Šibenik Croatia

Šibenik Croatian is a historic city located in central Dalmatia with the river Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea.

Unlike the other cities along the Adriatic coast, which were established by Greeks, Sibenik was founded by Croats.

The city used to be under the influence of the Republic of Venice, and then the Ottoman Empire started to threaten it also at the end of the 15th century.

The falls of the Republic of Venice in 1997 brought it then under the authority of the Habsburg Monarchy (remember those guys from Vienna Austria).

This town has lots of history, and not all of it old.

After WWII Sibenik became part of Yugoslavia (meaning Land of Southern Slavs). It was under Titos iron rule that all these separate peoples were ruled together.

During the Croatian War of Independence (1991-1995) Sibenik was heavily attacked by the Yugoslav National Army and Serbian paramilitary forces.

Although under-armed, the nascent Croatian army and the people of Šibenik managed to defend the city. The battle lasted for six days (16–22 September), often referred to as the “September battle“. The bombings damaged numerous buildings and monuments, including the dome of the Cathedral of St. James and the 1870-built theatre building.

In an August 1995 military operation, the Croatian Army defeated the Serb forces and freed the occupied areas,^[3] which allowed the region to recover from the war and continue to develop as the centre of Šibenik-Knin county. Since then, the damaged areas of the city have been fully restored.

I find the history of this cities and countries interesting, because the more of these places you visit, the more you realize all of Europe is entwined together.

Our tour guide who took us to Krka National Park (more on that in a bit) explained to us that the wars here weren’t religious, but were more for independence.

Under Tito and Yugoslavian rule, all money and resources went to central Yugoslavia, and very little back to the people. Croatia is mostly Catholic. Serbs are Orthodox. And Bosnia muslim.

So they are very proud to be free now. But while the war destroyed most of Croatia’s industry, tourism is exploding town here, and people like Bill Gates, the King of Jordan, and many other bring their yachts down here because it hasn’t yet been discovered by the rest of the world.

Tannis and I felt so lucky seeing this country for the first time, that we were blown away and amazed at it’s beauty. Signing up for an excursion, we then went and saw Krka National Park.

This national park has 17 beautiful waterfalls that people from all over the world come to enjoy.

The water is so clear you can see schools of fish swimming everywhere.

You can’t just swim anywhere. They are trying to protect the environment and limit swimming to just one place. But man is it beautiful.

The swimming is by that bridge just down below the waterfalls on the left.

It was a hot day, and going for a dip in these cool pools felt very good.

After the park, it was off to the little town of Skradin.

This small town of 4000 was an old Roman town, the mostly now serves as a tourist destination.

We toured an old ruined tower

And basically just walked the town, enjoyed the sights, and felt good getting back onto the air conditioned bus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Venice

After a short one hour flight from Zurich Tannis and I very excited to start out two day tour of Venice!

Our hotel was very close to the main bus terminal and had a great view over looking one of the city’s many canals.

After a complimentary drink at the hotel we went for a walk

Venice is unlike any other city I have every seen. It’s a city in Northeastern Italy built across a group of 117 little islands.

These islands are separated by bridges and canals.

The name is derived from the ancient people who lived here from 10th century BC, the Veneti.

And the Republic of Venice was a major maritime power during the middle ages and Renaissance.

Silk, grain, spice trades, as well as acting as a staging area for the Crusades all made Venice an important centre of commerce and art as well as very wealthy. Which you can see as soon as you walk in any of it’s amazing ancient churches. Though some of the city looks old and crumbly today, you can feel the wealth it must of once commanded as soon as you step inside.

Venices history is interesting. It played a big role in the Renaissance. But after the Napoleonic Wars it was annexed by the Austrian Empire, until it eventually became a part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1866 which wasn’t all that long ago.

I find his interesting, because when you look at countries, especially in Europe, you always think well that’s the way it’s always been. But not so. Some of these countries challenge allegiances and ownership many times over their history.

And up until the 15th century Venice was very much it’s own independent city state. It’s decline started around this time, after aiding Constantinople against the Turks.

And then Christopher Columbus discovering the New World in 1492, along with Vasco da Gama of Portugal finding a sea route to India destroyed Venice’s land route monopoly. Venice’s oared galleys were at a disadvantage when it came to traversing the great oceans, and therefore Venice was left behind in the race for colonies.

