Trekkin

Day 14 – April 29 Friday

A leisurely start with breakfast at 7am & off by 8am on a walking tour of Plitvice National Park lakes & waterfalls.  The morning was cool, foggy with drizzly rain & around 11C.  The lakes & waterfalls are absolutely stunning, not what I had expected, there are waterfalls everywhere, the water in the lakes is crystal clear with fish swimming everywhere & from a distance the water is an incredible shade of blue.  Everywhere you looked it was stunning, for about an hour & a half we walked up & down on a rustic board walk & just admired it.  A boat was waiting for us & ferried us across where we had a fifteen minute pit stop & continued to walk down to the lower lake with more magnificent waterfalls, especially the one on the end awaited us – wonderful.  We all climbed back to the bus.  The descent was deep so we had a steep climb up but the walkways were done very well, it wasn’t a hard walk.

Next its off to the coast.  The terrain has really changed, no more lush green but replaced by poor unfertile rocky scrubby land.  There were huge mountains in the distance & very poor looking houses & even a lot of abandoned houses – we couldn’t see what they could live from.  We had a short lunch stop at a road house & off we were to Trogir.  Our spirits were lifted when the sun came out & a beautiful town on the Adriatic Sea started to appear.  Trogir is on a beautiful little island connected to the mainland by some bridges.  There were many lovely boats anchored in the bay & lots of street cafes, small shops in narrow streets.  We walked around enjoying the sun, sea, the old churches, towers & other buildings built by the Venetians between the 11^th & 14^th century, you cannot help to realise that the things we call antiques in Australia are nothing but “old”.

A short drive to Split & we booked into a very nice (almost new hotel) the 5 star Atrium.   We were taken a few kilometres out of town to a nice big restaurant, where we were greeted by pre-dinner schnapps, cold meats or a very tasty seafood, soup, trout, vegetables & potatoes or a veal dish & fresh salad, for dessert – crepes, a sort of cream broule (a Croatian speciality) & another – some kind of very nice cake & red/white wine or soft drinks.  The food was once again exceptional, the 3 musicians played & sang Croatian and other music – we all sang, clapped & even danced. What a fantastic evening.

We were very reluctant about going on a tour but the group of people travelling with us are great.  The hotels so far are tops & the food is varied, lots of fresh fruit, very tasty (the problem – it’s too good).  Our bus driver is very skilled, Brad our tour leader is very professional, knows the history & starts us off earlier to get us into places before the crowd.  We appreciate it, everyone is punctual & don’t mind early starts – we didn’t come all this way to sleep.

A late start – 8.30am which allowed a bit more catching up on the computer after breakfast before heading out to Kumrovec, the birthplace of Tito.  Our local guide this morning was Velyko, very informative & passionate about Croatia.  He told us the history of Croatia, from the tribe that left Poland just south of Krakow, to the present.  His story of Tito was very interesting, we had no idea about his interest in women.  Titos’ birthplace village has been preserved & restored in parts, with lots of old kitchen, blacksmith & farm tools & implements around in their original locations.  We were impressed by the original horse drawn hearse & the restored fire pumps.  The old village is very rustic & is surrounded by the rest of the village with people carrying on with their normal lives.  The drive to this place was so beautiful & the village is very well presented to the tourists.

The lunch stop was on top of a hill at Gresna Gorica (we had to hike up a very steep hill for our meal) in a rustic restaurant that served delicious local food, all locally grown.  We were greeted by the owner with a tray of home made cherry brandy, bread & salt, a local welcoming tradition.  The salad & meat dish (smoked sausages, meats, capsicum, chilli, cabbage) we all thought was the main meal, it was so nice & there was so much of this, however, this was followed by a big platter laden with roast duck, beans & potato plus another local specialty, a flat pastry noodle, baked then boiled.  Plus a large bowl of fresh salad, washed down by local wines or beers. Then, to top it off, apple strudel that was as good as Tereza’s mother made, it was THAT good.  We all struggled to stand up, our bellies were straining from the delicious feast we had just had, it was great that it was a downhill walk to the bus.

