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!

First look at Pula - Sunday 20th July 2014

Went in to Pula for a mooch and a look at the Colosseum followed by a stock up at the hypermarket Mercator. Supermarkets are very like home, lovely crusty bread and most items quite recognisable although cheddar cheese and Cadburys unobtainable (sad face).
We had a drink at a cafe right next to the colosseum which was incredibly reasonably priced, although the accomodation was dearer than venice everything else is cheaper here. Odd.

Croatian film festival - amazing setting

Don't give up the day job!

Later David and I went for a swim in the adriatic. Beach right by us (shingle) but very crowded so we walked around to a sort of park where we got in the water off the rocks, but unfortunately this freaked me out as I don't like touching seaweed or barnacles.Water cool but quite pleasant. When I got out and looked up had the horrible sight of ugly naked guy bending over! Traumatised or what. Nudism is quite common and tolerated here but as usual its the ones who should cover up who are most keen on getting their kit off.

Went for a walk in the evening to this old communist era lido which is now derelict.

Although there were lots of people about (its next to a camp site) and it is in a beautiful setting, something about the place gave me the creeps. 

Venice - Slovenia - Pula, Croatia on Saturday 19th July 2014

Said goodbye to our little house in Venice and picked up car without major incident, smooth journey to Trieste and the border, stopping for lunch at a little pizzeria in Latisana where the bloke spun dough to a thin consistency in front of us, spread it with tomato puree and cheese and cooked it. He did manage to drop a cooked one he had done for someone else though!
It was lovely.
However we were stuck in continual traffic jams all through Slovenia for 2 1/2 hours until we ducked out of the traffic to another border crossing one mile from the one that all the rest of the tourists were queuing for and used "white van man" tactics to edge into the other queue. Once across the border to Croatia we were on a brand new toll motorway which was nearly empty. No idea where the rest of the tourists were, possibly on the old A road?

Apartment tiny for 4 but has amazing view of the Adriatic and is only a few meters from the sea

David took the laser pointer gadget we bought (illegally) in St Marks Square and went down after dark to the headland you can see above in middle window (the nearer one), we saw the green light on our wall, so I took a picture - it certainly carries a long way!

Horses for Doges and lido for tourists

Early in the morning David and I walked to St Marks square leaving Dylan and Ross comatose in the manner of all teens. We got in line for St Marks Basilica at 8.50 - near the front of line, it opened at 9.45. But at least we were in the shade, the lines in the hot sun later in the day were absolutely ridiculous, hence the early start. The place was amazing, every surface covered in mosaic, the ones on the walls and cupolas all gold leaf. Amazing sight.
We also saw the Pala D'oro - a large sort of picture with little rectangles of saints in SOLID gold frame inset with precious stones, a serious amount  of bling in anyones book. But best of all was the original horses stolen from Constantinople in 1200 and frozen-to-death and put on the front of St Marks, then nicked by Napoleon in 1797 but returned in 1815. They are almost 2000 yes 2000 years old and they are so real .

We rested in a little patch of shade on the balcony of St Marks and had the place to ourself for a few precious minutes

Clock tower - figures strike hour

If you buy a tourist ticket apparently you get 2 visits to the loos included. On the pavement there are lots of signs to WC this way but we never actually came across one until we were on the way back from this outing - and it was closed until 12.00pm. Presumably they don't need loos in Venice, but on the other hand they don't do like the French and wee anywhere they feel like it, so goodness knows whats going on.

In the late afternoon we all went to the Lido to have a look,  the trip was quicker than I expected. The beach is half a mile walk across the narrow strip that is the lido, cars buses and bikes a bit of a culture shock after nearly a week without them. The public beach is on the right in the photo near the odd white structure. The rest of the lido are pay beaches, no good if you only want a quick paddle in the Adriatic as we did.

Following this a meal at Hard Rock Venice which was quite frankly overpriced and deffo not as good as the ones in the U.S.A.

and finally another night time trip up the Grand Canal where we wangled the front seats on the boat again - lovely evening and a wonderful trip. But it nearly backfired as there was a thunderstorm and it began to rain lightly - but we made it home before it really rained.

Feeling the heat

Wednesday - Ridiculously hot and humid today, all of us feeling the heat.

I thought if we went to the islands we would have a breezy boat trip, how wrong this turned out to be. We left about 11 due to waiting for teenagers to get up, only to have our tickets inspected before we got to Fondament Nove where we change boats, finding that Ross did not have his pass. This resulted in a 59 euro fine, more than the cost of the 7 day pass in the first place. He was not popular as might be imagined. Then we thought it would be better if he and Dylan got off the boat and walked home (otherwise another fare necessary) as it could be done in 15 mins, then catch the boat again (this time with the pass) and meet us at Fondamente Nove. It actually took them more than an hour and so we were all hot and bothered before we actually got on the boat, only to find we were not allowed to open the windows because it was air conditioned, but the air conditioning didn't work!
Anyway we made it to Burano and strolled round for an hour or so before giving up and coming back.  Not our best day.

View of multicoloured Burano houses

Dylan looking cool

Later that evening David and I went for a stroll round the local area, which was pleasant in the setting sun.

Cats of Canareggio

Bottom of our road from other side of canal Battelo

Evening in quiet untouristy Cannaregio

Glass and gorgeousness

Had rained overnight so a bit overcast but decided on a trip to Murano. Vaporetto route a bit confusing, suggesting that the one stopping outside terminated round the corner rather than continuing to Murano but we decided to stay on it as the locals didn't get off, and sure enough it continued to Murano. Got off and randomly wandered about as its a pretty place, ended up in glass museum to see glass from the 1st century AD - almost 2000 years old, had no idea it was invented that long ago.
Some amazingly delicate pieces in the museum. On the island, cheap Chinese tat (of which some things were quite nice, bought a dish) and really expensive artwork type glass, some hideous, such as this version of "the scream" by Monch, or nicer "picasso alikes".
v

but I was happy with the tat as can't afford real thing. 

David on bridge in Murano, weird blue sculpture on right

In the afternoon David went alone to San Michele which has been the cemetery island since 1797, it freaks me out (not good in graveyards, which is a handicap for a genealogist).

He said it was divided into different sections including an Evangelical section full of Brits, Russian Princesses and the odd German and Greek who had popped their clogs in Venice (quite a few over the last few hundred years), this looked like an English country churchyard. If Italian, there was a definite difference in how you were buried depending on how much money you have. All the tombs had pictures of the deceased (oddly often unflattering passport style pics) which looks weird at home but apparently looked OK when everyone did it. However due to lack of space your grave tenure is only about 10 years, then you are dug up again and bones dumped in a communal ossuary or presumably put in smaller space as below if rich enough.

ENTRANCE TO SAN MICHELE

HIGH RISE |TOMBS

After eating in, we walked from the house to St Marks square for sunset but just missed it by a few minutes (

the walk mostly along a rio terra and strada nova to rialto (not too many bridges or detours) until rialto then all goes pear shaped down tiny alleys. I established if you always went the way that was most crowded it was likely to be the best so we hardly got lost at all.

But best of all, after an ice cream outside the Doges Palace, we caught the No 1 Vaporetto up the Grand Canal to Ferrovia which is the nearest stop to us. And we got the best seats - right at the front with a fabulous view of the canal when the lights were coming on and it was getting dark and it was the most beautiful evening.

San Georgio Maggiore from St Marks

St Maria della Salute - chuch built to give thanks for deliverance of city from plague in 1630, baroque