk through the park.

From there we walked for about an hour and a half along a wooden boardwalk that took us beside gorgeous lakes where fish could be seen swimming in the crystal clear water along the shore. There were also some waterfalls where one pool went into the other. Yasmin and Roya entertained themselves with Harry Potter figurines that they had brought along. At one point Yasmin came back to us looking extremely upset. Nadim and I nearly had a heart-attack thinking that Roya had fallen in (she was just around the bend in the path), but the problem was that one of their figurines had gone for an unintentional swim! Luckily Nadim was able to save him, and all was well in imaginary Harry Potter land.

We stopped for a picnic lunch along the way and then caught a boat to the lower lakes. From here we walked for about another hour.

The first bit of this walk took us alongside some more lakes and waterfalls, but the second half of the walk was at the edge of a cliff where you could get some great views of the lakes and falls we had just walked beside.

At one point we could even see some of the upper lakes and falls that we had seen during our first walk. We ended with another bus ride back to the station where we had begun.

CM

Driving Up the Coast

It was time for a haircut. Yasmin and Roya hadn’t had their hair cut since we left Canada over nine months ago! I hadn’t had one since we left India, over two months ago. So this morning’s successful mission was to get a cut.

The late morning and afternoon was spent in the car. We were heading back up the coast of Croatia, passing through Bosnia and then back into Croatia. We had liked Hotel Lucija (where we had stayed when we first arrived in Croatia) so much that we decided to stop there again on our way back. It was nice to settle into a familiar place.

The weather was rainy and cool, so we weren’t tempted to get out of the car and take pictures of the beautiful views. Sorry, no pics today!

CM

The City Walls

We left from the old harbour of Dubrovnik and took a glass-bottom boat tour, but we really weren’t impressed. We saw a few small fish and one star fish, but that was about it.

The boat ride did give us a nice view of the old city from the water. They had such amazing walls around the city. I guess the invention of the aircraft really burst their bubble! The ocean was a bit rough so we were pretty glad to get off onto solid ground.

We had lunch in the old city, ducked into a souvenir shop for five minutes to avoid a rain shower and then hiked up to walk along the top of the walls of the city.

It was strange to see the city from that perspective. In some places you could see city life just below, but in others the wall climbed along the side of the mountain and you could see not only the buildings perched at the edge of the mountain, but the whole city laid out before you.

I listened to an audio guide as we went. It was interesting to learn some of the history. It was particularly moving to hear about the damage done in the recent wars with Serbia / Montenegro. Over 70% of the buildings within the old city has some sort of direct damage. It's so sad to think of the wars, battles, and earthquakes that the city has survived and then to think of the extreme damage this recent war caused.

The girls hiked along with us without complaint. They had each brought a Barbie so I’m sorry to say that they were more interested in their own little world than in the amazing sights before them. At least they had fun, as did we.

CM

Dubrovnik

We drove from one end of Hvar Island to the other. The distance was only about 75 km but it took us a good hour and a half. The roads were winding and very narrow. Some of the views were really spectacular. We were high in the mountains of the island and could see water below and mountains on the mainland as well.

From the far end of the island, the ferry ride was only half an hour. We got to the mainland and had more amazing views. There were a number of interconnected lakes that were really beautiful.

We drove across the border to Bosnia with just a wave from the customs guards, and half an hour later we were back in Croatia, again with just a wave from the border guard.

We stopped along the road for some sandwiches and a chance to admire the view some more, before getting back on our way. By early afternoon we were in Dubrovnik and went straight to the old city.

I thought Dubrovnik would be very similar to Hvar town, and it was similar in that the streets are paved with marble and the buildings are made from stone. But Dubrovnik is much bigger and more grand. The old city is completely walled. We even entered the city through a draw bridge!

Inside there is one main street that is long and wide, and there are a couple of secondary streets that run along it, but are much more narrow. After that, you get into curved and twisted lanes and lots and lots of steps. The city lives up to its name as the Pearl of the Adriatic.

