Slacking off in Sibenik

by | Sep 16, 2022 | Photography

After our three days in Venice, we were both totally wiped out so when we arrived in Sibenik, Croatia, at midday on Monday. We both decided that we would pack it in that day. I did take some pics on the way in and on the way out that I will share with you below but first, a couple of things I have really loved on this ship.

First, those of you who know me know I love to walk. At home, I walk a minimum of four miles a day, sometimes more. And yes, I fully realize that I am walking when I do tours, but, to be honest, walking and taking photos is not exercise. So pretty much every morning since we have sailed, I have walked four miles before breakfast. On most ships, I have to walk around a top deck, running track. Never liked those walking tracks; they were too small and had too many people. But Viking Sky has a full circuit walking/jogging track on deck two. It goes completely around the ship with no breaks and is exactly one-quarter of a mile. It’s really wide (except for a few feet at the front of the ship), and very few people use it. In fact, most days, there’s one other runner and me. I was so happy to find a totally wrap-around deck. On modern cruise ships, they are few and far between.

We have also been eating most meals since Venice by ourselves in The World Cafe (buffet). The food is still the best we have had on the ship, and the service is WONDERFUL! On our second day after Venice, we went up and sat at a small table way at the aft (back) of the ship, where there is a wonderful young lady taking care of the tables whose name is Nanci. The first thing she said to us that first night we sat there was, “Would you like to see our wine list?” I almost fell over. Finally, after almost ten nights, someone offered us a wine list. And when asked for suggestions, she looked at what we had selected from the buffet, and she came back with two outstanding glasses of Italian red. Not only that, but when I told her how much I loved the chocolate desserts, she asked if I was going to try them that night. When I came back from getting them, she had brought me a glass of Chianti and told me, “Nothing goes better with chocolate,” and she was right. We have been back to her table every night since. She is wonderful and thoroughly fun to talk to. When we asked her where she was from, she asked me to guess. I told her (because I had heard her say a few words in Italian) I thought she might be Italian. She told us she lives in Italy but is from Guadalajara, Mexico. She is a gem and has really improved our dinners.

Tomorrow night we will miss her because we are joining some new friends for dinner in the dining room. They have a favorite server and promise us we will have a great meal. We shall see.

As I am writing this, we have just finished our day in Naples. Since Sibenik, we have stopped in Bari, Crotone and Messina, so I still have all that to catch you up on. Here are the pics for Sibenik. You may not believe it, but I took every one of them from our stateroom’s verhanda.

Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please… (I have heard a vicious rumor that a close relative is looking at my pics on a phone. For that, she will have to eat my food again and watch all of them on our TV when we get home?).

Tomorrow we will be the port for Rome. Kathleen and I have been there quite a few times before, so we are staying on board. So that means I will do my best to catch up with the four ports between Sibenik and Rome. Lots to share.

You know more of a road by having traveled it than by all the conjectures and descriptions in the world.  —William Hazlitt

Venice Day 3: Early Morning Photos and Back to the Ship

by | Sep 15, 2022 | Photography

Our final morning in Venice was due to end fairly early. We needed to find our own way back to the ship. If we had known where we were docking before we left home, I would have arranged transportation before we even left the USA. But since they decided at the last minute to switch from Fusina to Chioggia, I had to scramble. And I scrambled to no avail. I was on my phone trying to book us a van back to the ship for a reasonable price for quite a while. What we finally decided to do was just get a cab and have them drive us around.

Speaking of them driving us back to the ship, we had new friends we met on board who had originally planned a train trip from Venice to Tuscany with a private tour at the other end but the Viking Customer Service people told them that taxis were not allowed to enter the port at Chioggia. So when we got our cab, we were a little worried if we would be let into the port or have to walk quite a distance to get in. More about that later. I am getting ahead of myself.

