Croatia, Summer 2018

We started our time in Croatia at Zagreb, the capital. Zagreb was originally two small walled medieval towns separated by a small river. One city was run by the church and the other was more merchant oriented. The roof of the Church of Saint Mark shows the two coats of arms of the two cities which united to form modern Zagreb.

This cathedral was the heart of one of the two original towns which grew up to be Zagreb. 

This is one of several chandeliers in the Cathedral which came from a Las Vegas Casino. The church was very reluctant to accept them due to their origin, but the modern chandeliers certainly fit in well with the medieval building!

This fort is in Rijeka. We rode a bus from Zagreb to Rijeka. This fort is being restored by a grant from the European Union and has a very nice cocktail bar / coffee shop.

This is the view down into Rijeka from the fort. The water is the Adriatic Sea. If you cross it, you will be in Italy.

This is the island of Krk. Alonda's rheumatologist's family is from Croatia and he strongly recommended we visit this island. It was very interesting and tourists are starting to flock to it from Italy and Germany. Resorts and vacation homes are popping up all over the island. We stopped at this overlook after crossing the bridge to get on the island.

This is the bridge we crossed from Rijeka to Krk. It was the longest concrete arch bridge in the world when it was built. It is still the 2nd longest. We had a nice picnic lunch here which we bought at the Lidl chain of German grocery stores.

This is a "Jet Boat" ferry for bringing tourists from Italy to Rovinj. We like taking pictures of ferry boats.

This is Rovinj Center. The St. Euphemia cathedral crowns the hill. We did the Rick Steves' self-guided walking tour.

This is the market. Lots of souvenirs.

This is one of the passageways walking up to the cathedral. Cars were generally down on the flat.

This is St. Euphemia Cathedral. It overlooks the entire town and out over the water.

This is looking back at the town from the ferry boat we took to Red Island.

This is the ferry boat. Not what you expected, was it? It was run by the resort. You got on the boat in town, rode to the island and THEN bought a round-trip ticket to get back to Rovinj.

This the "sandy beach". We had asked about the beaches and were reassured that the Red Island had a sandy beach. This is it. It was less than 5 yards long.

The only things on the island were the Hotel Istra and a wildlife refuge, but the beach seems to be open to all comers. We were, of course, well ahead of tourist season.

Alonda was not super impressed by the sandy beach.

Jim was not super impressed by the sandy beach.

This is St. Euphemia and Rovinj on the way back. As we said, the church looms over the entire town. Beautiful blue skies, high temperatures in the 80's and a Mediterranean blue sea.

We went out to a restaurant recommended by our host family. 

Jim had the scampi with the tomato sauce. The bib was necessary!

Alonda had the scampi without the sauce so she didn't get a bib. The scampi were huge and truly delicious!

The next town we visited was Porec. It is supposedly the "tourist capital of the Istrian coast." Think of this as the Croatian version of Acapulco. This miniature library was in Porec. This idea is not limited to the US.

This bench was decorated to match the library.

About the only thing to see in town was this Euphrasian Basilica, a Sixth-Century Byzantine church.

We took a day trip to the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula. The town of Pula has one of the best preserved Roman amphitheaters in the world. The word "amphitheater" actually means that it has two halves. It if didn't, it would only be a half circle. This location was on the Rick Steves' self-guided walking tour.

The inside was amazingly well preserved. This one is not as well known as the Colosseum in Rome, but it is a lot cheaper and easier to visit.

After 2000 years, you can still walk down into the basement under the floor of the amphitheater. The museum has the largest known collection of amphorae in the world.

This is a well preserved Roman mosaic which was found when they were cleaning up after WWII. It is very difficult to see, since they have a fence around it and it is in an alley way. The tour guides actually yell at each other because it is so crowded. There are many more and better displayed mosaics on Cyprus.

This is one of the original city gates. Towns used to be a lot smaller.

This is the aquarium in Pula. It is in the bunkers of an Austro-Hungarian artillery emplacement left over from a couple of hundred years ago.

Alonda posed with the turtle at the entrance. 

All of the signs were in 7!! languages. People come here from all over the world.

Octopus hiding in a crevice. 

Sole hiding in the sand.

One of the rooms was a nursery for the exhibits.

If you zoom in, you will see Jim standing at the other end of the bunker. The entire place is bullet proof and has exhibits in all the side rooms.

This is Motovun, a Croatian hill town. It is very similar to hill towns in Italy. We took this photo from a restaurant/coffee bar near town.

Walking up to the town meant walking UP.

This is looking back the way we came in. Rain was moving in.

This is the ceiling inside St. Stephen's Church in the middle of town.

The altar was quite impressive. 

We took the bus back to Zagreb for a day before we flew out. We went to visit the Technical Museum. Nikola Tesla is the best known of the Croatian inventors.

