Saturday in Dubrovnik, Sunday in Korcula

 

Whenever we visit a new town, I love to get up at dawn and explore the city while everyone else is still asleep. That's doubly true in a city like Dubrovnik, whose crowds rival Disneyland's on Labor Day. There's something special about being the only one around to watch the Dubrovnik Zamboni driver polish the marble on the Stradun.

Thunderstorms were expected Saturday afternoon. It was windy, the Adriatic was choppy, and the swimming beach by the old port was unusable, which left me a little apprehensive, worried that our Sunday ferry to Korcula might be cancelled.

There were a few other early risers about, but mostly we avoided each other, looking for the solitude of having Dubrovnik to ones self. ( I caught this gentleman walking down the stairs of shame from Game of Thrones.)

At eight, I was back in our room, having breakfast with Kathy. I told her about my scouting trip around town, and we decided to go out together, before the cruise ships emptied into town. 

At the Arsenal we sat on a bench at the end of the quay, avoiding the spray from the waves, and looking out at Lokrum Island while I told her about the curse. In 1023 a Benedictine order established the Abbey of St. Mary's on the island. Seven centuries later, after a devastating earthquake, the monks were evicted by the Dubrovnik authorities. The night they were to leave, the monks circled the island three times, carrying upside-down candles, leaving a trail of wax and cursing those because of whom they were expelled after seven centuries. The monks never returned, but everyone who took possession of the island died in macabre and mysterious ways.

That's the story at least. Back inside the city at 9:00 am, many of the back lanes were still empty, and Kathy and I tried to methodically visit each one. 

By 10:30 am, however, the main street (the Stradun) of 6:00 am ...

... had turned into this, and we decided to use our bus pass to get out of town again. Using the bus map, we decided to visit the area north-east of Dubrovnik, called Lapad. After about a half hour waiting for the #2A bus, we asked at the ticket booth, and were told that the #2A bus didn't run on Saturday. That information was probably on the ticket in Croatian.

So, we picked another bus to the north. When we got to the end of the line (Babin Kuk), we got out and kept walking. We finally ended up on the coast at the Coral Beach club. My trunks were still back at the hotel, so we couldn't swim. It was nice, though, to eat some fries, drink some sparkling water and a spritz (for an exorbitant 40E) and get out of the sun.

We got back in the Old Town about 4:00 pm, just as the thunder and lightning started, which had the positive side-effect of sending the throngs back to their ships. It was over by about 8:00 pm, so we went out for some pizza at Oliva Pizza, recommended in our guidebook. Neither of us were impressed, so it's just as well that I didn't take any pictures. By ten, we were asleep, exhausted.

On to Korcula

Checkout time was ten o'clock, and, as we left, we enjoyed talking with Elizabeth, an American working at our hotel, who married a Croatian and now makes her home in Dubrovnik with her four children, and another on the way. She's the one who made our delicious breakfast each day. It's so interesting to meet new people and to hear about their lives.

Our ferry didn't leave for Korcula until 3:00 pm, so we decided to visit the Red History Museum across from the ferry port. The museum is about the history of communism in Yugoslavia, presented as the inside of a Yugoslav house in the Tito era. There were a lot of interactive exhibits. The poster above is about the "five-year economic plan". I'm pretty sure that I found it more interesting than Kathy did. (You can see all our pictures here.)

The museum killed two hours and we still had three more to go (or so we thought). While we were in the museum, the Krilo Catamaran ticket office opened up and we stopped to make sure that everything was OK, which it was, sort of. Apparently the ferry we were travelling on was cancelled and Krilo had sent us a message to that effect weeks ago. I had apparently confused it with a different message, and ignored it. The good new was, we could still use the old tickets on a different ferry. The bad (well, not very bad) news was that the new ferry didn't leave until 4:00 pm, so we had four hours to kill.

In the end, we just sat on a bench in the park, bought a couple of Cokes and some chips, and tried to while away the time. I read to Kathy for a while from a book about a Croatian slacker, named "Our Man in Iraq." She didn't like it as well as I did. We tried feeding the birds, and I tried to nap on another bench. Finally, though, 4:00 pm rolled around and we got on the ferry for Korcula.

