Category: Just Visiting

Got off the ship and into the heat.  31ºc predicted today.

We’d intended getting the Red Bus to tour the city, but got so pissed off with the arrogance and persistence of the ticket touts that we gave up and went up in the gigantic elevator instead.  It took us up to the Upper Garden and the Saluting Battery where the 12 o’ clock guns get fired every day.  The garden was quite cool and shaded so we hung around there for a while taking photos and watching a girl bore a woman almost to tears with her religious spiel.  The girl was quoting, not from her Bible, but from her iPhone.  She was american, so that explains everything (we have met one decent American this trip, only one.  The rest were just americans.)  After tiring of this display, we headed into the city.

Instead of going back down the elevator, we walked into Valetta.  We stopped in a square to try out their lovely bent wood seats and it was there we saw another Little Train.  I knew then why we hadn’t got the Red Bus tour.  This was the way to go, on the Little Train.  Wandered up what looked like the main street, a bit like Sauchiehall Street with sunshine, if you can imagine that.  We reached the top and entered what looked like a building site, turned and walked back down and it was then we found the Little Train stop.  Off we went on the bumpiest ride ever, round the city with a commentary running all the time.

When we got back we went for lunch at a cafe on the street.  I had a Warm Wrap filled with bacon, chicken and salad.  It was really delicious.  Scamp had a Chicken Skillet which was like an open Panini.  I had a beer and she had an Aperol Spritz which was Aperol, soda water and prosecco.  It seems to be the Maltese drink, at least for this year.

After being fed and watered, we proceeded to get lost trying to find our way back to the ship.  However, by following our noses, we found the Lower Gardens with its Greek temple and views across to the quite elegant war memorial.  We also passed the colourful garage doors on a steep sloping road down to Victoria Gate.  Then we knew where we were and walked on past the covered area where the horses and carriages had waited to take the unwary on expensive trips round the town.  The had mostly all gone home by now, the horses getting a rest in their horse boxes while the carriages were loaded on to the back of a truck.  I felt sorry for the horses.  There are a lot of hills in Valetta and it looked like hard work for them.

We’d bought a bottle of Gin the day before and today we’d managed to smuggle a bottle of tonic through the ship’s scanner, so we had a G&T while we watched the ship prepare to sail away.  We kept being ‘buzzed’ by little boats that looked like gondolas, but on closer inspection looked a bit more like Greek boats.

Today’s sketch was done on deck looking out at the skyline of Valletta.  A wee man stopped and complemented me on my painting.  That was nice.  Most folk just sidle up and steal a sly glance then walk on.  It was good to be recognised for my efforts however amateurish they are.

Tomorrow we go to Sicily.

We’d been looking forward to visiting Split, but were ultimately disappointed.

Split is a busy, very busy, transition point between road, rail and sea travel in Croatia.  We were berthed just along from the busy bus and train station and also from the ferry terminal.  My abiding memory was of the luggage safes that were all along the road.  Some were outside in the open air and some were housed behind little shop fronts.  Prices varied, but were mainly 5 euros for the first hour and 1.5 euros per hour after that to leave your luggage.  Like a giant left luggage locker.  They didn’t look all that secure to me, but lots of people, mainly teenager tourists seemed to trust their luggage to the folk who ran them.

We walked along the front following the map until we came to the Old Town.  Then we turned up the hill and followed the hundreds or thousands who were also thronging the streets.  Most of them seemed to be Game of Thrones fans and there were a lot of places catering for them.  It turned out that later when I was viewing Split in retrospect that a lot of GoT was filmed in the basement of the palace.  It’s there that Queen Something-unpronounceable keeps her dragons.  We didn’t see any dragons, just a few cats and dogs.

We walked on up the hill until we exited the old town.  Then we followed our noses down until we found signs for the Golden Gate.  No bridges JIC, just a golden gate.  It didn’t look too golden in the late morning light, just stone.  We gave Split one more chance to surprise and amaze us, but it didn’t happen, so we started the trek back to the ship.  We passed an impressive fountain, and lots of interesting alleyways, but nothing as impressive as we were expecting.  We also stopped for a beer at a WiFi cafe, thinking maybe Venice has spoiled us for architecture and scenery.

After lunch I went back in to get a sketch done.  I chose the Golden Gate as it was the one thing apart from the fountain that looked interesting enough to sketch. Scamp has not been sleeping very well since we came on board, so I bought her some lavender oil because that is supposed to help with sleep problems.  I’ve not posted any sketches recently.  I’m hoping to make up a special blog post the day after tomorrow when we have a sea day to fill with something other than sunbathing DV.

Scamp’s leg and hand are a lot better today, thankfully.  She has a livid bruise on her hip and her left knee is still a bit scabby, but like I said yesterday, it was her pride that took the biggest bump!

Dubrovnik tomorrow and Scamp wants to walk the walls!

