Spectacular Natural Wonder

Plitvice Lakes National Park - we vote it best national park we've ever visited, with 16 terraced lakes and an incredible maze of planked walkways bringing us up close and personal with these natural beauties.  The water is crystal clear, but even more breathtaking is the forested area that surrounds each of these lakes.  The park, just a few miles from the Bosnian border, was home to the 1990s war between Croatia and Yugoslavia - and on the drive from Pula to Plitvice, bombed out buildings and bullet ridden barns were easily seen from the two lane highway that took us through otherwise beautiful little towns and lush forests.  The park is very well managed, with electric boats and trams to transport from various lakes and trails back to the park hotels - and even with the well designed transport system, we still logged 10 miles of hiking.  True joy!  Enlarge the below photos to get a better glimpse of what this gem of a park has to offer, which really doesn't do it justice.

A sunset stroll

The hotel is at the very top of a hill, so there is an incentive to stroll around the top (to keep from needing to hike back up), which is what we did this evening.  We headed out about half an hour before sunset and were struck by the color and beauty of it, not to mention even though we are probably 50 miles from the coast, we could see the sun reflect off a snip of the Adriatic Sea, wonderful sight.

Truffles and Anthony Bourdain

Anne and I are big Anthony Bourdain fans, especially some of his early work on the travel channel, before moving to CNN.  On his "no reservations" series, he traveled the world and had a much lower key and sometimes off color perspective on things.  It was sad to hear of his passing this year, but we had seen his show on Croatia years ago, which featured a restaurant specializing in truffles (Konoba Mondo) on our list. (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqcg4o).  It is all worth watching, but if you want the truffle portion, it starts at minute 7.

Being in Motovun, we had to try it and so glad we did.  This is a big step for Anne, who has a visceral reaction to truffle oil - but here, in the purest of countrysides, no fear - it's only real truffles sniffed out by truffle dogs that are on the menu, not truffle oil.

Arriving in Motovun

Home to the birthplace of Mario Andretti, we drove to Motovun Croatia. This is a beautiful hill town - and so hilly in fact, we had to leave our car in the middle of the hill, and the hotel came and retrieved us - I think they are tired of tourists ruining their beautiful walls in this city that's been around minimally since the first century - reflected by grave stones going back to the Romans.  The area is the Istrian Peninsula, just around the corner from Italy.  It has been part of Italy at times long ago and has the same feel, with a good portion of its 500 residents speaking Italian as their native tongue. A spectacular view of the city driving in.

A protest for breakfast

We arrived Pula on the ferry late in the evening, pleasantly surprised by a very vibrant bustling old town, with its own amphitheater - housing the first night a full week of music festivals.  We decided that we should conquer the town in the morning, so we could enjoy all of its beauty and graceful age with sunrise. 

During our morning scout for food, we decided to grab breakfast in the town square.  We practically had the place to ourselves, and then we heard horns and whistles coming towards us - we thought it was an ambulance - only to learn a group of 200 or so shipworkers (all men) came to the town square with drums, horns, and bazookas to protest something, we couldn't quite understand - but given the way our waiter explained it by rubbing his index and middle fingers against his thumb - it all has to do with money.  They are ship workers, protesting , then a large group of people marched into the square.  One thing we know, they weren't chanting, "we love our employer".  There were news crews following them, so we will need to check out later and see if we can figure out what happened.  The shots below are 1. The protesters first emerging on the square, we thought there would only be a few, but check out 2. The protesters actually assembled in the main square.  No small fete.   Update: From the news, we learned that the shipworkers had not been paid for several weeks - very peaceful protest, considering no paycheck!

The real problem came later when we tried to get an UBER to the airport to pick up our rental car.  The police had shut down all the roads into old town because of the protests and we could not get an UBER for over 30 minutes.  

Off to Croatia

We boarded our ferry to Croatia and it was very nice.  It was a high speed catamaran that was not very full.  We spent time with a professor from Canada and couple from Switzerland.  Very pleasant journey.  It provided us the opportunity to get a good shot of St. Marks square as we headed out.

Molino Stucky Hilton

Sadly, it's time to depart Venice, but we're looking forward to the voyage to Pula where we begin our Croatian visit.  We had a great time and enjoyed learning more about this beautiful city's history, which includes the hotel we're staying in - once home to a "super pasta" factory.  It's called the Molino Stucky and it's so tastefully restored from what was once a flour factory in the 1700s.  Grain was brought in by ship from Eastern Europe and ground into flour.  The main structure of the building was kept in tact, but fully retrofitted starting in the late 1990's and finally completed in 2007 - with a fire during construction,  almost destroying the building in its entirety.  An incredible hotel, current and historic photos below.

The point you need to start worrying....

Today is our last day in Venice and we went to St. Mark's square to do a loop around and some last minute shopping.  Anne had asked me to look up the address of a linen shop, so we hit it during our loop.  I knew her goal was to get some nice linens from Venice, but as I was waiting outside and looked inside, I saw the following inside the door:

I figured when I saw their marketing slogan was the perfect linens for your home, yacht or jet, that could not be a good sign.  Fortunately, the linens she picked were "reasonable".  Maybe she thought we came in on one of the big yachts that arrived today for the Venice film festival.

