London - October 2010

Well friends, here's the final six postings on my 2010 Around the World Adventure. It includes London, Dubrovnik (Croatia), Bosnia-Herzogovina, Island Tour near Dubrovnik, Montenegro and Split (Croatia).

I arrived in London after four days in Tel Aviv. As usual, the BA flight was great. My friend Norman picked me up and we headed to his manor and sipped champagne well into the evening.

On Monday, October 11, Norman raised the American flag in honor of Columbus Day.

Here's an old mailbox that Norman and Ann placed near the flagpole. It is only for decoration, but weekly they must empty it of letters that people have inserted, and take them to the post office.

As usual, Ann's gardens are magnificent. There were many new additions as you wander the many acres of plantings.

Here's the backyard.

Dinner was at The East for Chinese and we had my favorite crispy duck. Alex and Tamsin joined us. As usual, we ordered too much food. The latest news was Mark's proposal to their daughter Amber. She wants here wedding in Las Vegas but I vote on London.

The next night I had dinner at Alex and Tamsin's house. Norman and Ann were off to a formal dinner in town.

While there, I spent two days working on my blog, and was able to post my trips to Shanghai, Sydney, Cairns, Melbourne and Israel.

Dubrovnik, Croatia - October 2010

On October 13th, I was up at the crack of dawn to catch my Austrian Air flight to Dubrovnik. My first flight to Vienna left over an hour late but they held the connecting flight for me. Exactly what American Airlines would have done - yuk, yuk. My luggage wasn't as lucky, and I had to wait a day to be reunited.

My hotel was right on the Adriatic Sea, overlooking the Old Town. My room, however, had no view. I walked into town and was in awe at the beauty. The same way I felt when I visited Krakow, Poland.

You may ask - Why Dubrovnik? I always wanted to visit Dubrovnik since Liza Minnelli sang the song "Ring Them Bells" from here Liza with a "Z" album. If you want a copy of the song, just ask and I'll send it. It was about Shirley Devore's traveling adventures in Europe, where she found the man of her dreams on the beach in Dubrovnik, only to find out he actually lived in the apartment next to hers in NYC - ring them bells.

Here's a view of the old harbor, as I entered the walls of the Old Town.

I had dinner in the Old Town - prawns with heads and all. The moon glowed over the water as I walked home.

It rained all night and it was forecast to rain all day.

When it cleared up for a while I headed into town. But, after a few hours, the rain returned. I had pizza for lunch, and my daily beer - see above. The beer was cheaper then wine, soda or water.

I gave up on sightseeing and returned to the hotel. On and off rain was forecast for the next week.

It cleared up at six so I went to the Old Town for dinner and a delicious gelato. I made it home before the clouds reopened. I hope I get one day of sun before I leave.

Guess what - rain again.

But it cleared by eleven. I walked to the Old Town and bought a Dubrovnik card, good for eight attractions and transportation for a week.

I started with walking the City Walls. It took over an hour, with magnificent views of the Old Town buildings. I rented a headset to listen to the commentary, but it stopped working half way around. I exchanged it for a good one, but the ticket collector would not let me back on the wall - only one visit per ticket. I tried to explain what happened, but he had to follow the rules. So I missed taking photos on a third of the wall.

Here's a view of the Old Town roofs from atop the wall.

And the world traveler on the wall. That was audio stop number 7, while it was still working.

This almost looked like it was in working order. I think the couple next to me wanted to kill each other - too much travelling together.

I think I walked every street in the Old Town, up and down the cobblestone blocks.

Maybe I'll get my paints out when I get home. LOL

Here's the modern bridge going north of Dubrovnik. Before it was built, you had to travel along the coast, in and out of the many coves and harbours. This one saves at least 30 minutes.

The sun finally came out, so I went back to Old Town to take some sunny photos. This is a view of the old port.

More of the old port.

Here's the main street in the Old Town, with typical tourist shops. Every day there were one or two large cruise ships dumping 1000's of tourists on the streets. Five hours is definitely not enough time to enjoy the magical city.

It really was a beautiful city.

View of the walled Old Town from the street to my hotel.

Sunset over the Adriatic. Rain, rain, go away.

I switched hotels, to get a different view of the city and water. I was in Dubrovnik eight nights. I had originally signed up for a cycling tour, but there weren't enough people so they canceled it. I'm glad it was canceled - its not much fun riding in the rain.

My last day in Dubrovnik - yes its raining. I wanted to take a ferry to one of the large islands, but the ferry stopped operating October 15. I found out that most of the islands shut down for the season in mid-October.