After breakfast in Smash ‘n’ Grab (self-service buffet) we caught the bus to Zadar.  According to Destination Services, it is 7km from the ship to the drop off point in Zadar.  It felt more like 7 miles.  I’m glad we booked tickets on the bus.

I wanted to see and hear the Sea Organ.  It’s an ‘installation’ designed by a local architect called Nikola Basic (That’s the basic spelling of Basic.  There’s an acute and a little twirly thing ornamenting his name).  It is a set of pipes and whistles that produce random notes powered by waves pushing air through it.  I also wanted to see his Sun Salutation which has nothing to do with the yoga pose of the same name.  This one is a 22m diameter array of solar cells that capture and store the sun’s energy during the day and then use that energy to power a light show when darkness falls.  I realised that I wouldn’t be able to see the light show, but I wanted to see the setup.  The music of the Sea Organ was weird and quite unearthly.  the Sun Salutation looked like a 22m diameter piece of thick glass.

After having our ears assaulted by the Sea Organ I found I could get free WiFi and used it to upload the backlog of blogs.  Did I mention that it was hot?  It was only just after 10am and it was hot,VERY HOT.

We passed Mr Basic’s creations and wandered down the esplanade.  We found a wee market selling souvenirs and assorted tat.  Through that there was a area of grass with what at first looked like gravestones.  On closer inspection we found they were the recovered ruins of Roman columns an panels.  Mini-me set up a photo of Shug and Tam on the top of one of them.  Also on display on the top of another one was a pair of Crocs.  They might have been of Roman origin or perhaps from an earlier time.

While I was wandering around and attempting to supervise Mini-me, Scamp was off exploring the cathedral.  She came back saying we could climb the bell tower.  Another one!  St Mark’s square yesterday wasn’t enough.  She had to climb Zadar Cathedral bell tower.  We paid our money 15kn each and started up the first stair which was very narrow and the treads were made of marble that had been polished and hollowed by many feet before ours.  The tight little marble stair led up to the first floor landing which contained copies of architectural drawings of the tower and a potted history.  We pretended to read it, but really we were just getting our breath back.  Upward to the next floors was by way of a concrete spiral stairway and finally to an old steel spiral stair that took us to the outside viewing gallery.  On the way up we passed the massive bells, but unlike those in St Mark’s campanile, these ones were not neutered and we’d heard them on our way up.  I think we were both glad when we reached the viewing gallery, a floor above the bells, before the clangers clanged.  The view was not so astounding as that from St Mark’s, but there was only a concrete wall between us and oblivion.  No anti-suicide steel mesh to tear through, just up and over and you’ll believe a man can fly … for the five or so seconds it would take to reach the ground.  Putting such thoughts behind us, we set to and got some serious photography done before we had to make the equally exhausting descent.

We walked down the main street and found a side street that lead to an archway  through the old city walls.  Took some photos and then went for a coffee in a corner cafe.  Coffee was good and reviving.  Then we walked further down the main street past a Chagall exhibition and on to a wee town square planted with plane trees.  While I sketched the buildings in the square, Scamp went on an expedition to a wee park.  I was almost finished and was beginning to wonder where she’d got to when she appeared looking sheepish and with a plaster on her knee, another on her hand and with a bit patch of blood on her skirt.  “I’m all right” she said and told me how she had been taking photos in the park when a tree stump sneaked up behind her and tripped her up.  Luckily some kind folk saw the incident and shooed the tree stump away, cleaned her up and said “There, there”.  At least, that was the gist of her story.  She’d been concentrating so much on taking photos, she’d forgotten about the tree stump behind her and fell over it.  There was a fair bit of blood on her skirt, but it had come from a cut on her hand.  There were two people nearby who dressed the wounds and made sure she was ok.  We went looking for them, but couldn’t find them.  Nice to know that there are decent people around to help an injured Scamp.

We walked through the wee park and sat with a beer for me and some sparkling water for the injured soldier.  We used the ice from the sparkling water to reduce the swelling that was starting to form on her knee.  When she felt better, we walked through the city walls by another gate and found the stop for the Wee Train.  Scamp loves Wee Trains, so we boarded it and went for a tour round the old town of Zadar.  When the ride was over, we went and picked up the shuttle bus to take us back to the ship.

While Scamp soaked up some rays on the top deck, I dumped my photos and started writing this.  Tonight we went to Smash ‘n’ Grab for dinner and then danced to Strum Jam until some ridiculous game show started.  Nonsense for the masses.

After examining Scamps injuries tonight, it looks like her pride took the majority of the impact of the fall with the cuts and grazes as fairly secondary wounds.  She even managed to dance tonight when we got back to the ship.  I think the ice cream we had on the way back to the bus helped repair the damage.

Tomorrow we go to Split, also in Croatia.

This post comes to you from Inbox Cafe Split.

