International air travel garners excitement completely based on destination and imagination. Details of the actual traveling part seem often humdrum. Up and at ’em Atom Ant. We pack, check, walk to tram stop, catch the number 6 tram to bus station and discover that tickets to the airport are purchased on the airport bus from…
Properly speaking this blog entry should be called Croatian and Montenegrin kindness for we have been showered with good will in both countries. I was simply looking for an alliterative title. Croatia and Montenegro are undoubtably filled with areas of great natural beauty. Cities walled by ancient fortifications are filled with historical buildings and artifacts.…
Zagreb has that certain something something. An intangible vibe that the French people vaguely term Je Nes Sais Quoi. Is it the blue trams, the gorgeous people, the public art work, the historical buildings? Or is it all these things and more that had me saying ‘Wow, we are in Zagreb’ on our initial arrival…
Time tumbles by like a boulder crashing down the precipitous slopes of the mountain sides ringing Kotor. Mere mortals are left crushed in it’s wake in their feeble attempts to divert generated inexorable momentum. No sooner are we acclimatised to the beauty of our surroundings we are moving on. No gathering of moss allowed despite…
Incontrovertible evidence of how closely tied to nature humankind thankfully remains is displayed in the association of our emotions or moods to weather conditions. Blue skies have Pam bouncing around the apartment, ready for action, by the time I awaken. The flat greys of the past few days banished. ‘C’mon’ she urges ‘today is our…
Waking bleary eyed later on New Years Day morning I am none too disappointed to hear that the rain has returned. I fall back to sleep comforted by the sound of cascading water running down the stone stairs beside our apartment. The wet weather has set in, it rains for the rest of New Year’s…
New Years Eve is always a strange day for me. Thirty eight years ago this evening my family became a part of Australian National Road statistics. My mother was killed. I suffered multiple broken bones, was rendered unconscious for five days and spent three months in traction. My siblings were also smashed to smithereens and…
Sufferers from red/green colour blindness might have trouble discerning the contrast between the jaunty orange of the Dubrovnik Cable Car and the dark green stripe of forest swathing the lower slopes of Mt Srd. Pam has good colour vision and we have been watching its rapid climb and descent occurring on a regular half hour…
Thanks to its constantly maintained and incredibly successful system of fortifications, moats and city walls Dubrovnik spent many centuries as an independent maritime republic. From 1358 when it seceded from Venetian rule until 1808 when the city surrendered to Napoleon’s all conquering army to prevent imminent Russian invasion this republic known in Latin as Respublica…
Despite the reputably blue skies that greet us the next morning I am loath to stir. Pam puts on her spurs and goes to work to rouse me. ‘Get up you lazy B’ she exclaims, ‘no rain, no excuses, no problems, we are going to the beach’. She has been reading Rick Steves’ guide book…
andtheywalked.com 