Off again through the rolling green farming countryside, enjoying the views of the farms & the quaint farm houses & spotting the odd wild pheasant in the fields.  Our afternoon stop was at the town of Karlovac where there is a memorial to the recent Croation & Serbian civil war.  The drive to Plitvice National Park got better the closer to the park we got, some of the villages are tucked into gorges with very pretty waterfalls running next to the houses.  The park is lovely with fresh green leaves on the crowds of overhanging trees.  The hotel is no Hilton or Sheraton, but its not too bad at all considering it’s remote location.

Day 12 – April 27 Wednesday

Another great breakfast at the Vienna Hilton then on the road at 7.20am again.  Today we drove out of Austria & into Slovenia where we stopped at Maribor for lunch.  This is a fairly run down city, long time under socialist rule & need money for restoration, though lots of lovely old buildings. Most of the shops were closed as it was a public holiday in Slovenia, “Heroes Day” so Maribor was like a ghost town. We had an hour & a half to wander around.  We made our way slowly down to the river & had a look at some of the medieval fortifications before wandering back up through the old town to the old church where our bus was parked.  We had an ice cream for one Euro, the cheapest we have had for a long time, & it was so nice, very tasty.

We drove out of the European Union state of Slovenia & into Croatia, so passports leaving Slovenia, then through no-man’s land & passports again entering Croatia.  Slovenian buildings & farmlands were noticeably less affluent than Austria, well Croatia was another step down again.  The Croatian farmers are noticeably less affluent than the Slovenians.  A short drive & we were in the capital of Croatia, Zagreb, where we booked into the Sheraton then headed out for a tour of the city with our local guide Jelena. The buildings in Zagreb have a lot of graffiti on them & it really detracts from the feel of the city, its as if no-one cares.  A lot of the old buildings are in a very poor state of repair & some are falling down from neglect.

Jelena is a great guide, telling it like it is & took us on a bus tour of the “new” city & a walking tour of the historic “old” city, on top of the hill with the fortifications.  The old city is very interesting, buildings dating back to the 17^th century still in everyday use.  Some of the old fortifications are still evident, such as towers & thick walls, as well as one of the city gates, complete with a shrine.  We walked up to an old church with magnificent coloured Hungarian tiles on the roof, next to the Croatian parliament building.  There were police all over the place, both uniformed & plain clothes in their BMWs.  More walking through the cobblestoned streets & we came to the top of the funicular station with access down to the “new city” & a great view over the “new” city.  It’s called new but it really is old as well, a lot of 18^th & 19^th century churches & stately buildings, although in poor repair mostly.  There is a program of work with restoration of these buildings, but it is slow & costly.  The main cathedral has just about had its restoration complete & looks absolutely magnificent, it is a stunning church both outside & inside, though a church service was in progress so we only looked inside, rather than explored.  Next to the cathedral was an old city wall, complete with an old clock.  As we were walking around a man with a long stick was crossing our path lighting the gas lamps still in use around the old city.

Back into the bus & our next stop was an old restaurant where we climbed up a spiral staircase into a tight 1^st floor dining room where we were greeted with a delicious liquor.  The food was fantastic, an entree of delicious ham (everyone agreed it’s the best they ever had), a main of pork chops & potatoes with parsley followed by a lovely apple strudel, all washed down by a local Zagreb beer/wine/soft drink (as many as you wanted).

Back to the motel & free high speed cable internet kept me up late catching up with emails, bills, etc before an 11.30pm lights out.

