Croatia Part III - Dubrovnik

Our last stop on our trip through Croatia was "The Pearl of the Adriatic", Dubrovnik. We had heard nothing but good things about Dubrovnik, and it didn't disappoint.

We stayed at a waterfront hotel in the Dubrovnik suburb of Lapad, just north of the old town. It was too far to walk into town, but luckily the bus stop was right in front of our hotel, so we were able to commute easily between our hotel and the old town each day.

We arrived too late on Wednesday to head into town, so we just spent an hour or so at the hotel before going to bed. In the morning, we went for a swim off the rocks on Lapad Bay right by our hotel. As in Split and Korčula, the water was great. After our swim, we cleaned up at the hotel and took the bus into the old town of Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik's old town is surrounded by a huge wall that dates back centuries. The entire old town is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was quite a sight; marble streets, narrow side streets, houses stacked up side by side and one on top of the other. It was great seeing another city so well preserved (despite the fact that 2/3 of the buildings were damaged during the wars in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990's -- when doing the repairs they made sure to do the repairs in the original style they were constructed in).

Despite being a major tourist city, Dubrovnik is quite small, with a population of only around 40,000 people, so we were able to see a lot of the city in our 3 full days there. On Thursday, we walked around the city walls, which offered great views of both the city and the Adriatic Sea. On Friday we went to a beach just outside the city, and afterwards enjoyed a nice dinner on a patio overlooking the old harbour before having drinks at one of the coolest bars we've ever seen. Dubrovnik has two bars outside of the city walls, located on the rocky cliffs above the Adriatic. Having drinks on these rocks, with the city wall behind us blocking out all sounds of the city while we looked out over the sea was a great time, and a great memory we will have for years.

Saturday, we intended to make a day trip to the nearby island of Lokrum, but a huge thunderstorm thwarted our plans. We would have been happy to go to the island despite the rain, but the boats that take tourists there weren't running. So instead, we spent a bit of time running around in the rain looking for a decent restaurant to eat in (only to be disappointed with the one we found... oh well), before heading back to the hotel and exploring the area of Lapad a little. After a nice dinner in Lapad, we headed back into town (now that the rain had stopped) for another drink at one of the cliff top bars outside the wall. Despite not getting to do everything we wanted this day, we learned a valuable lesson: if it starts raining in Dubrovnik, get inside ASAP. In a town where everything is made of marble and stone, there is nowhere for the rain to go except on you. The streets became rivers and we got absolutely soaked.

We had an early, early flight on Sunday, which of course was delayed 2.5 hours. Luckily they held our connecting flight in Zagreb for about 40 minutes to let us on, and we were able to get back into Zürich only about 30 minutes late. Despite the minor troubles our last couple of days, we had an amazing time in Croatia, and it was a great final vacation to have before we leave Europe for the USA.

Croatia Part II - Korčula

The next stop in our trip was the island of Korčula, about halfway between Split and Dubrovnik on the Dalmatian Coast.

We arrived in the evening and checked into our hotel, which was possibly the worst hotel we've stayed in in Europe. Apparently many of the hotels along the Croatian coast were built by the communist Yugoslavian government during the 1970s. This one probably hasn't been updated since then. The accommodations were pretty dingy and the staff was incredibly rude, but the hotel did boast a nice location right on the water, just a 5-10 minute walk from Korčula's beautiful old town.

The old town of Korčula is a walled city dating back to I think the 13th Century or so, and has a small population, only about 5,000 people. It is designed in an interesting way, with tall (for the time) buildings and narrow streets, and if you were to look at it from above, a map of the city streets would look kind of like a big fishbone. There is one main street down the middle, with side streets fanning out along from it. The sides streets were angled in a certain way so that cool summer winds would blow through the streets in the hot summers, but strong, cold winter winds (coming from the other direction) wouldn't penetrate the city. We went into the town, had some dinner, then went back to the hotel for some sleep.

In the morning, we decided to go to the beach right after breakfast. When we booked the hotel, we were under the impression it had its own beach. We wouldn't really call it a beach, it was more a bunch of rocks along the water, which wasn't what we had hope for, but was still alright. We walked along the rocks for a little while and found a quiet, semi-private spot where we could go swimming. The swimming, as in Split, was great. Perfect temperatures, nice and calm, all you could ask for.

