Venerdi in Venezia

Tourist rage
I went out to get some pretty "murano glass" (maybe) necklaces I had seen in the ghetto, but the narrow entrance was blocked by a group so I "permesso"ed my way through only to be blocked by another slowly ambling group in the narrow passageway, so I dodged my way through them getting crosser and crosser and realising what it is to be a Venetian and put up with it permanently, especially if not making a living from anything tourist related.

The ghetto nuova square - a very pleasant place now, where children can play in safety, saw some squirting the fountain at each other in the heat. I don't think many Jews live here now but there are many religious themed souvenirs, and apparently there is still a synagogue and other buildings. Apparently during the second world war the Venetian Jewish population suffered the loss of about half its people in the death camps and there are sculpture plaques to remember them on the walls of the square. It was really close to our house so we went there several times. 

Meanwhile David went off for a walk alone, starting in giardini where many office workers were sitting in the shade eating a picnic, and he overheard a Venetian girl talking to an English speaking boyfriend and she was  complaining that it was terrible there were no Venetians in St Marks Square and it was terrible that there were so many tourists.
He walked to Fondamente Nove from there via the back alleys of residential Castello and past the Arsenale lions. This seems quite a well maintained area, possibly more wealthy than Cannaregio?

In the evening we went out for a final look at Venice, catching a boat to Santa Maria del Salute which hasn't changed a bit since being built to give thanks to god that not everyone in Venice had died of the plague in 1630 (just most of them!). Its on a narrow spit of land facing St Marks and we just had time for a quick look before it closed. Lovely evening.

Then we wandered back via the Zattere and Dorsoduro (past the Guggenheim) to Accademia Bridge which bizarrely had loads of padlocks on it with initials.

Guardian 2011 "Inspired by a bestselling romantic novel, young lovers are rushing to attach padlocks to the city's historic Rialto bridge, risking damage to the stonework and requiring policemen with bolt cutters to remove them. The craze, inspired by I Want You, the 2006 novel by Federico Moccia, involves couples writing their names on the padlock, swearing eternal love and throwing the keys into the canal".

 Finally we wandered slowly back to our house, with a look at this amazing staircase on the way (Scala Contarini del Bovolo. Venice is so incredibly beautiful, and even in July there are places to get away from the masses. 

Cave in Slovenia and then home

Because of the awful traffic on the narrow bit of Slovenia we crossed to get to the peninsula where Pula is, we thought going home the alternative way would be a good idea. This would take us past a major tourist attraction called Postojna caves, which would also spend some time as the flight home was not until 9pm but we had to leave flat at 10am.
Slovenia was more like Austria whereas Croatia looked less tidy and more like an unpopulated rural England.
We did however notice that prices in Slovenia (which uses the Euro, Croatia although in EU since last year still has its own currency , the Kuna) were back up to high Italian levels. Croatia had been very cheap by contrast.

After having lunch there, we joined the compulsory tour. First you take a train 2 kilometers under the hill through some amazing sights, one cave had a full "phantom of the opera" style chandelier. Then the guide routemarched us fast up to the caves highest point, hardly without a break (got very out of breath) as he said we would otherwise clog up the caves and this was how they got so many people to see them. 

Bit better after that. Caves HUGE and amazing, but they shot themselves in the foot when we got to the end and they hurried us through the gift shop - lost a lot of sales! Not fully capitalist yet, I think. 

Then onwards back to Marco Polo airport in Venice, weather worsening all the way until major storm by the time we got to the airport. Our flight was delayed 2 hours (not much but it had already been a long day) so we didn't get back to Gatwick until 1am, only to find ourselves in the middle of a baggage handler shortage with lots of angry passengers waiting for their luggage. I lost David for a while but assumed we would not have our bags either. Finally I phoned him to see where he was and blow me, our bags had turned up - even though those of passengers on other planes had not! Got out of there and got home by 3am.

Final day - Porec and the boat

David and boys rented small motorboat and whizzed around the headlands, Dylan drove like a loony again!

In the afternoon we visited Porec, another nearby pretty town and wandered the streets.

Pula town

Spent the morning exploring the rest of Pula, to see the Roman Forum and arches, 2000 years old. Impressive. The main street is as you might expect full of tourist tat shops but everyone wanders round looking happy, the croatians all seem friendly and all speak English as its the only common language amongst the very many nationalities here.
We have been playing a game of spot the country on car numberplates all week and have counted 25 different ones - SLO RO I SRB A CH D H HR NL F B BG Rus PL S DK CZ Ua GB SK IRL LV E BIH

so croatia draws tourist from former Yugoslavia, eastern bloc and the west. Did NOT see Greece or Albania, Norway or Finland. It passes a long car journey, anyway.

In the afternoon David took the boys Karting at Green Garden, Dylan drove like a loony

Unesco world heritage site Plitvice and sobering view of devastated hamlet

Wednesday 23/7
Long drive (4 hours each way) to Plitvice national park, famous for its waterfalls.
It is on the border with Bosnia/Herzgovinia and it was packed with all nationalities, but amazing.

There are walkways winding in and out of the waterfalls

On the way back we took a different route up a country lane - the very green countryside with irregular shaped fields looks exactly like England - but came across a hamlet about 20 Kilometres from the Bosnia border where all the houses were derelict and some had bullet holes in the plaster. It must have been a Serb village - in 1994 the Serbs and Croats were at war and doing "ethnic cleansing" - horrible what people will do to each other. 

Quiet Day

Tuesday 22/7
Boys and David had drive to Rovinj nearby pretty town as Mary stayed in flat, not very well.

Storms in Croatia

Monday 21/7
Today we went to Motovun, which is a hilltop town similar to those in Tuscany. It was about a 75 minute drive but weather beginning to cloud over.
We had to park the car a long way downhill from the bus stop which takes you up to the start of the town.

 We decided to eat first as it was lunchtime and had a very pleasant meal on the terrace of a restaurant looking over and along

Storm front

the valley below - we could see the storm front advancing on us up the valley, in this pic it has just about reached us.

We started up the hill from the restaurant aiming to spend about an hour walking round the walls of the town (its not huge) but the heavens opened and we ended up sheltering here, soaked to the sking as the monsoon began - there was quite a blitz spirit among all the unsuitably dressed nationalities sheltering there

Archway when not raining

When the rain had eased, rivers in the streets


Anyway we were cold and soaked to skin so walked back down hill to b us stop and waited in rain for bus, then walked downhill back to car. Heater on!
So never got to see Motovun, which was a shame as it looked beautiful. Annoyingly sun came back out on drive home!