Day 11 – April 26 Tuesday

We had a big 15 minute sleep in this morning, we didn’t need to leave until 7.45am so it was another nice breakfast at the Hilton before heading off with Sylvia, our tour guide to the Schombrunn Palace.  This was the summer palace of the Maria Teresa of the Austrian Empire & is very large & ornate with beautiful gardens & fountains.  We were the first tour group into the palace & we nearly completed our tour before anyone else was let in.  The wooden inlay flooring is magnificent & the gilding, candelabra & wall finishes are superb.  An interesting aspect was the porcelain heaters in each room, fed wood by the servants from special hidden alcoves.  The paintings of people & special events was also interesting, one wedding painting had a portrait of Mozart when he was a boy of 6 years old & a recognised child prodigy, skilful in both piano & violin.  We saw the court bed where Empress Maria Teresa gave birth to some of her 16 children, watched on by the official court to ensure the birth was real & a potential heir was not exchanged.  Sylvia was excellent explaining all of the people & dates & moments in history that were important.  We had a brief walk in the gardens after the palace tour & walked up to an impressive large fountain that featured horses & men that were half fish, very impressive.

Next was a tour through the Habsburg burial crypt where the royal family have been interred over the centuries in elaborate coffins.  Their hearts are in another place & their intestines another place again, it is only the embalmed bodies that are in the tin coffins (These people don’t rest in “peace” but rest in pieces).  The elaborate coffin of Maria Teresa weighs 15 tonne (she & her beloved husband are the only 2 in one coffin). The tour by Sylvia was very interesting & again she impressed us with the names & dates of people & events & how & when they died. This was followed by a horse-drawn carriage ride around the inner city with the driver pointing out sites of interest, it was a rather novel way of seeing Vienna.  The rest of the afternoon was free time so we walked around the city a bit more, with a highlight being St Stephen’s Cathedral, a really impressive baroque style building.  Inside was also very elaborate, with multiple altars, marble floors & stone carving everywhere.  There were lots of visitors inside the cathedral & a few locals tried to worship. We also went into an art museum featuring Monet, Picasso & others, as usual some nice works & some rubbish.

At 5pm we headed out of town again to a small village famous for white asparagus & the mansion we were dining in, over 300 years old.  As our bus pulled up we were greeted by staff holding out a welcome banner & a red ribbon to cut to enter the restaurant, they made us feel very special, a violin, accordion & piano player played some Viennese & other popular music.   Famous guests included Bonaparte, Empress Maria Teresa & more recently loads of celebrities such as Margaret Fonteyn, Rudolph Nureyv, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, etc.  The walls of the restaurant are covered with photos & names of all these people.  The ceiling is adorned with all sorts of things, like violins, piano accordions, trumpets, tubas, etc.  The toilets are also very special, decked out with old postcards of semi clothed men & women, boars heads, etc, it really has to be seen to be believed.  We started with apple schnapps.  The dinner was once again very good, traditional Viennese fare washed down by local wine.

Next was a trip back into town & a classical music ( Mozart & Strauss) concert in a Viennese concert hall.  The musicians were excellent & they were complemented by a pair of ballet dancers & a pair of opera singers.  Intermission was on the terrace with a glass of champagne followed by more excellent classical music.  The band was passionate & it showed in the music.  All in all a magical day in Vienna.

Day 9 – April 24 Easter Sunday

Another 6am wakeup with breakfast at 6.30 & on the road at 7.20am today.  Another long day of driving with a morning tea stop around 10am then a long lunch stop at Fassel, with a long look at both castles of King Ludwig, the one he was born in & the one he had built that nearly sent the Bavarian state bankrupt.  They are set amongst some truly stunning scenery with the backdrop of the snow covered peaks of the Bavarian Alps behind them.  After lunch of a couple of very tasty white sausage, a Bavarian speciality, washed down by a King Ludwig beer (a local specialty) we went for a walk around town & got some great views of both castles across green fields coloured by yellow dandelions & blue flowers, it was truly pretty.  The buildings around the town are also very picturesque.

Next stop was Innsbruck & we really got into the alps with snow covered mountains every way we looked, it is so stunning.  We stopped for a quick leg stretch to have a look at a beautiful blue lake before continuing to the Hilton Hotel in Innsbruck.  After a quick check in we went for a look around town.  Some of the buildings were built in the 1400s & still in amazingly good condition.  The church of St Jakob is simply stunning inside, magnificent painted ceilings, ornate pink marble columns, magnificent multicoloured marble altars & a magnificent brass organ above the entrance door.  The decorations inside this church are truly elaborate, were the outside is very plain.  The other church we looked at is also very nice, but nowhere near as good.  We took lots of photos of the streetscape & the old buildings, they do look good.

