Friends in Firenze

Our first stop in Italy… Firenze (Florence); the home of Michaelangelo’s David, the Ponte Vecchio, and the Duomo. The latter of which stopped us dead in our tracks right in the path of an oncoming bus. The façade is composed almost entirely of white, green, and pink marble. Getting lost in it’s radiance and intricacy, it is easy to forget it’s enormity until your eyes drift back down to earth and see the teeny little tourists scattered all around it. All roads in Florence seem to lead to the Duomo, we have passed it several times since, but we have stopped to admire it just as many times.

So far there are just too many things to love about Italy… the art, architecture, food, wine… even the shopping in Florence has tempted Adam the ultimate non-shopper. The best part though, has been meeting up with friends! Our first night in Florence, we met up with Tom for dinner and then post dinner libations. The triple threat of the alcohol, our unfamiliarity with the city, and the fact that all the roads here really do seem to lead to the Duomo led to some interesting navigating home. Eventually we gave in and took a 500 metre cab ride to our hotel, which we had come very close to on foot about a dozen times.

We took a daytrip to the nearby Chianti region to see where some of the great wines that we had been drinking are produced. Despite our intentions of riding some bikes around the area, we never even made it out of our first tasting room! Watch the video to check out where we spent most of the afternoon. It certainly was not as charming as visiting an actual winery and meeting the people who are involved in the creation of the wine. However, we did have the opportunity to taste a huge variety of wines and narrow down which of the kazillion wineries we would like to visit.


Then… more company! Lisa was kind enough to work with our last minute frenetic travel planning and shift her plans around to meet up with us in Florence. It was great hearing her stories and travel tips from Rome. The three of us will travel on to Venice Friday with some winery visits on the way. Lisa is also writing about her travels in her blog, which given her fabulous writing skills, will be a welcome break from our grammatically horrifying ramblings. Check it out here: lisafukushimablog@blogspot.com

There are really so many things we have seen and done here in Florence- I would love to just go on and on with all the details but I’m certain it would just end up looking like blabbity, blabbity, blah. Highlights? Meeting friends, seeing the infamous David, visiting Florence’s equivalent of Granville Island market- full of gorgeous fresh Italian fare, being stopped in our tracks on our first sight of the Duomo, and not getting hit by a bus while being stopped in our tracks on our first sight of the Duomo.
Stay tuned for Venice!

Time to Split Croatia

We haven't forgotten about the blog, internet access has been a little more challenging of late. When we do get access our time is consumed finding somewhere to stay in Venice & Florence.

Our last day in Croatia was spent in the seaside town of Split. Like many of the towns we have visited, it's a medieval port with tiny cobbled streets; but Split is unique in that the whole town is built from the ruins of Roman Emperor Diocletian’s palace.

Here you see some of the remaining aspects of the original palace. On top is the domed entrance vestibule that opened to a plaza. Below, check out the small Sphinx in the backround, one of several he brought back from conquests in Egypt. Most of the original palace has been turned into homes over the last thousand years, but the real treasure lies below the streets. Much of the basement for the palace still exists, so for a small fee we were able to walk around under the town as well. Here the servants would build, cook, and generally run the palace from underneath, but on a massive scale. Here you can see us inside one of the underground chambers where wine and olives were pressed.

In the evening grabbed the kids and made the trek to the ferry terminal. We are not talking BC Ferry service here. It was more like a retro cruise ship really. We had a cabin with shower and beds, restaurant, and a 70’s theme bar……. hang on I think it just hasn’t been redone since the 70’s. Smooth sailing all night and at 7am we arrived in Ancona ITALY!

So where are all the Dalmatians?

The last few days have been a flurry of medieval towns, bad food and hot weather. Here are the highlights……..

A night in Zadar wandering the tiny streets stumbling across Roman ruins, that our guide book seems to not bother telling us about. Leaving our all inclusive (it has never been the same since the 70's) hotel we drove the stunning Dalmatian coast. Massive mountains plunging into the turquoise Adriatic, tiny villages clinging to the sides.