Needless to say, the city played a major part of Europe’s development, has some amazing art and architecture.

One interesting knick knack you see in a lot of the tourist shops here are masks.

It seems masks, or masquerade balls, were a thing the nobility practiced here a lot in the days of old. So masks are something that are definitely popular here in Venice.

But without a doubt, the most striking features of Venice are the over 400 canals and bridges criss-crossing the city and walkways.

Eventually Tannis and I made our way to Basilica San Marco (a bit square on the edge of the city along the sea), and once there we prompted took an elevator to the top of this tower.

Where we were treated with some wonderful views of the city.

Once back on ground, we toured the big church itself.

Ofter called the Gold Church (because of all the gold inside) it was the center of workship here in Venice, and many important events happened in the square.

Notice anything special about this clock?

Look closely at the time… see anything strange?

It’s 24 hours! There are 24 numbers going around the outside. So the current time is.

XI = 11 5=5 so.. 11:05am.

Here’s me making some adjustments to the tower we climbed…

That’s looks about right.

After that, it was back to the hotel to pick up our bags, and head off to the boat for our cruise.

It took Tannis and I a while to find the boat (we took a few wrong turns).

But once there, and once pulling out of harbour, we got to see Venice in a whole new light.

Nice yacht! So that was Venice. Kind of a cross between a museum and a ghost town. Almost everything there is for tourists. But man they have some incredible history, and it is truly unique with how it was built out of marsh land, on all these wooden stilts that eventually turned into petrified stone.

There are some challenges however with global warming, and flooding occurs all the time here. So we will have to see how they handle that.

But a beautiful city, a wonderful place to visit. And while going through it I couldn’t help but recall this seen from one of my favorite James Bond films growing up.

 

 

Lucerne Switzerland

Today it was off to Lucerne Switzerland. Tannis and I hopped on a train in Zurich that swished us 100km to this central German speaking town in the heart of Switzerland.

Lucerne is central Switzerlands most populous town with a population about 80,000 people. It’s a nexus for economics, transportation, culture, and media in the region.

Owning to its location on the shore of Lake Lucerne, it is within sight of the Swiss Alps. But its most famous landmark is the one pictured below. The Chapel Bridge.

This wooden bridge, named after the nearby St. Peter’s Chapel, is the worlds oldest surviving truss bridge. It serves as the city’s symbol and is one of Switzerland’s main tourist attractions.

Needless to say it was beautiful to look at, is adorned in many beautiful flowers, and as you will find, I couldn’t stop taking pictures of it. It was so pretty.

Heidi I had forgotten is Swiss (a series short stories about a young girl living with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps).

And cow bells, chocolate, Swiss Army knives, and those St. Bernard dogs are all definitely Swiss tourist knick knacks.

Don’t I have a lovely model to take pictures of?

Anyways, after Chapel bridge we continued on our walk along the canal around Old Town.

We eventually then came to another of Switzerland’s most popular and moving displays – The Lion Monument.

Historically, the Swiss have always had a strong tradition of hiring out mercenaries to other Kings and Queens around Europe. This memorial commemorates those Swiss who died defending the King of France during the French Revolution.

The monument is dedicated Helvetiorum Fidei ac Virtuti which means ‘To the loyalty and bravery of the Swiss’.

It’s hard to tell from the pictures, but when you round the corner and see it for the first time it is a really moving sculpture hewn right into the rock.

It’s much bigger that it looks, and it shows a lion, impaled by a spear, covering a shield bearing the fleur-de-lis, along with another shield bearing the coat of arms of Switzerland.

Mark Twain called it the sadest and most moving piece of rock in the world.

After that it was up to an higher part of town where an old wall and towers still stand called the Musegg Wall.

These towers and this old wall, while similar to Visby, offer a stunning view of the surrounding area and valley which Lucerne  was built around the lake.

After that it was back down into the town where we saw Needle Dam. This ingenious dam system, installed in 1860, is still used to this day to control the water level of Lake Lucerne.

You can see one of the wooden needles sticking out here.

And after walking back along the lake we arrived back at the lovely Chapel Bridge.

The day started off cold, wet, and pouring rain, but by this time it the afternoon had turned hot. That’s when Tannis and I decided to sit down and have one of our favorite drinks – Radler.

This drink, also known as a shandy, or Panache is a popular summer drink containing beer and lemonade. Popular in Germany/Austria where we came across it last year, we were sure happy to be able to experience one beside the lake on this hot summer day.