At 6:00 pm we pulled up to the dock and went searching for our hotel, the Fabis, (the WiFi password is "youarefabulous"), one of only two non-chain hotels on the island. Our room is very nice, with a view of the water.

We've only been here a few hours, but already Korcula has made a good impression. It's much less crowded, for one. Since we had only eaten chips and trail mix since breakfast, we took off at 7:00 pm looking for dinner. Along the way Kathy was taken with the sunset.

We had a great dinner at an Asian restaurant on the promenade called Silk, which seems to be a Croatian chain. We really enjoyed the food. On the way back, we stopped for gelato: limon, watermelon and canteloupe. Tomorrow, we'll catch another ferry to Split.

Thursday in Slovakia, Friday in Croatia

"You need to speed it up!",  Kathy said to me as she finished proofreading yesterday's post. "Just because you took a picture doesn't mean that you have to write a paragraph about it." I guess she's right; if I keep this up, I'll spend our whole vacation in the hotel in front of the computer. So, from now on, as Joe Friday famously said, "Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts."

Like many European cities, Vienna has a city-sponsored bike rental program, Wien-rad. You download an app, NextBike, and you can check out bikes at spots all across the city. NextBike works in several other cities as well. It took me about a half hour to register, sitting at a café across from one of the famous Ankeruhr Art Nouveau astronomical clock. ("No, honey, I'm not explaining every picture. I didn't even mention the war memorial next door, and I took a half-dozen shots of that. It commemorates the ... Right. Speed it up.")

We walked several blocks to the canal-side tram stop where we checked out two bikes, and started in the direction of the Danube. The bikes looked like some of the sleeker new electric bike models that have been appearing in California in the last year, but they were not. The first thing Kathy asked was "How do I turn it on?" She was disappointed when I told her that you sit on the seat and push on the pedals.

If you look at the picture on the bridge, you'll notice the Viking River Cruise ship SAGA parked on the quay. That was only one of fifteen Viking River and Alma Cruise ships parked in Vienna that morning. As we rode our bikes down to the river, we passed tour group after tour group walking into Vienna from the ships. It somehow seems different from the ads on Masterpiece Theater.

Kathy and I both love riding bikes, but we had other plans for the rest of the day. So, after two hours (total cost, 4E for two bikes), we returned the bikes by locking them up at a U-Bahn station. We then caught a ride to the train station, and purchased two 18E Bratislava tickets to visit Patrick and Ivetka Higgins at a Calvary Chapel in Slovakia. (I Googled for Calvary Chapel Bratislava and found that there have been Calvary Chapels in Bratislava for centuries.)

A few days before we got here, Patrick texted us to let us know that he had been called out of town to Barcelona, but that his wife Ivetka and their sons would love to meet. Gabriel, who is starting University in Computer Science next week, spent the afternoon showing us around town, until David got out of high school and Ivetka got off of work. We walked all around the old town and I took lots of pictures.

Around five o'clock we met David and Ivetka in front of the Presidential Palace and they walked us over to the building where their church meets. It's a part of the University and they were invited to use one of the auditoriums for free. Since it wasn't Sunday, we couldn't go in, because classes were in session, but Gabriel took our picture out front.

We asked everyone what they wanted to eat, and they all voted for their favorite burger lounge, with great views of the city.

We all had burgers. ("No honey, I didn't promise to skip the food pictures.")

Ivetka insisted we try a Slovakian Kofola, a nostalgia item that survives Communist times, when capitalist Coke wasn't permitted in the country. It definitely has its own flavor; perhaps a little Dr. Peppery.

Kathy and Ivetka had already met at one of European Refresh conferences that Calvary Chapel hosts each summer. Kathy has done book reviews, and the first thing Ivetka said when we met was "I know you. You're the book lady!". So, they enjoyed catching up on the bus back to the train station, where we sat and talked until our train back to Vienna arrived. We got back to our hotel around 10:00 pm.

Two Tickets to Dubrovnik

Today, we're flying to Dubrovnik in Croatia. We got to breakfast right when they opened at 7:00am, and had one last terrific breakfast at Pension Nossek. We'd packed the night before, so we were on the U-Bahn before 8:30 am to catch our 11:00 am flight. All went well, and we arrived in plenty of time. Although this time I did get intimately patted down when I forgot a comb in my back pocket going through security.

