Sailing and Biking Along the Adriatic Sea.

Greetings from Italia!

Hey! We are still sick.  We are still coughing and stuffy.  Me not as much.  Steve's lungs are burning.  I got a thermometer and covid test this morning.  Not COVID and no fever.

I lost my sense of smell for several days, but yesterday morning I was able to smell my croissant.  Yay! I was worried because I use my sniffer to enjoy food and nature.  I use my sniffer to signal it is time to wash my shirt.  Lol.  

Last I wrote, we were starting our week of bike and boat.  

Each morning of riding our guides, Anna and Dharma, would pull the bikes out one by one, and line them up on the dock.  Each bike had a name tag on the back.  Our first ride we adjusted our bikes to fit us.

Every ride we would at some point stop for coffee in a little town with narrow cobblestone streets.

I told you last time I wrote, that while we were waiting for our shuttle to the boat, a man came over with a bicycle on the cuff of his pants.  He and his brother were from Germany, Wolfgang and Werner.  They shared the shuttle with us. This was their first organized bike tour. I think they were sold.  We had really nice, outgoing, friendly fellow passengers in this trip.

The guides would gather us together to teach us about the areas we biked through.  We were lucky they were interesting and understandable for us English speakers.

Steve said Anna's accent had him thinking she would say, "Moose and Squirrel go over there!" In reference to a character in the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons.

In one town while we were skipping coffee and walking around, Steve pointed out these bricks designed with air pockets for better insulation.

We walked through a graveyard with more flowers than I have ever seen in a cemetery. And there were pictures on each grave stone.

While we take a coffee breaks, our guides always neatly lined up the bikes.

One day we stopped at a beach.  Steve and I got another picture of our feet in yet another body of water, The Adriatic Sea.

And Joe the Troll got his picture taken soaking up the sun on the rocky beach.

In Pula, Croatia, we all went on a walking tour to see the ancient Roman Amphitheater there.  Croatia is in a location that became part of the Roman Empire.  This Amphitheater actually had gladiators fighting in it, prisoners killed, and animals..."hunted".  

This little metal doll was fastened at the base of the iron fence... When was that installed?

There was some event being set up inside the Amphitheater. Our guide told us the place can be rented for $50,000.

As you can imagine, over hundreds of years and changes in ruling countries, parts of the ancient Roman walls were scavenged to build other places.  Then hundreds of years ago, parts were re-constructed.

The guide pointed out that the large blocks are the original blocks and the smaller blocks were the rebuild done during, I think, the Bezintine period??

She also told us that over such a long period of time, the ruins were buried under dirt and dust.  It was an archeological dig to uncover the ancient walls that now seem part of the town.

In Pula was a nice monument to those who fell to fascism during WWII.

Lou, one of our fellow travelers from Germany,  would hear me coughing and come to me with cough drops and then nose drops.  She gave me pills and said take 5 today and 5 tomorrow.

I took them and then used NyQuil at night to sleep.  We had brought quite a stash just in case.

 

We had loaded up on zinc for days before flying hoping for its magic protection.  It didn't work, obviously.

Lou also volunteered to lead us bikers on an early morning stretch each morning.  I found it helpful.

The scenery and views and education were nice. We often wondered how much more enjoyable it would be if we were at full capacity.

The food on the ship was great, the staff were awesome.  

Our favorite stop was Rovinj.  The old streets were pretty and it was built in places right up to the sea showing the Venetian influence during design and construction.  

I don't know if these pictures are from Rovinj, but they are pretty streets.  My pictures got mixed up with pictures coming in from Whatsapp and text messages.

Rovinj sandstone streets are polished from hundreds of years of footsteps.

On one ride we rode to an high overlook over a river.  On the way back we stopped at this 5th century church.

At the overlook, Steve took a video of Anna telling a legend of the area.

We did a walking tour of Rovinj.  It has old Roman gates also.  

The lion holding an open book means it is a peaceful time and Venetians are welcome.  A closed book signals it isn't such a friendly place.

There are different figures on either side of the capstone.  We asked the guide the meaning.  She said no one knows.  But it is thought they are just supposed to be scary.

This cute courtyard held a new wine tasting place by a couple who moved to Rovinj from the UK.

Our last ride we went by an old abandoned hotel.  Not really so old by Croatia standards.

It was built by the owner of Penthouse Magazine in the 1970's .  The government of Croatia changed and the new government would not let the locals gamble.  The hotel was no longer profitable and died in the 1990's or early 2000's.

Now it is a fun place to explore full of broken glass and graffiti.

One coffee stop on a ride had an amazing overlook just around the corner.  Without our guide, I never would have seen it. It was at the end of a dead end street.

I took a video.

We rode through a huge campground.  It had lots of neat cabins too.  We passed a monument to Walt Disney.

Wolfgang was the only one of us who clipped in by bringing his own pedals.  He fell off his bike at least five times during the week 

On our last night he had his torn shirt on a table and asked us all to sign it.

