European Vacation #8 - Prague

We arrived in Prague on the afternoon of June 20 for a five night stay. We rented a great 2-bedroom apartment only a few blocks from Wenceslas Square for Tobey, Wendy, Amanda, and I which included a transfer from the airport. It was really great that when we arrived and it looked exactly like the internet pictures. No surprise here is a good thing.
http://www.escapetoprague.com/king-wenceslas-3.php

After a brief orientation from the property manager, we were off to explore the city – or at least the King Wenceslas Square and Old Town areas! Prague is a magical city of bridges, cathedrals, gold-tipped towers and church domes.

At one end of Wenceslas Square, in front of the National Museum, is a statue of St. Wenceslas on his horse. This is “Good King Wenceslas” on which the popular Christmas carol was based. He was murdered a thousand years ago by his brother, and is a Czech national hero.
Shops line both sides of the street and we had fun looking at all of the handicrafts.

Old Town was about a fifteen minute walk with shops and historic buildings all around. The Tyn Church, behind the buildings, reminded us of Disneyland!


The Astronomical Clock was first installed on the southern wall of Old Town City Hall in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest one still working. There are three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon in the sky ; "The Walk of the Apostles", a clockwork hourly show of figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures striking the time; and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months.

Powder Gate is one of the original 13 entrances to Prague’s Old Town. The Gothic building was built in 1475 and during the 17th century it was used as a gunpowder storage facility. Today it is a reminder of the incredible history of Prague. The Smetana Hall located in the Municipal House is one of the many theaters in Prague. The famous concert hall has a seating capacity of 1200 seats and features an original Art Nouveau organ and romantic colorful decor from famous Czech painters and sculptors.

We did not go to Smetana Hall. Instead, we saw the popular puppet version of Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the National Marionette Theater. The large puppets are all dressed in period costumes, and performed against 18th century stage sets. The performance was entertaining and just one of the many other wonderful things to do while in Prague!

Next post – Prague Castle and the Charles Bridge.

European Vacation #7 - Trogir and Split

After our busy day of hiking and visiting the monastery, our last official night of the REI trip was spent in Trogir, Croatia.Trogir was founded in the 3rd century B.C. by the Greeks, occupied by the Romans, and escaped destruction by invading Slavs in the 7th century. Trogir prospered and eventually became part of the Republic of Venice, Italy, where it remained until Austria took over in 1797. Trogir’s Old Town unique architecture, decorative stonework, and the medieval character prompted UNESCO to add the entire town to its World Heritage List in 1997. Almost all of the houses and other structures in the Old Town are emblazoned with stonework depicting a coat of arms or some other family symbol over doorways or windows, some of which are more than 700 years old.

We took a small walking tour in Old Town and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the cathedral, the Kamerlengo Fortress, and the narrow streets that did remind us of Venice! We spent some time shopping in the open-air market and enjoyed testing samples of the locally grown and processed olive oil.

We shared a wonderful “last supper” with our group which included a seafood platter appetizer, calamari, and whitefish. Yummy!

There was also a buzz in the air that night (June 18) as Croatia’s soccer team faced Spain in hopes of advancing to the quarter-finals of the Euro-Cup. Televisions were set up for public viewing all around the city. Unfortunately, Spain scored in the last two minutes of the game, ending Croatia’s run.

The next morning we headed into Split, about a 45 minute drive from Trogir. It was in 295AD that the Roman emperor Diocletianus (Diocletian) started to build his palace on the coast in the land of his birth. He abdicated his power in 305AD and retired to the palace intending to spend the rest of his life there.

The palace was built as a massive structure, much like a Roman military fortress. Built of limestone and marble, it faces the sea on its south side, with its walls 570 to 700 feet long, and 50 to 70 feet high, enclosing an area of approximately 9½ acres. The palace and its surroundings were at times inhabited by a population as large as 8,000 to 10,000 people.We enjoyed touring the “palace” which is now home to many shops and private residences.


We went to the Cathedral, the Crypt, and Jupiter’s Temple.

