Hvar, Croatia - Part 1

Friday

It was an early start on Friday as we caught the 5am bus from Dubrovnik up the Croatian coast to Split. The bus ride was 4 and a half hours, but was actually fairly painless. We both managed to get a bit of sleep, but when we were awake, the scenery was stunning. The coastal road actually crosses the border into Bosnia & Herzegovina for around 20 minutes before crossing back into Croatia. At each checkpoint we had to produce our passports for a stern looking official who boarded our bus - sadly no bonus stamp in the passport. We must say that the public transport in Croatia is top class. Every bus, ferry and shuttle we caught left and arrived on time, was clean and comfortable, had good service and was very cheap. It really puts New Zealand's public transport to shame.

Aside from maximising our time in Hvar, the other benefit of travelling so early in the day was that it wasn't quite as hot. By the time we arrived in Split, it was 33 degrees at 9.30am, so we were glad not to be travelling in the middle of the day. Split is Croatia's second largest city and it is the main pick-up and drop-off point for most of the ferries that run between Croatia's many islands. We got the 11am ferry to Hvar and arrived there at 12.30pm. Again, the ride was very pleasant with spectacular scenery the whole way.

On our short taxi ride from the ferry terminal to Hvar Town, the driver explained that we had chosen a great time to visit Hvar. The weather was nice without being too hot and we had avoided the peak tourist season of late July-August, when the small town is invaded by 12,000 tourists, 10,000 of whom are Italian! The driver noted that the Italians can be very noisy...

We checked in to our hotel, the Dalmacija Hvar Villa Hotel, which was very nice and in the best location possible, just on the edge of the main harbour, so very close to the town, but not right in the middle of the crowds and noise! Just along from the hotel was a little bay where we spent quite a bit of time lying in the sun and cooling off in the water during our stay.

After settling in, we walked into the town centre. Hvar Town is such a beautiful place. There is a large open square in the middle of town full of cafes, bars, restaurants and souvenir shops, and there is a beautiful old church at the far end of the square. The main harbour is small and packed with boats; along one side of it there are about 6-8 super yachts docked at any given time. Tres impressive.

We stopped for lunch at Cafe Pjaca in the main square. Tim had a burger and fries, which was fantastic and Megan had a salmon sandwich which didn't quite live up to her expectations, but the cafe was very nice. After lunch we explored the rest of the town centre, which reminded us a bit of parts of Athens and Santorini, where there are literally dozens and dozens of tiny narrow streets that run off one another like a maze. It's impressive how many streets and houses/buildings they fit into such a small town. No quarter-acre backyards in Hvar Town!

To escape the heat, we grabbed our togs and headed for the little bay near out hotel. You can hire sun chairs at every beach, which are crucial as a stony beach is not the best to lie on (there's not a lot of sand on Croatian beaches!). We caught some rays on the beach for the rest of the afternoon and then grabbed a few beers from the supermarket and sat on our balcony sipping on those, taking in the brilliant views. Croatian beer is very nice - they have a couple of good ones called Ozujsko and Karlovacko. Then we sampled some cocktails at a nice bar on the waterfront, looking out to the super yachts, before moving on to Pizza Kogo for dinner.

Friday night happened to be the night that Croatia played Turkey in the quarter-finals of Euro 2008. Croatia had stormed through the group stage and were firm favourites to progress to the semi-finals. Every restaurant had set up a TV outside so its customers would not miss a minute of the action. Literally every man and his dog from Hvar were decked out in Croatian football shirts, hats, scarves, flags, etc. From three-year olds to senior citizens, men, women and children and even a dog were wearing their team's colours. Tim felt left out and needed a sunhat with a brim, so joined in the fun by buying a Croatian hat!

The match was pretty even (0-0 at full time) and despite not playing well, Croatia took the lead with three minutes left to play in extra-time. The entire town erupted in celebration. The locals lit flares, set off fireworks and a waiter at Pizza Kogo even bashed his serving tray against the footpath to make some more noise. Sadly, while these celebrations went on, sneaky old Turkey snatched an equaliser with about 10 seconds to go in extra-time. This sent the match to a penalty shoot-out, which Croatia lost miserably. However, within a few minutes the Croats were smiling, laughing and ordering another drink. They were proud of their team's achievements despite the loss. Kiwis could learn a lot from the Croats...