Had to get the tender ashore today.  Thankfully this is the only port that needs it.  The journey out to Pula from our anchorage was fine, but it was the apprentice who was driving coming back and he gave the gangway a helluva whack that shook the teeth of some of the older passengers!

Pula is a nice little place with quite a few beautiful churches and a Roman amphitheatre right slap bang in the middle of town.  We wandered round it and took some photos trying to avoid the TV lights and massive screen set up for the annual film festival.  Apparently there is an amazing light show on the cranes by the docks, but we will be long gone by then.

My abiding memory of Pula will be the amphitheatre the churches and the sex shops.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) it being Sunday all the shops, sex and otherwise were closed.  Later some of them opened , but we didn’t go back to explore the less savoury ones.

We walked through the old town and just under an archway which dates from somewhere in the BC region, possibly when dinosaurs ruled the earth, we had some very nice beer.  Most welcome because it was hot.

Got the tender back to the ship and passes some strange buildings on an island connected to the mainland by a low lying causeway.  They looked like they had been barracks but were now very dilapidated and well graffiti’d.  On the other side were other industrial and defence looking buildings and what looked like watchtower in among the trees.  Quite strange and possibly a throwback from the war in the ‘80s.

Dinner was in Smash ‘n’ Grab tonight and it was much better than we anticipated, just as long as you don’t go daft and pile your plate up too much.  At least you can see what you’re being offered rather than some fancy named dish that turns out to be boggin’.

Venice tomorrow.

I was up at just before 6am and out to take some photos of our arrival into Koper.  It was a lovely sunny morning and with a few shots in the bag, I took a coffee and a ‘white tea’ back for Scamp.  Our day in Koper had begun.

We walked across the road and got even more photos from the top of the stairs that take you up to the town.  Of course we could have taken the elevator , but then we’d have cheated and we also wouldn’t have seen the remarkable reflections in its mirror glass casing.  Scamp got up to high jinks, climbing up on the stone seating to get some shots of our ship.  We walked on through the market square and were impressed by the church and bell tower that dominated the space.  Did a quick sketch of just the lower part of the bell tower and the side of the church. From there we wandered through the archway into the old town.  Lots of little alleyways to explore and photograph.

Further on we came to the water again, at the other side of the old town of Koper and found a flea market that sold all sorts and ages of military ‘antique’ hardware.  Bayonets, machine gun magazines (empty) and helmets.  Every kind of helmet known to man (or woman).  German helmets, American helmets, a few British helmets, even fire fighters helmets and what looked like cavalry helmets!  Rusted, polished, repainted, and some that were just about holding together.  I’m guessing some of them, a very few were the real, genuine article, but most were fakes of one kind or another.  As well as all the military rubbish there were tea sets, teddies, toys, tapestries and telephones (the wind up kind).  Basically, anything and everything you could imagine and a few things that you wouldn’t, like a boat propeller made into a lamp!

When we’d had our fill of the flea market, we crossed the road to a park and watched two clowns, one on stilts entertaining kids with juggling and balloon modelling.  Great fun, even though we hadn’t a clue what was being said, the enjoyment that they were providing was obvious. We passed a ball shaped fountain and a tunnel framework providing cool misting spray. Found a fruit and fish market and had to have a look.  Such a selection.

We walked back and had a beer in an old courtyard then listened to a bloke with a guitar doing a very good rendition of ‘Comfortably Numb’ by Pink Floyd.  Had to give him a couple of Euros for that. On the way back, I begged 30mins to sketch the old church again.  This one is a bit neat and tidy, because it was done in pencil first then inked in.  I’m not sure I like the ability to change things, but I wish I could have changed the clock face to make it look like it really was, not black.  I was sitting close to a German couple’s bikes and they seemed a bit twitchy thinking I might nick them.  I wouldn’t have, but I might have nicked their trip computer! We walked back to the ship.

About 5pm we went back for another walk, because it was a late sail away again.  Found that where the flea market had been there was now a free concert being set up with loads of food stalls.  Must be to celebrate Glasgow Fair which is this weekend.  Had a lovely, but expensive G&T in a posh bar in the market square and went for what must the the worst dinner in our cruising history.  The company was good, but the food was exceptionally bad.  Not nasty bad, just couldn’t care less bad.  Now, we admit we are foodies, but I wouldn’t have served food like this at home.

Went on deck and watched the comings and goings round the streets.  Across the road was a carpark and it was full, but at least a dozen cars tried at different times and in different combinations to find a space.  Some employed clever tactics to wait for a space, some were just stupid.  Some made it.  Most didn’t and went to try their luck elsewhere.  It was an entertainment.

Funniest thing of the day was the story the obnoxious Australian bloke told at breakfast about how Nicola Sturgeon earned her nickname of Gnasher.  I won’t repeat it in mixed company – he did!  He even told it in front of his mum! I certainly wouldn’t write it down, for fear of being sued, but I’ll never see Nick the Chick in the same light again!

Pula Tomorrow.