Latest from David, Lee, Murray and Jill - for those that don't receive an email

Balkans, Italy, Britain and France 2016

FRIDAY, MAY 20, 2016

And So Forth

Our journey continues, but in a slightly modified way. We have found that, in general, the roads in Montenegro and Serbia to be so bad that progress is at times quite slow. It was then that our tour of Serbia turned into a half day affair and we decided to concentrate on the more developed Croatia. Not to be missed though were a couple of gems in Bosnia Herzegovina starting  in Sarajevo, a city we all became familiar with during the Bosnian war. It was here though that the beginnings of WW1 took place in 1914 when Archduke Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated on the Latin Bridge which turned out to be right outside our Hotel, the Latinski. Today though the main attraction seems to be the Grand Bazaar which has been running for some 500 years.

                   Murray and Jill enjoying the Grand Bazaar in Sarajevo.

Next on the list was Mostar, a town whose claim to fame is a bridge destroyed in the war but rebuilt by the UN and still a hot tourist spot. Last time we were here I was fortunate enough to capture one of the bridge divers with my camera, this time a diver but missed him.

The World Heritage Mostar Bridge.

One of the features for me has been the amazing water based sights that are in this area.

The River Here Just Emerges From The Cliff

Plitvice Lakes

The Plitvice National Park consists of six interconnected lakes with waterfalls between, in fact the ground must be absolutely saturated as there are waterfalls everywhere you look. You can walk the entire park or use the various forms of transport provided, we chose a combination of both.

Today we were treated to a white water river at Vintgar Gorge. This would be challenging to most kayakers, impossible for me, but great fun for those who are able.

Going Down The Vintgar Gorge.

They have built a walkway alongside the river by hacking out the rocky cliff and building a wooden walkway.

Mrs Currin on The Walkway at Cave Cr..opps Vintgar Gorge.

Another great stopover today was at Bled where we happened upon the first day of their summer fair. Bled is very near the Austrian Border and getting into the alps so summer is a little later around here.

A Foodies Paradise in Bled

The lakeside was also a great place to enjoy lunch. I was attracted by the Sausage and Cabbage dish on offer at one stall as I have been in serious vegetable deficit for some time now, but the cabbage turned to be a sort of soup with a sausage gamely floating around in it.

Bled Lake and the Castle Overlooking it.

We are currently in the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana, and about to go off for a Chinese Nosh so I shall post this and hopefully get some more done in the next few days. There is so much happening that it is hard to keep up.

 So long for now and keep well.

David

WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 2016

I Lost My Photos

Oh dismay! I copied all my photos of our last day in Berlin and our time in Dubrovnik ro my laptop and somewhere in the translation they were lost for all time. My fault, I should have copied rather than Cut and Paste, never mind.
We spent our last day in Berlin on the Hop On Hop Off bus tour and were very impressed by it, many familiar landmarks such as Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie and the Reichstag and many not so familiar to me such as the fine Concert Hall. All in all Berlin is a wonderful city. A little story we learned about the area in which our hotel stood, Rosenstrasse, was that in 1943 the ladies of the area marched in protest about the deportation of the Jews and Goebbels himself signed off the order for the deportation to stop. Ok all of these women had Jewish husbands, and hence children, and so had a vested interest in saving them, but at least some Germans were doing something. Meanwhile the protest that we had witnessed in it's infancy the day before made the main news slot that evening.
Later in the day we left Berlin for Dubrovnik aboard a Germanwings flight. This is the Budget subsidiary o Lufthansa..  the one that the deranged pilot flew into  a mountainside a year or so back. Great flight, plenty of legroom drinks and an ok little food goody bag. It's only an hour and a half down to Dubrovnik but by the time we had arrived at our Guest House it was around 9:00 pm and Murray and Jill had taken to their beds after an exhausting day in the Old Town. Murray though must have heard our arrival and was soon knocking on the door in his PJs. Lee and I had been to Dubrovnik before a couple of years ago, but it remains a favourite so was no hardship to revisit. Two nights in Dubrovnik and we had booked a car in which to complete our Balkans tour. Murray and I were dispatched to collect same, an Opel SUV, but alas, on arrival back at Guest House our suspicions were confirmed, it was too small. We could not fit our baggage in it and so with a large case separating our loved ones in the back seat we returned to Fleet Rentals in the hope that they had something a little larger. We are now touring the Balkans in a Peugeot 10 seat Mini Bus. Plenty of room now.
First stop down the coast was a small town called Cavtat where we stopped for coffee and a stretch of the legs.

