Flying around the Templehof Airport...

One thing we have been surprised to learn here is that Berliners seem to strongly dislike signage. Perhaps they assume that people just know where to go...or rather SHOULD know where to go...but there never seem to be any signs.

This lack of information was fine when we went to the Sony Center to see a movie and were lucky to follow people down a random hallway to a hidden doorway that opened into a gigantic IMAX movie theatre.  But it was less funny when we were eagerly trying to meet our tour group to explore the Tempelhof Airport.

The Tempelhof Airport was built in the 1920s.  It was massively expanded and reconstructed by Albert Speer in the 1930s as the National Socialist Party prepared for its war efforts.  Pre-WWII, it was considered one of Europe's three iconic airports alongside London and Paris and by the end of the expansion it was one of the largest buildings on the planet.

After the war, the airport gained further significance as the centre point of the 1948-1949 Berlin Airlifts when the Soviet authorities halted all traffic into West Berlin via land and water.  In what is considered one of the greatest aviation feats in history, the Western Allies flew in all of the needed food and supplies to West Berlin's 2.5 million residents for 11 months.  At the peak, a stocked plane landed at the airport every 30 seconds.

Needless to say, we were very interested in taking a tour of this historic landmark.

Giving ourselves plenty of time and following the advice of the tour company to "meet at the entrance" we arrived to find the "main entrance" (or what we thought would be the main entrance) locked.  Unsure of what to do, we started to wander the perimeter of the absolutely enormous building.

After about 30 minutes, we ended up at Tempelhof Feld, the former airport runways turned national park.  The park is now used by hordes of local residents to kite-skateboard, bike, bbq sausages and just have a relaxing afternoon.  As an aside, it was cool to actually walk an entire runway!

But back to our problem - eager to still try and make our tour, we hurried through a good portion of the park to get to the other side of the building - approximately 4kms - with still no evidence of an entrance.

Another half an hour later, we arrived back at our starting point totally confused.  We had not seen one sign during our whole walk that indicated the location of the main entrance.

Just as we were about to give up and leave, we saw a group of people finishing up what looked like a tour.  Trying not to be stalkers, we followed the group down a tiny alley and then through a parking lot and another long corridor until several minutes later we arrived at a small door which turned out to be the entrance.   Considering the size and stature of this massive building, we don't think anyone could have claimed this small door would be a natural main entrance.

By this point, we had well missed the tour...but I suppose our afternoon walk actually gave us a more fulsome view of the airport itself!

Breathtaking Dubrovnik

Exquisite.

In the world of Game of Thrones....

The Old City in Dubrovnik became a UNESCO heritage site in 1979 and, even though it was targeted and bombed during the Yugoslavian wars in the 1990s, is still considered one of the 10 best preserved walled cities in the world.

We arrived in Dubrovnik around midday, after being "stow-always" on a boat from Korkula;  the unfriendly and chaotic transportation systems in Croatia forcing us to embrace some creative and unusual tactics to cut out 24 hours of travel time.  Perhaps karma, we were both quite under the weather when we arrived and, as such, had a quiet lunch at our hotel, the Grand Villa Argentina, before heading to our room for a much needed rest.

To celebrate Geoff's birthday, we had made dinner reservations at a beautiful boutique hotel in the Old Town, known for its delicious food and stunning views of the sunset.  The views lived up to their reputation but the food experience was less commendable because they forgot to arrange our special vegetarian meals and had actually run out of one of the two vegetarian dishes they regularly offer.  Although the bread and dessert was delicious, we left unsatisfied!   

This proved to be an unfortunate foreshadowing of our eating experiences in Dubrovnik, where there were few vegetarian options and even these were often unavailable even though advertised on the menu.  We still cannot understand why they have hundreds of restaurants in the Old City and they all offer the exact same menu. There is a real opportunity for a food entrepreneur to dominate here.  

Food rant aside, the city of Dubrovnik is gorgeous.  The beaches are exquisite and the water warm and clear.  The city itself was built using gorgeous cream limestone, and has a wide Main Street and beautifully preserved palaces and communal buildings.  Since becoming a heritage site, most of the residents have moved away and daily shops have been replaced with tourist shops and restaurants.  Nonetheless, for only 900 residents, they still have 40 churches!  

Dubrovnik's recent claim to fame is that it serves as the backdrop for Game of Thrones scenes and also has become a wedding hots pot, attracting wealthy families such as the Hearsts to get married there.  We know which one the city values more, however, as it is willing to close off sections of the city to film the tv show but less willing to honour the incredible request by the Hearsts to close off the city to outsiders on for its' wedding day.

One day, we took a gondola to the top of he hill to visit the Fort Imperial, the key fort that was used by the Croats to fight off the Serbian-Montenegrin army during the wars in the 1990s.  The Fort is now home to a museum honouring those who fought to preserve the city.  The hilltop also offers spectacular views of this walled city that sits so elegantly out in the water.

