Old World/New Country - Croatia and Montenegro

First stop Pula, Croatia - the largest city on the Istrian Peninsula. We noticed the
clear deep blue water and stepped off the boat and right in front of us was the Roman Arena (not to be confused with the Colosseum) constructed between 27 BC and 68 AD. We couldn't decide what to look at first, the children playing at the playground with the deep Mediterranean water as a backdrop. Or the Colosseum, which is pretty much intact. Our guide gave us a quick history lesson: The Romans conquered this area in 177 BC and was ruled by Julius Caesar. When Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, he appointed Augustus (renamed Octavias) as ruler. Marc Antony fought Brutus and Cassius (Julius Caesar's assassins) here and when Brutus and gang won the support of the locals, Augustus destroyed the town.  Augustus's daughter wanted the town rebuilt and it was, complete with the amphitheatre and it all belonged to the Roman empire. Whew.

Currently concerts are held in the Arena and Robert Plant is scheduled to play this July. Talk about a multi-purpose facility - starting with Gladiator fights 2100 years ago and now modern day concerts.  We walked under the Arena and stored there are olive oil pots used in the 1st century. A wheel and crushing stone used to press the oil were there as well. A rack to hold the pots for oil was in a wooden wagon. As relics are discovered in the area, they are brought here for this temporary museum of sorts. I wondered what it would be like to stand and look at this while listening to Robert Plant.

A walk around the city lead us to other ancient Roman structures - namely the Triumphal Arch, and Arch of Sergii and the temples of Roma and Augustus which are completely intact and side by side in the town square. The church of St. Francis was built in 1341 is still standing near one of the remaining parts of the old city wall. Interestingly, the Byzantine chapel of St. Mary Formosa was built in 546 in the form of a Greek cross. It was part of a Benedictine abbey that was demolished in the 16th century. When the Venetians raided Pula in 1605, they removed four columns of oriental alabaster that now stand behind the high altar in St. Mark's Basilica in Venice.

Pula was generally under Venetian rule until the 1800s when the Austrian-Hungary empire took over. It became the vacation home of the Austrian royal family. Then that empire collapsed, Mussolini took over the Istrian peninsula and made it difficult for the Austrian or Hungarian people who lived there. When fascist Italy was taken down, the Germans occupied this area and used the port for U-boats. It was heavily bombed in 1942 - 1944. Under the terms of the Paris peace treaties of 1947, Croatia became part of Yugoslavia. It has only

Photo credit - Deb O'Kelly

been a part of Croatia since 1991, when Yugoslavia was broken into six countries, Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Serbia, and Slovenia. Since 1991, there have been several wars, most recently in Sarajevo and Kosovo.

The people who lived here keep to themselves, enjoying their Saturday with their families in the small square. I was surprised to think that this region was so old, and very much preserved with characters from the Bible and Shakespeare plays as its first leaders ("Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend me your Ears"). On the other hand, this country is only twenty-six years old. Even the young remember times of war and being under Communist rule. I held the thought of all the battles, ancient and recent that took place on the ground I stood on.

After a night on the Adriatic Sea, we arrived in Dubrovnik port - one of the most popular tourist destinations on the Dalmation Coast. We disembarked and walked through the city gates of the old town walled city. There is one flat main street through the old town and the Franciscan monastery we first encountered had scars near the outside door where shrapnel from recent bombs (1990s) had hit it. A little further down the way and we saw shutters opened with an old man sitting in the window watching the goings on of the town's people who were out for the day. We toured the Sponza palace and the WWII museum that was in the entry way. The Rector's Palace was at the end of the main street and shops and restaurants opened from the palace open door.  palace and had lunch in the square, watching an old man feed the pigeons
and the young children come to play with them as
they gathered. I was struck by the vibrant city center and the relaxed way of the people who lived there. We wiggled around a break in the wall and found the port, filled with all sorts of boats and water taxis. We went into the Cathedral and looked at the neglected pieces of art that were exhibited throughout the church mostly on the floor of the church leaning on the ancient walls.

