This morning we awoke, sleep-deprived but ready for our first full day of the tour.
Before stepping outside the hotel, we headed down for breakfast. As promised yesterday, here are some photos. The buffet had a variety of offerings,
Scrambled eggsSauteed mushrooms. Grilled tomatoes.Choice of meatsJuicesPork or Chicken SausageLucious pastries
We were also given some menu item choices IN ADDITION TO THE BUFFET.
Patrice ordered an omlette with mushrooms and cheese (I had that yesterday).I had the Eggs Benedict. They use toast instead of an English Muffin.
After breakfast we were on our way to discover Dubrovnik. We toured the town with our local guide, Petra, and learned all sorts of interesting facts that promptly entered one of my ears and flew out the other side. I did retain one fact, how to identify a Croatian woman. Here are the simple steps.
Beautiful
Wears sunglasses over the eyes or on top of their head.
They don’t smile
With that in mind I spent the majority of the day deciding if the women we saw were Croatian or not. Patrice got annoyed that I was looking at all the women but I explained this was just scientific research.
We took a cable car to the top of the local mountain to see a spectacular view of the town.
View of the Old Town from the mountaintop cable car station.At the mountaintop with Lokrum Island in the background
We then took a walking tour of the Old Town which we learned if you call it “Old Town” it’s because you are a tourist. Locals merely refer to it as “The Town”. It was very hot in Town today and I still hadn’t adjusted to the time change so I was exhausted. We then had some relief in the form of a boat ride up and down the coast. We saw some people sunbathing but it was hard to tell if the women were locals. (Patrice here: Yes it was hard to tell if the women were smiling because he was too busy looking at their butts. He will pay!)
Next we took the air conditioned bus to lunch. Food was great plus there was some traditional dance and music supplied as entertainment.
Finally we took a ride to hear a woman talk about cultivating worms in order to make silk. I have to admit I don’t remember much of what she said because I kept dozing off. I did grab a couples of photos.
Globs of silk produced by the worms.The little worms hard at work.
I only caught bits and pieces of the talk but the work sounded quite involved. She talked about feeding mulberry ever few hours and needing to change the sheets where they are housed every day. It sounded like having a newborn.
After the talk we headed back to the hotel where I needed a nap. I am writing now pre-nap. If I wake up in time I will send you some notes about dinner but I think it is more likely that that won’t happen until tomorrow.
Last night we settled into our hotel and then took a walk around the “Old Town”. This is a portion of Dubrovnik that is surounded by Medieval walls and has a number of historic buildings. The city dates back to the 7th Century and is an architectural gem. In 1979 it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of this portion of the city.
Yesterday we had been quite well fed during the day having stayed at the various airport lounges and receiving food on both airplanes. In addition we started the day with breakfast at home.
So last night we weren’t interested in dinner but we did have a yearning for some gelato. Patrice spoke to the concierge who recommended Gianni Ice Cream Shop (UI, kneza Damjana Jude bb, 20000, Dubrovnik. I know that doesn’t seem like a real address but Apple Maps used it and we found the place). Apparently the owner, Đani, previously worked at a Michelin star restaurant in Dubrovnik (“Restaurant 360”). I mention him not because of his association with this restaurant or the ice cream (which was terrific) but rather the unique first letter of his name. Đ is used in a variety of languages. It looks cool but would be a pain trying to print using a standard keyboard.
While trying to find the ice cream shop we passed at least 6 other ice cream or gelato stores. The only thing outnumbering these types of establishments in the Old Town were the number of ATM machines. We saw no less than 10 in about 2 blocks. Many places had two ATMs at the same location. Have these people not heard about credit cards?
This morning we awoke after sleeping well and headed down for breakfast. Sorry no pictures. I promise I will take some tomorrow. But I will say the offerings were plentiful and the quality was superb.
After breakfast we returned to Old Town and went to an exhibit of works by Salvador Dali. Seeing the works of a Spanish artist in Croatia makes total sense don’t you think? It was some of his water colors. A number of the pieces were just copies but we really enjoyed this brief activity. After that we ventured to Lokrum Island which is a short boat ride from Dubrovnik. The island looks beautiful from the highway and the air (we saw it on our arrival from Frankfurt). This area’s main attraction is the monastery where a great portion of the HBO show “Game of Thrones” was filmed. I never watched the show. Well that’s not totally accurate. I did watch the first episode and when I saw a man’s head rolling down a hill before the opening credits I decided this is not my kind of program.
The monastery was interesting. There was a line of people excited about taking their picture while seated on a throne that was apparently part of the set of the show. Being the lemmings that we are we had to follow suit. One thing you can tell from this picture is that the woman who took it is NOT a photographer. See below.
Hilarious picture. My hairy legs look like they are Patrice’s.
The island is inhabited by a large number of peacocks and peahens. They are very loud and the males are quite beautiful when looking for a mate.
Peacock in his mating pose. The only living being in front of him was a female tourist. Hmmm.
Next we decided to visit the Island fire station. There we found Nino and Niko, two firefighters stationed on the island who shared stories with us. They told us about their jobs and I shared what I know about firefighters in Los Angeles. They were extremely cordial and even gifted me one of their firefighter patches which says Vatrogasci Lokrum Dubrovnik (which means “Firefighters Lokrum Dubrovnik”). See below.
