The rest of the Croatia adventure
Our last two nights were marred by horrific thunderstorms, one that also threw a wedding reception into chaos at the hotel dining room (Sat) and one that made the drive back from the farewell dinner rather scary (Sun).
Sunday was actually quite a relaxing day for me, as Mom did some wall adventures. Rich's son Hudson, who had decided I was the Most Interesting Person available, led me down to the beach for some pottery/ sea glass hunting. I have a neat two-color stone from this adventure. Then he had the bright(?) idea of washing my recent bug bite in salt water in the shore-side pool. Just as I had my whole arm in that pool, a major wave sloshed all over the platform and drenched my pants (I didn't have my just-bought shorts, which would have made this less of a story. Switched socks, and then for an encore allowed another major wind-whipped wave to wash over the pool area while standing there. He thought more of it than I did, but it was kind of fun...
Different bus takes us to Ston and its wall (yes, a stone wall) which I join the Bakers in climbing, getting a picture of the salt flats that the wall was build to defend (Ston was the boundary for a while between the Venetians and Dubrovnik until the D's sold a pocket of coast to the Turks). Then up the Peljes"ac (that should be a full accent over the S but I'm on a normal keyboard now), first to the Grgic' winery for a taste of a close relative to Zinfandel, the Plavac Mali (trans: "Little Blue") which is not raised outside of Croatia... then to another small winery almost level with the island of Korc"ula (Marco Polo's birthplace). The winery chief there, Mr Bartulovic' (also our guide on the bus portion), described the old processes... and a story of an order that he couldn't fulfill, and if he could: 1) you'd have heard of Plavac Mali, but 2) he'd have none left for the family's own use (one party used 135 bottles last year, almost 6% of total production!) Three course dinner, without dessert proper, but a glass of Pros"ek which is too strong for my tastes. Hudson's sisters apparently don't mind the taste of wine, but H isn't all that fond yet. Acquired taste, sure.
Mon: DBV-ZAG-LHR. Try to check in for TUE's flight sequence, can't (and wasting an hour in the process), decide to book nearby hotel, end up with one that was designed for travelers on corporate expense accounts. Oops. Suffice to say we won't be switching at LHR again anytime soon.
Tue: LHR-IAH-SEA. Hotel we were at doesn't include breakfast, cheapest option is £14 each. Deal with that at airport instead, get a paper, Mom sees something in the Harrods in the terminal, which runs us out of GBP.
Continental feeds you when other airlines don't. We rattled off about 15K miles on this round trip.
Rich says next year's adventure will be northern Spain. I'll link to the brochure when it's posted.
Pictures will be uploaded sometime in the next week.
Sunday was actually quite a relaxing day for me, as Mom did some wall adventures. Rich's son Hudson, who had decided I was the Most Interesting Person available, led me down to the beach for some pottery/ sea glass hunting. I have a neat two-color stone from this adventure. Then he had the bright(?) idea of washing my recent bug bite in salt water in the shore-side pool. Just as I had my whole arm in that pool, a major wave sloshed all over the platform and drenched my pants (I didn't have my just-bought shorts, which would have made this less of a story. Switched socks, and then for an encore allowed another major wind-whipped wave to wash over the pool area while standing there. He thought more of it than I did, but it was kind of fun...
Different bus takes us to Ston and its wall (yes, a stone wall) which I join the Bakers in climbing, getting a picture of the salt flats that the wall was build to defend (Ston was the boundary for a while between the Venetians and Dubrovnik until the D's sold a pocket of coast to the Turks). Then up the Peljes"ac (that should be a full accent over the S but I'm on a normal keyboard now), first to the Grgic' winery for a taste of a close relative to Zinfandel, the Plavac Mali (trans: "Little Blue") which is not raised outside of Croatia... then to another small winery almost level with the island of Korc"ula (Marco Polo's birthplace). The winery chief there, Mr Bartulovic' (also our guide on the bus portion), described the old processes... and a story of an order that he couldn't fulfill, and if he could: 1) you'd have heard of Plavac Mali, but 2) he'd have none left for the family's own use (one party used 135 bottles last year, almost 6% of total production!) Three course dinner, without dessert proper, but a glass of Pros"ek which is too strong for my tastes. Hudson's sisters apparently don't mind the taste of wine, but H isn't all that fond yet. Acquired taste, sure.
Mon: DBV-ZAG-LHR. Try to check in for TUE's flight sequence, can't (and wasting an hour in the process), decide to book nearby hotel, end up with one that was designed for travelers on corporate expense accounts. Oops. Suffice to say we won't be switching at LHR again anytime soon.
Tue: LHR-IAH-SEA. Hotel we were at doesn't include breakfast, cheapest option is £14 each. Deal with that at airport instead, get a paper, Mom sees something in the Harrods in the terminal, which runs us out of GBP.
Continental feeds you when other airlines don't. We rattled off about 15K miles on this round trip.
Rich says next year's adventure will be northern Spain. I'll link to the brochure when it's posted.
Pictures will be uploaded sometime in the next week.