This 24-hour clock was a wonder in its day, added in the 14th century to the already existing church Our Lady of the Bell located on the west wall of the palace. It is still working today!
A huge statue of Grgyr Ninski, sculpted by Ivan Mestrovic, sits just outside the walls of the Golden Gate on the north side of the Palace. The statue was erected to honor the Croatian bishop who opposed the Pope and introduced the Croatian language into religious services. Rubbing the statue's toe is supposed to bring good luck.

After dinner we wandered through Peristyle Square, the central meeting place for residents and also the place where the two main streets intersect.

We saw there was some sort of entertainment going on … and Tobey got selected to be a part of it! This juggler stood over Tobey and juggled with knives.

Aside from the juggler, we thoroughly enjoyed our time in Croatia with its diverse landscape and rich history. Tomorrow, June 20, we head to Prague.

European Vacation #6 - Even more hiking!

Day 7 of our adventure began with a new guide, Micka, who replaced Ivan who had broken his foot earlier in the week. After a quick daylight tour of Skradin, Micka and Nikolina led us from our hotel in Skradin on a hike to Krka National Park.


Krka National Park has fantastic karst formations and travertine waterfalls. Karst is a special type of landscape that is formed by the dissolution of soluble rocks, including limestone and dolomite. Karst regions contain aquifers that are capable of providing large supplies of water – and there were definitely large supplies of water in Krka National Park!


We walked through town and down a shaded road next to the Krka River to the park’s entrance where we explored the park's extensive waterways.

The area has a complex history dating back to late 10th century and the first Croatian kings. We visited the place where the second hydro plant in the world was built, Jaruga Hydroelectric Power Plant, just a few years after the one on Niagara Falls.

Both Krka and Niagara generators were based on a power plant design by Nikola Tesla, a Croatian born less than 100 miles from the Krka site.

The Krka River was an important former commercial source of power. From the 12th century until the the 1970s corn, barley, and wheat were all ground commercially in the small village here. Because it took up to three days to complete the process, people stayed in the area and socialized.

In addition to the grinding house, there were cloth scutching and fulling mills. Almost every family produced cloth from sheep's wool. The freshly woven cloth was processed in the scutching and fulling mills so it would soften and become more compact for the production of blankets, bedding, bags, and before the 1940s, clothes. The 6-7 foot deep pools of water were used first to wash the cloth and then hammers, powered by water wheels, pounded the cloth until the fibers matted into felt up until the 1960s.
After the commercial cloth fulling business ceased, the locals used to come to wash their own clothes here, and then dry them using the fullers water-powered hammers pictured below.
Presumably they removed their garments much sooner than the fullers would have done, to prevent them being turned into felt.

The processes were abandoned in the 1970s, but even a decade after the inhabitants without water supply networks still washed their clothes on Krka falls and afterwards rinsed them in the fulling mills!After our six mile hike through Krka Park, we took the boat back to town where we loaded up in the REI vans. A short drive and we took another small boat to the Visovac Monastery on Visovac Island.

Visovac is a little island situated in the area of the lower flow of the Krka River between two waterfalls in Krka National Park. It got today's shape thanks to the work of the priests that brought dirt to build up the land in the shallow water and separated it from the water with a wall. In that way the little island with its vegetation became "a little paradise on Earth".

The island is owned by the Catholic Church and was settled by Augustinian monks who built a small monastery and church in the 14th century. Later on, the island was inhabited by Bosnian Franciscans taking refuge from the Ottomans. Visovac is a unique place, abundant in natural and spiritual beauty. The island symbolizes a detachment from daily routine. It is a place of novitiate – preparation of theologians for monastic service and ministry.

The monastery library includes one of the three original copies of Aesop’s Fables which was printed in 1487. There was also a collection of the Turkish documents “sultan’s edicts” and a sabre belonging to Vuk Mandusic, one of area’s best-loved heroes of Serbian epic poetry.

Thousands of people travel to this sanctuary every year from the 2nd of August (Our Lady of Visovac) until the 15th of August (Assumption). We were told that when you come to the island to pray during that time, all of your sins are forgiven. Since we were in June maybe SOME of our sins will be forgiven!


Our day concluded in Trojir, Croatia which I will tell you about in another post.

European Vacation #5 - More hiking

On Day 5 of our REI Adventure we hiked in Paklenica National Park, located less than an hour from Novigrad. Paklenica National Park is part of a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, lying on the southeast slopes of the Velebit Mountains. It is near the coast and cut by two awe-inspiring gorges, Mala Paklenica and Velika.

