2 Nights in Zagreb

Again I totally expected Zagreb to be an eastern block city outfitted with the typical soviet bland concrete buildings. Not so! Wonderful, vibrant and people that tend to avoid jeans and dress up for their afternoon coffee.We stayed in a five star called the Regent which is where the Orient Express would drop off its passengers.
A couple of people came from the US embassy to meet with Kathy yesterday and she has an embassy car pick her up this morning. It'll probably be someone in a Subaru although if it's got the flags Kathy will phone me and I'll take a picture when she comes back. We joked that they will probably give her some bus tickets to get home. The kids and I are going exploring and will report our interesting finds in our blogs later.

A Castle a Day

On our way to Zagreb, I took a quick photo of a castle in the distance while we were doing the speed limit of 130 (kilometers that is). We felt like we were standing still while the BMWs, Mercedes and Audies streamed by us.

On our way home, Guy spotted some Griffon Vultures in the distance. We took a narrow dirt road to get closer but we decided to turn around as the road was getting worse. Then the Vultures took a turn and rode the thermals right over our car. These vultures are on the verge of extinction as there are only 140 left. They feed on sheep and there are less and less sheep herders on the island. The herders don't mind the vultures as they only eat the sick and diseased sheep. Their wingspan is an unbelievable 9 feet.

More pictures from the island of Losinj. This last picture was the first experience the kids had with a turkish toilet. I will spare you the details!

The kids got to play soccer with some of the locals in the town square.

Night on the Island of Losinj

The canal with Kathy and Audrey in front is what seperates the islands of Cres and Losinj. We ended up at the sleepy fishing village of Mali Losinj where we spent the night.










Sea captains built their houses here and put up money for a huge church.
The island is known for it's dolfin population that is now in protected waters. There was also a 2000 year old life size statue found in the waters of this area in 1998 that is being restored and will be exibited within a year.

Overnight on the Island of Losinj

Amazing trip to the island of Cres and Losinj. The islands are covered in rocks that have been made into walls. I think it was to pen in the sheep and to retain water on the slopes to irrigate the olive trees. They don't have many sheep there any more but there are a lot of olive trees.
the villages were very interesting with towers and fortifications that date back centuries.

Our Apartment in Rijeka

This is the view from our apartment terrace in Rijeka, Croatia (click on the picture to enlarge), looking out past the palm trees out to the Adriatic. The temperatures are ranging in the 80's to 85 and the water was warm enough for the kids to go swimming. We are told that they are having an indian summer and that the temperature will fall next week. Pretty amazing considering that we are at the same latitude as Portland, Oregon.
We have a 3 bedroom apartment with a nice balcony and the landlord keeps us supplied with desserts and fruit. As is typical in Europe there is no dishwasher or dryer, so we have to hang our "undies" outside for the world to see. It not that bad really.
There are several kids in the neighborhood for our kids to play with and everyone seems very nice. I was expecting more of a soviet block look to everything but that is not the case. It's more like the Italian Rivera. Everything has been exceeding our expectations.

The Island of Krk

We toured the island of Krk where the ancient royal family, the Francopans, built their castle before building the castle at Trsat in Rijeka. Ahh the sun, the sand and the Germans. This turned out to be the favorite haunt of the Deutch crowd. We were lucky as again we missed the tourist season.

A Castle a Day

On the other side of Rijeka is an old castle up on a hill. Again we were fortunate to get a guide to give us a private tour. This one even had a dungeon that was the highlight for Guy. It also provided a spectacular view of the city where Kathy works.

We are in the town of Pula, Croatia and the kids decide to pose like statues. We toured the Roman Ampitheater which is one of the two best preserved ( the other is the one in Rome).

Hohenschwangau Castle and the town

This is King Ludwigs parents castle called Hohenschwangau that is about a mile from the new one he built. We were in a small tour and the kids were able to ask a lot of questions.

The Kids First Castle

The kids are going to see hundreds of castles so I wanted the first one to be that special one. Neushweinstein Castle in Baveria was used in the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and as a model for the Disneyland castle.
It was a bit of a hike up the mountain but well worth it. The tour of the castle was amazing. Mad King Ludwig II spent lavishly and even though he was loved by his people he was drowned in a local lake suspiciously.

First night

We left Munich and drove south to a sleepy little village. This was the view out our window. Went to a great little family owned restaurant for a little German beer, sausage and sauerkraut.

Ok, maybe we packed way too much!

We were able to fit everything into the car. By the way this is considered a large car in Europe! The kids got a little squished but were happy.

Flight to Europe

Well, here we are on our way to Europe. It was a long day of travel. Left our house at 5 am and arrived Munich, Germany at midnight Pacific Time with a stopover in Philadelphia.