Trip Update: Oct - Nov 2022 Part 1 Best of the Adriatic

      

                                 Ljubljana Dragon

Well, you know the trip is getting off to a rough start when the Uber driver gets lost going to the airport. At least the fee was fixed. Our flights at BWI and JFK were both delayed due to the hurricane Ian that was working its way up the East Coast. I hope I never have to fly through JFK again. We had to go from Terminal 4 to Terminal 1. You would think that there would be signage to direct you through the maze, but there were no signs. We asked an employee and he said take the Air Train to Terminal 1. After a very long walk we saw signs directing us to the Air Train. When we got to the Air Train, we found out that due to construction, the Air Train did not go to Terminal 1, you had to take a shuttle bus. Another long detour to get to the Shuttle Bus stop. We finally found the bus, but the ride was so long I thought they were taking us to another airport. Next time I’ll book a flight from T4 to T1.

Houses along the Ljubljana River

At JFK we switched from Delta to their partner Air France and flew though CDG in Paris. Even with all the flight delays and airport detours, we didn’t miss out scheduled flights. I can’t say the same for my luggage. When we landed in Slovenia, my bag failed to show. Pat had just a carry-on so she was OK. I contacted Delta and they told me it was Air France’s problem. Air France requires a Booking Number in order to start a Lost Luggage Report. I booked the entire flight through Delta, but Delta does not use Booking Numbers, they use Confirmation Numbers, and they are not the same. I tried to resolve this with Air France on line but their Virtual Assistance was a waste of time. I could call Air France but I didn’t have a toll-free number from Slovenia and I knew the wait time would be several hours.

 

Ljubljana Castle 

We had landed in Slovenia a day before we were to start Rick Steve’s (RS) Best of the Adriatic Tour. So, the next day we met with our tour guide for the 2-week trip. He recommended we contact IGA Travel to get assistance. This company had an arrangement with RS to provide travel assistance. They were great, they got the report filed and kept us up to date on the status of my bag.

Franciscan Church of the Annunciation in background

We had landed in the capital city of Ljubljana and would be leaving there after our third night. The guide warned us that after we left this city it might be difficult to replace my missing items. Heeding his warning I started to replace toiletries and some clothing items.  By the third day, I had replaced what I needed, but now I needed a suitcase to carry it. I returned to the hotel that afternoon and found out that my luggage had been found. Later that day it was delivered. Now I had too much stuff and an extra suitcase!

Lake Bled and the Assumption of Mary Church

RS takes COVID very seriously. We knew if we got COVID during the trip, we would have to leave the trip without a refund, so everyone had trip insurance. We had to do a rapid test at the start of our trip, and on Day One of this tour one of tour members tested positive, so our numbers dropped from 25 to 24 guests. I few days later 3 more guests came down with COVID so they had to leave dropping our number to 19 because 2 spouses left also. RS took good care of the ones left behind. He has a special group tasked with making travel, meal and accommodation arrangements for them.

Bled Castle and Pletna Boat cruise

You might think that this was the Trip from Hell at this point, but things improved. The weather was absolutely perfect for the entire two weeks of the trip. Slovenia was beautiful and we regret we didn’t have more time to explore its trails and caves. Lake Bled was the most beautiful place we visited on this trip. 

Pula Arena - Roman amphitheater and museum

Small boat harbor in Opatija, Croatia

Plitvice Lake National Park, Croatia

Plitvice Lake National Park

In Croatia we visited many historical cities - Pula, Split, Dubrovnik and others with structures dating back to Roman times. The highlight for us was our walk-through Plitvice lakes National Park, surrounded by waterfalls.

Split, Croatia

Stecak-monumental medieval tombstone

Our guide and our lunch in Bosnia

             

Koski Mehmed Pasha Mosque

Historic Old Bridge in Mostar, Bosnia

Our guide, who was excellent, was Bosnian and he was excited to share his experience in Bosnia and the history of the region from WW1 to present. We spent 2 days in Mostar, Bosnia and saw the ruins that still remained from the siege of the city in the 1990’s.

On ferry from Korcula

We returned to Croatia and took a ferry to the island getaway of Korcula. The first night there, we had dinner at a seaside restaurant with six fellow travelers, and five of the eight got food poisoning. Pat had it the worse and spent most of the next day in the bathroom. Fortunately, this was a non-travel day. Can’t imagine traveling in a bus with no bathroom in her condition. She was fit for travel by the time we took a ferry off the island.

Walls of Dubrovnik

When it comes to historic cities, Dubrovnik is certainly one of the most picturesque. A walled city with red tile roofs with the Adriatic on two sides. We walked the wall around the city. The days we were in town, there were no visiting cruise ships. The local chefs put out a spread of their favorite dishes and we stuffed ourselves.

Dubrovnik

We flew from Dubrovnik to Porto, Portugal, but that’s another story.

This was our first Rick Steve’s trip and we were impressed with how well it was run. It was also the cheapest of the similar trips out there. The guide was very professional and spoke excellent English, along with at least 3 other languages. Most of the other travelers had taken multiple RS tours - for one couple this was their 11^th RS trip, but they were RS groupies. If your interest is in the history and culture of European cities, a RS trip is hard to beat, and it’s a good value. RS has a lot of pull in the travel business in Europe; he ran 1096 trips in Europe in 2022. If your interest is in hiking, nature and National Parks, you might want to consider other options.