Dubrovnik has the most preserved city wall and we were determined to hike it to take in the views of the sea and the colored rooftops. This was the most picturesque city for sure. The red rooftops set against the deep blue Sea, highlighted by the brilliant white buildings coaxed us to walk the entire circumference of the city.

I sat on some nearby steps while the rest of our group climbed a tower to view Dubrovnik with a higher perspective. I meditated with my eyes open on the beauty of the city and history it contained.  It has beautifully stood the test of time and it is easy to understand why George Bernard Shaw called Dubrovnik "heaven on earth". We decided to skip the cable ride to the top of the nearby mountain. We clearly were satisfied with all we had seen and returned to our ship to take a rest on our balcony.



The next morning our ship pulled into Kotor and we walked into the country of Montetenegro from the dock.
A view of fishermen casting in the bay was in one direction and the city and mountain settlement in another. We started with the walking tour provided by our ship but quickly decided to skip the tour and explore on our own. We saw St. Tryphon in the town center, rebuilt many times after succeeding earthquakes. Next to it was the clock tower. The maritime museum was in an old run-down palace. The town seemed like a poorer cousin of Dubrovnik. We went into St. Michael's church and the nun there graced us with a impromptu organ recital. The botafumieros were abundant near the altar.

The town wall beckoned, this time going up a hill past St. John's church half way up and to an old fortress of St. Ivan at the top 1200 meters up. These walls were built starting in the 9th centuries and were complete with holes for cannons to poke out. We meandered through the winding streets and found the stairs to the wall. We climbed half-way up the wall, step by step until we
reached the Church of the Healing Mother of God, built by survivor's of the plague. It was about 600 meters up.  The view of the region was fantastic, showing our ship in the bay and town down below. The wind whistled and the rain began as we found cover under the porch of the church. We took time to take it in, but quickly noticed some young tourists ascending the hill with adrone taking a selfie with the
bay in the background. They were seriously messing with the "I'm pretending I lived here in the 900s" vibe and the drone buzzed and sounded out the wind.  We left the hilltop to return to the town center. I couldn't help but marvel at what a fantastic photo they must have taken of themselves.

We parked the guys with a beer in the town cafe and took off to find shops filled with creations from the local artists and baked goods with a Turkey and Greece influence. We were the first cruise ship in port and we were met almost instantly with beggars in the street, usually persistent children who seemed hardened to this way of life. I'm always torn about whether to give and if the children indeed benefit from their day's work. I found a plate made by a local artist and then a local bakery with the best pistachio baklava I've ever eaten. The guys found the local beer refreshing. We gave our unused Euro coins to the gypsy kids in the street and returned to the ship to get our afternoon relaxation on our room's balcony overlooking the bay.

We motored out of the bay and watched the sun set through the clouds. We could see families returning home from school and work, taking the ferry to get from one side of the bay to the other. Maybe our ship was as annoying as the drone we encountered earlier in the day. Travel always give one so much to think about. It changes you, having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.

3 days in Venice: Romance Capital of the World

We stepped out of the airport and negotiated our way to one of three ways to get into Venice. We easily bought tickets and found our bus to the train station. We decided against a water taxi due to cost and the amount of luggage we had and the private car ride to the train station was long and expensive. In all cases, we had a 10 minute walk after getting to the edge of the city to walk to our hotel located on the Grand Canal. We crossed the bridge from the train station and were visually struck by the true essence of Venice: the only ways to get around this beautiful city is by foot or by boat. The late day sun created sparkling reflections on the water. We stood there for a few moments to take it in.

Our hotel was in an old apartment attached to the hotel on the Grand Canal. We arrived on trash day that presented see-through plastic sacks hanging from the windows -  almost like little gift presentations with trash inside. We scheduled dinner the first night near our hotel at Antica Trattoria Alla Ferrata. We were the only tourists there. We listened to the spirited conversations at the bar and enjoyed our fresh pasta, with a nightcap of homemade limoncello. The next day we would join my sister and her husband in San Marco and pick up our friends Deb and Dan from the airport to begin the great adventure.