And just after that is when the skies opened up and a big rain storm rolled in!

Snapping one last picture of the bridge, we retreated to the central train station, hopped on the train, and rolled back into Zurich.

Where we made our way back to our hotel via our trolley car up the mountain. A great day and one we won’t soon forgot.

 

Zurich Switzerland

This being our first time to Switzerland, Tannis and I didn’t really know what to expect with Zurich. We heard it was expensive (which it is), we heard it was very pretty and beautiful (which is also is), and it’s a cute little city of only 380,000 people situation on it’s own lake.

It was a hot day (25c). Zurich is more like Stockholm than London. Good clean streets. No garbage. First class public transportation (London has good if noisy trains).

It’s a very pretty city. It has an Old Town, like Stockholm’s Gamlastan. With a canal going through it, several old churches, and a lovely walk way on each side which Tannis and I took in our first afternoon.

Zurich is expensive! Right up there, maybe even more than Olso. The currency is the Swiss Franc (CHF), and things here are basically double what they cost back home in Canada.

Needless to say, Tannis and I didn’t feel like paying a lot for an expensive lunch, so we instead went to the local Co-op and take our lunch and ate along the canal instead.

After that Tannis went back to the hotel to checkin, and Jon went on to visit the National Swiss Museum. Which I will save for another post.

But after a good day of walking, it was back to the hotel for a swim, and then just enjoying the sunset from our balcony over looking the city.

Couple other thoughts and first impressions on Zurich. When we first got to the city, it seemed rather dead. Like no one was around.

This could have been because we just came from London, which is like crazy town, but it seemed that the city no one was hear, and the only people wondering the streets were other tourists.

 

Seems lots of Swiss take their holidays now, and that not as many people to visit. Still very nice. Was also a relief to be around fewer people, in a quieter city after London.

Also this city is clean. Like Stockholm clean. Much different from London. They obviously clean the streets here daily, and for such a small population, they have an extensive rail network. Very easy to get around.

Last days in London

Apologies to regular readers. The images on the blog are going to be of slightly lower quality because I have used up most of my disk space on this blog. So if you notice a difference. It’s because of that.

Well, we spent our last days of London going to the British National Museum, seeing a play, just visiting that institution known as Harrods.

The British National Museum is probably my favorite museum in the world.

It’s literally walks you through all of mankinds history, starting with the birth of civilization in Mesopotamia, Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, right up to the middle ages.

It contains priceless artefacts like the Rosetta Stone, Paragon Statues from greece, among many other treasures the British secured and brought back at the height of their empire.

We then popped by Harrods for a look at some high end goods in this fine store.

And then it was off to #1 Rowan Terrace in Hammersmith.

This is where Lucas, Tannis and I lived when we were in London, and also the place where we got the name Rowan from.

And a local pub.

We then saw the play Wicked that night. It was very good.

And the previous day I had the honor of visiting one of Englands greatest secrets and weapons of the Second World War. Bletchley Park. Where Alan Turing and the Code breakers did their incredible work cracking the German Enigma machine during WW2.

Which was also popularized this years with the Academy Award winning film, The Initiation Game.

I have lots to say and post about this, but think I will leave it for another day, as I am behind a bit on the blogging and I am currently typing this from our balcony in Zurich Switzerland which I have just started studying.

Needless to say, England was wonderful, had a lovely fast week in London with Elizabeth and the kids (thank you so much Elizabeth) and Tannis and I are looking forward to a fun two weeks together as we celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. Yay!

And it also brings to a close our time as a family here in Europe, which as been absolutely wonderful. I will say some more on this later. Just noting that this is where the kids go home, to resume their lives in Canada, and leave Europe behind for now. Who knows what the future will bring them.

See you all back in Canada!

 

 

 

 

Tower of London

Hi all. Today we saw one of London’s most popular tourist attractions – the Tower of London.

The kids have been excited for this one as they all had heard of the Tower through Paddington Bear books, and brushed they’ve had with it in books and movies growing up.

Well today was the day to see it up close. And of course we started with the crown jewels.

You aren’t allowed to take pictures of the crown jewels, but these are the jewels Queen Elizabeth, and every other King and Queen of England before here wore at their coronation.

They are truly some beautiful pieces in their, including a 550 Carat diamond in a sceptre.

