Day 41 Homeward Bound

Today we said good bye to our characterful Trieste home. It has been an amazing place to stay. Jeanette reckons it feels like you are living in a movie.

Our car picked us up spot on 10:00am and we had a very comfortable two hour drive through the beautiful countryside to Venice airport. Check in went smoothly .

We had got through Security and had a couple of hours to kill before takeoff so we decided to have a light lunch. We found a little cafe a little off the main pedestrian route. There were about 15 tables so we grabbed a vacant one.

The waiter was buzzing around but when you looked closely he was ignoring the customers and was focused on collecting all the menus and removing them off to the kitchen.

I noticed a couple of tables where potential customers had given up the struggle and just left without ordering, but being made of sterner stuff I cornered him and demanded a menu. He went out to the kitchen and got one but when we finally managed to corner him again, he claimed he couldn’t understand what we wanted. I was pointing at the item on the menu we wanted and holding up two fingers. Fortunately a waitress saw our difficulty, came over and took our order.

After some time had passed the waitress came back with a paper bag with bread in it. Another ten minutes passed and for something to do we each got a piece of bread out of the paper bag, put some olive oil on it and ate it. A while later the first waiter showed up and started clearing our plates away. A tug of war then ensued as he was trying to take my plate and I wasn’t letting go. Eventually he gave up and stormed off to the kitchen. We finally got our meal about 5 minutes after that. I tell you, Faulty Towers could learn a few pointers from this place.

The flight to Dubai on a Boeing 777 was a little cramped but comfortable enough. At Dubai, however, our fun started as we were dropped at Terminal C and our onward flight left from Terminal A . Getting to A involved a full Security screen (a belts and watches off affair) when we arrived, a fifteen minute trip around the airport on a shuttle bus whose departure location had been really well hidden, followed by another full Security screen on arrival at Terminal A, followed by a full physical search of our carry-on bags at the departure lounge.

Our flight home on a beautiful A380-800 has been very comfortable . We have had a great crew, good food and even got a few hours sleep.

It has been a fantastic trip but we are very glad to get home.

Day 40 Our Last day in Trieste

During our short visit here we have really fallen in love with this beautiful city and its inhabitants. In my final post from here, I thought I would pop in a few random things we found wandering around this wonderful place.

You occasionally come across signs like this. It turns out that for centuries Trieste has been under the control of remote powers. Austrian control of the city was lost at the end of WW1 when it was transferred to Italian control.

Shortly after this happened the Fascist regime took power in Italy and they were not popular with the locals. At the end of WW2 for a period of 6 years Trieste was ruled by an American and UK Military Commission while the politicians decided the town’s fate. The military government did not interfere in local matters and for the first time in centuries the people of Trieste were running their own affairs with no far away authority telling them what to do, and they seemed to have enjoyed the experience.

The decision to hand this area back to Italy did not sit well with the people who remembered their time under the Mussolini government, hence the signs.

Just offshore of Trieste is moored a very weird looking grey yacht with three giant masts. It belonged to a Russian Oligarch and was seized three years ago as part of the EU sanctions. It has been moored there ever since. It is said to have cost 600 Million Euros and has its own helicopter and submarine as well as a garage full of luxury cars.

I couldn’t help myself so I talked Jeanette into going down to the closed train museum to see if we could see anything interesting through the fence. Nothing much was visible just a lot of dilapidated wagons and long weeds. I got this shot of a sad looking 4 wheeled tram car.

Austria is a landlocked country and when it controlled Trieste this was Austria’s main connection to the sea. All its coffee was shipped through this port which gave rise to the coffee culture the city has today. The original train station (now redundant) sits on the waterfront and is of enormous size. It’s currently undergoing an extensive renovation.

In the centre of the square alongside our hotel there was a magnificent bronze statue of Maximilian Emperor of Mexico, it vanished in the late 19th Century but after WW2 some enterprising soul located it in a warehouse in Vienna. After some negotiation it was returned to our square and re-erected and there he stands again today.

The building across the square from us houses the Trieste Museum of Modern Art. Fortunately the collection seems to have stopped around 1925 so one is spared all the tripe that has been produced over the last hundred years and there are some magnificent works displayed.

The collection is housed in the former palace of Baron Revoltello, a financier who was the Vice President of the company that built the Suez Canal. He died without any children and left his house and art collection to the City of Trieste.

The building has six floors. The top four floors have been modernised and house the art collection which is really enjoyable, and the bottom two have been left as they were when the Baron lived there and are just amazing in their opulence.