In the end, while we suffered some frustrations while visiting, we actually wished we had enjoyed an extra day there to really experience the picturesque beaches and all of the great water activities. Although we had spent some time down at the hotel's pool and ocean space (which surprisingly offered the only reliable wifi connection), we should have carved out more time to really soak it all in.  As many other travellers discovered much more successfully than we did,  this place really should be enjoyed from the beach!

Sunny Bol

Brac Island is famous for its limestone, which was used to help build both the Vatican and the White House.  What draws incredible numbers of tourists to the island every year, however, is its wonderful weather and gorgeous sea.

We didn't do much site-seeing here and, when we weren't working, we did what most tourists do:  spent time at the beach, took tennis lessons with our fabulous instructor Oliver, kayaked in the clearest and warmest aqua sea, wandered along the wonderfully shaded promenade and hiked up and down the hill each day to our hotel (with one additional trek up the mountain to complete our ALS Challenge).

The weather was splendid for most of the visit, save a pesky evening storm that blew out the Internet and stole many of our clothes drying on the balcony and threw them all over the parking lot.  Lucky for us, the relaxed culture here didn't seem to mind the pair of underwear hiding in the hotel entrance way that we somehow only found two days later!

Bedmaking - Balkan style

We were very lucky to stay in some lovely hotels during our travels in Slovenia and Croatia.   But one thing we still cannot wrap our heads around is the way they make the beds.  On a queen-sized bed, there are two single sheets, folded and placed at the end of the bed.  The sheets are smaller than the size of a single bed, however, and when they are unfolded they expand out off the bed rather than up towards the pillow.  The blanket is then folded in a completely different way and then placed on top.  

Getting into bed is a multi-step process.  

Anyone know of an explanation?

Split - An Unexpected Hit

We arrived in Split early.  At 7am.  Our boat to Brac Island where our hotel was located did not leave until 4pm so we headed to the local gym for a workout and, perhaps more importantly, a shower!

Exercised and clean, we stopped for a quick smoothie and the most divine tempeh sandwich before heading to meet our walking tour.  We were not expecting much from the city having made our way through some less attractive parts of it earlier that morning.

But as the we found the meeting spot, the Golden Gate,  we were dumbfounded to see a gorgeous gate opening up to Diocletian's palace, with people in period costume wandering the streets.

The walled palace, now a UNESCO heritage site, was first built as a palace for Diocletian in "305 AD Roman", as our fantastic guide would frequently refer.    Diocletian was the only Emperor of Rome who actually abdicated (retired from?) the position and died a natural death.  Although he was vicious to members of the Christian faith, he was an unusual and progressive emperor in that he worked to split the rule of Rome into two, believing it was too large for just one ruler.   

After his death, the palace went through numerous updates over the years, especially after the Renaissance.  The main square shows architecture that spans every century from the 15th onwards as well as Roman architecture.  Incredibly, it is the Roman architecture (from 305 AD Roman!) that has best stood the test of time, as they are the only buildings that have not needed substantial repair.  Everywhere we travel, it is hard not to feel that the early Romans were truly enlightened. 

The old palace used to be the home to approximately 9,000 residents but the UNESCO certification has increased the rents so substantially and made the process of repairs so costly that most have now sold their properties to commercial businesses.

In addition to the gorgeous limestone palace area, the city has built out a boardwalk area in front of the palace to give visitors a place to wander, have lunch, soak in rays of and watch the boats come and go in Croatia's largest port.

Although we were eager to eacape the bustle of split and head to Brac Island, we were very happy that our scheduled had encouraged us to stop here for the day.

The train hotel...

Such an easy stair solution for luggage

It's been quite some time since either Beth or Geoff has taken an overnight train.  Being much older now (and with bodies and outlooks that are a bit less flexible and resilient), we decided to pay the additional fare to get a two-person sleeper cabin.

Although the train was old and thus had no power plugs or sheets without holes,  we still find the experience of going to sleep in one city and waking up in another to be incredibly efficient and satisfying.  The chocolate croissant we received for breakfast was just an unexpected bonus.

Beautiful Bled...

When the sun came out, the scenery was stunning...

The Bledding rain...

Eager to do some sportier things during our travels, we were excited to go to Lake Bled in Slovenia. Known for its picturesque and romantic backdrop, Bled is frequented by locals and has hiking, biking, kayaking, boating and tons of other outdoor activities.

There is not much to do there though when it rains. And it rained.  A lot.  

So, we spent our time working and eating cream cakes, the local delicacy that is offered by every single restaurant at every single meal, including breakfast!  In fact, for a sporty place, people ate a surprising amount of cake for breakfast.  Cream cake, chocolate cake, cheesecake were served and washed down with a very whip-creamy coffee.  We still have no explanation about why.

When the sun popped out, we made the most of it.  We hiked an hour to the nearest tennis courts for a tennis lesson that actually made us worse players; we went rowing (well, Geoff rowed and Beth reclined and enjoyed the sunshine) over to the island to see the old church and stumbled upon a wedding; we climbed the hill to tour the wonderful castle; and of course we took many 6km walks around the lake.