It was quite a surprise to come upon this lone piper, all alone in a field, playing his bagpipe!

We hiked through beech and black pine forests climbing about 2000 feet.

Much of the hike was over rocky paths, with uneven surfaces. There were several spots along the way that had fresh spring water for us to refill our water bottles. We didn’t see a lot of wildlife, even though there were signs posted which told of the different animals in the area. The viper was one thing we did see! It was crossing the path as we were hiking. He wasn’t very big, thank goodness!

After hiking four miles we had lunch at Ramica Dvori, a rustic stone guesthouse with beautiful mountain views of this stunning Croatian national park.


Our host, Marijo, was welcoming and attentive. He prepared a delicious hearty meal of lamb and vegetables cooked slowly in the traditional way on a wood fire 'under the bell.' It was fantastic -one of the best meals we had.


In addition to being a great cook, Marijo made a pine alcohol. It reminded us of grain alcohol – strong enough to take paint off! One sip was MORE than enough. He did have a great walnut liqueur of which I bought a small bottle.

After our meal, Marijo brought out his accordion and entertained us with music and song. Our little group had a hard time coming up with a “traditional” American song with which we could reciprocate.

All too soon, we bid our farewell to Marijo and started our trek down the mountain completing our eight mile hike.

We returned to our hotel on the beach in Novigrad for our one more night.We enjoyed a quick swim in the Adriatic to cool down before dinner then were treated to a beautiful sunset from the hotel terrace.

European Vacation # 4 - Kayaking

We had two days of kayaking on this trip – day 4 on a river, day 6 was sea kayaking.

We headed south to the “Wild West” narrow canyons of the Zrmanja and Krupa Rivers.
We stopped at the medieval Krupa Monastery along the way. Built in 1317 by monks from Bosnia, it is the oldest orthodox monastery in Croatia.
The frescos in the monastery are from the 17th century. After 1622, when the Kurds arrived in Croatia, they were not allowed to have the paintings on the walls of monasteries or churches, so the monks covered them with white paint and cement. In the 1970s an earthquake revealed some of the paintings. In 2010, the government began restoration work on the frescos.

The silver portraits came from Russia in 1789.

After our lunch stop, we arrived at the river for an afternoon of refreshing fun on the clear green waters of the Zrmanja River. We were outfitted with wetsuit bottoms, helmets, and life jackets; then given a brief paddling instructions. Tobey has canoed quite a bit, so I felt pretty confident about our ability to stay afloat our sit-upon kayak.
We had several small rapids before we came to the medium rapids below. We managed to stay IN the kayak and not dump through any of them! YIPEE.

When we got to the large waterfall below, everyone got out of their kayak, took all of our gear, and then the kayaks were lowered over the falls so we could continue on our way. Ivan took a wrong step in the water and broke his foot/ankle. A couple of the younger guys in our group helped lower the kayaks while Nikolina went below to tie them off at the bottom of the falls.

Once all the kayaks were down, she released them one at a time and they floated down the small rapids. Chris, one of our fellow adventurers, caught the kayaks one at a time, pushed them over to the rest of us. Tobey helped load gear, then we moved down-river. When we arrived at our last waterfall, Ivan asked if anyone wanted to ride to ride over. Tobey was the first one to say yes. Once again, my hero! One person from each kayak carried their gear downstream while the other went over the falls. Nikolina, along with a fellow who lives next to the falls, helped move the kayakers into position since Ivan was injured. Tobey was the first to go over the falls and my heart did a bit of a flutter! Not one person, however, flipped their kayak.
On Day 6 we did sea kayaking around Vrgada Island, which was a much more relaxed day!
Croatia has more than 3,500 miles of stunning coastline dotted with 1,700 islands of all descriptions. We took a small ferry to Vrgada. This lovely island has no cars, no hotels. We hiked to the top of the island for a view of the bay and the surrounding islands.

It was beautiful, but hot! We found a little bit of shade in front of the church at the overlook.



After lunch (did I tell you that we were fed well, and often??), we paddled around the island. It was much easier – no helmets, didn’t need to wear life jackets, and the water was warmer! Another beautiful day!