Let’s go back to the early morning…you know before the sun came up. I was up and heading out with my camera in hand. Yesterday I made my way to Piazza San Marco via the Rialto bridge. Today I wanted to cross the Rialto again, but this time, I wanted to get back to the Accademia bridge, which is at the very beginning of the Grand Canal. When we came to Venice for the first time, way back in 2002, we stayed at the Galleria Hotel right next to that bridge. The bridge is the only wooden bridge across the Grand Canal, so I really wanted a couple of more shots from that area. It also provides a great place to shoot the beautiful Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute. So here are the pics from that morning. I hope you like them. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

After breakfast, we grabbed our luggage and hit the good old Vaporetto #1 and headed up the Grand Canal to Piazzale Roma, where we hopped off and headed to the taxi line and found a driver willing to go to Chioggia. We also asked him if he would be able to get into the port. He wasn’t sure but said he would get us as close as possible. That was good enough for us. He also quoted us 150 euros for the ride. Whew! But we had to get back. And unlike our favorite Lyft/Uber rides, this would have a meter running, so we had to sweat that out as well.

He headed out, and we drove for almost an hour. The meter ran up, and when we finally got there, it was 147 Euro. This man knew his pricing. And could he get into the port to drop us off? Let’s just say when we got out of his cab; we were inside the port and less than 10 feet from the terminal. From the time we got out of his cab, we were in our staterooms on the ship in less than seven minutes.

We grabbed a mid-afternoon dunch (dunch = dinner and lunch—or linner—take your choice ?) and just collapsed in our stateroom for the evening. Those three days in Venice took a lot out of us.

Venice, Day 2: Photographic Perfection, Vaporetto Dejection

by | Sep 14, 2022 | Food Experiences, Photography

After a great night on a great bed (I still find Viking beds pretty hard, but I am getting used to them) at our Venice B&B, I was up for the entire reason for us making the additional travel investment in staying two nights in the city when we had a perfectly fine place to stay back on the ship—my pre-dawn photo walk in a city I love. (Nothing like getting an entire paragraph in one long sentence ?).

I woke up around 5;45 and checked my Photo Pills app on my phone. If you have never heard of Photo Pills, it is an iPhone (I am betting it is on android as well) app that tells me all I need to know about the light conditions where I am. For instance, as I write this, we are in Crotone, Italy (way down at the underside of the tip of the boot that is Italy) and when I opened Photo Pills this morning, here’s what I see.

First, it tells me the extent of my daylight; then, I get all the important times for photography, from Astronomical twilight to Day time. I know that I will get the best photos (if the weather cooperates—which it did on Day 2 in Venice) between 6:05 and 7:30 or so. So I made sure that I was up and out, camera in hand, no later than 5:30. In Venice, some of your best pictures are of artificial lights (doorways, streetlights, shop windows) before the sun even starts to come up. And to me, early morning are so much better than late night because there are a lot fewer people to get in the way. One or two people in a shot to set a mood is one thing but a whole bunch of people in different bright colors, looking everywhere, is not something I am after in a city like Venice.

My first few photos were in the dark. I did that on purpose. And a lot of Venice photography is vertical. That’s because a lot of Venice is tiny streets that lead to more open squares (called Campos). Those tiny streets make for great vertical photographs. They also make it easy to get lost…very lost. But in Venice, getting lost is the whole point. I just wandered. I could always see a sign nearby that pointed to a place where I recognized. For instance, from where we were staying, I knew that I had to cross a bridge over the Grand Canal someplace to get to Piazza San Marco (where I wanted to go), so I just kept following every sign that said, “Per Rialto” (to the Rialto Bridge). Sometimes I would find myself in an amazing little street that would give me one amazing photo I would love. Other times, those streets were just ways to get to where I wanted to go. If you go to Venice, get lost. That’s what you are supposed to do.

Since I have a LOT of Venice photos from this walk, I think I will break them up into smaller galleries, like this one that has photos from before it was light at all. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

As the light becomes brighter, you move from twilight to the “Blue Hour.” From the chart above, you can see that the “Blue Hour” really isn’t an entire hour. In fact, today, it was more like 10 minutes. But it always comes before the ever-popular Golden Hour that most people have heard of. During the “Blue Hour,” you get some great shots with lovely blue tint. Come back during the “Golden Hour”, and the entire scene is different. Here is maybe my favorite shot of the Grand Canal during the “Blue Hour.”

After a couple of more shots of and from the bridge, I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go. Here are my shots from there.