We ate breakfast on the Grand Canal, mesmerized by the different sorts of
cargo in the passing boats. Literally everything moves about on the water. We walked the forty minutes to San Marco Piazza. San Marco was empty when we arrived but quickly filled in with tourists. The church is between the clock tower and the Doge's Palace. We proceeded to San Marco Basilica, met my sister and her husband and we were those tourists with headsets. The explanation of the history of the church satisfied us and we quickly forgot our headset-shame. It seems that the Turks in Constantinople and the Venetians were always in battle to steal gold mosaics and columns from each other. The facade of the church held many vibrant gold mosaics stolen from the Turks during the 11th century Crusades. The reflection of the sun off the gold was spellbinding, stolen or not.

We ate lunch in San Marco square, visited the views from near Doge Palace and then left to head to the airport to collect our friends Deb and Dan. It was fun to repeat the entrance into the city to see their reaction. My favorite people were in my new favorite city. It was to be a great trip.

We dined at Trattoria Antica Besseta that evening, also near our hotel. The
food was really creative and tasty. I had a fish sandwich with radish mayo and catsup on black bread (not your ordinary fish sandwich). Dan had a seafood feast. Paul opted for pasta. Our desserts were the best part. We were among the last to leave that night and we
got our coats to walk back to the hotel. After we arrived at our hotel room, Paul discovered a strange pair of gloves in his pockets. He quickly realized that he had the wrong coat, though it was very similar to his own. He ran back to the restaurant and his coat was not there. Surprisingly, it was Paul's size, though was cut shorter, and the same color and brand. We never did find Paul's coat after going back to the restaurant several times. There is a children's novel in there about the traveling coat we think.

The next day was packed with activities, starting with an anniversary toast to

Paul, my husband of 37 years. We had a full agenda in the most romantic city in the world. I had an idea to end the day and to celebrate our anniversary with a gondola ride. We started with a tour of the Doge's Palace - a secret tour that took us to the
prison cells and hidden offices. Casanova was once a prisoner here and we saw where he escaped (according to legend). We visited the torture room and then the secret offices of the rulers of Venice at the time. We had lunch and then got on a boat to visit the island of Murano to see the glass factory. We watched the artists form the glass and we noticed many people in suits closing in around us as the "tour" ended. We were lead to the glass museum and shop and we were assigned a personal guide. We were aware that this was the opening of tourist season. Paul decided to surprise me by buying a piece of Murano glass for our anniversary. The shopping process was full of pressure, but we found a piece that would fit in our home and also fit our wallets. We left on the boat we came on and checked our pockets to make sure we still all in tact.

Ever since we decided to go to Venice, I was looking forward to spending our 37th anniversary on a gondola. I imagined a singer singing "When the Moon hits the sky like a big pizza pie, that's amore" and a ride at dusk. However, there were six of us and no room for a singer. I tried to talk Paul into singing for me (he is a great singer) - even offering to download a song on my phone so he could sing along. Cheesy and touristy, but what a memorable way to celebrate in Venice, huh. In reality, Paul didn't want to sing and held back to pay our gondolier a few extra Euros in tips if he would sing something. While he was hanging back, I crawled into the gondola seat and my sister crawled in next. They assigned her a seat next to me. We asked to trade seats so I could sit with Paul, but between the language difficulties and the unsteadiness of the boat, the gondolier refused to let us change. So my anniversary gondola ride with the "singing" gondolier next to my sweetheart was not turning out like I envisioned. Sometimes though it is the embracing the unexpected that memories are made. I hugged my sister and kissed her on the cheek while the gondolier kept singing "Volare, ah-ah-ah-ahhhh" (very off-key). We all laughed til we cried on the forty minute ride through the minor canals in Venice. Paul told me later that he enjoyed seeing me laugh with my sister and that made his day. Romantic? No. But endearing? Yes! To the end of my days, I will remember our 37th anniversary. I also have my piece of Murano glass to commemorate it.

We wandered the narrow streets of Venice that night and window shopped before dinner,
finding the custom-designed masks, trinkets, leather bags, and pastries (food porn) in the windows.