One final Trieste observation, it makes no difference whether you are in an ex Emperor’s Place, a Baron’s residence or our hotel, the parquetry floors squeak like blazes!

Day 39 The Tram to Opicina

Today, Jeanette had kindly agreed to my proposal to go and visit the Train Museum here but unfortunately it is temporarily closed, which around these parts means it could be another decade or so before it reopens. But in our wanders yesterday we had come across some tram tracks and it was still operating so a tram ride was substituted.

This is the tram to Opicina and it has quite a history. Built by the Austrians back in 1902 when they owned this part of the world, it is still running with its original rolling stock. It’s not a tourist line and you can ride it for peanuts with their normal commuter bus ticket.

The line is around 5kms long.The fascinating part is that it starts out as an electric tram going thru narrow streets, then it backs on to a cable-towed sled and goes up the mountain like a funicular railway, then at the top it picks up its overhead power again and the lights come on again and you rattle off through beautiful forest country with some incredible views of the coastline till you arrive at the depot in the little village of Opicina.

There was an accident in 2016 which closed the line for 9 years. It was just a tram/car crash on a road crossing and they have 5 trams with only two in operation at anytime but I suspect the authorities just wanted to get rid of the system for buses and they used that as an excuse to close.

However, the locals wanted it back and the turning point came when a little girl’s letter to Santa got published in the local news. Apparently all she wanted from Santa for Christmas was the tram back and the surge of public demand created by this got the line reopened in February this year so I was lucky.

Day 38 Ljubljana and Lake Bled

Today we were off early to catch a tour leaving at 8am for the town of Ljubljana and Lake Bled. Our transport was a 9 seater Renault van driven by a fit looking young chap who was also a ski jumper. His reaction timings, as you would expect, were pretty sharp. For an old guy used to giving every thing a very wide berth, sitting in the front seat was exciting to put it mildly.

We soon crossed the Italian border into Slovenia which I have to say is the prettiest country I have ever seen. 84% is forested, every where is lush and green, and great snow capped peaks marking the boarder with Austria rise up in the distance.

Our first stop was at the lovely town of Ljubljana which, after being destroyed by an earthquake, was rebuilt by an Austrian Architect. The town has wound up bearing a very strong resemblance to Salzburg.

We took the funicular up to the castle overlooking the city.

And we managed to grab a coffee before getting back on the van and on to Lake Bled.

This is an incredibly scenic place. We grabbed a quick lunch in a restaurant overlooking the lake. This place’s claim to fame was that it had invented the world famous Kremsnita cake. Now I had never heard of it before and it looked to me like a vanilla slice with an extra layer of cream slapped on between the pastry, but what do I know.

We did not have enough time to walk fully around the lake but we went as far as we were able in the time we had

Power boats are not allowed on the lake but passengers are carried in flat bottomed wooden boats called Pletna. These can carry 18 passengers and are rowed by a guy standing in the stern.

A long drive home, getting back to Trieste around 4pm.

Day 37 Miramare Castle

This morning we hit the first Hop On bus and rode it out to Miramare Castle. Well a 20 minute walk from Miramare Castle that is. The shores along here are where locals come to bathe. There is no sand only rocks and people sun bake on flat slabs of concrete or in little partitioned off areas that rent sun lounges. You climb into the water via a ladder.

The castle is positioned well away from the peasants on a point surrounded by beautiful gardens. Its position perfectly captures the soft ocean breezes. Jeanette has dragged me into many castles over the years and if I had to choose one to live in, this one would definitely be it.

The Castle of Miramare and its park were built at the behest of Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg, who decided, around 1855, to have a residence on the outskirts of Trieste that was befitting his rank, overlooking the sea and surrounded by an extensive garden. In 1860 he and his wife Charlotte moved into the completed ground floor while work continued upstairs.

Unfortunately, Maximilian was persuaded by Napoleon III to take on the role of Emperor of Mexico so he left his beautiful and still unfinished home in 1864 and travelled to Mexico. Unfortunately, with the end of the American Civil war in 1865, America threw its support behind the rebel Mexican republicans and pressured the French to withdraw their troops which was the main thing propping up Maximilian’s regime, and he was overthrown and executed by firing squad in 1867.

I can tell you that even without the benefit of hindsight, I would have told Napoleon III to take a hike.

I have previously mentioned the city’s large square. There seems to be an event held on it every day and today was no exception.

