A Little Bit of A Lot

Intro:

Michael and I set off to roam once more in early June.  As usual, we encountered bizarre and interesting, and frankly, annoying things as we wended our way through the U.S. and Europe.  It could take a couple -- or more-- blogs to get this all out of our systems.

America: The Overheated and Alternately Freezing

We began our travels in Newark, N.J. which is not a great way to start any journey.  However, it was for a good cause as we were to meet up with cousins from my side of the family and attend the wedding of my cousin Jeff's daughter Marianne. That all went smoothly and was a lot of fun.  Then, braving the Jersey Turnpike, we moved through Boston and on to Maine visiting friends and family. It was either very hot, very rainy or very cold and rainy.  We are spoiled.  Thus, on June 8th I incongruously found myself staring blankly at a sea of down parkas in L.L. Bean in Freeport, ME.
Why were there hundreds, if not thousands, of parkas there in June?  Why was I buying one? Well, it was pretty nippy and our friends Maggie and Bob had promised us a sail on the brisk Atlantic when we reached their place. So, I ponied up and bought the parka.  As we set out for our boat ride, Bob looked at me in my parka and said, "Hmm.  That might not be enough" and threw two REALLY heavy coats in the boat. Ah, New England.  A quick trip up to my brothers in Maine, back to Boston and Bets and Fred and then, yes, back to Newark to take off for Croatia.

Rehearsal dinner with the bride standing at the head of the table.

The groom at the rehearsal dinner.

The Jersey Shore was completely empty due to the cold, wet weather.

Deirdre's brother Steve & his wife Lee at the wedding.

Deirdre was so happy that we were able to stop quickly at Rein's New York Style Deli in Vernon, CT.

The view from Bob & Maggie's house in Harpswell with their catamaran.

The lobster boat stops right by their boat...

hauling in some of their catch for the day.

Jersey was hot.  Really hot. Ninety-five+ degrees hot.  We got on our SAS jet and there was no air conditioning.  The jolly pilot welcomed us to our "sauna" (get it-- SAS ?) and told us that once we were in the air the "real" air conditioning would come on.  It should be only about 15 minutes.  At 20 minutes it was well over 100, and many were stripping down.  The Flight Attendants suggested that we use the Safety Cards as fans.  I always knew those safety cards would one day save my life.  One and a half hours later, we were cleared for take off.  We were disgusting.  But this would not be the last time. Oh, no.

And We Thought Greek Was Bad...

Upon our landing in  Split, Croatia we immediately noticed two things: 1) the language is totally unpronounceable; and 2) thank God almost everyone speaks English.  We managed to make it through dinner but lacked the fortitude to venture to The Froggyland Museum -- a much anticipated highlight of the trip for me.  Luckily we would return to Split.  You will just have to control your curiosity until the blog returns to Split.  The next day we were off to Plitvice Lakes -- a prime example of difficult place names.  Michael and I argued about it incessantly only to learn we were both wrong. Never got it right. We ended up calling them the "P" Lakes.  These were gorgeous and fed our waterfall needs.  There are a series of Upper and Lower Lakes.  According to that lying dog Rick Steves they could each easily be experienced in an hour -- two tops. Ha! Traversing the entire course, which we did, entailed about 800 steps and 5-6 miles but thank the Lord the scenery made up for it.  Photos will tell the tale.  Michael's knees didn't recover until about Berlin.

The wall is part of Diocletian's Palace in Split, built in the third century. When Diocletian died, the Catholics he persecuted took over the palace and built houses on top of the palace walls.

This was hanging in one of the windows in the photo above. We found this to be what the Europeans call a dryer.

We did not spend much time in Split on our first visit, but we did manage to take in the market and buy some fresh meat, cheese, bread & produce.

A view of Split harbor and some of the city.

The water in Plitvice Lakes was as clear and pure as any we have ever seen.

The falls seemed to pour forth from the vegetation.

Each fall was spectacular in its own way.

