Blue Moon on the Blue Danube

We went on a cruise down the Danube tonight. Kinda cool that the second full moon within a given month is what is called a Blue Moon.

Pazin Cave

Near the center of the town of Pazin is an abyss that has a cave which inspired the famous writer Jules Verne, who in his novel Mathias Sandorf, takes his characters throughout the underground of the cave from Pazin to the Lim Canal. Some believe he also used it for inspiration in "Journey to the Center of the Earth".
We had arrived quite late and did not have time to go down into the abyss which is arched by a semicircular cave called Dante's lobby.

Kathy's Nephew Josh

Our nephew, Josh, came from London to spend the Christmas holiday with us. Thanks to our wonderful neighbors and friends, he got to experience a taste of traditional Croatia.We also got to spend some time touring villages along the Istrian Peninsula. Here' s Josh outside the village of Motovun in the Istrian wine country. 

The 3 Wise Guys

Zagreb had an great outdoor live nativity in front of the cathedral.

Zagreb city square was the place to be.

Willie

Had a nice dinner with our photographer friend Willie, a Fulbrighter who studied under Ansel Adams at Yosemite. We hope we can attend his exhibition in Zagreb next month.

Pula with a Cell Phone Camera

We have a visitor from London, Josh who we took to Pula on the Istrian Penninsula. Forgot the camera at home so I had to use my cell phone camera.
This is an incredibly well preserved 2,000 year old Temple of Augustus.

The Pula amphitheatre, which is also 2,000 years old, is among the six largest surviving Roman arenas in the World and is also the best preserved

Test Preparation?

Kathy's students take notes for their upcoming exam on the classroom wall.
Can you say "cultural difference"?
This is common practice here.

Did I mention that we don't have a dryer?

Downtown Rijeka hasn't seen Snow in 22 Years!

Snow in Rijeka

This is the view out our balcony this morning with about 7 inches of snow covering the palm trees. This is the first time in 5 years that they have had snow in Rijeka and of course they don't have any snow plows. Next week we will be back to 50 degree weather.

US Ambassador Foley

We had a great time at US Ambassador Foley's home for the American childrens Christmas party.

 

Kathy got to share our great experiences in Croatia with the Ambassador.

Mining Town of Labin

We toured the town of Labin where they mined for coal, alum and bauxite.

St Nicholas

The tradition in Croatia and other European countries on the 5th of December is to clean your shoes and place them by the door or the chimney. St Nicholas comes in the middle of the night to put either coal or goodies into the shoes depending on whether the children have been good or bad. For a couple of days beforehand downtown vendors sell branches (with docorations on them) to beat the bad children or at least threaten them.

The 4th Museum

 For about an hour we walked following the signs to find the Museum of Modern Art. We kept asking as we went and almost everyone kept pointing us in the opposite direction to the other museums, so we really can't blame anyone but ourselves. I was determined to follow the direction of the signs and we finally found this dilapidated old building that is going to become the "new" museum. I mentioned to some Croatians that in the US we build it first then put up the signs!

Different BigToys

Capuccino and Mr Smiley

Turns out there is a reason I don't smile for photos.

Cyclops?

We had a great dinner at a restaurant in Rovinj but I was somewhat fascinated by this picture in front of me. The restaurant was like a mini museum of this little fishing village.

Fishing Village of Rovinj

This popular tourist fishing village was originally an island that was made into a peninsula in 1763. At this time of the year the town is very quiet but you can easily see why it is so popular with the tourists in the summer. Quaint extremely narrow streets make it impossible for even the smallest Euro car to get through.

Town of Zminj

Another little town we went to called Zminj on the Istrian Peninsula. I thought the carving was interesting on the pulpit as haven't seen too many depictions of the devil on the inside of a church.