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Trip Update: Oct-Nov 2022 Part 2 Portugal

Colorful tiles

We needed to fly from Dubrovnik to Porto, Portugal. Of course, there were no direct flights and we wanted to avoid long layovers. We picked a cheap flight on Transavia Airlines. The first leg went to Orly, France. There we would collect our bags and check back in for our flight to Porto. Sounds simple, right? From the time we landed at ORY until we got to our next gate took 2 hours! ORY was a disorganized mess and security was just ridiculous.  The leg room on Transavia flights was the shortest I have ever experienced. When I win the $2B Powerball, I’m going to buy my own plane!

We arrived in Porto and realized our two weeks of perfect weather had come to an end. While no days were a complete rain out, you didn’t dare go out with a rain coat. We definitely had to switch gears as we were now responsible for all of our own arrangements. Being on a tour was certainly more relaxing. We found Uber to be the cheapest and most efficient way to get around the cities in Portugal. For some reason Portugal’s Uber is about half of the cost compared to Uber in the US and gas is $8/gal there! It also helped that the dollar was worth slightly more than the Euro. We stayed in AirBNBs in Porto and Lisbon; hotels in other cities and country houses elsewhere.

Imperial McDonalds

We toured Porto for two days. We stopped at their Imperial McDonalds when we needed a bathroom break. It’s like no other McDonalds that you will ever see, complete with chandeliers. One of the rooms at the Stock Exchange was so ornate, I thought I was in St Petersburg.                          

Church of Karma

 

Must be a politician

Lighthouse at Foz do Douro

Stock Exchange

Church or Halloween decoration?

They told the builder they wanted a cornerstone

Pat at Gust Waterfall in NP

We rented a car for a week as we left Porto and headed for Peneda-Geres National Park, the only NP in Portugal. The rains were worse as we approached the mountainous interior of northern Portugal. The only advantage to the rain was the waterfalls and rainbows. Some of the side roads were so tight that the car’s collision alert alarms kept going off. It didn’t help that Google Maps sent us to the wrong location. Sometime the fog was too dense to drive. After a few days of frustration, we gave up and headed to the Duro Valley.

Nice tile work

Double Vision

Temple of Diana

Despite all the hype about the beautiful Duro Valley, we were not impressed. Our lodging there was quite disappointing, so we left the area and headed to Coimbra. One day was enough to see the sights in this preserved medieval old town with a historic university. We drove to Tomar and walked through the gardens up to the castle walls. We tried to storm the wall but were unsuccessful. Next, we unsuccessfully tried to enter through an underground aqueduct passage. We finally gave up and hiked back to town and took the tourist entrance to The Castle of the Knight Templar. The next stop was Evora, which was happily outside the rainy area. This is a walled Roman town with the ancient Roman Temple of Diana and many other historical structures. We drove to a spot outside town where we found Almendres Cromlech, a Stonehenge type rock circle, 2000 yrs. older than Stonehenge plus we visited other megalithic monuments nearby.

Megalithic Monument

Belem Tower

Not being accustomed to dry sunny weather we headed to Lisbon. We returned the rental car at the airport and used Uber to get in and around town. For the first day and a half, we toured around the old city of Lisbon which included the Castle of St George, the neighborhoods of Alfama and Baixa and the Tile Museum. The next day we went to the Belem Tower and it started to rain when we got there -by the time we left we were in a thunderstorm. Even with a rain jacket and umbrella we got pretty wet from the blowing rain and flooded streets and walkways. It was 1.5 mile walk to The Monastery of Jeronimos, but first we had to wait in line for half an hour to get in. The main attraction here was the church, but it was closed for the funeral service of some local big shot. So, it wasn’t worth the effort. When we were through at the Monastery the rain was over, so we started walking back to our AirBNB.

Monument to the Discoveries

Pena Palace

For our last day in Portugal and because our 40^th Anniversary was in a few days, I had set up a private tour of Sintra. There is a lot to see in the area, but the sights are somewhat scattered and difficult to do with public transportation. So, the morning that we were set to go, we find out with tour driver was sick and the tour was cancelled. This left us scrambling to figure out what we were going to do and how to do it. We took Uber to Pena Palace and grounds, then we walked down a steep hill and up another one to tour the medieval Moorish Castle. Both are World Heritage Sites. Afterwards we walked down to the old town of Sintra.  From here we took an Uber back. I guess we did okay considering our lack of planning!

Fancy window

Castle of the Moors

Jack in the Pulpit

The next day we flew to Boston.

Trip Update: Oct - Nov 2022 Part 3 Boston

    

            

                                                   Massachusetts State House

State House ceiling 

Paul Revere and Old North Church

We had an uneventful flight from Lisbon to Boston. It rained overnight, but the next few days were unseasonably warm. It’s a good thing I dragged winter clothes across Europe so I would be prepared for the cold and snowy November days in Boston. So, I put my shorts on and we did the entire Freedom Trail. We took a free guided tour of the State Capitol and found it to be interesting and beautiful. 