I made my decision about which way to go next when the first sign I saw after crossing the bridge said, “Per San Marco,” so I was off to Piazza San Marco, and I am so glad I went that way. Besides the light being amazing and the sky turning to fire, I got to see the piazza in all its glory—empty (or almost empty except for three other people and me and one—that’s all—pigeon). Here are my shots with comments. Again, Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

From the piazza, I headed out to the promenade, where I would get a chance to see the entire sky for the first time. As Secondo said in the film “The Big Night,” it was so good, “I have to kill myself because I knew nothing would be better.” The sky to the east was on fire. And that made the city look awesome in the light. This morning had been a walking, talking photo lesson for me. It made me realize I had never done a post about my best travel photography tips, so I need to do that as soon as we are home. Here’s the next set of shots I got after getting out to the promenade.

I walked up and down the promenade to get photo after photo in that incredible light. Hope you like them. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

By this point in our morning story, it was getting close to 7:45, and I had told Kathleen I would be back at the B&B by 8:30 so we could get breakfast. I thought about walking back, but then I saw that the #1 Vaporetto was almost completely empty, so I jumped on board and found myself a spot in the rear seats where I could continue to shoot photos as we went up the Grand Canal. Here’s what I got between San Zacharia and St Stae.

The Rest of the Day

A quick rundown of the rest of the day would start with a walk to Campo San Polo for a very traditional Venitian breakfast of cappuccino and croissants. This may not be traditional for everyone in Venice, but it is exactly what we had for breakfast when we were here before, so it is our tradition ?. And this particular Campo (where we had never ventured before) was a must-see because one of our favorite fictional characters, Commisario Guido Brunetti lives near this Campo and often walks through it in the books. We felt like we knew the place. BTW: If you are going to Venice, try to read at least a few of Dona Leon’s Brunetti series before you go. It will truly improve your trip.

I mean, wouldn’t you take a water bus to get this?

Later that day, we had planned to take a Vaporetto to one of the two major outlying islands, Burano. Our friends Jayesh and Lisa had eaten an amazing late lunch there in July that included a plate of Frito Misto to die for. I am using his photo to show you what we missed. I really wanted that. Lisa said they had some good pasta that Kathleen would like, so we headed to Burano.

But it was not to be. Partly because we didn’t listen (or understand) the person loading and unloading the Vaporetto and partly because things changed a LOT in 20 years. When we were here the first time, we went out to the two big outlying islands on a Vaporetto. First, we stopped at Murano and walked around a sleepy little Italian island town known for its blown glass. Then we jumped right back on the same Vaporetto that took us out to the further island, Burano—where we wanted to go that day.

The first big change was Murano. What had been a sleepy little island town is now a major tourist attraction with chain convention hotels and six different Vaporetto stops. SIX! When we went there before, Murano had ONE stop, and then the same Vaporetto went on to Burano. Not anymore.

When we boarded at Piazzale Roma, we specifically asked numerous times, “Burano?” and every time, we were assured that the water bus was going to Burano. So we get to Murano, and we wait while passengers get off the Vaporetto and others get on. Then we go to the next stop, and the same things happen. We are marveling at how big Murano has become, how commercialized. Then another Murano stop, and another. After six stops on Murano, we are mostly empty, which makes sense because Burano is a small island, and not a lot of people head out that way…at least they didn’t in November 2002.

So imagine our surprise when the Vaporetto starts heading back to Piazzale Roma. I went up and asked the man I had asked when we got on, “Burano?” He laughed at me and said, “You should have changed at Faro (a stop on Murano). No one told us this. No signs said we needed to do this. It had not been this way before, but we guess now it is. So we are more than an hour into this boat ride and have to decide what to do. Do we go back to our hotel, rest up during the heat of the day and try to go out later who do we go right back out to Murano and switch at Faro and take the Vaporetto to Burano? We decide to do the latter. So we go back in, change boats, come back out…and this time we get off at Faro. We have now been on the Vaporetto to and from and to Murano for about 2 hours. When we do get off, a sign points further down the waterfront and says, “Burano Ferry, 50 meters.” We head down that way and can see the boat unloading, so we think, “YEA! We made it!” We should have been able to jump right on…except when we turn the corner to get on, there is a three-boat waiting line standing against a wall we could not see as we walked up. They were standing there in the direct sun, sweating like the proverbial swine waiting for more than 2 hours. We gave up!