Whenever we travel, we always try to read books or watch movies to "get in the mood". For Vienna, we watched Hellen Mirren in "Woman in Gold", and, as a result, Kathy picked up a Klimt scarf when we were here. For Croatia, I put four or five books on our Kindle. The first one I read was "Two Tickets to Dubrovnik" which was fascinating for it's detailed information about Dubrovnik (such as the Lokrum Island curse). The plot, however, kind of peters out at the end. I thought of the book as we stood waiting in line to get on the plane.

We caught the airport shuttle into town and found our hotel (the Scalini Palace), checked in and went looking for lunch. If you've never watched one of Phil Rosenthal's series on Prime or Netflix, (I'll have what Phil's Having, or Somebody Feed Phil), then you're in for a treat. I copied down the names of all of the places he ate on the Croatia episode, and was thrilled to find our hotel was two doors down from Barba, where we stopped for an Octopus Burger. (Delicious.)

During the day, the town is absolutely mobbed with tourists, (and, as we found, at night as well). Since we weren't Game of Thrones fans, (alternatively boring and perverse), we bought a three day city bus pass and left the hordes behind to see the "real Dubrovnik.

Our strategy is simple: pick a bus and ride it to the end of the line (and then back, of course). Line 1A took us to the Communist era planned community of Mokosica, north of the city. When we pulled into the turn around at the end of the line, we were surprised to see a mural with the Confederate flag and a poster saying "White Boys", followed by increasingly sinister images that we didn't understand. We looked at each other and thought "What have we gotten into?" At the beginning of the mural was painted the word "hajduk". I asked Google Translate, what that meant in English, and it helpfully told me that in English it meant "hajduk". Later, I spent some more time Googling, and found out that the mural was in support of a soccer team, Hajduk-Split. They use the Confederate flag because they are from the south of Croatia and their team is nicknamed the "white boys" since they have white jerseys.

Still, kind of a disconcerting way to end the day. On the way back to the old town, we stopped at Tommy Hipermarket and picked up some sparkling water, and were in bed by 8:00 pm. Unfortunately we weren't asleep until 2:00 am, since on the other side of our hotel is the Gaffe Irish Pub, and the pubsters were having a good old time.

Tomorrow we'll get up early and explore the Old Town before the tourists arrive.

Wednesday in Vienna

 

Both Kathy and I really love a hearty hotel breakfast in Europe. We weren't disappointed at Pension Nossek. There was orange juice, cappuccino, great bread, meat, cheese, butter, jam, and fried eggs. The bread never disappoints, but I am always disappointed when I can't find something similar at home.

On our first full day, Kathy ordered scrambled eggs. After I had my rolls and meat, I went back to the room to use the facilities.  I didn't realize that she'd ordered some for me as well, so Kathy sat at breakfast for a half-hour, wondering why I didn't come back, while I waited around the room, wondering what was taking her so long. 

Fortunately, we had our phones and she finally texted me and asked where I was. When I got back to the breakfast room, the eggs were a little cold, but still fine. I may have had another roll and some yogurt as long as I was already there.

I liked these stained-class windows in our hotel...

... as well as the, unfortunately non-working, drinking fountain. 

In Austria and Germany, Art Nouveau was called Jugendstil, or "Youth Style". Graben Street has several fine architectural examples, including touches at our hotel.

As we set off after breakfast, our first stop was the last remaining Art Nouveau underground WC, located just under our window.

Kathy went into the Dammen and took a few pictures...

while I visited the Herren, where they had an exhibit of the patent for the first waterless urinal. 

Right around the corner from our hotel is the baroque St. Peter's, whose dome we can see from our hotel window, over the top of the Hermes store.

Before I get to St. Peter's, let me say a few words about the pagan gods worshiped in Vienna, of whom Hermes and Yves St. Laurent are especially revered. Their acolytes line up on the street before dawn, hoping to be admitted once the doors our open for "shopping". Only a few are admitted at any one time, and the lines go on throughout the day. I never discovered the reason, and certainly never saw anything like this at home, where their followers are no less devout.

The interior of St. Peters is Baroque. According to Wikipedia,  Baroque was an artistic style encouraged by the Catholic Church as a means to counter the simplicity and austerity of Protestant architecture, art, and music. 