After a nice smorgasbord dinner at the Hilton we headed out for a traditional Tyrolean night of song & dance.  The entertainment was simply fabulous, they are such a talented group of musicians playing multiple instruments & dancing traditional Tyrolean dances.  My favourite would have to be the Alphorn, they make such an amazing sound, this is the first time I heard them & I was enchanted. The girls yodelling & the blokes & girls dancing were great.  As a finale they sang songs from every nationality in the audience & the audience participation was astonishing, obviously everyone enjoyed themselves as much as us.  Back to the Hilton by 10.30pm.

Day 8 – April 23 Saturday

6am wakeup with breakfast at 6.30 & on the road at 7.30am.  It was a long drive today, with a stop for morning tea not long after we crossed from Holland to Germany.  The German Autobahn is very efficient with drivers always moving over except where overtaking.  Some of the cars in the fast ;ane are very fast.  An interesting thing, most of the cars on the autobahn are station wagons or hatch back style, there are very few sedans.  We drove through a shower of rain but that only lasted 5 minutes, our first on the trip.  The countryside changed from flat, flat, flat to rolling hills then to semi mountainous as we got closer to the Rhine River.  The German farms have a lot of canola planted & the yellow colour really sets off the deep greens everywhere else.  The forests that we are passing look great with the new fresh small spring leaves.  We have seen signs on the road to watch out for deer crossing.

We reached our destination at Boppard around an hour before our Rhine River cruise boat was due to depart so we had a wander around the old town square & I had a white wurst sausage in a real nice bun for lunch, make that two, it was so nice.  The town of Boppard is very old, with one building I noticed dated anno 1519.  The buildings look great & we took lots of photos before boarding the “Loreley Elegance”, our Rhine River cruise boat we travelled upriver for a bit over an hour to St Graats.   River traffic is very busy with barges & boats going in both directions.  This stretch of the Rhine is supposed to be one of the most beautiful, with old towns hugging the inside of bends & old castles standing as sentries looking down on them.  Then we had a short wander around this town & drank in its ancient beauty & marvelled at the old castle above the city & the pink sandstone it was made from before boarding the bus for our trip to Heidelburg.

The old town of Heidelburg is even prettier than Boppard, with even more very beautiful old buildings.  All too soon it was back to the bus & check in at the Marriot Hotel at 6pm for dinner at 7pm.  Dinner was a very nice smorgasbord, then a short walk after dinner, though it had cooled down a bit from the 28C we enjoyed on another beautiful sunny day.

Day 7 – April 22 Good Friday

Tereza’s birthday today, so a nice early wake-up call at 6.15 for a 6.30am breakfast before heading off at 7.30am to Keukenhof, a dutch flower showcase, set on around 40 hectares of beautifully cared for gardens.  This was really special, with magnificent water settings, pathways & tulips of every colour & shape imaginable in their prime.  In one large glass house was a display of the very best orchids that Holland has to offer, on show after recently being judged, they truly were exceptional. We were the third bus to stop in, by the time we left there must have been over a hundred, the queue to get in was long & the gardens were getting more crowded by the minute.

Next adventure was a canal boat trip around some of the narrow canals in the old city.  This was very interesting with a lot of the buildings dating from the 1600s, some with amazing side leans, all very narrow & tall, with a hook at the top to haul up furniture.  There is a lot of restoration work being carried out to save some of these buildings.  The canal boat driver did a great job steering the long, thin canal boat around & through some of the narrow bridges & turns.  There are so many boats tied up beside the canals the whole length of them, there are not too many free spots to tie up at.  Its amazing how many people were out boating, walking & cycling, all enjoying the beautiful warm weather.  There are so many bicycles everywhere, I can’t imagine how they can find them again, they all look the same.

The next stop was to a beautiful old seaside village of Volendam on the ZiderZee, we had 2 hours there for lunch & to wonder around & take photographs.  It is such a shame that we tourist all pile in there but I suppose we boost their economy.