We were pretty exhausted after our early start and being out in the sun all day, so we called it a day.








Off the coast
of Split











Hvar Town















Main Square











Restaurants
in main
square













Church in
main square
















Megs and
ice cream















Tim by
harbour












Hvar Town
main harbour













Football
time at
Pizza Kogo











The new
hat












Goal
cele-
brations

Dubrovnik, Croatia

On Wednesday morning, we made our way (rather slowly in Tim's case) from our hotel down to the main train station in Zurich. We stopped to marvel at the enormous (and very life-like) statues of several of the big stars taking part on Euro 2008. A short train ride later we were at Zurich airport to fly to Dubrovnik, Croatia, via the capital Zagreb.

Dubrovnik is Croatia's third largest city and sits on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, near the southern tip of Croatia. The area was first inhabited around the 7th century by refugees who had fled from Epidaurum. They chose the location due to its natural defences - it is surrounded by a steep cliff on one side and the sea on the other side. The early inhabitants began building defence walls from limestone and by the 14th century, the city had been completely enclosed with thick stone walls, with just one entrance from the side of Pile. Those stone walls have been preserved until today and enclose the Old Town.

The city of Dubrovnik has spread beyond the walls of the Old Town out to the Lapad Peninsula to the west, where our hotel, the Hotel Dubrovnik, was situated. The street our hotel was on was full of new hotels, restaurants and shops and led directly to the beach at Lapad Bay. Luckily our hotel was wedged between a very nice restaurant, where we had lunch and drinks, and an ice cream parlour, which we tried out later in the afternoon. Both were superb. It was hot in Dubrovnik, so plenty of drinks and ice creams were required!

After exploring the area, we sat on the beach at Lapad Bay and watched the sun sink down behind the islands off in the distance. Later that night we had dinner at a pizza restaurant, also on our street. The food in Croatia was generally very good and cheap too. Actually, most things were cheap - a half litre of beer cost around £1.30 in most bars!

On Thursday morning we got up early and caught a bus into the Old Town. For a small fee, we walked around the Old Town on top of the fortress walls, which allowed us spectacular views down to the Old Town in the middle and out to the sea on the other side. Once down from the wall-tops, we explored the Old Town, weaving our way through the tiny streets of marble cobble stones. By late morning, it was super hot, so we stopped for an ice cream down by the harbour and then made our way out of the Old Town and caught a bus back to the Lapad Peninsula. We grabbed our beach gear and walked 15 minutes to the northern side of the peninsula to Copacabana Beach.

The beach was great. The water at the Croatian beaches is amazingly clear - you can easily see the sea floor as well as the tiny fish swimming in the shallow water. We had lunch at the beach-side cafe and lay on the beach for the rest of the day, getting some well overdue sun. Megan had a swim, although the water still a tad cold for Tim!

In the evening we sat by the beach at Lapad Bay near our hotel and had a couple of drinks while the sun set on another stunning day. One oddity about Dubrovnik was that it was swarming with little kids. There were literally 3-4 kids for every adult and we were possibly the only people there who didn't have kids...although nobody could tell, as we were surrounded by them everywhere we went. After dinner we had an early-ish night, as we had a 5am bus to catch the following day!







Megan at
Lapad Bay











Cocktails
in the
evening












Dubrovnik's
Old Town

















Stone wall
around Old
Town









Houses in
the Old Town


























Tim on
the wall












Bear - old
harbour











Megan by
the harbour














Centre of
Dubrovnik











Copa-
cabana
Beach

Euro 2008

Fans,

As you will probably be aware, the European Football Championships are well under way in Switzerland and Austria at the moment. We bought tickets to see France v Italy (both 2006 World Cup finalists) way back in December last year. Unfortunately, we bought the tickets off a thieving scamming company and the tickets never arrived in the post. We emailed and called them about a hundred times asking where our tickets were but we got no response. We since discovered that hundreds of people have suffered the same fate. However, we have been told that we will get a refund from Visa, so it's not all bad.

