Our Tour Ends ... in Venice

Finally, after more than forty days our cruise ship arrived in Venice. We had visited Venice about 16 months ago yet it was wonderful to see it again from the ship as we sailed into the harbour past the colourful buildings and, especially, St. Mark’s (San Marco) Square. 

Sailing into Venice

St. Mark's Square in the morning

The ship docked in the cruise harbour right across the Crystal Serenity, ironically the ship that we will be on next January sailing from Los Angeles to Japan.

Crystal Serenity in the distance as we sail in

All of our art supplies were finally packed into 14 boxes. We discovered on the second last day of the cruise that nowhere on the boat was there any packing tape for the boxes.  So off we went into town by a “people mover train” and vaporetti (water bus) into St. Mark Square. 

Venice from the Vaporetti

 

Rialto Bridge from the Vaporetti

While other tourists were out enjoying the sights, we were going to several stores we knew of to find packing tape.  We were unsuccessful until we came  to a store that sold Murano glass beads, some of which Gail purchased.  Asking the sales clerk if they shipped worldwide, the girl said that they did.  In a flash of inspiration, Gail said to her “Well, you must have packing tape”.  Anyway, to make the story short, the girl sold us two rolls of packing tape and our problem was solved. 

Venice was as beautiful as ever, even though it was raining. 

 

In our entire trip it rained only twice; once for an hour in Dubai (after a sand storm) and on the last day in Venice.

Memories of Venice (from 2011)

 

What a wonderful time we had this past 40 plus days. We leave for home with many treasured memories.

Now ... we await our next trip .. .wherever that will be.

Two Days in Croatia

We arrived in Dubrovnik early in the morning, but anchored at sea.  The previous two times we were here, the last being in 2011, the cruise ships docked at the port and we took a bus into the city.  Since we had been here before, we were in no hurry to go into Dubrovnik, and used some of the time in the morning to pack up our art supplies.

Dubrovnk from the sea

Hillside around Dubrovnik

Seabourn Quest provided a free tour of the city and some of its culture, so we joined the tour.  We were tendered in from the ship and then walked to a castle above the city, where we were provided with refreshments and finger food. We also got to see a show of Croatian culture involving music and dancing.  The second part, featuring the dancers, was much more exciting and fun to watch. 

Dancers in action

After the show, we walked down the hill back into old Dubrovnik and strolled through some of the familiar streets, had some ice cream, some beer with friends and, of course, a bit of shopping.

Old Dubrovnik

Sign above an entrance gate (1786)

Dubrovnik harbour

On the second day, the ship docked at Zadar, Croatia, a beautiful port about 60 miles north of Split.  While Gail stayed on board to finish the last of the art supply packing, John went on a tour of Krka National Park, an hour’s drive from Zadar.

Looking down on Krka Park from the bus

Unfortunately, this was May the first and the entire country was celebrating May Day, and, it appeared that most of the population was visiting the park.  It was extremely crowded.  The highlight of Krka Park is the Skradinski Buk Falls, the last set of falls on the Krka river before it meets the Adriatic Sea. 

The tour involved a lot of walking and climbing.  We were required to climb down a 58 metre very steep hill along steps carved out of rock wall, all different heights with no guard rail to hang on to.  Very challenging!  The photo opportunities were worth the trip down. 

Krka Falls

Falls from a secondary river

Unfortunately, once you are down there you have to get back up following a different steep path (with better stairs) to a point 10 metres above the falls for more photos.

From above the falls

Then we had some free time to walk around. 

Stream leading to grinding mill

....and a mill wheel grinding ....

This was a very invigorating tour and now, a week later, my knees and hips are still sore.

Now we were off to Venice for the last two days of our cruise.

P.S. Yes I know we are home, but I have to finish off the blog.