My husband and I took an amazing ocean cruise with our dear friends from Nevada City, CA. The cruise started in Venice and ended in Athens. While cruising may conjure visions of old folks shuffling their way around the ship and port calls, there was nothing leisurely about this cruise. We stopped in a new port every morning and averaged eight to ten miles of walking a day.
My favorite ports of the cruise were the Balkan countries: Slovenia, Croatia, and Montenegro. Before I describe those places, I’ll share one highlight from the stops in Venice and Athens.
Ah Venice! To be honest, I didn’t look forward to spending time in this overcrowded tourist city. Despite all the people, I must admit that Venice is a beautiful city. The highlight happened at the famous Cafe Florian in St. Mark Square. Sitting outside and sipping our expensive drinks, we listened to the three piece orchestra play as a waiter walked to the edge of café with a bouquet of flowers. He delivered them to the table of a young couple. After the waiter left, we were treated with a wonderful surprise. The young man rose from the table, knelt on one knee, and proposed to his girlfriend. Much clapping and good wishes followed after she said yes. And as the photo below suggests, we were complete tourists and took a gondola ride. To enlarge any photo, just click on it.
Zooming to Athens, my husband booked us for a two hour Segway tour. Out of the four of us, he was the only one who’d been on a Segway. Although I started off tentatively, I gained my confidence and enjoyed zipping around all the sights and ruins. In case you are wondering, the video clip below is not in slow motion.
To the Balkans – First stop was Slovenia, where we visited the capital city of Ljubljana (quite a tongue twister). It is a unique city of old and new. It was here we experienced the first of many tour guides who passionately explained the complicated and war-torn history of their nations. It was a humbling reminder of how fortunate we are to live in the United States despite our current issues. Slovenia only became a democracy in 1991 after separating from Yugoslavia. Below is a photo of the beautiful river that runs through the city.
The next two stops were in Croatia. First we visited Zadar and took a tour of some refreshing waterfalls in Krka.
But the highlight of the entire trip for me was our next stop to the walled city of Dubrovnik (despite all the Game of Thrones souvenir shops). Like Venice, there are no cars so you can wander freely. After a brief group tour, we all went our separate ways to explore. Some went up to the top of the wall and walked around the entire city. I chose to meander my way through the many side streets to discover churches and museums. While walking up a steep street, I discovered a foundry museum built into the city walls. It boasted the endorsement “Recommended by Rick Steves.” That was a good enough to draw me in.
I huffed my way to the entrance and noticed the quiet. After I bought my ticket, the seller told me that his colleague would be at the end to let me out. “Just look for the outdoor light.” That should’ve been a warning, but I didn’t pay much attention until I realized I was the only person in this underground maze of ruins. When I did try to find my way out, I hit many dead ends and resorted to jumping in front of cameras and waving. Eventually, I “saw the light” and escaped.
Our last Balkan country was Montenegro. Here we took an off road tour from Kotor to Lovcen National Park. This involved getting in four wheel drive vehicles and zig zagging up 25 switchbacks. With several stops along the way, we took in the beautiful views, some worthy of a val’s road cover shot. But what goes up, must come down. Did I mention these switchbacks were fairly narrow? That became important on our descent when the mammoth tour buses started to arrive. The resulting traffic jam became a forty-five minute logistical display of such coordination, I had to be impressed. In the US, this would’ve been a crime scene.
We did visit several Greek islands before ending in Athens. If anyone is interested in Corfu, Katakolon, or Santorini, let me know. I’ve included two photos from gorgeous Santorini. One is the famous blue roofs and the other is the famous friendly cats (love the mustache) that are everywhere.
To end this blog, I captured the most beautiful sunset in Athens on our last night on the ship.
