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…

 

Climbing the walls in Dubrovnik

by | Sep 9, 2022 | Photography

Before I start on Dubrovnik, I will provide an update on our situation onboard. Yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, around 4:00, I received a call from the Hotel Director. He had seen my posts on this blog and on Cruise Critic. He asked me if he could come up and see me. I told him I had been thinking about doing that, but I wasn’t sure what to say. But I said I would love to discuss it and I would come down to his office. Suffice it to say; everything has been settled; he is a wonderful person and has assured me that things were taken care of. I believe him, although we still had problems last night in the dining room…for a while. More about that later.

But the big news here is that while Kathleen was locked away in food poisoning prison, I got to do the shore excursion tour I had planned to do. I had already planned to do this one on my own as it was listed as “strenuous” and it was—STRENUOUS!

The tour was called “A Guided Tour of the Top of the Walls in Old Dubrovnik.” What that meant was we climbed to the top of the Old Dubrovnik fortifications (see photo above) and walked all the way around the city. My watch told me that my elevation had changed enough for me to have climbed 37 flights of stairs and the walk itself is around three miles with a ton of ups once you are on top of the wall. Funny that I can’t remember anything going down until we finished the walk and were leaving.

Suffice it to say that the views were amazing, the walk was an awesome place to take pictures and the guide (Nicolina) was the best we have had on the entire trip. We left the ship at 9:45 (I wish we had left earlier so the climb would be a little cooler) and took a coach downtown arriving in about 20 minutes. Lots of one-lane roads make for some really fun traffic. As soon as we were off the bus and in the old city, Nicolina had us climbing the walls. From that point on, I am going to let my pictures do the talking (or viewing), but I do want to say upfront that you may recognize some of the things in the photos because this is where much of Game of Thrones was filmed. Dubrovnik was the stand-in for Westeros. So keep an eye open for things you might recognize if you are a fan of the show. And 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…

I think that is where I am going to stop with Dubrovnik. We are about to get to Chioggia, our port for Venice. Just a note that we will be off the ship until Sunday and staying in Venice. We will be back on the ship on Sunday and I will fill you in on our visit to Split, Croatia, as well as on our three days in Venice and our time onboard.

We build too many walls and not enough bridges.  —Sir Isaac Newton

 

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

 

I need to RANT!

by | Sep 7, 2022 | Uncategorized

I am going to go off on a RANT right now and come back with some happier thoughts about Kotor, Montenegro later. But here goes.

Right now, I am LIVID at Viking. LIVID! PISSED! TICKED! MAD AS HELL! 

As you know from yesterday’s post, my wife had food poisoning. We knew it was food poisoning because no one else in our party of six was sick. No one else on the ship is sick. Four of us have been traveling together for almost two weeks, I have been at her side for almost 25 years, and not one of us is sick. It is NOT a virus. She was feeling great this morning. We went to Mamsen’s for breakfast and had one of their wonderful waffles. Then we went back to our stateroom to get ready to go into Dubrovnik. My bride decided that she would go down to medical to see if they had any Imodium. She didn’t feel she needed it but thought since we would be in town, it would be a good preventative. So off she went while I got ready for the rest of our day.

Half an hour later, she came back from the medical office, where she told me that as soon as she asked for the Imodium, a nurse started asking her questions but would not listen to her answers. The nurse barely spoke English that my wife could understand, but she did not want to hear a thing when my wife tried to blame her illness on swordfish served in Manfreddis. Instead, she sent her back to our stateroom with two things—2 Immodium tablets and a quarantine notice to stay in our stateroom for at least 24 hours after her last symptoms. Not for COVID but just for gastrointestinal problems. As I said, she felt great. She only wanted the Imodium as insurance. They would NOT LISTEN TO HER because (I assume) she was blaming it on the ship’s food.

When she told me this, I have to say that I BLEW UP! I went to guest relations and talked to a woman whose badge said she was the head of Customer Relations. She took down everything I said. I asked her why a nurse could make this kind of diagnosis without listening to my wife, without hearing that she and I have eaten just about everything exactly the same except the swordfish. As I mentioned, if this were a virus, the rest of our party and I would surely have contracted it by now. My wife has had food poisoning before, and it is very different from the flu or norovirus. This was POOR medical care. Why is it that medical personnel will not listen before they make this kind of decision? Is it because they heard about food poisoning and that we would blame them and want compensation? We don’t and we didn’t. So instead, they ban someone to their stateroom and make them miss a port or two. Sadly, during this entire 21-day cruise, the only places we had never been before were these three ports, and we were really looking forward to seeing them.

And not only did they make her suffer this indignity, but the nurse gave her a major lecture that if she broke quarantine and stepped outside our room, we would both be thrown off the ship. Then she got a nasty form letter with the same admonition. The letter also stated that if she did as she was told and didn’t make any other trouble, we would not be charged for the medical office visit, but if she stepped out of line, we would be charged for everything they did for her.

Since then, I have been out and about on the ship (I was NOT quarantined—it shows how stupid this policy is) and have heard of at least three other people who ate the swordfish and got sick. When I asked if they went to the medical office, they said, “No! We don’t want to get quarantined.” Well, my advice from this day forward is this: If you get sick and you aren’t dying, stay away from the medical office. They will punish you—for poisoning you.

OK, my rant is over. I am back to working on the marvelous day I had in Kotor and in Dubrovnik. I should be able to get you those tomorrow.

You can’t fix stupid.  —Ron White

Corfu and some more thoughts on Viking Sky

by | Sep 6, 2022 | Photography

A good friend commented on my post yesterday and said that maybe I shouldn’t have walked away from Celebrity so fast. Which made me think that I have been letting you all think I am totally unhappy with Viking. I am not. This is what I told my friend:

No, we will never go back to X. Everything on Viking has been great except the two sit-down restaurants. Hands down the most beautiful ship I have ever sailed on; other than the Neptune Suite, we had on HAL the best stateroom ever, excellent and fast internet, incredible buffet, superb service everywhere except the sit-down dining rooms, and that’s just because their restaurant systems are all screwed up. The public spaces are wonderful. Viking Ocean is head and shoulders above Celebrity. It’s probably just me that has to get used to the Viking ways.

There is a lot to like about Viking, and we are not totally turned off, but at least one more thing has happened that is a kind of a dark mark. Let’s get that out of the way. Kathleen got food poisoning. She was beyond sick last night and pretty much is feeling a little better as I write this on Tuesday in Kotor, Montenegro. The night before last (as you may remember), we went to Manfreddi’s for dinner. Kathleen had the swordfish. It is the only thing she has had to eat for the last few days that someone else in our group has not eaten. It’s not the flu or any other virus. Those aren’t as violent and really mess you up and then just go away. We have been together before when she has gotten food poisoning, and this is what we are sure it is. Bad fish is bad fish. Could have gotten that anywhere. Not really Viking’s fault.

Let’s talk Corfu. We found it to be a pleasant little island. We were doing a Viking-included tour that took us out to one end of the island where we could take pictures of some truly beautiful sites and their airport (located in a truly crazy place) and then back to the center of the city to get out and tour and then walk on our own before returning to the ship. We totally enjoyed Corfu. Check out the pics below. 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…

More tomorrow. I enjoy some real photo shooting on the incredible sail-in to the port, a trip to an olive farm and a climb to a church high above Kotor.

In Greece, wise men speak, and fools decide.  —George Santayana