The next morning, we took Deb and Dan to visit San Marco Basilica and they went out on the balcony above San Marcos piazza.  I lingered in the Piazza and resisted the numerous gypsy beggars that were extremely persistent.We grabbed lunch and headed on the People mover to make our way to the cruise port. We were about to leave the romantic city of Venice and embark on a Mediterranean cruise. One parting thought was this: I haven't seen one set of Venetian blinds. The lasting thought was how the city of Venice grabs hold and make you feel part of it. It was much better than we could have imagined, "Volare" and all that.

The Mother Land: Scotland, England, Ireland and Home

It was the plan all along to spend Christmas in Europe with the family in 2015. Our unexpected move back to the US tried to put a glitch in this plan, but we combined our final apartment check-out with a family Christmas before going back to the states. Our daughter Stephanie and her husband John arrived a couple of days before Christmas and we met them in Rotterdam, one of their favorite cities, to enjoy the architecture and the nearby MarktHal. The area near the market was destroyed during WWII as both the Nazis and the Allied forces tried to take control of the port. It was slow to be rebuilt. John had been eyeing the MarketHal when it was just a concept. After a delay of 6 years in building, it was at the top of his bucket list to see the finished product finished in 2014. It houses 230 apartments and the shops inside seems to compete to have the best displays of fresh food, including seafood, donuts, Dutch delicacies, meat, cheese, as well as a great assortment of restaurants.

John rented an AirBnb at one of the cube houses near the Markthal, a very unique Piet Blom design, completed in1977 when the area was finally rebuilt. It was a hoot to stay in one of these houses, definitely the most unique place I've ever slept. We walked to a park before nightfall to see the Maas river, the old harbor, the Erasmus bridge, and the Kralingen neighborhood where historic preserved mansion stand next to student housing. The area had a definite vibrant feel.

We drove to Veldhoven and had a quiet Christmas and final days at our Europe apartment. We found a synchronized light show in someone's back alley Christmas eve with American music. We attended an English Christmas mass in Eindhoven Christmas day. We had dinner at our local Fine restaurant  with a surprise 4 course dinner with wine pairings Christmas night. We arrived at 6pm and left at 11pm. Christmas dinners out are popular in the Netherlands where Christmas day is usually a small quiet family affair. Santa (Sinterklaas) gets his own day December 5th when the children get all of their presents.

On Boxing day, December 26th, we packed out
belongings and headed to Schiphol airport with daughter Stephanie and her husband John to fly to Heathrow airport for Boxing Day or the second day of Christmas in Europe. We rented an AirBnb cottage for the group in Bath, England for 4 days and we would be joined by our other daughter Erin and her husband Seb who live in London. The agenda for the three days was to have family game night in the cottage, open presents for Christmas, take a walking tour of the famous baths and soak in the history of this place, explore the famous restaurants and visit Stonehenge. I imagined Mary Poppins in a few back gardens as we walked through the town.

Stonehenge is an interesting place. People have been trying for several
thousand years to figure out why it even exists. It was assembled in three phases starting over 5000 years ago by the Druids. It may have been a burial place, a ceremonial site, a pilgrimage or a memorial to connect with distant ancestors.  It contains bluestones from over 200 miles away from Wales and so also could have been a place for healing. I can't imagine the process to transport these large stones over 200 miles. In any event, it is delicate arrangement of  large stones laid in circles that are visited by thousands every year. I wanted to feel some spiritual presence as I do when visiting similar sites around Europe. I was left without that experience though I did see some interesting characters that perhaps attracted to the shrine more than I was.

Paul and I left the girls and their husbands in England and trekked off to Edinburgh for New Year's Eve and a short weekend visit to Scotland. We arrived early afternoon, dropped our luggage and headed to the ticket office for the New Year's Eve festival called Hogmanay. The office closed at 5pm and we bypassed interesting sites along the way to get there in time. We purchased a specialty ticket to Old Town Ceilidh (pronounced Kylee) but that also gave us general admission to other areas of the festival - the street dance. With tickets in hand, we went down the hill by the river to take in some of the Christmas markets that were still open. The markets resembled the ones we saw in Germany with carnival rides and an ice rink. We ate at the food vendors there, a crepe for myself (the only item without meat) and a sausage for Paul. We left to return to our hotel to rest up for the New Year's Eve festivities.