After the 5 hour drive along the winding single lane highway, we picked the first accomodation we found that looked clean. Don’t judge a book as they say… the rooms were run by an elderly bachelor, and they certainly could use a woman's touch... or a healthy dose of Lysol, perhaps it was his failing eyesight that made him miss the grunge and stains we uncovered… enough said.

The magnificently fortified city of Dubrovnik has recovered from a siege that occurred during the war, (amazing to think these ancient walls were used just 10 years ago to protect its residents). The mortar craters are gone and waves of tourists jump off buses every 4 seconds. We did a brisk walk around the ramparts and the limestone paved streets (buffed to a shine by the numerous shuffling feet that pass through daily) before the heat of day set in. During our stroll we happened across an American couple that we could hear blocks away. "HENNNNRY sit on the step so I can take a picture" "HEEENNNRRY...." "HENRY look at that" HENR--EEEEY, why do you think they built all this?" At that point we grabbed an icecream and spent the rest of the day on the beach.

Early next morning we escaped the tourists as we headed towards our final Croatian towns of Trogir & Split. All was fine until Jen decided to drive like a local. It seems the police didn’t appreciate that, and pulled us over. We had precious little cash on us; fortunately the ticket price seemed negotiable and we managed to pinch together enough in a mish mash of currencies to save Adam from certain execution. A coffee was needed to make things right. We decided to stop in Bosnia for a coffee since we happened to be passing through (a coastal section of Bosnia/ Herzegovenia divides the Dalmation coast). Not only did the Croats end up with the better part of the coastline, but they also clearly made clean with the best barristas... the cup of coffee in Bosnia made 7-11 coffee look good.

With bad coffee and a speeding fine, needless to say, the day was challenging, but we arrived safe in Trogir where beer and fries soon put the world right again.

A Celebrity in Our Midst

We just wanted to share some interesting recipes for ¨spreadable tuna¨. Anyone recognize this celebrity chef? Make sure to play the Courthouse Restaurant one first (further down the page). It´s mad! http://www.brandpower.com/AUS/videos.asp

Captain's Blog

If you are reading this we obviously made it back from the sailing trip without incident. So here is a synopsis of our trip.

You read previously about the “casual” approach to handing us our boat Lidija, (pronounced Lidia) but she was a well behaved lassie. Lidija is a 32’ Bavarian that sleeps 4, just enough room for Jen , Adam, Boris and Brunhilde (the kids were not too happy about sharing). We bargained for Lidija after being offered this boat.

From a sailor’s perspective, the weather was reasonably good with winds of 12 to 15 knots each day. On day 3, the weather forecast a storm and thunder, so we set out early. A couple hours in we noticed black clouds looming in the distance, so we headed for an island that would provide shelter. Just before we found refuge, the temperature dropped from 25 to 10 and the wind whipped up from barely a breath to 40 knots all within seconds. Then came the rain….. we got a little soggy making it into harbour and dropping anchor, but it set in deep first time and we took shelter below while it blew over. Two hours later the blue sky had arrived and just as the forecast promised it lasted until Lidija’s homecoming on Saturday.

The islands of Croatia can only be described as barren and rocky. If you have the attention span to keep an eye on the grey cliffs, you will be rewarded with the occasional glimpse of a 2000 year old castle or fortress looking down on the ocean. Most of the bays in the islands either have quaint little fishing villages or enterprising restaurateurs with mooring balls for boaters to tie up to…. free with dinner of course. The picture here is of a restaurant where we ate dinner one night. We asked for the menu and the reply was: fish, langoustine, scampi.

On Wednesday we decided to leave the ocean and motor up a long and narrow inlet to some waterfalls. After a quick stop enroute in Zaton for fresh veggies and coffee, (we seemed to be the only tourists to stop in for a long time, judging by the stares we received) we continued motoring inland for about 4 hours before coming to the gorgeous village of Skradin. We were back amongst our own digital camera toting, guidebook reading species as Skradin is the entry point to a well touristed national park. The waterfalls that the park is famous for are a few kilometres from town and not accessible by yacht. So we jumped in our dingy and well, the video tells the story of what came next.

We ended up getting some much needed exercise with a bike ride to the falls and a swim in the small lake at the bottom. We forgot to take pictures, but they looked very similar to the ones at Plitvice so just scroll down a few days, and pretend we are in the water swimming.

