Saturday May 10th ~ Venice, Italy (Mother’s Day Weekend)
Standing on a bridge over the Grand Canal in Venice
Venice is made up of 118 small islands and linked by bridges and canals. We had booked a hotel on Lido Island which is about a 10-15 minute ride via water taxi to the main square of Venice, Piazza San Marco. The hotel rooms on Lido are considerably less expensive vs. staying near the Piazza. Plus learning how to use the water taxis just added to our fun. Continue reading
Thursday May 8th ~ Bled, Slovenia
Lake Bled with castle high on a rocky cliff
Located in the northwestern portion of Slovenia, the city sits on the bank of glacial Lake Bled. Any one of the major tourist attractions in the area would make this a favorite destination. When you combine the crystal clear lake dotted with white swans, Bled Castle, the tiny island with the Assumption of Mary Pilgrimage Church, the snow-crested Julian Alps in the background and nearby Triglav National Park this wins in all categories ~ scenery, natural beauty, history, charm, and variety.
And did I mention crystal clear water?
Fish, colorful boats, clear water
Bled Island (picture taken from the castle)
Our Park Hotel was situated right on the lake shoreline. Continue reading
Wednesday May 7th ~ Traveling from Croatia through Opatija and Postnoja to Bled, Slovenia
12 day Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia Map (courtesy of Gate 1)
And one more day primarily on the bus. We are covering quite a bit of territory on this itinerary. Our guide, Alex, provides us with some history of the break-up of Yugoslavia as well as both the 10 day Slovenia war and the 4 year Croatian war.
Here is a “short form” of recent history of this area: Continue reading
Tuesday May 6th ~ Croatia
Green fields and snow-capped mountains along our drive
Our morning walking tour through Trogir would have been enhanced by having a local guide. We had a little over an hour to explore on our own. I felt that we missed out on some of the history and sites at this UNESCO city center. I hope that Gate 1 will Continue reading
Monday May 5th ~ En route to Split, Croatia
Departing from Dubrovnik we traveled along the Dalmatian Coast line of the Adriatic Sea. This area is known for their sea food especially the muscles and squid. It is also some of the most beautiful shoreline I have ever seen.
Dalmatian coastline, Adriatic Sea
Our morning coffee stop was in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I guess we can actually say we have visited this country, even if only for a few minutes. Croatia gifted Bosnia a very narrow strip of land Continue reading
Sunday, May 4th ~ Dubrovnik, Croatia
Old harbor in Dubrovnik
“Dubrovnik is among the 10 best medieval walled cities in the world.” ~ Wikipedia
One of the most popular tourist destinations in the Mediterranean, and a stopping point for many cruises, this ancient walled city became a World Heritage Site in 1979.
Today a local guide escorts our group through the main structures and narrow streets of the ancient walled city complex. With two large cruise ships in port Continue reading
Saturday, May 3rd ~ Starting in Montenegro traveling to Croatia
View from our hotel room, waking up in Kolasin, Montenegro
Our day started out beautifully with a pinkish sunrise and quickly went down hill from there as it once again started to rain and then rain some more. By now the rumbling on the bus was along the lines of “keeping our eyes open for Noah’s Ark”.
This was primarily a travel day as we progressed through Montenegro en route to Croatia. The scenery did not disappoint, and I was sad that my pictures through the rainy bus window were quite useless. I had read about and seen magnificent pictures from this area, so the photographer in me was in mourning most of the day.
To break up our long ride, we had a stop in Cetinje to visit King Nikola’s Museum. Continue reading
Friday, May 2nd ~ Montenegro
Where to start. The name Montenegro translates to “Black Mountain”, but in reality Montenegro is green, green, green and then more green. It is also stunningly beautiful country that I would put up against many US National Parks.
I think I’m just going to let the pictures speak for themselves today other that to say we visited Biogradska Gora National Park, the Tara River Canyon, the deepest gorges in Europe (second only to the Grand Canyon in the USA), and Durmitor National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Continue reading
Thursday, May 1st ~ Travel day on the bus from Albania to Montenegro
Rain, rain, go away
This was my view out of the bus window this morning – boo rain!
Departing Tirana to Shkodra we finally have our entire group of 41 passengers together for the first time. The remaining 11 arrived the previous afternoon – 24 hours later than expected due to late flights and an unscheduled overnight in Istanbul. That is certainly not the ideal way to start a vacation and I feel badly for the new arrivals. They are tired, jet-lagged, and missed the first day of sight-seeing.
The weather seemed to match the mood of the morning, and for the first couple of hours Continue reading
Wednesday April 30th ~ Tirana, Albania
Tim and I arrived in Albania on Monday afternoon to rainy, soggy conditions. I had a cold that was fast settling into my chest producing an obnoxious cough. I had booked one early night at the Sheraton Hotel before the start of our trip to allow us to get settled in before our group arrived. I was thankful for the extra day of rest.
Sheraton Tirana Hotel
Having booked the hotel on my own for that first night instead of going through Gate 1, I paid too much and although I thought the breakfast was included, found out it was not. They wanted 23 Euros ($32) per person for breakfast which I thought was way too much.
The Internet was only free in the public areas and to get it in the room was going to be an additional charge in the neighborhood of 6 Euros ($8.32) for an hour or 15 Euros ($20.8) for 24 hours – Ouch!
The room they originally gave us had twin beds and I had requested a king. The woman who checked us in insisted that I had booked it wrong online and since they were full there was nothing she could do. After I produced my written confirmation from them that clearly stated a king room, Continue reading
A Note From Abroad 