Day 14
Dubrovnik - Lokrum Island

We were up early again and started our walk of the old town at 8.30am just to beat the tourists who come from the ships anchored in the harbour.   It was wonderful to climb and stroll along this magnificient wall, built all those years ago and still standing after the wars they have gone through.  It took us about 1 1/2 hours to go around the whole city and we just couldn't help clicking our cameras every few minutes. 
We then took a boat over to Lokrum Island, just a 10min ride.  Off the coast of Dubrovniks old town.  It was a pleasant change to get away from the crowds and stroll around this beautiful Island which had only a Monastery in 10th century, now it caters for tourists with a few restaurants, bars and swimming spots off the rocks.  There are many peacocks and also rabbits just running wild and very tame as they get fed very well from the tourists.   The Game of Thrones was filmed there but didn't mean much to us as we don't follow the programme, all very interesting all the same.
We took a leisurely ride back with a stroll through the old town again and back to Hotel to get ready for our dinner tonight and farewell to our new friends

.

Day 13
Dubrovnik
Another early morning as we took the ferry back to the mainland and drove onto Dubrovnik, we had a change of plan due to the thousands of people in the city as they have numerous cruise ships in, so we met a guide in the Old town and she told us some of the interesting history of this amazing city.  We took a tour with her and learned quite a lot about the earthquake in the 1600s and the wars plus the recent one in 1991, quite sobering to know that one was only in our lifetime.   This walled city is often referred to as the 'pearl of the Adriatic'.   After checking into our Hotel we took a bus back to town and went on the cable car up to the top of the mountain and had a marvelous view of this beautiful city and wall.
We look forward to climbing and walking around the wall tomorrow, a definite highlight.

Day 12
Mljet Island
We stayed at Odisej Hotel right on the waterfront with our balcony looking onto all the leisure boats and ferries coming and going, a wonderful spot to stay for two nights in Pomena harbour.
We started with a walk to the one of the natural salt water Lakes, Veliko Jezero, the bigger of the two, approx 12km.  We collected our bikes and cycled around the Lake, stopping at a quant seaside restaurant for drinks before cycling on to the end.   We thoroughly enjoyed the 12km cycle ride with wide paths and not too many people, was a great way to spend the morning.
After that we took a boat to the Island in the middle of the Lake to the Monastery (12 th century) which is now just a restaurant and used for weddings.   We had lunch of course and then took the boat back.   Free time to do what we wanted, some swam in the Adriatic or walked around the beautiful island watching the boats come and go.  We enjoyed a buffet dinner at the Hotel which was very good.

Day 11 Mljet Island

At the start of today we went by ferry again back to the mainland, only 30mins.  We had a long drive today along the peninsula, very windy roads which we are used to but not the Americans or Aussies, some took travel pills, some went to sleep.  On the way we stopped at a fruit stall selling dried figs, candied orange peel and sugar coated almonds, an area which grows a lot of citrus and anything else, very fertile land in the valley. 
We were fortunate enough  to have a boat ride out to the oyster beds.  The lovely man who ran the business (very big business too) was excellent in stopping and after pulling the oysters out of the sea, he set to shuck some for us to eat.  Those who were fans enjoyed the fresh taste with wine and cheese as well.   A great experience and one we all enjoyed immensely.
We stopped at Ston for lunch, where the have an ancient stone wall for protection in years gone by, it's the second largest next to The Great wall of China, this one is 7.5kms long, we walked to the top and down again, good excercise for the day and just before the rain set in.  After that a compulsory sit down under the big umbrellas with a coffee and ice-cream, then onto our beautiful seaside setting for dinner.  We had sea bream, very tasty, salad and for dessert crepes and cream and wine of course.  A great day, such an interesting Country shown to us by an expert guide and driver.

Day 10  Hvar Island

After an early start today, we left Split on the ferry for 2 1/2 hours to Stari Grad on Hvar Island, this town is known for fields of lavender, heather and rosemary, which we saw already made into smellies in the many stalls on the roadsides.  After some free time to wander we stopped at a wayside to eat lunch of fresh bread and left-over lamb from the night before, very nice too. 
We called into the village of Jelsa (which is surrounded by pine forrest and wonderful beaches) to try local grape variety Plavac Mali at a wine tasting cellar modelled on ancient Roman dining rooms.  Located underground and carved out of stone, its the same method of construction as was used to create Diocletians cellars.  We tasted a Rose, white and a red, all very nice, also had nibbles to go with each wine.
Just when we thought we had seen the best seaside towns, we arrived in the town of Hvar, what a wonderful place that was, we stayed in a resort which had everything and a short stroll along the sea front took us to the town, humming with people, boats, shops and restaurants.   We had dinner and strolled home.  Quite a day...