We tipped, thanked and applauded our crew.  They worked very long hours all week, and when we leave they start cleaning and preparing for the next group of tourists.  

The morning of our departure from Omisalj, Steve and I walked up to the point.  It looked like they had beefed up the breakwater with clay...

The shuttle took us back to Zagreb.  We said goodbye to Wolfgang and Werner, thinking we would not see them again.

There Christy, Mark and Steve and I hunted for an herb botanical  garden we found on Google maps. After much walking we found it was closed.  And yes, in big busy Zagreb, we managed to run into Wolfgang and Werner as they were hunting down lunch.

We also ended up stopping for beer and food.

We visited the big church one last time.

We all found this building curious, the windows were all over sprayed.  I wanted to get out my razor and start scraping windows.

Christy and Mark took an earlier flight back home to New York.  It turned out they were at the airport the same time as Wolfgang and Werner.  They had a last beer together. Lol!

Malta

We flew to Malta.  It was a stop on our flight to Italy so I extended it a couple nights so we could see some of Malta.  Malta is an Island country SW of Italy.  

These pictures are the views out of the window in our apartment in Valletta, Malta.

One of the bathrooms was in a narrow space.  I had to sit on the toilet sideways, and I am not that tall.  The apartment was modern, but the building itself was old.

We found the London Mule with its ginger beer felt good on our throats.

While we were eating our first dinner on a Saturday evening we heard live music starting up..

I took a video, but I was too far away for a good look.  Later, I took a shorter video.  Steve took a better video.

The band was so good and the kids looked like they weren't even 16 years old!  We get frustrated when we see a good band but they do not have their name printed and displayed.  We would love to help spread the word about them.  They shouted out their name.  It sounded like "Realdity". We did not find a band on YouTube with that name.  Steve says, "Don't they have mothers making sure that people know their name?"

We continued walking around and came across a city square with a small orchestra playing classical music with an interpretive dancer.  I took a video of that, but you will find the video frustrating because instead of watching the dancer through my camera, I was watching over the camera.  So all you get to see is the audience in front of me.  Sorry!

On Sunday we had a guided walking tour.  We learned that Valletta is a town mostly made up of wealthy homes or "castles" for the Knights.

The Knights were a group of wealthy men that started out building hospitals in places where refugees landed.  They were supposed to give all their wealth to the Order and swear off sex like priests. Most had children and big homes.  

Our guide pointed out the balconies on every street that were added later.  They were made of wood, which was a sign of wealth on Malta where there is lots of stone but very few trees.

We started our tour in front of the new parliament building.  The guide showed us pictures of the devastation caused by bombing during WWII.  This block of buildings were completely destroyed.  Germany wanted control of the area.

Our guide spoke English well.  She is in the flowery dress.

You would think these pictures of the streets were just in one area, but all of the streets were like this, with Sandstone "palaces".

The government has no army.  Instead the taxes go for guaranteed housing, health care, and food.  We saw no homeless.  The streets felt safe.  Valletta is on a peninsula.  The streets are laid out in a grid pattern.  From most streets you can see the water at the end of the street.  Since most residents were merchants and also needed to protect their town it was important for them all to be able to see what was happening down on the water.

This is St Johns church, the Church of the knights.  Each year the church would send a falcon to Rome as a gift... The Maltese Falcon.

The peninsula has the ancient city walls to protect it.  Beyond the thick walls is a natural wall, it seems.  I walked down to get a closer look.

The water was busy with boats.  In one side of the peninsula were two huge cruise ships.  I had not ever seen a ship so big!

What I found interesting was on the outside of the fortress walls... The man made fortress walls, were spaced out doors.  Some of the doors were open and inside I could see a stove and a kitchen and people.  These cubby holes must be some of the government supplied housing for the poor.

We were both tired and I asked Steve if we should cancel our stay in Bari, Italy.  Instead we could extend our stay in Matera, Italy and be able to rest more instead of travel.  He agreed with that idea.  It wasn't a cheap decision.  But I think it was the right one.

Steve went to tour a castle.  I went home to shift our reservations for the new plan.

Later when I was walking around I found Steve having a ginger beer... London Mule.  The restaurant had a two for one deal, so I got one too.

Steve bought me a beautiful scarf and a diary with designs from the many tapestries on display at the castle. I love them! I am one fortunate lady.

We had an early morning flight to Bari.  6:15.  That means we had to set the alarm for 2:30 a.m. to get up, pack, and catch the taxi to the airport.

We flew to Bari, then we had to catch a bus to Matera.  I got to use a little Italian to find the busses that went to Matera.  Smiles.

At the airport were vending machines with flowers.  Of course!  It is Italy!

They also had a bicycle information kiosk.

I will write to you about Matera next time.  It is an amazing place.

In the meantime stay healthy and enjoy your moments.  We will keep trying to get healthy while enjoying our time in Italy.

I will leave you with this video of our first days in Zagreb, Croatia.  Back before our colds hit.  There was an aerobic dance demonstration on one of the city squares and I jumped in.  Steve took a video.  Not bad for a 73 year old lady.