The following day was fraught with fiascos. First our dinghy decided to “jump ship” in open water. Fortunately we noticed…. a mile or so later, but that was not our only rescue mission for that 24 hour period! Later that day we found a bay that was sheltered from the nasty chop and wind. Jennifer, whose mooring ball skills were impeccable up to this point, managed to drop the boat hook into the dark depths of the bay BEFORE hooking onto the mooring ball. Fortunately I have married a brilliant and skilled woman, yes gorgeous too…. she expertly managed to hook the mooring ball with our deck broom. (By the way, this post may have been edited by said wife) The next morning, with the bay much calmer, we constructed an intricate retrieving device from a rope, kitchen pot, and bungee cords. As further testament to my wife’s skills she was able to grab the boat hook from the surface of the water on the first try. A much more successful creation than the crab trap/ beer cooler in the gulf islands last year (Nat & Martin – you would be impressed).

We got back safe and sound today. We will fill you on our day in Zadar in the next post. Stay tuned!

FOOTNOTES:
1- We had no entertainment on board other than our own company, so the first intake of caffeine in 3 days with 2 people cooped up on a boat, made for considerable amusement.
2- It seems that Germans like to get naked. Funny Georg never mentioned this before!

Off the Radar in Zadar

Hey Guys,

We have lots of stories and pics to post from the last week but we have had limited internet availability lately. We are a coastal town of Croatia called Zadar. We are doing some scrambling to get ourselves set for a last minute sailing trip on the Adriatic. We depart tomorrow and we will be gone for a week or so. We just had the briefest charter briefing ever. What normally takes 1-2 hours was abbreviated to about 30 seconds. Fortunately, some words (Mayday for example) transcend all language barriers. Don´t worry Moms, we know what we are doing.... well one of us does anyway!
Don´t be alarmed if you don´t hear from us for the next week. We look forward to telling you all about it on our return.
Lots of love to you all! xoxo

Pula, Croatia

A quick update on the last few days. Pula had a lot to offer; an ancient amphitheatre being the most stunning of many Roman ruins, a spectacular dining experience, and a nearby church with a collection of sacral art including mummified saints.
We did have a minor outbreak of homesickness in Pula brought on by travelling challenges but we watched a little Canadian telly (the marvels of technology) and our trip to Plitivice lakes the following day helped to shake off the blues. The lakes are located in a UNESCO world heritage national park. The lakes are like dozens of cascading, clear pools of Listerine, even in the rain it was a stunning sight. The picture that you see here doesn’t do it justice. Ironically this beautiful, serene park was where the first shots of the Serb/ Croatian war of the 90’s were fired. It’s amazing that barely 10 years ago this country was at war and featured prominently in our evening news, but as we drive through the countryside we are reminded of this when we see the occasional house still riddled with bullet holes.

Loving Croatia

After our 24 hours in Zagreb, we bee-lined for the coast. Home is currently a little seaside resorty village called Opatija. We decided to make this our base from which to explore the area for a few days. Yesterday found us travelling through a 6km long tunnel to a nearby village with a very well preserved Medieval castle, and following that; winding our way to the top of a hill to visit an ancient walled city. It is impressive to me to see such old structures still standing, but what is even more baffling is seeing people living in some of these draughty and often crumbling old dwellings. Clotheslines are drilled into walls of stone that are hundreds of years old and general household noise such as the din of a vacuum cleaner can be heard drifting down into the cobbled streets. It is ordinary modern life in a medieval setting.
After checking out the amazing views from the walled city on the hill we descended upon a neighbouring village called Livade. Livade owes it’s existence and it’s fame in Croatia to the gastronomically revered truffle! The world’s largest white truffle was found in this region and gave birth to one of Croatia’s best restaurants Zigante! The truffle made it into the Guinness Book of World records and was about the size of a human brain. The first round-about in the town even has a truffle statue in the middle! Despite our casual "sightseeing attire" the restaurant graciously welcomed us for a late lunch. The entire menu was based on truffles. Almost every course saw the waiter shaving fresh slices off a tennis ball sized truffle onto our plates, he even graced our ice cream dessert with truffle.
Cue the truffle hunters…..
On our drive home from lunch, Adam spotted a woman digging around in a field with a dog. I thought he was delusional when he suggested she might be truffle hunting. For those of you who haven’t heard of this peculiar fungus, here is a link that describes more about it’s collection: http://www.cnn.com/TRAVEL/PURSUITS/FOOD/9908/truffle.lat/

Further down the road we saw more people with dogs and little spades. We pulled off and approached one of the purported truffle hunters. Sure enough, he rather disappointedly produced a white truffle the size of a large marble (which by our approximations would have retailed for approximately $50). We were amazed- it was almost like the whole experience had been staged.