Other that, it was off to get a tour of the tower with the Beef Eater!

This guy, Bob, was great. He had lots of wonderful stories about the history of the castle, what it was like to work & live there as a beef eater, along with how the beef eaters got their name.

They are called beef eaters because in the old days only the King and his knights got to eat red meat. It was expensive and they needed to be big and strong to fight.

Well the kings bodyguards, or wardens, got the scraps. They got to eat beef too. So they got a derogatory name from the peasants of beef eater. When then got turned into a positive when Beefeater gin came out in the 1800s.

Anyways, he was very good. And the rest of the afternoons was spent wondering around the castle, listening to our audio guides and watching the odd show.

No one knows where the ravens came from, or why they were started as a tradition, but now they are a permanent fixture at the tower, and they though is so long as the ravens never leave, the tower will never fall.

After that it was off for some fish and chips at Bailey’s (a place Tan and Elizabeth found on trip advisor).

Though it’s not my favourite, it was fun having some real english fish and chips.

And we walked home and crashed pretty hard after that. A good full day!

London Day 2 – Harry Potter

Today we visited the Warner Bros. Harry Potter studio.

Now to be clear, this isn’t an amusement park with rides. Instead, it’s the actual studio where they filmed all 8 Harry Potter films. And they setup a tour showing all the various sets and props.

Like Harry’s closest under the stairs.

But it was also a testament to how big, and influential these books really got. Especially here in England.

Think about this for a second. The entire Harry Potter universe came from one person’s head – JK Rowling. It must have been a powerful idea. Because it is what gave her the energy, creativity, passion, voice, and story to span 7 books.

But more than that, it must have taken an immense amount of hacking, re-writing, editing, and soul searching to bring all that work, indeed that entire world, together on some kind of coherent way.

This is an amazing feet. Any author will tell you how daunting this is, and this it almost does feel like divine intervention in terms of where the ideas and creativity come from.

You start off in the hall of Hogwarts where they filmed all the dinner scenes.

This was really neat to be standing in the hall where all the songs, dinners, and events happened right in the movies (which we luckily just finished watching this year). So the kids were really into it.

They had lots of set displays, showing the various rooms where different scenes happened. What was also very interesting was learning not only did they make these films over 10 years, but during that time they kids also went to school right on the set!

There had rotating shifts of kids acting for 3-4 hours, having a break, going to school for studies. And then coming back. This is how they went to school on at the studio.

Near the end of the tour was the crown jewel of the studio. A 1/24 sized replica of Hogwarts School in it’s entirety. It was breath taking.

This was the actual miniature they used to shop all the Hogwarts exterior scenes, with additional green screen and CGI.

The details was amazing. From all the bridges, to the 300 LED lights embedded in side.

Even when I see this picture now, I feel like I can walk into this church!

And at the end, every person how worked on the films got their own signed wand box as a sign of thanks.

The kids got some wands in the gift shops. We all had a great time. And I for one, even though I am not a huge fan (I am more or a Lord of the Rings middle earth kind of guy) was thoroughly impressed and reminded of how much work actually goes into making this films.

If you are in London, and are remotely a Harry Potter fan, you should definitely check the studio out.

 

 

 

London Day 1 – Hop on Hop off

Allo allo. We arrived in London last night and met up with a young Canadian lady who agreed to accompany us on a tour of this fine old English town.

Today we decided to take the hop on hop off and get a feel for the city by touring via bus.

We drove around town and first decided to get off and checkout the national art gallery around Trafalgar square.

Little know fact about Lord Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar. The French and Spanish had 32 ships. The English around 27. During the battle Nelson made the then unconventional move of giving his captains freedom of movement, and breaking he ships into two columns. The result was good.

The english didn’t lose a single ship, and instead took the cannons and melted them down to produce this monument which stands today. Way to go Nelson.

After Trafalgar square we then walked to West Minster Abbey.

It was unfortunately closed for public viewing, but what a church. Amazing architecture. Truly beautiful to behold.

We then had some lunch along the river Thames.

Got some really good nuts from a vendor on the bridge (thanks Liz!).

Hop on the bus again and this time got off at St Pauls Cathedral.

Probably my favorite church, this is beautiful. Designed by the Chrisopher Wren, along which many other of Londons best buildings, it’s gorgeous. Mostly because it actually let’s light in. Not so dark like Notre Dame.