Even though it rained frequently, we were grateful we got to enjoy some of the best of Lake Bled and can understand why the locals love it there.

International train tickets?

We were surprised and somewhat amused to pick up our handwritten train tickets to travel across the border from Croatia to Slovenia and back.

Memories of the eraseable pens from 15 years ago came flooding back...

Our luck washed up...

Refusing to pay the exorbitant hotel prices to do our laundry, we have been lucky to find affordable full-service laundry places so far along our route.  

Although it took a very intense internet search and some language-barrier infused telephone conversations, we thought we were in good shape in Ljubljana. Until the first shop had to close because the owner's car broke   down and she needed to take it to the shop. And then the actual washing machine broke in the second shop so the laundry would not be ready in time.

Out of options and time, we hauled our bags of laundry through the pouring rain to catch a taxi to the nearest laundromat, a 20 minute drive away.

Luckily, although it was in the middle of an industrial complex and completely abandoned, the door was open so we headed in.

Now, whose job was it to remember to bring coins for the machine...?

Our specialized drying technique

Sunny Slovenia?

Having been lucky to make it through most of England without substantial rain, we had packed away our umbrellas, readying ourselves for the balmy weather of the Balkans.  But this was not to be the case.

As soon as we arrived in Slovenia, the skies opened and the rain poured down. It did not stop for two days and continued sporadically throughout our entire time there.  The irony was not lost on us that we endured more rain in sunny Slovenia than we did in wet England.

Nonetheless, we really enjoyed our time in Ljubljana, Slovenia. This small capital city has made the bold choice to shut off all of its Old Town (the downtown) to cars, making it an entirely pedestrian zone.  This brave decision has rightly earned Ljubljana the title of "greenest capital city" in Europe.  Getting rid of the cars completely opens up the downtown.  Instead of car lanes, the streets are filled with outdoor tables hosted by the restaurants.  Instead of parking spaces and lots,  musicians and craft stalls litter the streets.  It is energetic but relaxed all at the same time.

In addition to its green reputation, Ljubljana was recently awarded the "safest" city label in a recent study (beating out Montreal in second place).  The test involved tracking 20 "lost" cellphones that were placed around the city.  In Ljubljana, 19 of them were returned to the police station within 24 hours!  No wonder the safe in our room was just a random box that wasn't bolted to anything - they probably thought giving us a room key to lock our door was going overboard!  

As if the pedestrian zones and safety records didn't indicate just how charming this town really is, the statues might.  As in all capital cities, there are statues all around the city commemorating national heroes.   With the exception of one small tucked away memorial plaque to Napoleon, who during his short reign there let Slovenia keep its language, not one of their statues was a war general, politician or fighter. Instead, the statues are all of poets, writers and artists. These are the people that are treasured.  This, paired with a national anthem that talks about being friends and getting along, certainly conveys the city's genuine and caring culture.  

This is a city that really made sense to us. It had all the amenities of a big city but with the heart of a small town.  But with all the upside, we did learn one downside to a pedestrian downtown - there is no easy (and definitely no dry!) way to get you and your luggage to the train station in a rainstorm!

Bring on the Balkans...

In search of hotter weather, we left the UK and headed the the Balkans.  Geoff was eager to see Croatia and Beth was sure that the country had changed significantly since she was last there 25 years ago.

We arrived in Zagreb, Croatia's capital, to find a small but charming capital city.  Having been under the Habsburg rule for hundreds of years, it was not surprising to see Austrian influences both in the city's infrastructure (pastel coloured buildings (with a heavy use of yellow) in a gothic style) and public zoning (rounded streets and lots of public spaces).

Hotel Esplanade

We learned from our tour guide that our lodging, the Hotel Esplanade, was actually a historical site, having been built to house travellers taking the Orient Express from Paris to Turkey (and vice versa) for their needed overnight stay in Zagreb.  This certainly explained its close proximity to the train station and downtown core and made Beth imagine wishfully that we would be on a similar train the next day to Ljubliana.  As she elbowed past the hoards of backpackers to secure a seat on the train that was a touch too-graffittied for her tastes, she realized that this would not be the case.  

Zagreb is small in number with only 800,000 residents.  You get the feeling that they have a bit of a complex about being such a small capital city and want to prove to you that it is still worthwhile to visit.   The tour guide made several mentions that their cuisine was world class and they had all the shops of the bigger city.   Perhaps this is why they have so many museums (separate post on the more unusual ones).  But they really needn't worry - between the lovely public squares to sit and relax, the wonderful weather and some of the friendliest locals who just want to help, it has a charm and intimacy that is very compelling.

Although we won't be visiting the Mushroom Museum here anytime soon, we could certainly see coming back to Zagreb on our future travels.  

One of Zagreb's main squares.  It combines architectural styles from a variety of eras.