Venetian Masks: Not a virtuous story

Just like life, there are many reasons for how things come to be.  You can find ten different versions of how the Venetian Carnival and its Mask tradition came to be...but one thing is for sure - the masks are pure art - and a treat to watch the artisans work their magic on Paper Mache.   The Venetians claim to have the oldest Carnival, dating back several hundred years - begun as a celebration before lent - where for ten days, Venetians ate, drank and whatevered their way to gluttony, followed by 40 days of "suffering" as our tour guide, Cristina, refers to Lent.  The most popular version of why masks were incorporated into Venice's Carnival celebration, was because masks hide the identity of rich, poor, health, beauty - and for the ten days, anyone can feel the privilege, power, freedom (you fill in the blank) of being someone they're not, and doing anything they normally wouldn't, hidden behind the Venice mask. Today, the masks are extravagant - bearing colors, rhinestones and feathers seen in the first photo below - v the classic masks of old, which were just plain white, seen in the second photo below.

See the mask in the middle, that looks like a big nose?  This is the very traditional "doctor" mask, which represents protective face covering that Venetian doctors wore during the plague in an effort to keep from catching ill - but this was no match for what was actually a flea-transmitted disease.  The doctor mask signifies warding off illness. 

The above masks in plain, classic white are representative of early masks, without embellishment.

Jewish Ghetto Food Tour

A food tour of the Jewish Ghetto may not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of things to do in Venice, but it was filled with stories of different communities living in peaceful existence for hundreds of years - until the insanity of Hitler and his followers - captured in stirring art installations,  so no one passing through the Jewish Ghetto in Venice will ever forget - can't imagine anyone would.  For background, the Italian word 'geto' (no h) purportedly translates to metal foundry - and Venice had a small area that once was a metal foundry - and ultimately, the Jewish people migrated to the area known as the 'geto' - having no connotation or association with a slum or population segregated by race.  Italy claims it is home to the first 'geto', later known as Ghetto, in a positive way - to give people refuge - history has a way of romanticizing why it was a positive thing that people lived in a walled-off area since the 1500s.   Of course, today it remains a working class area - with now only 350 or so Jewish inhabitants in Venice, from its heyday of more than 5,000.  Venice population has also shrunk from over 100K, to fewer than 55K - it is difficult to find jobs, the housing is very expensive - and its true commodity is tourism - tough to make a living in a town that is literally sinking under its own weight.

Now back to food (couldn't find a good way to segue between history through the Venetians eyes), the tour stopped at 6 different places with an appetizer sized servings and some paired with wine.  In-between was a walking tour with history of the area.  Our guide Nico was engaging and clearly has a love of what he does.  A few shots of the evening.

 First stop, a Jewish bakery for an almond biscuit

 Traditional Italian Prosciutto and cantaloupe, with a nice Prosecco

Our favorite - this delicious little morsel is very typical Venetian style - and is consumable for five days without refrigeration. Delish!

 Meat, cheese and a nice sparkling red wine

Ok, so our own family inside joke. Ever since watching the DaVinci Code in Florence 13 years ago, Mark continues his Illuminati conspiracy theories - always for a laugh and we seriously can't get away from the Mason sightings -  and was glad to see their symbol (eye inside a triangle) continues to provide us fodder, found on a church at the border of the Ghetto.  There is much debate on how active they were (or may still be......), their intentions, and all the lore surrounding the virtues of this group, made more sensational by Hollywood.

A sunny first day

We were up early and caught the sunrise peaking through the windows of a church across the canal and then headed out early to visit the Academia museum and walk around town.  It was a gloriously sunny day with all kinds of activity on the water, very Venetian.

 Sunrise through the church windows

 Venice's equivalent of a beer truck

 Tons of activity on the water, always boats everywhere

A sunnier view of St. Mark's square.  There are multiple cruise ships in town and it was packed.

Arrived in Venice

Venice, perfect city for explorers - of every nook and cranny - there truly is something unique and pleasing to see around every corner in this beautiful island city that is only about 3 miles long.   We had a terrific travel day, fortunate to have a seat between us for the 14 hours of flights - landing pretty refreshed which gave us the opportunity to do a little sight seeing.  Some photos from the day below, we are off to some museums this morning and a dinner tour through the Jewish Ghetto this evening.  Expanding the photos will give you a better view of this beautiful city!

 View of St. Marks Square from the water

 Classic Venice Gondola Shot

 Example of different types of transportation.  In the back, large Vaparetto (water bus) Anne and I took many years ago on our last trip, taking 90 minutes from the airport and stopping a dozen times.  In the front, private high speed water taxi that got us to our hotel in 25 minutes this time - while the speed is a benefit - there is something about learning how to slow down and be guided with patience - we're learning!

 Classic shot of Rialto Bridge at Sunset

 One more with the Gondola 

Venice and The Dalmatian Coast - Our Next Adventure

This years adventure is a brief trip back to Venice, then off to Croatia by ferry - winding our way through national parks, islands of the Adriatic, and ending with a splash in Dubrovnik! The Dalmatian Coast is a new area of exploration for us - we're looking forward to trying something new and sharing time together.  For GOT fans, we'll be sure to share photos of landmark scenes while in Dubrovnik. Stay tuned...departure on Saturday, August 25.