A Boat Ride Courtesy of Dietmar and Gabi...

We met a wonderful couple, named Dietmar and Gabi, who enjoyed spending the evenings with us over beers, listening to the bands at the resort, and watching over Luna. Dietmar got his Croatian Skipper's license while we were there, so they took us out on a boat ride - which was a whole new way of seeing the Croatian coastline.



The lighthouse, just outside of Rovinj... the Croatian coastline was originally a mountain chain, and when the ocean crept in during the last ice age, flooding the mountains, it left all these islands all over the place. Which really makes the topography quite interesting... as these islands drop off into drastic depth immediately off shore... the lighthouse island drops off to a depth of 30 meters within a stone's throw.



This was a little archipelago where we stopped for a swim - the first of many for the day... hey when you're in boat, why not?


Luna got tired of her "coat" pretty quick, but loved the boat! She feel asleep every time we were on the open water... to much wind I think!


After swimming in the islands, we headed up to the Limski Fjord - not, not in Norway... right there in Croatia, a real bona fide fjord. More of those mountains swamped in by the last ice age... and apparently formed by a giant glacier slipping away...


We stopped for lunch at the end of the fjord, had another swim, and got back on our way... it was soooooo hot!


Before heading home we stopped at a "pirate's" cave. It was high up on a hillside, and a great spot to view the fjord from. It also afforded us another chance to swim... it was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hot, we had to. Besides the water was so blue...

That's the boat down there!


And here are a few shots of the little bathing beauty...

And posing in an adorable little polka dot dress that Gramma got her...

My favorite...

This shot was gorgeous, although I had to take like 15 to get it right!

And this is terrible of both of us, but it's one of the only ones of us together that I got!

Venice

On Tuesday of the second week of our trip, we boarded the boat pictured below, bound for Venice. It took us 3 hours to get there, and we just spent the day. If you don't know anything about Venice, I can tell you that it is terribly expensive to stay there, so we figured this would be a good way to at least get a look without having to pay the hotel rates.


A shot of Rovinj before we departed, with a massive, 4 mast cruise ship in the harbor.

One of my first shots of Venice with a water taxi in the Venice Lagoon.

Venetian architecture is amazing, and just about every building is dripping with ornament. Many of them are in very drab colors and look as if they're peeling because of the salt air, but the one below was newly painted, and just brilliant.

The first gondola we spied after disembarking... we elected to walk rather than take a water taxi from our port to the Piazza San Marcos. Although every bridge (and there were lots of them!) had stairs, so we had to carry Luna in her stroller over, it was worth it, because of all the great pictures we got.

I love this shot, and was so glad I managed to snap it off as we walked past. Gondoliers were literally everywhere...

A good example of some of the extremely ornate Venetian architecture. I imagine this is baroque, but it could be earlier...

The famous Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square.) The pictures just don't do it justice. 3 sides are flanked by the buildings you see below, with the bell tower, St. Mark's clock tower, St. Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace on the open end. This is the only open square in Venice known as a piazza - all of the smaller ones are called Campi. It is loaded with tourists, famous for it's pigeons, and ringed by cafe's - the most famous of which is Cafe Florian, but more on that later...

You can see the large domed Basilica at the end of the square in the shot below.

Below is the Cafe Florian, which was the meeting point for our group, and absolutely charming. A piano and string quartet were playing, as is tradition.

Here is the bell tower (Campanile,) which stands an impressive 100 meters high, especially considering it was originally built in 1514 (although it collapsed in 1902, and was reconstructed in 1912.) It is one of the most recognizable elements of the Venetian skyline - and as I mentioned the Rovinj bell tower, along with many others in the Venetian empire, were modeled after it.

Some of the figures lining the buildings above the colonnade of the "Procuracies" (the buildings that occupy the 3 closed sides of the square.)

Luna slept for the last hour of the boat ride, our walk through Venice, lunch, and the walk back to the Piazza.

Window of a pasta shop.

Little altars or icons were built into the sides of buildings everywhere. There was just so much to see everywhere, it was hard to take in - especially in 6 hours!

The shot below is along the Grand Canal - Venice's largest canal, which winds all through the city.

One of the gorgeous, wooden boats docked on the canal.

Lots of the buildings were connected by these upper story walkways...

The building below is a hotel - only entry by boat, I'm afraid! Very traditional...

I love this shot...

After lunch, Luna woke, we gave her some bread that we saved for her, and then we started feeding the pigeons, by throwing them crumbs, and surrounding Luna with them... she thought it was very interesting until she sensed no escape! "Save me Papa!"

Some of the cafes on the sunny side of the square... they're all empty because it was humid and over 30 degrees CELSIUS!

Some details from the Basilica... lots and lots of details in fact.

The collonade along the piazzetta, which is an adjoining square, and just about the only shady spot within reach.

St. Mark's Clocktower, with a very impressive Ventian lion!

And here's another, which stood in a small campi just off the corner of the Piazza.

Venetians love to stuff their store windows with their wares, the one below with amazingly detailed marrionettes.

This is where we caught our Gondola.

And here was our Gondolier (pronounced gone-Doe-lee-ay) - they have to duck under many of the bridges, and our guy loved passing out verbal jibes to the other Gondoliers as we passed.

Typical Venetian front door...

Luna and I both wore our striped shirts, so that we would fit right in... I'm not kidding. :) You know I love dressing for the occasion!

There were loads of Gondoliers snoozing in their gondolas along the canals... here are just a few.

A shot of some Venetian glass in one of the store fronts.

Note the clerestory windows above the store fronts under the collonade.

And the glass lamps...

A store selling Carnival masks... Venice is famous for its Carnival celebrations, when a mask is de rigeur.

And the famous Venetian lace of course.

SO here we are back to the famous Cafe Florian. It was opened in 1720, and is considered to be the oldest coffee house still in operation. (Eat your heart out Starbucks - oh and by the way, a coffee is 17 Euros.) The Cafe still has much of the baroque furniture, paintings and murals with which it was originally decorated.

Original marble table...

Ceiling murals...

Painting of a notable Venetian in the "Hall of the Illustrious Men."

Finally we boarded a water taxi to take us back to the port for our return trip to Croatia. The shots below are from the boat...

This is the Venetian cemetery, which they dedicated a whole island to. I guess when you live in the middle of the water, that's what you have to do... it is walled like the ones we saw in Croatia, so I'm guessing that it is Venice where that tradition comes from, as I don't think it was a Roman one.

I know you can't read the writing on the side of this delivery boat, so I will tell you that it said UPS - as in United Postal Service! See all the boxes?

A grand church along the Grand Canal...

All of the windows on this building were barred, so I am assuming it was an old jail... must be some interesting escape stories from here!

ANother grand palace... notice the Moorish and Ottoman influence in the architecture? The Doge's palace, which I didn't include a picture of was very similar...

Another typical Venetian doorway... just pull the boat in!

A huge cruise ship coming into the lagoon, just as arrived back at our port... apparently the QE2 was here as well! I can't imagine it, it's so tight and busy with traffic!

And finally a shot of our water taxi, as we finally left to head home...