The water had a mirror like quality.

If fishing were allowed the fish would not stand much of a chance, as can be seen from these photos.

More pictures showing the mirror like quality of the lake.

These next two photos show the highest waterfall in the lakes.

Both Croatia and Slovenia were terrific surprises.  Once you left the Croatian Coast there was nary a tourist (well except the "P" Lakes) and the scenery was amazing.  Michael will throw in a photo of a place we stopped for lunch between the Lakes and Zagreb.  We've determined that our favorite destination is a town of about 200,000, with a university, great and different food and quirky places to visit.  Zagreb hits on every point.

The restaurant was on an island between the river.

Zagreb has a lower town and upper town connected by the world's shortest (but very appreciated by Michael's knees) funicular.  In the upper town are two very offbeat and diverting museums.  The first is The Museum of Broken Relationships.  What spawned this idea I don't know, but the museum has gone around the world collecting stories and mementos of relationships that didn't weather time well. All kinds.  Love affairs, marriages, families, friends, even a rock band I think.  We discovered many things including the facts that there are an infinite number of things that can derail a relationship, there are a million ways to end it, and the things that symbolize the relationships can be very, very odd.  We also noted that an inordinate number of broken relationships occurred in Boulder Colorado so you may want to avoid there or just go to Boulder alone.  It is alleged that there is a sister museum in Los Angeles which makes perfect sense -- the town of broken dreams and/or relationships.

The funicular that saved my knees.

An overview of a portion of Zagreb.

Roof of St. Mark Church in Zagreb.

One of the many items in The Museum of Broken Relationships.

This was one of the more unique explanations (I decided the photo was superfluous).

Another one of those items which almost defy explanation.

The second museum was the Museum of Naive Art.  Apparently in the deep, dark forests of Croatia in tiny little hamlets a genre of art arose that was based on absolutely no professional training, meager materials and a really unusual world view that ended up with cows being painted sitting in trees and other unusual visuals.  Needless to say we loved it.  We bought a painting (well, a print) and if we can figure out how to shoot it we'll include it.  This print was one of the tamer items.

Another view of the Zagreb skyline.

Some paintings & a sculpture from the Museum of Naive Art.

We bought a print of this painting.

A statue by the Stone Gate.

Inside the Stone Gate is a shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary. People gather throughout the day to pray and sing to the Virgin.

Just outside the Stone Gate we decided to stop for a bit of refreshment.  It was, as usual, excruciatingly hot. We were approached by the Aperol women who convinced us to try an Aperol Spritz. This was Deirdre's new favorite drink.

One of the oldest dwellings in Zagreb which was once in the red light district.

These women were obviously pushing Limonada.

Large colorfully decorated eggs seem to be a specialty of Croatia.

One of the buildings on the main square.

The main square was a lively, happening place.

It even had a woman organ grinder.

One of the beautiful parks of Zagreb.

The Cathedral of Zagreb, which is undergoing renovation.

Leaving Croatia Behind (For Now)

Time to jump in the car and head for Vienna.  I wasn't too psyched about Vienna but Michael was, so off we went.  Now, about the car.  I had carefully researched what was involved in taking the car from Croatia to Slovenia, to Austria, to Germany and back.  We would need a "green card" which cost 70 euros but allegedly insured that the rental company would help you out if you had problems even though you rented the car in another country.  Fine.  Pick up car.  Pick up green card.  Drive through Croatia, Slovenia and into Austria.  Motioned over at the border.  Proudly present green card.  Very polite young soldier-ish type says to Michael: "Would you come with me sir?"  He goes.  He comes back and says he has just paid a 120 euro fine for not having  a "vignette".  "You paid for them to tell you a story?" I ask thinking he has finally lost it.  But no.... No guide book-- much less the rental agent --has told us that we must buy an inexpensive (circa 8 euros) vignette (which is a decal) for Slovenia and Austria. Upon returning the car the agent expressed complete surprise at this turn of events.  We are NOT doing well in the car rental game these days.