Our tour guide Brad from Australia is very knowledgeable, professional & patient, it’s amazing how he herds us all together.  There are 19 Australians, 2 Canadians & 2 Americans, a great bunch of people. Our Italian driver Raffaello is unreal how he manoeuvres that big bus through the narrow streets amongst all the cars, people & even more bikes. So far we are enjoying the tour, it is so easy to sit back & let it all roll by.  Next we stopped at a diamond cutting house, Gassan.  It was very interesting to see how they polish & cut the diamonds, also to find out about the colours, grading but not the price.  Unfortunately I didn’t come away with one of those sparkling rocks on my finger.

We had an hour to get ready to go out to an old Dutch restaurant where they served us wonderful original Dutch food.  To finish the evening we all strolled along the red light district where they don’t serve coffee in the coffee shops.

I had a wonderful birthday as a special bonus my children & grand children remembered me – my day was complete.

Day 6 – April 21 Thursday

A wake-up call at 4.15am this morning for a departure time of 5.30am.  We had a quick shower & a breakfast box before finally meeting all of our fellow travellers for the first time at the bus, all 23 of us in a forty seater bus so there is plenty of room to spread out.  We wound our way through the labyrinth of London streets, thankfully fairly empty at this time of the morning.  I’m very glad I’m not driving the bus, it is so tight in some of these streets.  We had an uneventful trip to Dover & the famous white cliffs, where we walked onto the P&O ferry bound for Calais in France.  The English Channel was as calm as Lake Burley Griffin, no wind & very flat, only taking 90 minutes to cross over.  The visibility was a bit poor with a light sea mist/smog.

We boarded our new bus in Calais & headed out along the freeway through rural France, past Dunkirk, then over the border into Belgium.  The rural farms are very green with a few cows, sheep & houses scattered around.  After a few hours we bypassed Brussels & Antwerp & were in Holland where we stopped for lunch at a roadside cafe.  The food was fabulous, a smorgasbord of fresh food to choose from, it was all very nice & I didn’t hear anyone complain.  We had just started out again when not more than a kilometre down the freeway a truck had just rolled & was blocking traffic in both directions.  As we were stuck in the traffic about 200 metres from the accident an ambulance came past, then the police shortly after.  The truck driver was lying on the ground being tended to as we crawled past.  The rest of the trip was without incident & we pulled into a very nice 5 star Hotel Movenpick, right on the Rhine River near the centre of Amsterdam.

After settling into our room we went for a quick walk before dinner, first along the riverbank past all of the moored Rhine/Danube riverboats before turning across into the old part of Amsterdam.  This part of the old town has narrow streets, canals, old narrow buildings & coffee shops that sell hashish, the smell is very noticeable.  The number of people riding bicycles is amazing, they are absolutely everywhere, young, old, they even use barges as bicycle storage for workers in the city.  We just made it back to the Hotel before 7 for a quick change then drinks & dinner.  We saw a cruise ship departing the wharf just next to our hotel while having a superb dinner.

I have finally managed to connect to some free internet so have caught up on a few emails, etc.

Day 5 – April 20 Wednesday

Today we were meeting up with Ron’s friend, Andrew Spence who lives in Eton right next to Windsor.  This morning we shared a table with 2 Aussie ladies going on a different Insight Musical Tour.  We took a walk along the rush hour streets to join the London Underground at Bond Street Station & the tube to Waterloo Station where we changed trains for the above ground trip to Windsor-Eton Riverside Station.  We saw a little bit of the English country site.  We arrived at 11.21pm in an old quaint small village, nestled under the imposing walls of Windsor Castle.  We met Andrew & his two gorgeous young daughters, Isabella & Sienna at the station.  We went for a short walk & a long coffee & a chat to catch up.  Andrew’s lovely wife, Soledad joined us after her routine CAT-SCAN check up on their expected baby.  It was great to catch up with Andrew & meet his beautiful family after all this time.  We walked back into Eton with them & said farewell then headed back to the castle & a quick lunch.