For dinner that night, we followed a recommendation from our guide book and went to a really nice family-run seafood restaurant. We had some great fish, caught that very day, on a nice sidewalk patio along one of the narrow side streets looking down to the water. It was probably the nicest dinner we had on our trip.

When we got back to our hotel at about 11:00, we were not-so-pleasantly surprised to find out that there was an outdoor rock concert going on right next to our hotel. This was something our hotel neglected to tell us, both when we booked the hotel and at any other point during our stay. It kept us up until after 2 AM (and this was on a Tuesday night too), which made for a pretty miserable night. The hotel of course didn't care at all, and brushed of our complaints.

However, we didn't let it ruin our time in Korčula. The next morning we went for another swim off the rocks, and had a nice lunch at a pizza place along the water in the old town. Later in the afternoon, we had our next ferry trip, this time to Dubrovnik. Korčula was great, despite the awful hotel. It made us wish we had more time and were able to see more of the Croatian islands.

Croatia Part I - Split

Our final vacation in Europe before we move to the States took us to Croatia. We flew from nearby Friedrichshafen, Germany to Split, Croatia. We spent two nights in Split before moving on to the island of Korčula and Dubrovnik. We'll start off with Split.

We arrived in Split early Saturday afternoon. We were met by a girl from the company that we rented an apartment from, and after taking us to our apartment, gaves us some recommendations for places to check out. The apartment was in a cool part of Split's old town, right next to Diocletian's Palace. Diocletian's Palace was built around 300 AD. It was abandoned by the Romans some time after that, and in the 7th Century, nearby residents started residing within the palace, and it eventually became the main part of Split's old town. It was really cool walking around in a town where the buildings are 1700 years old and still intact.

On Sunday we went and toured the basements underneath Diocletian's Palace. The basements had been forgotten for centuries, and it wasn't until something like 50 years ago that they were rediscovered. Apparently back when people first started living in the palace, they lived above the basements, and looking for somewhere to dispose of their garbage and human waste, just broke holes in their floors and threw their trash into the basement. Eventually the basements filled up with garbage and people just forgot the basements were there. Anyway, they've now been emptied of the garbage, and they are preserving the basements the way they originally were, which was interesting to see.

We headed to Korčula on Monday afternoon, but before the ferry ride we had time to kill in town, so we headed to Bačvice Beach for a swim. Despite being a "city beach", which a lot of Croatians apparently thing aren't all that nice, we really like the beach. The water was crystal clear, the sand was soft and white, and you could walk out what seemed like 100 yards before the water was up to your shoulders. A really enjoyable beach.

Dieppe

Early in the morning of August 19, 1942 almost 5000 Canadian soldiers stormed the beach at Dieppe, France, hoping to temporarily seize and hold the port town, while destroying coastal defenses and gathering intelligence. As almost everyone in Canada knows, it did not work out this way. By early afternoon, over 900 of those Canadians had been killed, and almost 2500 captured by the Germans. Less than half of the Canadian troops that headed out from England that morning made it back safely that night.


As we walked along that same beach 67 years and 4 days later, it was hard to fathom what had occurred here. Despite the fact that there are reminders of the Dieppe Raid all around the town of Dieppe, its hard to believe that so many people died not that long ago on the beach where people sunbathe and swim today.

We ended up in Dieppe on Sunday evening, as Erin had to go there for work for Monday and Tuesday. I tagged along to see the sites and pay our respects at the Canadian memorials in town.

Today, Dieppe is a relatively sleepy beach town in Normandy. It has a nice enclosed harbour with a number of waterfront restaurants, the aforementioned beach on the English Channel, an old castle/chateau on the cliffs overlooking the town, and pretty nice, if somewhat run-down old town right off the beach. But as Canadians, there were some other things in town that held a lot of interest as well: The Dieppe Canadian War Cemetery and the Mémorial du 19 Août 1942, a museum in town dedicated to the raid.

The Canadian War Cemetery is actually a few kilometres out of town, in some farmland in a small village outside of Dieppe. It is very peaceful, and is quite attractive as well. There are soldiers from France, England, Australia, New Zealand, and Poland buried here as well, but the vast majority of the graves belong to Canadian soldiers. Most have names, but there are a number hat just say something like "a soldier of the war of 1939-1945", which is quite sad. In addition, you see some tombstones where the soldiers died as young as 18, which, as trite as it may sound, gives you pause to think, and thank that we didn't have to go through anything like that in our generation.