We had planned to stop in Zurich for a day to see the match on our way to Croatia (for a summer holiday). So on Tuesday morning, we left London and arrived in Zurich without tickets for the match but determined to have a good day! Zurich was packed full of football fans, which made for a great atmosphere around the city. Tim supports France in football so we joined the thousands of French fans parading their colours in the streets.

The main street that runs along the river and down to the lake was closed to traffic and was full of stalls selling food, drinks and football souvenirs. They also had a "Fan Zone" set up down by the lake, with lots of big screens and more bars and stalls. After wandering around the shops (in particular the chocolate shop!) we stopped in at some of the bars for a few drinks. They had a bar called Coyote Ugly, where the maids danced on the bar, just like in the movie!

Then we made our way to the Fan Zone to watch the game on the big screen. Unfortunately France did not play well and they lost to Italy 2-0, which meant they were eliminated from the tournament and Italy progressed to the quarter finals. We met some English fans who were quite funny. They had made the trip to Switzerland to protest at England's failure to qualify for the championships. They livened up the atmosphere a little with random chants about English striker Peter Crouch and shouts of "Come on England", which got some confused looks from the Italians around us.

After France's dismal showing, we walked / stumbled back to the hotel via the hot dog stand. On Wednesday morning we set off for 6 days in Croatia!






Tim and
cardboard
Euro trophy













Megan by
Grossmunster
















Coyote
Ugly











Ditto














Megan in the
Fan Zone


















Allez
les Bleus















Giant statues
of football
stars in Zurich
train station

Luxembourg

Greetings,

A couple of months ago, we decided that we would each choose a destination for a weekend away that would remain a surprise for the other person pretty much right up until the day of departure. Tim chose Luxembourg and on Friday night, we met after work and made our way to London City Airport. Megan had no idea where we were going until we got to the check-in counter at the airport. After a delay in leaving and a short flight, we were in Luxembourg City, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

Luxembourg is a fascinating place - it is the only Grand Duchy in the world (ruled by the Grand-Duc Henri) and it has the highest GDP per capita in the world. It is a tiny country wedged in between Belgium, Germany and France. It is just 82km long and 57km wide, making it the 175th largest of the 194 independent countries of the world. It has a population of less than half a million and three official languages - French, German and Luxembourgish, although most of the Luxembourgers also speak English.

A couple of things struck us about Luxembourg straight away - one, that it was the greenest place we had seen since Aotearoa and two, that there were very few tourists around...very refreshing. We stayed at the Parc Plaza, which we definitely recommend. It is very close to the city centre and we had a very pleasant stay there. We particularly enjoyed the complimentary full buffet breakfast each morning!

Saturday

On Saturday morning, we explored the Old Town in the city centre. There are a few squares in the Old Town, packed with cafes, bars and shops, but in the weekends, these squares are also home to all sorts of markets, music and entertainment. In the Place d'Armes, we checked out the antiques and nick-nacks at the market stalls and listened to a brass band, which was performing in the middle of the square. Megan found a bargain (antique tin) at one of the stalls! Close by is the Place de Guilliame II, the main town square of Luxembourg. This was packed with more market stalls, but this time fresh fruit and veges, fish and flowers!

After exploring some more of the shops around the Old Town, we made our way to the Place de la Constitution, home to a rather impressive war monument and more importantly, the pick-up and drop-off point for the mini "train" that was to take us on a tour of the city! The one hour ride took us through the Petrusse Valley (a beautiful big valley running down the western side of the city, full of trees, grass and garden), through the lower suburbs of Grund and Clausen and through the city centre.

After our tour, we walked down the windy path and under the impressive Adolphe Bridge through the stunning Petrusse Valley. It was so quiet and peaceful down there. And so very green! The rough part of exploring the valley was climbing the steps back up to the city afterwards. So we were definitely ready for lunch once we got to the top!