Defeated, we walked back to the Vaporetto stop to go back to the main part of Venice, but since we had about a half hour to wait, we grabbed an Aperol Spritz and a panini sandwich (because by then, it was about 3:00 pm and we had breakfast at 8:30 and NOTHING makes you feel better about stupidity than an Aperol Spritz in Venice) and some water as well.

When the next Vaporetto stopped, we made very sure to ask if it was going to Piazelle Roma, where we could catch the #1 back to St. Stae and our hotel. We were told it would. What they neglected to mention was that it would also go the LONG way around and drop us at San Marco, where we could move to the #1. So what coming out had taken us 45 minutes now took us twice that to get back. Suffice it to say that by the time we got back to the St. Stae stop, we almost had to crawl back to the room; we were so tired. And once we got there, we stayed there just to try to recover for our last big day in Venice. And the panini they had brought us was so big, neither of us were hungry for dinner. Watch the next post for my Day 3 photo walk.

A realist, in Venice, would become a romantic by mere faithfulness to what he saw before him.  —Arthur Symons

Let’s Split

by | Sep 11, 2022 | Food Experiences, Photography

Well, it could be worse; I could have made a banana joke. We are back from our three days in Venice, and now I can resume our story.

When I last wrote, it was Thursday, and we were in Split, Croatia. It is a truly beautiful walled city. Those Romans certainly knew how to build. We had a great time on Kathleen’s first day out after her time in food poisoning jail.

We both got off the ship and had a nice walk around the center of the old town. Of course, I took a lot of photos. You can see all my Split photos below. But before I post them, I want to mention our day onboard. We had a great room service breakfast (because Kathleen was still in food poisoning jail). But right after breakfast, the doctor called her and set her free, and we were off to see Split.

That evening we decided to give The Restaurant dining room another chance. We were given an excellent table in the far aft of the dining room where we could see the wake of the ship. It’s like the best place to eat in the place. But again, our service was sporadic. At the start of the meal, things went as usual. Not offered a wine list, one bread basket for six people until we finally got more. Then I made the mistake of saying I liked the breadsticks, and all of a sudden, we had three baskets of nothing but breadsticks. We asked for more “regular” bread, but that never did show up. We asked for more butter, but that didn’t show up either. But when my brother asked for olive oil and vinegar, it appeared in less than five minutes. They went all the way to the buffet to get it. Do you see what I mean about sporadic? It just went from good to bad service and back again all evening.

We got our appetizers in a hurry, and then the entrées took a while, followed by dessert a few moments later. I should add that the desserts were excellent, but not so much the entrées. The prime rib I had was close to raw, even though I had asked for medium rare. Since I had seen people at the tables near us getting it before we ordered, I specifically asked for much closer to medium. But that was not to happen. And a number of people at the table ordered the lobster thermidor because they saw the HUGE lobster tails coming to the tables nearby. But when they got theirs, they found a huge lobster shell with about three tablespoons of Thermidor in it. Once again, the dining room kind of failed us. They provided an adequate meal, but as my brother pointed out on our last, if this were a restaurant we went to at home, we would probably not go back.

The same cannot be said for the buffet. We love pretty much everything we have had from that venue. It has been amazing. This is very unusual for us because we can’t remember a previous cruise when we have eaten dinner in the buffet more than once or twice in a cruise, and then only when we were returning late from a shore excursion. This buffet is the epitome of class. You never have a second when your glass gets less than full, or they are whisking away your dirty plates. Just a fabulous experience.

We also tried Mamsen’s, which is a great little Scandanavian snack bar (but so much better than a snack bar). We have had breakfast there twice. They make extraordinary, ultra-thin Norwegian waffles that come with yogurt, berries, and some very interesting Norwegian cheese. Put it all together; it is wonderful.

I went there for lunch a few days later and had a superb open-face smoked salmon sandwich. It was truly delicious. Kathleen had open-faced roast beef that she liked just as much.

Enough about food, here are the Split photos (below). Come back tomorrow for my Venice pics and report. My pre-dawn photo walk around Venice was everything I was hoping for and more! Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

 

Kotor in Four Parts—Sail in, Olives, Climbing and the Dark

by | Sep 8, 2022 | Food Experiences, Photography

The Sail In

On Tuesday morning, I (and a lot of others on the ship) were up early for an incredible sail-in to our next port, Kotor, Montenegro. Check out this map to see where we had to sail in order to get from the Adriatic Sea to our pier in Kotor.