The maximum temperatures around here range between 26c and 29c with a very high humidity and we find it necessary to take a bit of a siesta break in the afternoon, remerging around 6pm.

Day 36 Put ashore at Trieste

We had to be at our assembly point for disembarkation at 8:30 am and soon after we were heading down the gangplank, whistled through immigration and were standing on the side of the road with all our worldly possessions.

Siri reckoned our hotel was only 4 minutes walk away so we set off. Rolling bags on rough pavement is never a great experience but we were soon where the hotel address was but there was no sign of our hotel.

I walked around the square asking waiters in the outdoor cafes if they could tell me where our hotel was but no one had ever heard of it. I was wondering if we had been the subject of an internet hoax then I saw Jeanette on the other side of the square waving. She had found it. In a list of names next to a door in the middle of a large apartment building was our hotel’s name.

Jeanette pressed the button and we were let in. The rooms in this building have 20 foot high ceilings and our hotel was on the third floor and there was no lift. So while Jeanette was negotiating with the proprietor I hauled our bags up seemingly endless flights of stairs.

After we had recovered a bit we went off exploring. Jeanette of course zeroed in on the nearest cathedral which was located up numerous flights of stairs.

We wandered back to the main square just as a major event was ending. Fortunately we were able to see a Bersaglieri Regiment Band marching off. These are a very unique unit of the Italian Army with broad brimmed black hats covered in a mass of black feathers and their march pace is a fast jog. To see a band run past while still playing their trumpets, trombones and tubas is really amazing. Unfortunately I was at the back of a large crowd and didn’t get any decent photos.

It is quite hot and humid here at the moment so we found a little restaurant that had a breeze blowing up an alley from the waterfront and rested up with a couple of Aperol Spritz.

There was a large orchestra performing nearby but the interval between numbers was about 5 times as long as each piece they performed. After two numbers at this glacial pace they stopped for a proper break and left the stage. The wind then came up and sheets and sheets of music were blown off their stands.

A few conscientious types raced back onto the stage, collected the loose music then started the painstaking process of figuring which stand they came from and what order they should go back. I reckon the performance after interval might have been very interesting but hunger drove us on in the search for an evening meal.p

We found a nice sushi place and had dinner, then walked down to the wharf and watched Queen Victoria sail away.

Day 35 Our Last Sea Day

A very sad day as we have become very found of our seaborne existence. We spent the day packing and getting ready for departure.

Jeanette made it to church and had a chat with the Captain who did the service.

We treated ourselves to our last Cunard afternoon tea which was as good as always.

Day 34 Dubrovnik

As this was our second time visiting Dubrovnik, we decided to skip the tours and explore on our own. So we had a leisurely start and caught the shuttle bus for a 25 minute trip to the Old Town.

The crowds weren’t too bad and after Jeanette had check out a Monastery near the front entrance, we decided to explore some of the lanes less traveled.

After climbing a fair few stairs we turned left and followed a narrow laneway that seemed to be running just a bit in from the city walls. This traversed a residential area before coming out on a huge square with a large church, which of course we just had to visit.

It was so dark in there we had to sit in a pew for around 15minutes before we could make anything out.

Then back out following the alleys till we came to another church which we had to visit also.

Walking on from there we came across the Rector’s Palace with a statue of one of its previous inhabitants outside. Unfortunately, a bit like Molly Malone’s statue in Dublin, people had taken to rubbing an outstanding portion of his anatomy which made him look a bit strange.

Pressing on we came to a square where the rooves of the surrounding buildings were just black with thousands of pigeons, mobs of which would occasionally take flight. It was like something out of the Hitchcock movie, ‘The Birds’; very creepy.

Next we came across another large church (not open this time), out the front of which a large group of Croatian villagers, all dressed in traditional costumes, were preparing to perform a traditional folk dance. So we stayed and watched. It was very impressive.

The last time we visited here, just as we were walking out the gate, Jeanette remembered that we had not seen the statue of Orlando, a famous folk hero, that she had read about so we had to go all the way back to find him.

This time fortunately she remembered Orlando before we had walked out of the city. And this time I was prepared as she had been standing right next to where his statue normally stood, watching the folk dancing. Unfortunately Orlando was off being restored but his picture was there.

We left the city and had a late lunch in a delightful restaurant overlooking the city walls and the surrounding azure sea.

Getting back to the ship was a bit traumatic as there was a queue of around 200 people waiting for the bus in the blazing sun.