Bosnia - October 2010

Just like Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH for short) is part of the old Yugoslavia. I took a day trip to Mostar. This is another new country to add to my list, along with Montenegro which I saw later in the week.

I was up early for my bus tour to Bosnia. Our first stop was in Pocitelj, a picturesque village along the way. Well I took pictures so that qualifies it as picturesque.

Here are some pomegranates ready for picking. They grow wild throughout the region.

I climbed the hill to look at some of the residences. The fall harvest was complete, with plenty of vegetables displayed throughout the town.

Mostar represents the best and worst of Yugoslavia (now six different countries). Once living in harmony, war in the 1990s destroyed the city.

Buildings are still pocked with bullet and shrapnel holes from the three way civil war between the Croats, the Serbs and the Muslims. There is still tension in the air today.

Here's the small bridge, one of the few structures to survive the civil war.

The main attraction was the Old Bridge (still named so even after being rebuilt in 2004).

This was taken at the Turkish House, named after its owners. Beware of the Turkish toilet, a hole in the floor - sorry no photos.

This was the men's lounging room in the Turkish House. The women were only allowed in to feed the men at meal times.

There's a diving club where young men jump 75 feet into the freezing river to attract girls and tips. I would have opted for the bars to pick someone up.

Here I enjoyed a typical lunch with the Old Bridge in view. It was some sort of beef sausage, but I didn't ask anymore.

I passed on the offer to buy some Aladdin magic flying slippers. The colors just weren't right.

Another bullet ridden building on the way back to the bus.

Island Tour near Dubrovnik - October 2010

The one day I slept late the sun was shining. I started walking into town, and saw someone selling island tours. I missed the departure on this side of the island, but he said he would drive me to the next departure point. I wasn't sure the car would get us into town. It was one of those communist era cars with one cylinder.

I took the Regina Maris to three of the Elafite Islands - Kolocep, Sipan and Lopud. To get there was passed the outside of the seawall by the Old Town.

Here's a picture of my hotel, left side by the water. The hotel had great views, when it wasn't raining.

On the first island we saw ruins of the former patrician summer residences, sandy beaches and lush green tropical vegetation. (Yes, I copied that sentence from the guide book.)

It was a very relaxing sunny day adventure. I did not have many sunny days during my two week stay in Croatia.

I met this cute Aussie couple on a travel/work visa. They had traveled for two years, working all over the world, with a year to go. It is only available to those under 30. What a great way to see the world. They had been to South America, Asia and Europe. Their next stop was to work at a ski resort in Canada.

Here I am on Sipan (or was it Kolocep - no maybe Lopud).

As I said earlier, the beer was cheaper then water.

They gave us a great grilled fish dinner on the boat. It was a type of herring, and luckily the Aussie couple helped me de-bone the fish. The picture above is for Lisa. One of the crew was feeding the fish scraps to the seagulls. He placed the fish head in his mouth, turned and waited only a few seconds before one or two of the birds would scoop down and take the fish head out of his mouth.

The islands were beautiful, but all were deserted for the season.

I loved these tall palms.

And the olive trees were super abundant. I should have picked one off the tree and tried it. You did get a plate of olives with almost every meal.

The water was crystal clear, and the reflections from the small boats were amazing and colorful. Who knows, maybe I'll paint this one.

I returned to Split and had the most amazing lasagna for dinner. It was so good I returned the next night for seconds.

Montenegro - October 2010

Today was my tour of Montenegro, just south of Croatia. I had the chattiest guide/driver ever and had few kind words for Montenegro.

The first stop was to see what grows wild along the road - yes it is marijuana. It is legal in Croatia and there seems to be no restrictions on its use.

This is a picture of Dubrovnik on our way to Montenegro. We made a few other photo stops before reaching the walled town of Kotor.

You know my passion for balconies. One of hundreds in Kotor.

Kotor was like a miniature Dubrovnik Old Town. Beautiful streets packed with tourists. An hour was not nearly enough time to enjoy this beautiful gem.

This was an exclusive island for the rich and famous. It looks a little crowded for me.

Our final stop for the day was in Budva, which my guide book said wasn't worth stopping at. I'm glad I went, but must agree with my guide book. We should have spent more time in Kotor.

My highlight in Kotor was lunch at the Shanghai China Restaurant. It reminded me where I started my trip many, many weeks ago. The food was interesting, not like American Chinese, but definitely not like Shanghai Chinese.

Interesting window shutters, used for decorations in a restaurant.

This is a small version of the ferry we took on the way back to Dubrovnik.

The ride home was long in the dreary rain. I had dinner and packed for the voyage to Split tomorrow.