It takes about two hours to sail-in from the sea to the port. Along the way, you can see so much, and it takes place during my favorite time of my photography day—the golden hour. Without further ado, here are my photos from the sail-in. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Olives

We had signed up to do a tour of an olive farm and check out their production of olive oil as well as other things. Kathleen was still resting after her bout with food poisoning, so I went off on my own. We drove up a severely twisted, bumpy road to a beautiful olive farm owned and run by three brothers. The far had been in their family for nine generations. He told us his ancestors planted the first olive trees there more than 250 years ago. Those tress still yield as many olives as they ever have.

We started our visit with a traditional Montenegran sweet donut that is dunked into honey. Then we tasted two of their newest products; a wonderful brandy and a kind of sickly sweet liquor made from the brandy and a cocoa-type plant that also grew on the farm. After that (and an encounter with their donkey), we walked about 500 meters to their production facility, and our host showed us their method of picking and pressing the olives. We tasted their olive oil (it was outstanding) and then they served us a “typical” Montenegran luncheon in the room where the old olive press was still in place. The food was “fine” but I did enjoy the tour. Then we were back on the bus and headed back to Kotor. Here’s the photos from the Olives part of the day. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Kotor City and my hill climb

After my tour, I came back and went to lunch with Kathleen. She was feeling better (this was before they imprisoned her) and needed to get something in her stomach. After lunch and some time in the stateroom, I wanted to walk back into the city. Since we would be there until 10:00 pm that night, I thought I could go walk into the city in the afternoon and gauge how long a walk it was and then talk Kathleen into coming in after the sun was down and the temperatures were more moderate.

So I wandered through the city (see pics) and took a bunch of photos, and then at one point, I found myself in front of a shop talking to a local artist about their work (I eventually bought one of her smaller pieces), and I asked her where the path up to the old church on the hill started. You can see the old church and its relationship to the city in the picture on the right.

She replied that it was right behind her shop and that if I decided to climb up, I should be very careful because there were at least 15 falls a day going up or down, and there had already been 11 that day. I asked her if I did go up and if she had any tips for me. She had one, “Stay on the steps, stay off the stones.” She was right.  The stones that made up most of the path (you can see them next to the steps in my photos) were mostly old granite and marble that had been worn down to a very slick surface meaning that on the way up, it was very difficult to climb and on the way down, it was a real fall hazard. But I decided to try it using those steps. I should let you know that climbing the wall costs 8 euro (I think they should pay you! ?). The climb itself was a good one. And in the heat, while I didn’t regret doing it, I wouldn’t do it again and wished I had done it in the evening.

But the views! What incredible views. Take a look at the photos. Don’t forget, if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

And night descends in Kotor

After dinner on the aft deck (which looked like a commercial for Viking), we headed back to the stateroom. Kathleen had not yet been confined and was feeling great so we watched a little TV before I went out on our verandah and saw the beautiful lights of Kotor come up. I shot a couple from our verandah but then decided to go up to deck seven to what has become my favorite place on the ship, The Explorer’s Lounge. There is a forward-facing open deck in front of it that is the perfect place for taking photos, and that’s when I got these other shots, one of which may move into my top 10 shots I have taken in forever. We shall see. Make sure you look at the last photo in this group at full screen.

Report from onboard!

That about covers Kotor. Had a marvelous time. Back on the ship, this was the day before Kathleen’s quarantine confinement, so we had all our meals together. Again both lunch and dinner were in the World Cafe (buffet), and they were excellent. I just happened to be grabbing a dessert at that section of the buffet when the head pastry chef was there. I got a chance to tell him about how I am not a chocolate lover, but anything he has made with chocolate in it has been incredible, starting with the Amarone and chocolate dessert in Manfreddis. This particular night they had announced a Montenegrin dinner featuring local dishes that turned out to be 90% seafood. Kathleen stuck to the bland stuff, but I had seafood salad, prawns, king crab legs and some of the best mussels I have ever had. Oh, and I forgot to mention that at lunch that day, they had a Barolo braised short rib that was sooooooo good that as Primo said in The Big Night, “I have to KILL myself.”

A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in.
—Robert Orbin