Windsor Castle is very large & imposing, it is the oldest & largest occupied castle in the world.  We had the pleasure of Her Majesty in residence today with her flag flying from the Round Tower.  We slipped on the free audio tour headsets & headed out on our self guided tour.  This set of buildings is fabulous, with the St George Chapel an impressive 15^th century church, very ornate & full of history (the Queens mother & her hubby, King George the V are interred in a simple tomb there)  Next we looked at Queen Mary’s dollhouse (on a grand scale) unbelievable how everything in there is so perfect & to scale. Then into the fabulous State Apartments, full of history, paintings by the masters, huge tapestries, elaborate decorated ceilings, stunning furniture & a huge display of bejewelled elaborate swords & weaponry from all over the world of the former British Empire.  Interestingly, on display as well was the bullet that killed Lord Nelson.  The history of this place is enormous & thought provoking.  To think that we have been in the rooms where Kings & State Heads are still at the present time received & entertained by the Queen (of course she missed a great opportunity by not coming out to meet us). This place is really WOW!!! The guards were closing the place up as we were leaving & we wandered back out into the sunshine & warmth for our train journey back to Marble Arch & another hot bath.  The poor old legs really complain about all the walking & stepping & standing they are doing lately & we haven’t got to the European tour yet.

Day 4 – 19 April Tuesday

Another 7.30am breakfast then another walk through the Marble Arch & Hyde Park, with all the cyclists & runners on the way to work.  Today Buckingham Palace was very quite without a Guard changing ceremony.  We took another path through Green Park & St James Park before arriving at Westminster Abbey at 9.45am, with a queue that was only about twenty minutes long.  The Abbey was founded in AD 960 & William the Conqueror was crowned here in 1066 – extraordinary age compared to anything in Australia (antique in Australia is just old compared to things here).  This is a magnificent example of medieval architecture on a grand scale, it really is big & so elaborate, however, it is full of dead people.  It is the burial place of a lot of rich & famous people from over the centuries, which detracts from the ambience.  We finished at the Abbey around 12.30pm & walked up to Trafalgar Square to find the Evans & Evans Tour we wanted to go on next – we got there with two minutes to spare.

Onto the bus & off to St Paul’s Cathedral, past the banking centre of London (there are 520 banking institutions in just 1 square mile) & past the site where the great fire of London was started in a Bakery in 1666.  I’m glad I’m not trying to drive a bus through the very narrow & windy streets of London.  St Paul’s Cathedral is even more impressive than Westminster, the dome is truly impressive.  Inside it’s very elaborate, ornate with magnificent mosaic pictures. The dome is very impressive from inside & underneath, only St. Peter’s in Rome is larger.  Thankfully, most of the people are buried in the crypt under the Cathedral so you don’t get the same crowded memorials to the rich & famous dead as you do at Westminster.  The Royals tend to marry at Westminster with most of their dead ancestors present, Prince Charles & Dianne married at St Pauls (maybe that’s why it was so ill fated).

Next, off to the Tower of London & another really old set of stone buildings, started around 1078 for William the Conqueror with the added bonus of seeing the Crown Jewels.  This is really interesting with all of the history associated with the Tower.  The Crown Jewels are worth seeing, all of the elaborate & heavily jewelled objects from past & present history, with the quantity of gemstones used it’s mind boggling, one crown had more than 12,000 diamonds encrusted in it.  An added bonus is the view of the Tower Bridge, this is one of the best looking bridges around, with two tall towers on either side of a lift span.  Then it was down to the Tower Pier to catch the last Thames River ferry back to Westminster, a lovely treat to see all the old building from the river glimmer in the setting sun.  The walk back up through the parks was lovely even though we were dead tired.  It was truly a warm day and the night was balmy & an unusual site for us Aussies (where we take our wonderful weather for granted) to see so very many people out in the park picnicking & just enjoying themselves.  Eventually back at the Hotel by 9pm.  We were SO VERY TIRED & had a long hot bath to ease the sore leg muscles.