This was quite an impressive museum. Like many museums outside of the US, you will see car brands you have never even heard of.

Planes, trains and automobiles! And submarines and clocks and coal mines and telephones and movie cameras and computers and on and on and on ...

We had a wonderful time, ate some wonderful food and enjoyed sitting outdoors in Croatia. The prices were all very reasonable. People sit in coffee shops and restaurants for hours and no one will bother you. A much more relaxed life style!

Slovenia Summer 2018

Ljubljana was a nice train ride from Graz on our way to Croatia. We stayed two nights. This is the main square in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

This is a Franciscan Church and all the walking tours start here.

We were standing on one third of the triple bridge. They built a bridge in about 1850 and Jože Plečnik, their most famous architect, added two footbridges in 1929 to prevent the thing from being a huge bottleneck to vehicles. 

This is the Dragon Bridge, a symbol of Ljubljana. It was built of reinforced concrete when that material was considered wild and experimental. 

The Stolinica (cathedral) was one of the stops on the walking tour. Since all of the walking tours stop here, there was quite a crowd outside the only door. The building is in Italian Baroque style and dedicated to St. Nicholas. Like many of these churches, it is quite plain on the outside.

This is the funicular up to the Ljubljana Castle in the middle of town. 

This the view from the top. We had a very nice time in one the countries created when Yugoslavia fell apart. They are on the Euro, which made buying things very easy!

Austria Summer 2018

This summer, we turned to Europe to visit Austria, Slovenia and Croatia. This blog entry is just the Austrian part. More to come …

We visited Rifat Jabeen Khan and her daughter Sania in Vienna. We worked with Rifat in Saudi Arabia. This view is toward downtown from her balcony. You can see the Riesenrad (Vienna Giant Wheel) in the Prader amusement park.

This is the Danube River right under her balcony. We went out walking along the river three or four times. 

This is Rifat with us. Her daughter took the picture!

This video shows where Rifat works. She is employed by the United Nations in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The agency is housed at the Vienna International Center (VIC).

Rifat said that all visitors HAVE to take this photo with their country's flag.

The UN adopted these 17 Sustainable Development Goals with the aim of achieving them by 2030. Wouldn't if be nice if we were REALLY working on them?

We stopped by the Riesenrad (Big Wheel) to look at it again. We rode it on a previous trip. It was built in 1897 and was the world's tallest Ferris wheel until 1985. It was also featured in the movie "The Third Man."

After our visit in Vienna, we took a train to Graz, Austria. This is the view down from the funicular (cable railway) which takes visitors up to the Schloss (castle) in the middle of town.

Here is the view out over Graz from the top. The valley is pretty much filled in with houses and businesses. 

This is Jim posing with one of the towers on top of the Schlossberg.

We took three self-guided walking tours around Graz. The first one was about Modern Architecture. This is the Kunsthaus (Art Museum) in Graz seen from the Schlossberg. This is an example of Graz' modern architecture. It was built as part of Graz being named the Cultural Capital of Europe for 2003. Graz is well known for a number of new buildings.

This is another modern building in Graz. It is the Island in the Mur. The Mur is the name of the river and the island isn't an island at all. It is an artificial floating platform.

The building represents a giant seashell with two connecting footbridges and has an amphitheater, playground, and café on board.

This is the Lift im Berg (elevator in the mountain) which you can ride down from the top of the Schlossberg. It lets you out in a tunnel in the middle of the mountain.

This is Esperanto Square. It was named this to honor the International Language Esperanto. Jim is fluent in the language and a strong advocate for it.

This is the information sign about the inventor of Esperanto.

This memorial in the square is for "The hope for world communication in peace and freedom."

Another walking tour was of the Old Town. This is the Franziskanerkirche (Franciscan Church) in Franziskanerplatz and is considered one of Graz' oldest churches (finished in 1277). Look at the sky and you will see the weather we had!

This square boasts the town's Glockenspiel. It plays different melodies three times daily. The wooden statues up on the tower wear traditional costumes and dance to the music.

This is inside the Dom (Graz Cathedral). Emperor Friedrich III built it in mid 15th Century. It is both Gothic and Baroque on the interior.

This is looking through the nave of the Dom towards the altar.

  This the mausoleum which is the final resting place of Emperor Ferdinand II. It was built early 17th Century and is right next to the Dom. This is the first oval dome built outside of Italy.

Our third walking tour was of Religious Buildings. This is the Kreuzkirche (Church of the Cross). It is an Evangelical Church built between 1912-1914 (just before WWI !) next to a city park.

We greatly enjoyed our stay in Austria. Our last morning in Vienna, we went on a walk with Rifat along the Danube River. This is a sunRISE, not a sunSET.