Prague, the Danube and Croatia Report
Our 30th anniversary tour began in Prague with the wettest walking tour of all time, but was memorable for many reasons including the National Theatre with our quintessential 88 year old guide.
The horse carriage ride and the Hapsburg architecture made Vienna special.
The Klein Prinz was our comfortable, happy home for 10 days and we remember the bun fight at the lunch time buffet with the Norwegians (all in good spirit) and ?Bye Bye, have a nice day? from the wonderful Romanian waiters and waitresses.
The creaking locks as we descended the Danube, the surprise of the lovely old town of Bratislava in Slovakia and learning about the seven bridges in Budapest highlighted the splendour of the Danube.
We sang Pokarekare Ana in the crypt at Pecs Basilica, savoured the honey farm and wine tasting under the trees near Novi Sad, followed the next day with the plum brandy making, indulging in a Serbian meal and dancing to their music!!
Hearing the passionate history of Serbia both past and present from Dusan and Nicola - being amazed and excited by the Putza houses in Romania and visiting the museum in Turnu Severn - Romania where they didn?t even have the resources to replace the light bulbs in a museum that held so many treasures are etched in the memories.
We struggled to spend ?5 in Vidin, Bulgeria where Jim had a ?1 haircut and watched a wedding in the reception of our hotel in Brasov
We had a taste of Italy in Trieste at the beginning of the second part of the tour and enjoyed the steep climb inside the wonderful Potsojna Caves in Slovenia, the surprise of the Istrian Peninsula and the hill top medieval town of Motovan
Some highlights were the incredibly clever dogs which found three truffles in 15 minutes!! A three hour lunch followed in a private home / restaurant where they only serve food and wine they produce themselves.
In Croatia, we loved graceful Opatija, the inland Plitvice Lakes ? an area most affected by the recent war; Zadar with its water pipe organ and the lunch under the awning in the little cove ? magic. Split with hotel rooms with a view, but some of the doors fell off and the staff preferred to watch TV instead of attending to us.
The ferry ride to the island of Korcula, dinner by the water as the sun set, the stairs of the hotel and our early morning stroll through the vineyards and village highlighted the town of Lumbarda
Zoran ? our Croatian guide drove us, guided us, informed us, entertained us, boosted the egos of the women on the tour with compliments every day, shared his ideas and view of Croatia, spoke knowledgably about wine, translated for us, helped with the luggage and befriended our various hosts and guides so we received the best information.
Zoran will be our guide again in 2009.
Who could forget the guy standing abreast two horses galloping around the arena.