We found a pub across the street from our hotel in the Grassmarket area called the Cafe Royal to get a taste or twoof whiskey. Some locals wondered in and included us in their group. They intended to stay here for the night and admonished us that we spent too much money for the tickets to Hogmanay. We politely left them, headed to dinner down the street at the Last Drop where Paul tried "haggis, neeps and tatties" and I tried a version of their veggie burger with mash.  This is probably one of the best veggie burgers that I've ever had, made with eggplant, red pepper and chickpeas. I definitely won the night with a food choice. Haggis is a "pudding" made of sheep heart, lungs, liver with suet, oatmeal and onions, all contained in sheep's stomach. Who knows what "neeps" was. It was not much to Paul's liking.

We returned to our hotel to wrap up for the cold night
and set out to start our partying. We were among the first to enter the Ceilidh area. We watched the Scottish band warm up the crowd and soon found ourselves being included in a group of 6 for the Scottish dancing instruction. It resembled American square dancing somewhat with a little more arm movement. Paul and I negotiated the steps as best we could with cobblestones for a dance floor. We could see the potential for injury with a few more people and a little more drink. Around 10pm,  it became very crowded and we were ready to go on to the Street Dance part of the festival near the Christmas markets. The gates to this area closed at 11pm. We moved to an area we wanted to watch the fireworks over the castle knowing it would be hard to move around later in the night. We found a boulevard away from the music to get off the street, people watch and to jump around to stay warm.

The countdown began and the fireworks started right at midnight. It was a fantastic spectacle with the traditional Auld Lang Syne being sung throughout the light show with gusto. Scots Robert Burns wrote the song in 1788 and I guess I didn't realize until that night that it was even a Scottish song. We left for the hotel immediately after the fireworks were over and the crowd started moving as we did. At some point, I was swept off my feet and separated from Paul and I panicked at the crowd rush. Eventually, the crowd thinned and we made our way successfully home to start the new year. We earned our party merit badge.

The next morning, we started off up the hill to the Edinburgh Castle. As we entered the castle, we were awed by the view below and we were very curious about the history of the castle. We found that we didn't know much Scottish history either and we were very interested to learn about it. My mother's family was Scottish (Campbell) and Paul's family on the Nixon side was also Scottish.

The self-guided tour of the castle was very nice. We had audio guides to give
us a fairly complete history of not just the castle, but Scotland itself. After watching the cannon go off and three hours of looking in every nook and cranny, we left the castle and hit the historic woolen mill down the street. We found the family tartan for the Nixons easily, but didn't have enough family history to know which of three Campbell tartans were mine. We bought a scarf with the Nixon tartan on it. We found food on the way home and nestled in our room to watch the Fiesta bowl game, Ohio state and Notre Dame on Slingbox (no judgment here - we love American football).

The next day, we visited the National Gallery to see some Scottish art. All
museums are free of charge in the UK. After, we scheduled a whiskey tasting at the largest collection of whiskeys in Scotland - the Whiskey experience. This experience was something that Paul really wanted to do. I usually shudder when tasting whiskey with a mixer, I couldn't imagine a straight up shot. We spent some time learning about the different regions of whiskey in Scotland and the history of it's making. We tasted a whiskey from the region Islay, known for it's peaty aroma and taste. It was not to my liking. However, we also tasted Aberlour, a Highland single malt and it was fairly smooth. We got an additional taste of a 25 year Scotch and Paul really liked it.

We flew back to London to catch up with our daughters. Paul and John had to return to work the next day in the US and Stephanie and I were going to stay for a week to visit with Erin and Seb, as well as take a side trip to Ireland.  With Erin, we visited the British Library. I had no idea what I was in for! This was no ordinary library. The John Ritblat Room held many original articles, including the Magna Carta, Lindisfarne Gospels, Barcelona Hagadah, Gutenberg Bible, and a Notebook of Leonardo da Vinci. Manuscripts by some of Britain's most well-known authors are also on display,  including Jane Austen, George Eliot and Charles Dickens, Shakespeare's 'First Folio', 'Alice's Adventures Under Ground' and Jane Austen's 'History of England'. I was surprised to also see original scores from Mozart, Handel, Chopin, and Beethoven. My favorite were the original lyrics for a Hard Day's Night written on the back of a 1st birthday card to Julian Lennon.