Today we decided to drive to one of the many islands for a day of beaching. We stopped at a tourist office to ask if there was a quiet beach on the island. The agent laughed at the suggestion and then pointed us in the direction of a “quieter” beach. We had to park a little ways from the beach and walk in.

Here is my thought process as we approach the beach:
Seeing naked children playing in the sand..
Hmm, children really grow up differently here in Europe, very free.
Seeing naked man standing on sand…
Well Europeans ARE well known for naked sunbathing
Seeing another naked man frolicking in the water…
I’m glad to see the nudies are having a good time
Realizing that the other 300 people have not a shred of clothing…
Priceless.

“To cover everything else there’s Mastercard” ...if only you had pockets!
I guess the lady at the tourist office misunderstood the definition of “quiet”
Funny thing is, it took me a minute or so to convince Adam that it was a nude beach. I guess his eyes are failing.
Eventually we found a little spot on the sand, and had a dip. Adam being the good sport that he is, decided to camouflage by removing his shorts, forgetting how cold the water had been…let's just say Mastercard would've covered it. For obvious reasons his back got a great tan.

So far, we have already established a small collection of observations about Croatia:
-Every small restaurant we dine in seems to play Elvis (we think it has something to do with our presence)
-The Croatians are very nice, polite, and happy to help out
-Croatians give the elusive letter “Z” a reason to exist- it is used numerous times in every sentence
-Croatian wine is fantastic and cheap
-Mr. Ed is not a television character in this country (A horse is a horse of course of course, unless he is the main course)
-The speed limit is as fast as you can go without dying

Prague photos

Here are a few more pictures of the beautiful city of Prague. The rest of the city makes up for the nasty train station! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10423&l=94b42&id=700132588

Train-ing for the 100 Metre Dash

At last… back to a normal keyboard.

So as you know we made it from Prague to Croatia where we will be for the next 3 weeks, but due to the challenging keyboard, we were unwilling to invest the effort in giving details.

We were up bright & early in Prague stuffing our backpacks. Oh the beloved backpacks… with their habit of slumping over, tripping us up and generally resisting our efforts, they increasingly remind us of petulant children not wanting to get dressed for school. That, combined with their dead weight has encouraged us to give these “things” we have to live with for the next 12 months, their own names. Ladies & gentlemen meet Boris and Brunhilde from Slovenia…… but I digress….

We organized a ride to the train station with 30 minutes in hand to get tickets and find the platform etc. No problem right? HA, nothing is ever as easy as it looks. The taxi dropped us off at a subterranean sidewalk, where all we could see were tumble weeds, an unconscious person surrounded by empty bottles, locked doors and an escalator that stopped descending in 1973. Lugging Boris & Brunhilde, down past the dead escalator and through the squalor, we eventually found our way into the station…. but the wrong station! We ended up making our train with minutes to spare but not before begging for change for a metro ticket, fighting the morning commuters, and doing a 100 metre dash with 40 lbs each strapped on our backs.

The journey to Croatia was a long but scenic one, passing through the countryside of the Czech Republic, through the gorgeous Austrian alps, Slovenia (the home of our adopted children) and finally 14 hours later into Zagreb, Croatia.

We spent Friday wandering around Zagreb seeing the few sights they have and eventually found a wonderful little restaurant serving local cuisine. Adam ordered one of the specialties; duck, or what seemed like an entire flock of ducks on top of homemade pasta. The coating on the duck was more than vaguely reminiscent of the Colonel’s secret blend and as such we coined it Kentucky Fried Duck. Next travel destination… angioplasty suite!