After visiting the cemetery, I walked back into town and visited the Mémorial du 19 Août 1942. This is a small, but moving museum. They have a 40 minute video with film and pictures of the raid, as well as first person account from Canadian and British soldiers, as well as a doctor and nun from Dieppe that helped wounded Canadians on the day of the raid. In addition, they had newspaper clippings from Canada, Britain and Germany from the time of the raid, as well as memorabilia from the raid, such as Canadian uniforms and things like that.

One other tribute to Canada that they have in Dieppe is the "Square du Canada", a small park-like square right below the Château de Dieppe. Its quite nice, and right in the heart of town. It's nice to see that Dieppe has remembered the sacrifices Canadians made to make them free.

After Erin got off work the two full days we had in town, we just explored the town a bit and tried to find nice places for dinner. The walk along the harbour is quite nice, but unfortunately the restaurants were quite touristy, and the food wasn't that great (which was a shame, as we were looking forward to some good seafood, being on the sea and all). We also got a taste of the legendary French customer service, which we had thus far avoided for the most part in our earlier visits to Paris and Strasbourg. Let's just say that most waitresses in Dieppe won't be winning any awards for congeniality.

On Wednesday morning, we left Dieppe and spent some time on planes, trains and automobiles (train to Paris, flight to Zürich, car to Konstanz) getting back home. Dieppe was another valuable historical trip for us, and one we're glad we made.

Coming up this weekend is our final vacation in Europe, a week long trip to Croatia, where we will hopefully soak up some sun on the Dalmatian Coast of the Adriatic Sea. After that, it's back to Konstanz for not quite three weeks before we move to Ohio.

Prague

With our time in Europe running out quickly, we have been trying to travel as much as possible lately. Our latest mini-vacation was a weekend trip to Prague.

After finishing work early on Friday, we took the train to Zürich and flew out to Prague in the evening. After checking into our hotel around 9:30, we rushed out to get a quick dinner before exploring the town. Our new friends from the USA, Chastity and Mark, also went to Prague this weekend, and after dinner we met up with them.

The four of us explored the old town of Prague, including the Old Town Square, which includes the Týn Church, Old Town Hall and Astronomical Clock before walking down to the world famous Charles Bridge. The Charles Bridge crosses the Vltava river and offers great views of Prague Castle, the biggest castle in Europe. The bridge also has about 30 statues all along it, dedicated mostly to religious figures. The bridge was built in the mid 1300s, and the statues date back to about 1700.

Saturday and Sunday we spent just touring the town during the day, and then meeting up with Chastity and Mark for dinner and drinks at night. Prague has a lot of tourist attractions, like the bridge, the castle and the town square, but really, the town itself is a tourist attraction. It is absolutely beautiful, and it has done a great job of becoming a modern city while still having a look of an old European town. Walking through the streets, you can imagine that the way the street looks today is almost the same as it would have looked one or two hundred years ago.

So we spent a lot of the weekend just sort of strolling around town. We saw sites like the Prague Castle, some old churches, and a relatively new attraction, the John Lennon Peace Wall. The wall is a section of wall in the "Lesser Town" across the bridge from the Old Town, where when John Lennon was murdered, people in Prague, which was still under communist rule at the time, went to spray paint messages of peace and freedom in spite of government orders to not do so.

While in Prague, we of course also sampled some of the local beers. The Czech Republic is where the Pilsener style of beer was invented, so it is of course prevalent here, and often dirt cheap. It was also very good.

We had to head back on Monday afternoon, so Monday morning and early afternoon we took the opportunity for one last walk around town and one last drink on a sidewalk patio. Prague was definitely one of our favourite places we've visited, and it was nice to soak it up a little more.

Next up is a short, last-minute trip to Dieppe, France. Erin has to go there for work, and Tim will be tagging along. Dieppe is probably best known to Canadians as the site of a battle where Canadians were decimated by the Germans in WWII. There is a large Canadian War Cemetery there. We will definitely visit it and pay our respects.