That evening Stephanie and I caught a flight to Dublin to
explore Ireland for a couple of days. We arrived at 11:30 at night and as it turned out, it was the night that the citizens of Dublin were coming back from a two week holiday to return to work. It was pouring rain and the lines were astonishingly long. We found our hotel on a quiet street near the castle and settled in for the night.

The next day, in the rain, we set out first off to the Guinness Storehouse at St. James' gate. We grabbed a croissant and coffee and walked by St. Patricks on our way but didn't stop - as if we were on a mission. Guinness was just the best place. It was laid out well, and after two hours of our self-guided tour, we hit the tasting room called the Gravity Bar, a total glass-walled room on the seventh floor. The views were amazing. The beer was even better. We took our time to look at the city and savor the taste. We left there and walked home in the rain and rested before our dinner at Fallon and Byrne. It is an upscale grocery store with a wine-tasting bar and restaurant downstairs. It was relaxed and the menu was simple but tasty. We stayed there for three hours discussing life and catching up. We then wandered to the Temple Bar to check out the oldest bar in Dublin. It was a Tuesday night, but very busy. There was an Irish band playing and friendly people at tables nearby. We finished the night in the hotel with a game of rummy and TV.

The next day, we found a little out of the way place for breakfast near Stephen's Green. It was called Bibi's cafe and it was a little cafe in a residential neighborhood. It was really nice, with a choice of oats, eggs, creative breakfast sandwiches, lemon tart, or yogurt. I couldn't decide between the homemade granola and yogurt and the lemon tart, so I had both. Stephanie tried one of the breakfast sandwiches and shared the tart with me. We left there and decided to go to Trinity University and visit the Book of Kells and the Long Room. The exhibit tells of the history of the Irish monk and why the book of Kells and others like it were so important to Ireland. The Long Room is a room in the Library that comes out of a Harry Potter movie. It houses numerous antique book collections and the effect of the room is very unique.

We visited the Dublin Castle after and was on the last tour of the day to visit inside. We left as it was starting to rain again. We decided on a early dinner at an Italian restaurant in the Temple Bar area so we could eat and get home early before the storm. We had a flight the next morning early back to London.

After we arrived in London later morning, it was a sunny day. We dressed for the cold and set out to find Shakespeare's Globe theatre. The tour took us into the rebuilt theatre. This structure was rebuilt along the river after the original theatre was razed during a fire. It was rebuilt without nails and exactly like the original theatre however. It would be fantastic to see a play there, which is offered April through October.

To wind up the London part of our trip with Erin, we arranged tea at Fortnum and Mason. It was fairly elegant historic tea shop and restaurant complete with a piano player. Our waiter told us about our options and the selection we made allowed us as many tea sandwiches, scones, pastries as we wanted and also a selection from the dessert cart. It was fun trying different teas with my daughters. I kept wanting to raise my little finger while drinking the tea and talking with my terrible British accent, but my daughters made me behave. We walked back to Angel area where our hotel was to work off the feast.

Saturday we had a date at the Prince of Wales Theatre to see Book of Mormon. My daughters weren't sure that this production was mother appropriate, but I purchased matinee tickets anyway and made them sit on either side of me. (Note - there were parts that were NOT mother appropriate). We enjoyed the date and rode the bus home in the rain. Sunday, we walked along the canals in the sun to Regent's Park, about five miles. Stephanie and left that evening to start our trip home.

It's funny how a place can make you feel like it's so familiar to you that you could call it home. The smells seems familiar, and the way people walk is a familiar gate. I noticed that my reddish hair was common place. Perhaps it is like home because it was the home of my ancestors and I carry parts of them with me. Maybe it was just the easy comfortable feeling of traveling with family. Familiarity is a deep kindness that allows us to be content whatever the reason.