After that it was a quick boat tour.

Where we saw Tower Bridge, the Tower of London (which we are going to do another day).

And then it was time for a walk back to the tube through Hyde Park after passing #10 Downing Street.

And Buckingham. The Queen summers in Windsor and leaves the key under the mat for the tourists in the summer.

And at this point we were all pretty exhausted. So we headed home for some Marks and Spensers. Fun day!

 

 

 

 

 

Swedish West Coast Day 6 – Koster Islands

Sweden has group of islands that have been marked off as a national park called Koster Islands or Kosterhavet.

Situated very close to Norway, these islands are a popular tourist destination as they boast some of the sunniest weather which makes them popular with the Swedes.

We hoped on a ferry and decided to spend the day exploring these islands to see what they were all about.

We got there and quickly realized that the best way to see the islands was probably going to be by bike. The guy renting the bike had once spent New Years eve in Winnipeg (he loved the spare ribs) and was kind enough give us a great deal.

We cycled through the island, noting the many cute little summer stugas along with hostels and accommodations for visiting tourists.

Finally we reached our ultimate destination. The beach.

It was a pretty hot day. But this day we were prepared. We all had our swim suits on and couldn’t wait to get into the ocean.

After soaking up the sun and having a small lunch we brought with, it was time to head back. And that’s when Tan suggested we get some fresh sea food for dinner.

So we did! We got fresh shrimp, a really nice spread, some sill, a baguette, and our neighbor (the people we were renting the house from) had just caught and smoked some fresh haddock that day. It was delicious.

After that we sat around, talked about life, careers, Elon Musks Master Plan Part Deux, and just enjoyed the sunset and evening around the house.

This is us trying to get Lucas to pose without crossing his arms and looking buff.

And of course watched another beautiful sunset, with many people still enjoying the water at 10pm at night.

 

 

 

 

Swedish West Coast Day 5 – Smögen

Today started off pretty cloudy and dreary. Didn’t like a good day to go to the beach. So we instead decided to head off and check out one of Sweden’s liveliest “summer towns” on the West Coast – Smögen.

After about an hour drive we pulled into Smögen, and decided to park just on the outside of the town center. We could tell this was a popular place just because of the amount of traffic we were seeing.

But undeterred, we parked, crossed the big bridge, and headed into town. Notice on this picture below that there is a pier on the left hand side with no one on it. That’s because it was cold and cloudy.

Put still very pretty non the less. So we headed into town to find one of Sweden’s few fresh fish markets.

Nope. Not here.

Ah.. here!

We had a good fill of fish soupa, shrimp, cray fish, and lax. All great and fresh.

By then the weather had started to change a bit and it was actually getting rather warm and nice. We decide to continue through the town and that’s when we noticed there were some serious boats in this town.

The cause way coming in was packed with big yachts, sail boat, motor boats, you name it. Some really nice ones too mostly from Sweden and nearby Norway.

By this time we were sweltering. We decided at that point to wander the rest of the way of the island back to the car, when Brynn noticed some people swimming at a secluded nearby watering hole.

Craving a dip in the ocean, we stripped down to our skimmies (we hadn’t thought to bring our swim suits-we’ll never make that mistake again).

And before you knew it we were in the water cooling off. It felt great.

Oh that felt so nice. The water was still fairly cold, but not too bad. Maybe 18c. Sitting in the sun after felt even better.

By this time Tannis, Lucas, and Brynn decided to head off and get some groceries, while Rowan and I continued walking around the island taking pictures as we went.

Here’s the inlet we were swimming in as we walked away.

The island archipelago were was really neat. All sorts of different landscapes.

Just look at it. A strange combination of lunar rock, pocketed with scruffy grasses, shrubs, and little pools of water.

We then saw the another side of the town in the distance and continued our way there.

Ah. Finally made it.

After that Tan called and said she was waiting for us with groceries. So Rowan and I then made our way back after snapping a few more.

We then came to the big bridge. And do you remember how in the beginning it was barren because of how cold it was? Well not anymore.

The people were out soaking up the sun. The Swedes are like that. It’s like they all stop what they are doing as soon as the sun comes out and get into it. Because you never know how long it’s going to last!

And that was our day! We drove home. Rowan and I went for one more dip in the ocean. We made chilli. And just relaxed watching the sun set. A great day!

Yes that’s Rowan.