                              

An entire park was decorated for Halloween

Bunker Hill Monument

                               USS Constitution - the oldest ship in the world still afloat

Courtyard at the Gardner Museum

The next day we went to the Gardner Museum. It the type of art museum you either love or hate. It had a great garden, but I didn’t like that you had to download a QR code for each room and then figure out which descriptions went with which pictures. Later we went to an Immersive Vatican show. They make the art and architecture of the Vatican come alive. Immersive Van Gogh and Immersive Monet are also available. Viewing tip, it is a 360-degree projection, so after watching the entire show switch seats to the opposite wall and watch the part you missed. 

                                                            Old South Church

Is this a monument to beggars?

        The next day we flew back to Maryland. This time the Uber driver did not get lost.

The last night of our month long trip, view from our room

                                

July-Sept 2022 MT to MD

 

                                        St John's Harbor

At Mallard Cottage with Aunt Catherine

On July 4, we flew from Helena MT, and landed at St John’s Newfoundland 20 hr later. We stayed with my Aunt Catherine and had a busy 10 days. Catherine took us out for a special dinner at Mallard Cottage, and we attended a Shakespeare in the Park play. Apparently, my taste in Shakespeare has not changed since high school.  Pat and I hiked several sections of the East Coast Trail. We were too late to see icebergs and not lucky enough to see whales.

Hiking the East Coast Trail

View from Elysia and Jason's Harbor House Deck

We spent a couple nights at my cousin Elysia and husband Jason’s house in Conception Harbor. At the time they were near completing a year long trip around the world. No small task with two kids and dealing with COVID travel regulations! This is the same house my grandfather built and where my mother grew up.

Bacon Cove, Conception Harbor

SMILE, you just caught COVID!

The highlight and low point of our visit was attending a dinner show with an ABBA theme. My cousin George and his wife Pam joined the three of us. Everybody had a good time and was fine until three days later when everyone came down with COVID, that is, everyone but me. Pat hated to see me missing out on all the COVID fun, so she shared her virus with me several days later.

Flood Damage in Red Lodge, MT

COVID felt like a bad cold for a few days. I tested positive for 2 weeks. For me the worse part of having COVID was the isolation. Weeks after COVID, I seem to have a lower energy level; the bar was not that high to start with. I needed to get out of our Helena house after my isolation so we took the RV down toward Billings MT. From here we took day trips into the mountains. We visited the small tourist town of Red Lodge, MT that was severely impacted by the flooding that closed Yellowstone NP back in June. 

Alpine Lake near Beartooth Highway

From Red Lodge, we took the Beartooth Highway that runs to the NE entrance of YNP. That entrance to the park was still closed, but the drive was spectacular. We enjoyed the 60-degree temps at the crest of the highway when it was 30 degrees warmer down in Billings.

Pictograph Cave SP in MT

SE of Billings we visited the Pictograph Cave State Park. There were over 100 rock paintings from 200-2000 yrs. old. Due to weathering and other factors, far fewer are currently visible. We also toured the Yellowstone Art Museum, which I found disappointing. 

                                  Aunt Ann, Pat's Dad, and Aunt Janice 10 years ago.

Pat flew back to MD for a few days to attend the funeral of her Aunt Janice. Janice and husband Mehrl had owned and run the Mayne’s Tree Farm in Buckeystown. They also loved to travel.

Minion feeling a little stiff

Sunset at Placid Lake, MT through a wildfire haze

In mid-Sept we started our RV trip back to MD. One problem with leaving a residence vacant for 6 -8 months is that a squatter could move in. This was one of the reasons we bought a secure condo in MD. Well, we were gone less than two weeks when our property was taken over by a big strong brute, pushing 340 lbs. The neighbors called it in and before long he was surrounded by officials. Feeling cornered he made a 30-foot dash up our large cottonwood tree. The Fish and Wildlife Officer felt he had no choice but to shoot the black bear with a tranquillizer dart. Apparently the first part of his body to feel the effects of this shot was his sphincter muscle, as a flood of bear poo poured down on the roof of our shed. The bear eventually fell to the ground, and was badly injured as a result of the fall. Later that day the bear died from those injuries. F&W should have known better.

His last stand

Mushroom of the Year

Sunrise in Siouxland

Field of Dreams Pitcher

One of our stops on the trip back to MD was Dyersville, IA, home of the Field of Dreams. We lucked out because shortly after we arrived a tour bus pulled in and the tourists were given a talk by the pitcher from the movie. We just happened to overhear the presentation. It was interesting to learn that after the movie was complete, the land was returned to its original condition, except for the pitcher’s mound. After the movie was released, tourists from all over the world started showing up at the site looking for the Field of Dreams. Finally, the landowner figured the best thing to do was to convert his field back into the movie set at his own expense.

Isn’t it ironic that the theme “Build it and they will come” was actually true, except that the movie executives and land owner didn’t believe it. Of course, the same mistake was made with the Hobbit sets in NZ. When will they learn?

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Laurel Hill SP - Fall is coming!