We’ve got ourselves another small apartment. It’s not quite tourist season so we’ve managed to get accommodations at the last minute.

CM

Hvar Fortress

The fortress above Hvar town dates back to 1000 BC, but the current structure was actually rebuilt about eight hundred years ago. The fortress itself is well maintained, but what is really special is the view.

You can see the town below and the many boats coming in and out of the harbour.

You can also see the string of islands just off the main island. We could see the area where we went swimming yesterday.

We came back to the apartment for lunch and spent a bit of time lounging around reading our books, checking e-mails, and just taking it easy.

We went back into town later in the afternoon. We finished our school work this week so we wanted to have a party to celebrate. We got all sorts of junk food and special treats. We did a bit of shopping and came back with some new clothes, as well as our junk food. On the way home we got caught in a downpour. We were all soaked by the time we got back, but that was kind of fun too.

After drying off, we watched a movie, ate burritos, followed by chips, chocolate, and gummies. Too bad we didn't have friends around to invite over, but we managed to have fun with our own little celebration.

CM

Zdrilca Beach

There are many islands near Hvar and we took a boat taxi to Zdrilca today (yes, that's how it's spelled!). We had a great view of Hvar harbour, the town, and the castle beyond as we motored out from the pier.


The water was crystal clear and we could see our shadows on the bottom as we swam out to a tiny island nearby to explore the strange rock formations. We all had sandals and water shoes on because of the rocky and pebbly beach.



We had forgotten to take our books along, so we spent more time playing in the water under the hot sun. Christina and I got a little sunburnt inspite of the sunscreen, but it's okay. We borrowed a beach ball from an Australian couple and played monkey in the middle for a while. We also tried to stack rocks as high as we could. Lots of fun.

We took the boat taxi back to town aroun 4 o'clock and made a bee line to the ice cream shop! It was a great day sunning and playing at the beach.

NM

Hvar Town

The walk into Hvar town is almost all down hill from our apartment. As we started, there were some pretty good views of some of the smaller islands in the distance. We plan to visit some of them tomorrow.

Today we wandered through the streets of old Hvar. It's really a cute little town. It has wide marble streets along the water front, and tiny little streets that remind me of Greece further in from the shore.

We did a little shopping and found a few things, then had some lunch and wandered around a little more. By this time it was starting to get pretty hot so we hiked back to the apartment. Of course it was pretty much all up hill this time!

The girls were anxious to get to the beach and swim in their new suits. Aren't they cute! It's funny because we were looking for swim suits for a while. They are so modest in Thailand and India that they don't really sell bathing suits, especially for kids, because they go to the beach in t-shirts and shorts or pants. Now here we are finding some bathing suits but a lot of the swim suits for little girls come only with the bottoms!

CM

Hvar Island

This morning it was overcast so we were finally able to tear ourselves away from the terrace and beach at Posedarje and head for Hvar Island, near Split.

We made it to Split in time to catch a late morning ferry to Hvar Island. The water was fairly calm and we actually got a bit of school work done. After that we still had time to enjoy some of the scenery as we passed by a few islands.

The islands remind me of Greece. The soil is very dry, and the islands are far from lush. You can see rocky bits everywhere.

We ate lunch in Hvar town before we started our search for accommodations. By this time the sky had cleared and it was getting very hot. We checked out a number of places, but none seemed as good as what we had just left. We finally settled on a new place which is a very nice little apartment. Its only fault is that it is not right beside the beach. Poor us, we have to drive a few kilometres to get to the beach!

The beaches on Hvar are mostly rocky or pebble beaches. I kind of like it though. When you come back from the beach you don’t have sand in everything. By the time we reached the beach it was late in the day. It’s a quiet little cove with a tiny island, just big enough for a lighthouse just off shore. I’m sure we’ll be back for another swim here later in the week.

CM