Enjoying a Cuppa in Cavtat

This is a very pretty town and we enjoyed quite a long walk around the headland.

It was good to stretch our legs after being in the car on the way here. Next day we were  to be confined to the car for much longer, but that is another story for another day. From Cavtat we needed to cross the border to enter Montenegro where we will spend the next couple of days. There are not many of these road border crossings left in Europe now, but in this area there are still several. At the crossing Police check and stamp your passport and send you merrily on your way and then about a km down the road the same procedure is carried out by the country of entry. This is all a bit of a novelty for us travelling Kiwis but must become a little monotonous for regular border crossers such as those which live on one side of the border and work on the other.

 Our next stop was a revisit for Mrs Currin and I having visited Kotor bay on our previous trip down here

but it is so lovely that once is never enough.

                                                                    Mrs Currin Skylarking About.

Kotor is a very large bay and is probably the gem in Montenegro's tourism crown and to reach the old town of Kotor one must either catch a ferryboat across the bay or drive right the way around it. We chose the later and so it was time for another cuppa on arrival. Above the town are the remains of an old defensive wall and it has become quite the thing for the young, and the not so young, to walk the trail up to the top. Not us on this occasion, much to hot for that carry on.

Murray And Jill Enjoy Taking The Weight Off Their Feet In Kotor

The Old Wall Kotor

The mountains in the region are of a very rocky consistency and the rocks  themselves quite porous allowing the rain to soak through them rather than run off. This has the effect of keeping the hillside quite dry but also as there is no soil washed down with the rain and the water is in fact filtered through the rocks it makes for a very clear sea which must be a delight for divers.
We traveled from here to Cetinje, the old administrative capital, where there are still many embassies and government departments. We overnighted in Cetinje, but it has little to offer to make one wish to linger too long, except  fine apartments which set one back the princely sum of $50 NZ per night. Eating is also delightfully cheap here, breakfast for three about $10 NZ. It was after breakfast that our adventures took a new turn. Our GPS, which we have christened Maria, had us along the most diabolical roads on our way to the capital, Podgorica, and after an hour or so of this the more astute amongst us, the ladies of course, happened to notice some flowers adorning a fence that seemed familiar. We had traveled in a big circle. A passing traveler noticed somehow that we looked lost and offered directions which we gratefully accepted and once more set off on our way. We decided to give a couple of places in the south a miss to make up the time and pressed on to Podgorica, another forgettable town except for a fine lunch in a local shopping Mall.
We are to finish up this evening in Zabljak, a ski resort high in the mountains, but on the way we waned to visit a cliff side Monastery at Ostrog which involved a bit of a detour but was well worth the effort as tomorrow was one  of the three feasts which cause pilgrims by the thousand to make the walk up the 3000 ft mountain side to pray at the site of the reliquary containing the remains of the founder, The Metropolitan Bishop of Herzegovina. It is said that many are cured of dastardly illnesses as a result. This is all suposed to be done barefoot but most we saw had shoes on. The pilgrims all camp at, or near, the summit. There is a bit of rain tonight so the ones with just a blanket will not be happy campers I suspect.

                                Getting Up To The Monastery Was Worth The Effort
                                     (Note the queue to get into the Monastery)


The drive up, or as far as one could go was very exciting as there were innumerable switchbacks and on a road not much wider than the car (it was two way) and all the walkers it took over half an hour for the 8 km ascent and about the same on the way down. So that was our day and it was a happy one, we are in a four star hotel suite tonight, fabulous meal $120 NZ per night.
Oh I must retell a story Jill was telling us of an incident when on the Hop on/off bus in Athens. They had finished one of the sections and wanted to transfer to the next bus to do the next section. Murray noticed the bus was on the other side of the road and urged Jill to run, which she did, and he follow. Jill looked back to see Murray running, hobbling clutching his groin still telling Jill to run and tell the driver to wait for him. They finally arrived and found the driver looking rather strangely at them, it was the same bus that they had just gotten off. Oh how we all laughed, well almost all.

That's all for today.

All the best

David