The church is named after St. Peter, and there is a fresco of the Biblical story of Peter attempting to walk on the water, on the ceiling as you enter.

There is a lot of gold and a lot of emotion. Rick Steves (a Protestant), says that Baroque was the emotional response to the cold logic of the Renaissance. 

Here is some of that emotion ...

... and here is some more of that gold...

... and just little bit more. It seems to me that St. Peter always gets the biggest and most impressive churches (just consider St. Peters in the Vatican). So, I was pleasantly surprised to see that in Vienna, St. Stephen is number one. They even gave St. Stephen his own subway stop, so there.

Of course, the downside is that you have to pay to go inside the Gothic St. Stephens, while the Baroque St. Peter's is free. Kathy and I paid the 6E each and tried to listen to the audio narration from my Rick Steves' Pocket Guide to Vienna, using my phone and sharing a single pair of earbuds, which was a disaster. Each time one of us would turn to look at a relic, it would tear the bud from the ear of the other.

Behind the altar is a painting commemorating the stoning of St. Stephen, as related in the Book of Acts. Here's what Rick Steves had to say about it in the guidebook. "Stephen, having refused to stop professing his faith, is pelted with rocks by angry pagans." I guess it wouldn't do to have a guidebook to Austria that said he was being pelted with rocks by angry Jews. 

That led to Kathy and I stopping and having a conversation about exactly who instigated Stephen's martyrdom. After that, it was kind of hard to pick up the thread again from the guidebook, which was a little hard to follow. We looked for Mozart's baptismal fount, and found the tomb of Frederick III instead.

On the back wall was portrait of Pope John Paul the II I think.

On one side was an impressive carved wooden screen ...

... while on the floor, there were some interesting Hapsburg and Crusader motifs. It was nice having the guidebook to explain what everything meant, but, to tell you the truth, it was just as rewarding to me just to enjoy the artwork in St. Peter's, even without the backstory.

Since we had a few hours until lunch, we got on the Ringstrasse tram which circles the city center, and got off at the Hofburg palace. Both of us had to use the restroom, we couldn't find a public WC on Google Maps, so we walked into the library where they were having a large academic conference. I was a little nervous, since everyone was in suits and ties, and we really couldn't blend in. Nevertheless, we convinced ourselves in our minds that we were inconspicuous, found the restroom, and didn't get arrested or ejected.

The Hofburg Palace is, of course, no longer the home of the Emperor, but has been repurposed as government buildings and museums. The architecture and statuary is impressive. I assume that this is Cane and Able. The traffic sign even adds meaning.

Kathy wanted to stop by the Spanish Riding School. We watched a video, and considered going to a training session on Thursday, but decided against it. Outside, on the way to lunch, we found this statue which reminded Kathy of me. (I assumed that she meant the one in the upper-left with the cool beard, but, when asked, she was non-committal.)

Because we had such a big breakfast, it was hard to eat lunch at eleven or twelve. After traipsing around Vienna all morning, we were surprised to see that it was almost three and we were both hungry. We found a table at Reinthaler's Beisl, just around the corner from our hotel. I had the spätzle (a German mac'n'cheese), while Kathy had a spinach dumpling with salad. Neither of us were very impressed.

One thing that Kathy and I really enjoy is having a meal with our Calvary Chapel missionaries. Brian and Djudji Herrington have been in Viienna for years. Brian is an American, but Djudji was raised in Vienna. In addition to working at the Calvary Chapel in Vienna, they both teach in an American school on the outskirts of town. Last July, when they were visiting in the States, we got to take them out to the Golden Olive in Huntington Beach, one of our favorite restaurants.

Before we left for Vienna, we contacted them and arranged to meet them again. Since school had just started, we found that two of their children were sick, so one parent would have to stay home. Djuji volunteered to take the two youngest girls, Esther and Shoshanna, into town so we could get together for dinner.

Both the two girls and I had Wienershnitzel, and it was excellent. (As was the "potato salad"; delicious). Kathy had chicken livers; she was not impressed.

After dinner, we got some gelato and walked back to St. Stephen's, impressively lit up, where Djuji and the girls caught the U-Bahn for home. Tomorrow, we're going bike riding, and visiting Ivetka Higgins in Slovakia.