Month: April 2018

About a dozen years ago, we traveled (mostly by bicycle) along the Dalmation coast of Croatia.  But we never made it to Zagreb, so here we are.

Getting here from Corsica was an adventure! The best (!?) connection was offered by Air France through Paris. If you look at a map, this makes NO sense, but the worst of it was that we flew into Orly and out of Charles de Gaulle with 3 hours to get from one side of Paris to the other in rush hour on Le Bus Direct…and we didn’t make it. Air France rebooked us for the next day at no charge, but couldn’t spring for a hotel room because our first flight was on time. The agent did help us to identify a reasonably priced room for the night, however.  Ahhh… the adventures of air travel…

Once we arrived in Zagreb, we knew we’d come to a civilized place.  We got an Uber from the airport to our beautiful apartment

in an old building with high ceilings, right in the middle of the city.

Zagreb, the capitol of Croatia, is a vibrant city.  We arrived on a weekend when it seemed that everyone was out in the cafes.

The architecture of the city is a mix of lovely Austro-Hungarian blocks

and blocky, ugly Soviet buildings (not worth a photo…).

On our first full day, we took a ‘free’ walking tour (tip what you like at the end…) to get acquainted with the history and major sights.  St Mark’s Church adjacent to the Croatian Parliament displays symbols of this history on its remarkable tiled roof.

And our guide pointed out these rooftop devices that were installed to skewer witches flying by in the dark…in the days of REAL “witch hunts.”

Another day we enjoyed the outdoor cafe at the beautiful National Theater

before walking through the Botanic Gardens and many of the parks that dot the city.

To learn about Croatian wines, we found two recommended wine bars and tasted through flights with explanation of the four wine-producing regions and the many unfamiliar grapes that are used.

Our best experience was at Vinoteka Bornstein, a picturesque cellar run by a transplanted Aussie.

We tried 1 sparking, 2 whites and 3 reds accompanied by Croatian cheese and olive oil.  We came away with three bottles (2 reds and the sparkling) to have with dinner over the next couple of nights. And we are impressed! Our favorite white is Grašvina, and red is Plavic Mali ( a distant relative of Zinfandel).

While in Zagreb, we rode a funicular that is the shortest passenger cable railway in the world (66 meters in 55 seconds),

checked out the Museum of Broken Relationships (sad but with some lessons…),

tried Štrukli, a traditional Croatian dish of pasta and cheese (that we honestly found fairly bland),

and walked through a series of tunnels used as shelters during the Croatian war for independence in the 1990s.

I enjoyed shopping daily at the enormous Dolac Market, where I could buy every food we needed – meat (once I figured out the words for veal, beef and pork), veggies, fruit and flowers.

Sadly, we never ventured out to the national parks that are a few hours outside of Zagreb.  Most of the organized day trips don’t begin until May.

We are exploring new territory as we travel through CORSICA, the fourth largest and most mountainous island in the Mediterranean (or maybe anywhere!).   We decided to undertake this exploration by train and, after a single day in a rented car, are certain that rail is the way to go!

We first stayed in Ajaccio (population about 100,000), the capital city located on Corsica’s western coast. It is a lively city with a daily outdoor market and great sea views.  It was here that we rented a car to drive farther south to Sartène and Bonifacio. Unfortunately, rain kept us from seeing much of Sartène, but we enjoyed lunch overlooking a beautiful harbor in Bonifacio.

The drive, however, was harrowing…over narrow mountain roads with switchbacks every few hundred meters.  It turns out that we could have taken an easier route (and did so on the way back, thanks to GoogleMaps) if we hadn’t followed the guidance of the car’s GPS!

After 4 days in Ajaccio, we rode the train to Corte, high in the mountains in the center of the island.

En route, we passed snow-covered mountains

and dramatic river valleys.

Corte, itself, was a bit of a disappointment…a long walk into town from our apartment in cold and wind most days. But we did find one very nice restaurant, sample some Corsican wines, and took a nice hike along the Restonica River on one nice sunny day.

From the mountains to the coast, our next rail trip was to Calvi, on the northwest coast of Corsica.  Here we found a beach resort town that was just waking up from the winter.

Most places were open, if not in full swing.  The beach was not crowded, and the water was too cold to do more than stick a toe in… But we enjoyed the coastline views from here to L’Ile Rousse, 40 minutes down the coast by train.

The plane trees, which line most roads in France and are severely trimmed each Fall, are starting to bud out…above this busy city square and Petanque courts. (Some people call this sport Boules…it’s like lawn bowling on a dirt court with metal balls…)

Our final stop in Corsica was Bastia (pop. 60,000), the island’s second largest city located on the northeast coast just below the Cap Corse (the part of the island that looks like a finger pointing to the continent).
This was a very different city and coastline than Calvi!  There is very little flat terrain…many ‘streets’ are staircases…and the city seems to take pride in its weathered appearance…or maybe it has stubbornly determined not to spruce up for tourists,,,

Bastia is also a very large ferry port for the western Mediterranean.

Every place in Corsica has a ‘Citadel,’ but Bastia is the first place where we’ve actually walked all the way up and entered the walls. There is a neighborhood behind the fortifications of old, and the museum inside was a good way to spend a rainy afternoon.

We are on to Eastern Europe – Croatia, Bulgaria and Hungary.  Keep reading…

After seven joyous (and exhausting!) weeks with my grandsons (2 year-old Owen and 2 month-old Warren)

in Portland,

and a week or so in Baltimore, Rick & I are back to our travels.

Our first destination was Fes, Morocco, chosen because it was our favorite city in Morocco on our trip here ten years ago AND because we expected that it would be warm (it was…). We stayed in the same riad – Dar Atajalli – (a traditional Moroccan ‘B&B’) as on our earlier trip and it was just as beautiful.

The medina (walled city) is a warren of narrow alleyways

where motorized vehicles are prohibited, but donkeys are not.

Everything imaginable can be bought here, from rugs and leather jackets to jewelry and goat meat.

I’m returning with recipes (none for goat head, though!) after a full day cooking class with Amina, our wonderful host that included an educational trip to the markets.  Rick & I ate what I prepared at dinner on the roof terrace of our lovely riad.

after enjoying a dramatic sunset.

We found a wonderful guide, Hesham, who spent a whole day with us taking us to see various workshops in the Medina. We visited (and smelled…) the tanneries, where the leather products in the shops begin with lamb and camel skins that are cleaned, dried and dyed in huge vats used by many families.

Then on to the weavers, who make rugs, blankets, scarves and beautiful fabrics

used by the many tailors whose whirring sewing machines can be heard throughout the Medina.

And, of course, the tile setters…who make table tops, fountains and the walls of most buildings from precisely cut pieces

carefully arranged to make intricate designs.

People often ask us to declare our favorite place from all of our travels.  That is a hard answer to conjure, but I will say that Morocco is the most exotic location we’ve visited.  And Fes captures almost everything we love about Morocco…except riding camels in the desert…