Day 33 Montenegro

Re reading some of my recent posts, I get the feeling that being on the road so long might have been making me a little jaded. Well Montenegro has fixed all that.

Sailing up a beautiful fjord to the lovely old town of Kotor and being in a country where they actually wash and care for their cars and mow their lawns has given my spirits an incredible boost.

Our tour today first took us to the very top of the high mountains that surround Kotor. The road which had been constructed over a century ago was a single lane with 26 hairpin bends. It also handled two way traffic.

If you encountered another vehicle, the rule was the vehicle nearest to the previous switchback passed, had to reverse back to that switchback to let the other vehicle squeeze by. We had to do that twice in a giant bus on a narrow twisting road way up in the mountains. My hair is now considerably greyer than when I started out. I should note that buses could only go in the up direction on this road.

Once at the top we drove to a small village where we stopped at a little inn for what the guide called ‘breakfast’. This comprised bread, Montenegrin prosciutto, a rather nice local cheese and a large glass of white wine. The latter helping considerably in settling the nerves from the trip up.

There were hams hanging over the inn table where we were sitting. They looked petrified to me but Jeanette insisted they were just aging. Given the amount of tobacco consumed in these parts, I guess the proprietors were getting smoked ham for free.

We travelled on to the old capital of Montenegro which was a pretty place. We visited the Palace of the last King of Montenegro. No photography was allowed inside but i reckon this was the first Palace I have ever been in that looked as though a family actually lived there.

Back on the bus we drove through an upmarket seaside tourist resort town, then spent around an hour and a half bumping over a two lane road which is being very slowly converted to a four lane one, getting back to our start point in the old town of Kotor.

The town walls are amazing, running right up the cliff to the top. This model gives you an idea of how it was set out.

Here is a view of part of the wall from our cabin. I reckon the soldiers manning the walls must have had thighs of steel just to get to and from work each day.

The old town is very pretty with lots of narrow lanes to explore. The old clocktower has a slight lean courtesy of the last earthquake.

There are lots of stray cats roaming around and the locals have created a cat Hilton where they can live and get fresh water and food.

We found a nice restaurant where we indulged in our new favourite drink, an Aperol Spritz and a leisurely lunch before heading back to the ship.

Day 32. Corfu

Our tour today was supposed to take us to the highlights of Corfu. After driving through miles of ramshackled buildings, a quarter of which appeared to be abandoned before completion and the remainder which had never seen a lick of paint, apart from graffiti, since their construction, we finally got into the countryside where it seems a common practice to dump rubbish along the roadside.

Eventually we arrived at Paleokastritsa which our guide had told us had the most beautiful beaches on the island. She did correct this slightly on our arrival by adding the fact you had to take a boat to see them. So we had a half an hour’s free time. All the shops were shut. The tiny beach looked very dirty though the water was crystal clear. You couldn’t stand anywhere near the narrow main road as you were in grave danger of being rundown so we retreated up a dirt road near where the bus had stopped and waited amongst the abandoned boat trailers, rubbish and tall weeds till it was time to move on.

Our next highlight was a view of Mouse Island. This was pretty enough I guess, though 95% of the available viewing space had been sold off to private restaurants so unless you were prepared to order a meal, only around four people could see the view at any time.

This area is called Kanoni after a French cannon battery that was located here in the 19th century. Only one cannon remains today. The reason why Mouse Island is considered a highlight is that when the Greek Government first decided way back to encourage international tourism to Greece, the very first brochure they produced had only two pictures; one was of the Parthenon and the other was of Mouse Island.

Finally we got to the original city of Corfu. This is a truly fascinating and beautiful place. The Old Town is on a peninsula with a large fort at either end, the Old Fort as it is known is at the point of the peninsula guarding from sea approaches, and the so called New Fort is at the other end protecting from land attacks.

While the old town is very impressive though I do have to note that all the house paint sellers must have starved to death many centuries back from lack of customers

We spent a pleasant couple of hours exploring the narrow lanes and having a leisurely lunch.

A considerable area between the Old Fort and the top of the Old Town had been cleared during the French occupation to create a large treed square and when the English took control of the island at the end of the Napoleonic wars, they built a very grand and imposing Government House there. It was so large I couldn’t get back far enough to get it all in the photo.

The Old Fort also had a canal cut across in front of it like a moat. This is now used as a boat harbour.

All in all, the Old Town saved Corfu for me. It is an amazing place well worth seeing.