Robert showing off his patch with his new BFFs, Niko (left) and Nino (right).
At night we met our guide, Gabby, and the other travelers on the tour. We spent about 3 hours together and Patrice was very proud of me because I didn’t manage to alienate anyone. Oh well, there is always tomorrow.
Recently my days have been very busy trying to raise money for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. The Take Steps Walk was this past Sunday, June 2nd and the Team Reiss team members came through again. As of now they have raised about $115,000 with more still coming in. This is the most the team has ever raised and put us in a great position to next year bring the grand total to over $1,000,000. Our family, and millions of other sufferers, thank you. If you are interested in joining Team Reiss and making a donation, it is not too late. Here is the link.
Join me in helping end Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis
Here I am with my team co-captain, Patrice, at the walk sporting our Team Reiss sweatshirts (thank you Fayla for turning us on to the website where we bought them)
With the Take Steps Walk behind us, Patrice and I could get back to traveling. We are now on our way to Croatia. You might be asking why Croatia and I have to admit it was not our first choice. Originally we planned to go to Norway and Sweden. The agent we contacted told us that the trip would be expensive because Scandinavia was much in demand with the lessening of travel restrictions enacted during the Covid pandemic. Even that didn’t prepare us for the quote of $52,000 for a 2 week trip. Apparently they didn’t realize we just planned to visit the countries. We didn’t plan to buy them.
So it’s off to Croatia we are. Our travel company recommended we arrive at the airport 3 hours early for this international flight. That seemed a bit excessive but Patrice suggested we even add another 30 minutes and leave 3 and a half hours before departure. I told her “No way, I’m the man and I decide when we will leave”. So we had our bags packed this morning and ready to head to the airport 3 AND ONE HALF hours prior to departure. Patrice can be very scary at times so I do what I am told.
Turns out it was good we got an early start because the taxi was 10 minutes late. I prefer a cab over Uber because they typically arrive early and know where they are going. This driver was the exception, plus he didn’t help with our luggage and was on the phone the entire trip to the airport. That wouldn’t have been so bad if he seemed to know where he was going. We passed terminal 3 and we were still in the far left lane as we approached the Bradley International Terminal. Getting over to the right was an adventure in that we almost got hit by two different cars. I don’t want to be melodramatic but, is about 8 inches from another car equivalent to almost getting hit?
Once we arrived at the airport TSA security was also an adventure. Prior to going through TSA security we needed to walk past what I assume was a bomb-sniffing dog. We finally made it through security and after a short rest in the lounge we were ready to board.
Our flight was on Lufthansa. Did you see the recent Lufthansa landing at LAX? If not, here’s the link.
Not exactly what you want to see before boarding a Lufthansa flight
With that in mind I was a bit nervous about the flight. One of my patients, Barbara, works for Lufthansa and I told her that the video made me very uneasy about the flight. Barbara reassured me and even contacted the flight purser, Vera, who welcomed us on the plane and assured us that our pilot was very capable.
The flight was very smooth with a rare episode of mild turbulence. I did have a problem getting the headphones out because they were stuck under the remote control. I tried everything I could think of to free the cord. I then asked the flight attendant who couldn’t possibly weigh more than 110 lbs (oops I forgot we are heading to Europe, I meant 50 kg) and she popped it out like it was a child’s toy. Oh well, bullied by my wife this morning, now shown up for my weakness by a flight attendant, this trip is off to a great start.
Next it was time for some food. The very sweet flight attendant offered me for a starter seared ahi (no, I like my food cooked), vegetarian (maybe), or veal. When I heard that veal was being offered I jumped at it. I remembered back in 1990 when I was a doctor for the PAC 10 all star basketball team tour of Germany. We were greeted in a variety of cities and almost every night my pregnant wife and I were treated to veal. We were told they wanted us to experience an authentic German meal. So I told the flight attendant that I’d have the veal, “It’s traditionally German, no?” She replied “No, it’s a baby calf”.
Landing in Frankfurt was smooth and we headed to the lounge because we had a 5 hour layover until our next flight. Patrice was able to get some sleep on the plane. She is my idol when it comes to being able to sleep. I, on the other hand, am a horrible sleeper. I was exhausted getting off the plane and was happy to see that the lounge had a sleep area. I headed there and found 1 of the 4 “beds” available. I made myself as comfy as possible and did manage to get about 30 minutes of sleep. There were 3 women in the other cots. One was snoring and another was coughing. It is amazing I got any sleep but what I did get gave me some renewed energy.
We then had a short flight from Frankfurt to Dubrovnik. The plane was not full and both of us had our own row. See below.
Patrice enjoying her own row.And across the way, I had my own row.
The Dubronik airport had very few passengers when we arrived. Getting through customs was a breeze and at baggage claim I only saw people from our flight and our bags came out very quickly.
Recently we have had some problems with our guides meeting us at the airport. That was not the case today. We quickly found the guide with a Tauck Tour sign, met a few of our fellow travelers and then had a very comfortable bus ride to the hotel. The scenery on the way to the hotel was gorgeous. We are looking forward to starting the tour tomorrow. I hope you will join us for the ride.
Robert Reiss Travel Blog and Other Ramblings 