After lunch we visited the famous Casemates du Bock. In 963, Count Siegfried built a fortified castle on the Bock promontory. Over the next few centuries, as the Burgundians, Spaniards, French, Austrians and Germans took turns invading, they eventually added massive ring walls around the inner city and made Luxembourg one of the most powerful emplacements in the world, the "Gibralter of the north". Beneath the fortress was a 23km network of casemates (tunnels), which sheltered thousands of soldiers and their horses, but which also housed workshops, kitchens, bakeries and slaughter houses! In 1867, after the declaration of neutrality, the military withdrew from the fortress and the defences were demolished. However, it proved to be impossible to blow up the casemates without also demolishing part of the city, so the entrances and key connecting galleries were sealed. Today, two of the casemates remain open for tourist visits. We had a great time walking through the casemates although we were caught out by the odd dead end!

Back above ground, we wandered back through the city centre and stumbled across the Grand Ducal Palace, although there was no sign of the Grand-Duc Henri! The palace is open to the public for tours in the summer, but we were about a month early for that, so we just admired it from the outside. Next to the palace is the Clairefontaine Square, yet another pretty little square in the Old Town.

There are loads of bars and pubs in the centre of Luxembourg, so it was not hard to find a cold beer. We visited a pub called The Tube, modelled on the underground system in London, with all the same signage as you see in the London underground etc, and the ceiling was even shaped like a tunnel! We had a couple of beers in there and watched the opening game of the Euro 2008 football championships, although we were eventually scared off by the rather brash and off-the-wall Irish barmaid...next stop was the Cafe de Paris in the Place d'Armes, where we each had a fantastic steak and really good dessert! We definitely recommend eating (and drinking) here; it was ka pai. The Luxembourg beer was very nice - Bofferding seems to be the favourite!

Sunday

Sunday dawned a lot clearer and it ended up being a very hot and sunny day in the Grand Duchy! After another delightful breakfast, we went for another walk through the Petrusse Valley. There were a few joggers and cyclists about, but it was still very peaceful down there! Then we bought a newspaper and sat in the Place d'Armes enjoying the sunshine and listening to the band that was playing...it seems to be non-stop orchestra in the square on weekends!

On the western side of the city centre, there is a huge public garden, unsurprisingly called the City Garden. We lazed on the grass and finished reading the paper and walked through the gardens - the highlight of which was probably the huge adventure playground in the middle, complete with a pirate ship and giant turtles!!!

We actually needed a bit of shade after our jaunt through the gardens, so we decided to check out the Museum of History and Art. Thankfully we got the English audio guide, as there only signage was in French. The museum was quite good, although two floors were closed for renovations. The Luxembourgish art was not quite all we hoped for, although we have been spoilt with quality art of late, both in London and in the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam.

After grabbing some lunch from a bakery in the Old Town and watching the locals do their thing, we returned to the Place de Guilliame II, where there was a Portuguese festival! We discovered during our city tour that Luxembourg has a lot of immigrants from all over Europe, many from Portugal. The festival was great - the square was packed full of people enjoying all sorts of entertainment in the form of traditional music and dancers, a bouncy castle, loads of stalls and several thousand helium balloons. It was really fun.

More shelter was required late in the afternoon, so we had a drink in a bar called Urban, which was really nice. We saw the last part of Nadal's demolition of Federer and then a bit more Euro 2008 football on TV. They do a great club sandwich in Urban, which filled a gap nicely before we headed for the airport and back to London town.

Adolphe
Bridge














Place de la
Constitution

















Clock Tower



















Our
"train"










Casemates
du Bock













Inside the
Casemates

















Grand
Ducal
Palace








Claire-
fontaine
Square














Petrusse
Valley











Megs in
the Valley

















Adolphe
Bridge















Crazy statue
in city































Giant turtle
in City
Garden













Tim in
City
Garden












Megs in
Place de
Guilliame
II












Portuguese
festival