Athens-to-Venice with J.D. and Cheryl

Our second day in Venice and I think it was our best day of the entire vacation, restoring our spirits from the less than thrilling experience of yesterday.  When we awoke, the weather forecast was for rain - a 90% chance - and that forebode another so-so day.  It, however, was not to be as the weather was rain-free and, occasionally, sunny right up until our last half hour in Venice.   The relative cool temperature (high 60s) and the threat of rain caused a conundrum as far as what to wear today.  Shorts and t-shirt?  Jeans and a sweatshirt?  Raincoat?  I opted for the percentages and took my rain coat, with jeans and a t-shirt.  The jeans were a nod to the online posting about dress code at St. Mark's Basilica which called for knees and shoulders to be covered and I'm all about honoring God so I abided by the rules.  Turned out to be a fortuitous decision because that last half hour and boat ride home were cold and rainy.   W...

The day started with disembarkation from the Viking Sea followed by a 90-minute boat ride from our dock to Porto De Chioggia.  It's been in the news lately about the major changes in Venice for handling tourists, including making cruise ships dock this far out from Venice to avoid maritime accidents and just better manage the traffic.  It wasn't bad, though, as we had a Viking guide narrating fun facts about Venice and the surrounding islands on the way in. We arrived on the island at our hotel (Hotel Excelsior) after another 20 minute ride to the heart of Venice, but the day's high tide prevented us from docking at the hotel itself; this resulted in about a 15 minute walk from where we could  dock to the lobby where we queued up.  Of course we were too early to check in (Noon vs. 3 p.m. check-in time), so first we had to go through a long line to get a Viking letter telling us about leaving on Friday, and then go to another long line to let them know we're here....

You can see Italy from the shores of this city in Slovenia, and tomorrow we'll be disembarking in one of its premier cities.  Actually, Venice has moved aggressively to curtail the cruise and tourist industry from massive mobs of people to manageable, and to do this we will be docking 1.5 hours away and taking private transportation to our hotel  But for today, we're in another of the relatively sleepy towns of Eastern Europe. Slovenia is one of the parts of the former Yugoslavia, and if you didn't know that, you'd realize it quickly when the first public square you encounter at the tour's beginning is named for Tito, the former Yugoslavian strongman.  Unlike the others we've seen, though, it was touched by disturbances when Yugoslavia fractured only for about 10 days in the beginning, more civil protests than anything and not like the war that tortured Croatia. What also made today different from the ones prior was the weather - it was simply spectacular.  Ther...

Our second day in Croatia, we docked this morning in Zadar, the former capital of independent Dalmatia that held great sway with Rome, Venice, and other empires.  Today, though, we didn't go to the old city but, instead, went about 75 miles away on a trip to the Dubrava Falconry Center and the Krka National Park.  The falconry center was particularly impressive.  Who remembers Marlon Perkins' Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom?   We saw it firsthand. The Dubrava Falconry Center was the home to injured birds of prey, including from as far away as the United States.  The first bird of prey we were shown was a great horned owl, and she ("Scar") was magnificent.  Some fun facts about her were that she can turn her head a full 270 degrees while humans can go only 180 degrees.  Females tend to be larger than males, and are adept hunters; she can see 20x better at night than during the day, and moves largely silently through the air.  Her vision is bino...

I learned some really important things today.  First, God has been quite good to me and Cheryl.  Being able to take this trip and get a professional massage is just one example of it.  I have always been somewhat of a skeptic about getting a massage, but then am reminded of the tale that Bob Hope had one every day of his life and he lived past 100!  We each had a lovely one-hour massage this afternoon . . . not sure I'm this limber very darned often. Our guide, Mota Second, we learned more about the 90s Balkan War perpetrated by Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia in a power grab for the countries of this region, including Croatia.  Our guide today, Mota, was caught up in the war as a 24-year old.  He told us as we entered the old city of Dubrovnik how a lot of it was destroyed in 1991 during the Serbian-Croatian war.  Remember, these people are essentially the same and speak largely the same language.   His legs shook and his voice was only a step ...

The day began with a woman calling "Cheryl, Cheryl" as we disembarked the boat and headed up the street toward our group tour meeting point in Kotor.  Yesterday on our way back to the boat from our morning in Corfu, we had a decent length to traverse from the port station to get back to the boat.  On the way, Cheryl saw an older man sitting on a bollard (the post ships use to tie up) with his wife standing guard by him, each with walking sticks. He looked very sickly.  She explained that she was a nurse and asked if she could help him.  He told her he needed help making it to the ship.  She offered to get a wheelchair, and we sped up the remaining distance back to the ship.  Unfortunately, the cruise line (Viking) couldn't attend to him off the boat - call the ambulance was their advice - and he eventually moved with Cheryl's help holding him under his arm before finally reaching the boat. The Viking Sea docked in Kotor This morning, his wife saw Cher...