August 27 Last Day On Land

Our Sunny Streak is Broken

This morning we awoke to loud thunder and bolts of lightning, a bit of a deluge and flickering lights. Not what you normally want on vacation but for a slow traveler with eleven straight weeks of sunshine, it is simply an excuse to laze in bed, stretch and postpone breakfast to the unheard of late hour of 9am. Also, a reason to hope all the rain will drop and provide clear sunny skies for sailing.

Luckily by the third cup of coffee, the rain was letting up and by the time we caught up on our daily email time and news, it had stopped. Since the skies looked gray, and we needed the Post Office, we hopped the #6 bus back to Old Town. Not wanting to shop or aimlessly wander crowded streets, we took a guided walk

and got more or less a two hour history

lesson from the 10th Century through the 'Serbian Aggression' of 1991, with a bit of socialist communism thrown in after WWII.

Sticking to our touristy crap avoidance in this bustling cruise ship stop, we had only a few olives, marinated anchovies and a drink before heading back to Lapad,

where the sun was now shining and the sky blue and the swimming pool beckoning. By 5:30 the cruise ships had blown their horns and swiftly headed out of the harbor and I headed to our favorite konoba to reserve a table on the terrace by the railing and a kilogram of grilled octopus, a specialty of the house that requires two hours of cooking under the 'iron bell' over the wood fire.

Arriving at 8 sharp, starting with a small salad and a liter of red wine, the octopus arrived unctuous and savory on a large silver platter covered in tentacles, potatoes and onions and we almost finished. We forgot the camera but left room for a takeaway gelato- vanilla and pistachio- which we ate sitting on a bench at the harbor, looking at the boat lights reflecting on the waters, colors of yellow and green and blue, and anxious to start our sail tomorrow!

We expect a spotty Internet connection while sailing, so we will try to keep blogging, but perhaps we will be incommunicado until we are landlubbers again. I can feel the boat rocking already and I can't wait!

Comments

August 3. West, East or Central??? Where the Hell is Vienna?

West, East or Central??? Where the Hell is Vienna? Aside from the fact that it is approximately three hours and fifteen minutes from Cesky Krumlov, Vienna, it turns out, is technically in Western Europe, even though Austria makes its appearance in Rick Steve's Eastern European book and people who live in Czech, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia are Central European. In fact, it is almost offensive to call them or their country Eastern European, as that is clearly only for the old Soviet bloc. We made a few stops along the way, taking the scenic way past a magnificent very long lake, and over beautiful mountains with rolling fields of crop and grain, not quite the Sound of Music Austria, but not too far off. Crossing from Czech to Austria in the EU of today entailed no more than driving past the old vacant border patrol building. We checked into our hotel, just a couple blocks outside the busy Ringstrasse and next to the Rathaus, and sank into our air conditioned room,...

#118 - It’s Sunny and HOT in Paree

Dinner last night was just a ten minute walk, following the Marci school of city touring which says : “run around all day, anywhere you want, take public transit everywhere, but once you are back at your hotel, be it 6 or 7 or even 8pm, just walk close by for dinner”. I always pick the neighborhood to stay in first and then I pick my hotel. I don’t mind running all day, but once the day is done I want to be near lots of good places to eat dinner. Astier, a bistro in the 11th, qualified on the location and the Good Eats. Again, the food sounded simple, like my beet gaspacho with crunchy veggies. The deep purple was rich looking and the flavors layered and fresh. Steve started with the pickled herring and I think he was quite surprised when the waiter delivered and LEFT on the table a quite large glazed terracotta container of herring, a serving spoon and fork, a bowl of small potatoes and a basket of bread. Then he left. Clearly this was an all-you-can-...

A Beer Primer, Brewery to Baths

A Beer Primer, Brewery to Baths In Czech, beer is king. It is the breakfast of champions, the lunchtime liquid, the afternoon aperitif, the dinner drink and evening bar crawl beverage. There is dark and light and everything in between. You can order normal, at 10% alcohol, or 11 or 12 for a faster buzz. It can be smooth or bitter, yellow, brown or red. It goes with dumplings, and pork knee, and pickled sausages and apple strudel. It fills you up and always makes you need the WC. And so, although we are not beer aficionados, and I am not even a beer fan, we picked Plzen, CZ as the first stop on our 15 day road trip through Eastern Europe (or Central Europe to those who live there according to a Czech acquaintance). It was close to Prague so even if we got lost, the day would not be lost. The morning's challenges would be getting to the rental car place in town by metro, finding our way back to the apartment in our Skoda, the largest produced Czech car, and navigating ou...

Marci and Steve Go Back to Europe

Search This Blog