But back to Vienna.  It is beautiful. Superb.  Unbelievable buildings and PASTRY.  And I'm not even a pastry fan.  Before we hit downtown we stopped at Schonbrunn Palace, did a tour, and strolled the gardens.  Not to be jaded (well I AM jaded) but it was about a 7.0 on the palace scale.  That night we went to the Prater which is this absolutely phenomenal old fashioned (sort of) amusement park and had dinner at a restaurant (very good) right next to the ferris wheel that had the famous fight in The Third Man.  This place was a feast for the eyes both in terms of the rides and the multitudes of multi-ethnic folks strolling around.

A counterpoint to the traditional architecture of Vienna

Europe seems to love graffiti

The old and new juxtaposed in Vienna

With these buildings we were forced to demote Prague to the "poor man's" Vienna

It wasn't just the buildings, put what was on top or at the entrances to the buildings that stood out in Vienna.  Gold leaf or paint was very common.

This bronze sculpture is a monument to Bucephalus, the legendary war horse of Alexander the Great.

Food, Drink and Amusement for all at the Prater comes with dining in the sky (note the chairs with seat belts.

Now THAT is a slide

I bet Deirdre could have experienced all of her phobias in this Haunted House

A little bit of home in Vienna

The famous Ferris Wheel featured in the classic film The Third Man.

The Schonbrunn Palace of Vienna

Great place for a photo shoot

OK.  We give up.  Does anyone know the name of this bird?

The gardens were the highlight of the Palace

Just some "small" greenhouses to support the gardens.

It was kind of early in the summer.  The annuals probably would look better in August

The next day we saw all the quintessential Vienna sights and then decided to head out to the "Vienna Woods" where we saw the Mayerling hunting lodge with its bleak history of suicide and venereal disease. The baroness committed suicide and then the Baron shot himself in the lovers suicide pact. It's a big tourist draw -- what is WRONG with people?  The baroness was buried and exhumed multiple times and ended up buried (finally) at the monastery we were about to visit -- under the altar no less.

Shaking off that experience we decided we deserved to go to the largest underground lake in Europe. The SeaGrotte. I mean, why not?  First of all, it continued to be unspeakably hot and the underground lake was always about 60 degrees. Yes, we're in!  It had buckets of things I hate -- narrow, claustrophobic corridors (phobia #2)  , darkness (#4), slippery stairs (#14), creepy dioramas (that's a new one -- I think #28) but I was all in because it was COOL... in so many ways.

The Hinterbruhl mine produced gypsum.  Until 1912 when "an underground blasting operation went awry and caused 20 million litres of water" to inundate the mine.  When it all settled down you had the largest underground lake in Europe but nobody cared.  Until the 1930s when an international team of cave explorers found it.  Just in time for Hitler!  Well, it was a tourist spot for a couple of years but then the Nazi's requisitioned it.  They turned it into an airplane factory and 2,000 workers (read slave labor + engineers) produced one of the first jet fighters in the world -- the Heinkel HE 162 Salamander if you were wondering.  We reemerged from the depths to resume sweating and our return to Vienna.

The chapel at Mayerling.  It is now a Carmelite cloister.

The ill-fated Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria

One of Baroness Mary Vetsera's coffins -- she was exhumed and reburied at least 3 times.

The SeaGrotte -- one of the pretty creepy dioramas.  The prison scenes of The Three Musketeers was filmed in the mine.

Very, very cool boat.  But no one ever told us what it was or why it was there.

Heilgenkreuz Abbey - a Cistercian Monastery

The Baroness Mary Vetsera was buried here, and exhumed and buried and exhumed.....

I'm going to quit for now.  With the zillions of pictures we will have taken up enough of your time. However, there is still Prague, Berlin, Laufen and Ljubljana, Krka and the Dalmatian Cruise to come. Oh, and Froggyland.  Until then....