Day 9  Split

Today we were taken on a tour of Split with a local guide, who was excellent and knew all her history of which there was plenty.  The city dates back 1800 years to the times when the Romanemperor Diocietian built a monumental imperial residence for his retirement.  Today it is still standing and is a warren of narrow cobblestone streets of churches, chapels and museums.  We visited Diocietions Palace which was built in 295AD and is the heart of the city.  A living monument, framed by four gates.    We visited the oldest and smallest catholic church in the world which was beautiful, they all get to be the same after awhile but this was beautiful and worth looking at.

We also went to the town on Trogir, a quiant seaside town, we were all about churched out so in our free time we sat for a coffee and beers and watched the world go by.
A truly beautiful part of the world.   We ended the day with a trip up the mountain to a restaurant high on the hills where we had spit roasted lamb, the same place Rick Stein went to on his TV series, From Venice to Istanbul.  Quite wonderful;

Day 8 Split

After breakfast today we left for Split, on the way we stopped in the town of Sibenik.   We had a short tour of the town and visited St Jacob's Cathedral, a 15th century UNESCO protected building.  As it was Sunday there was a service starting and we listened to the choir before leaving.  A short stop for refreshments and a walk around to soak up the atmosphere in another beautiful old town, where they were the first to get electric light.
We then drove to a beautiful seaside town called Primosten, one of the most famous and picturesque small towns on the Adriatic.   After walking up to the top of the hill to view the town we explored the stone houses, churches, narrow alleys and lanes around this old town.  The beach was very stony but beautiful, the day was warm and sunny.  We had lunch right on the seaside watching the flash boats come in and out.

Then we were onto Split, the second largest city in Croatia, located in the heart of the Dalmatian coast and set on the azure waters of the Adriatic Sea, with the coastal mountains in the background.
We ended the day with dinner at a restaurant in Split with our group as two ladies leave us tomorrow and two couples joined, one from States and one from Sydney, so we will enjoy getting to know some more people.  The two ladies leaving (Annette and Diane) have been great fun and we will miss them, but will keep in touch I'm sure.

Day 7

Wahoo free day and off to the laundromat for a load of washing, after that we walked around this walled ancient city of Zadar, was once the capital city of Dalmatia.  We saw the Roman Forum built in the 1st century and St. Donatus Church which dates back to the 9th century, most buildings were built between the 12th and 16th centuries.  The weather was beautiful and warm, so after walking and lunching we had a lazy day by the pool.  Later in the day we had another walk to the city to see the setting sun, hear the sea organ and the solar light display, all quite wonderful, on this beautiful walk along the seafront.
The man made sea organ works with the motion of the waves and 35 pipes to create a musical sound.

Day 6

Once again we were up early to beat the tourists (we thought). But our guide, big H knew what he was doing and took us in the other direction, so we were always walking the opposite way as the walkways were only wide enough for single file each way.  Plitvice Lakes National Park is 19 hectares of wooded hills that surround 16 stunning lakes all connected by a series of waterfalls.  We were blown away by the scenery around every corner, the clear water, the stillness, the waterfalls, all so stunning.  We walked for 4hours and did 8kms around our circuit, there were many more trails we could have taken, one could spend a week in this beautiful spot. The tourists came in droves, mainly Asians and took photos galore, they are something else with the selfies.

We drove onto Zadar, a harbour city full of history.  On arriving we had a quick tour around part of the city which still had some of the old Roman walls.   We have a free day tomorrow so will make the most of the time we have to explore.

Day 5 Thursday 22/9/17

After visiting the Roman amphitheatre we travelled inland to Opatija a former resort town for wealthy Austro-Hungarian families. We walked along the centuries-old Franz Joseph Promenade, a coastal footpath that stretches from Volosko to Lovran. By now the sun is out and is warming up nicely, so reminded me of the French riviera, with private beaches in front of flash hotel resorts, we enjoyed the walk with an ice-cream in hand. (yummy flavours here).
We carried on to lunch at a stop on the motorway on our way to the Plitvice Lakes where we are staying the night.
On the way we passed through a valley with many abandoned houses due to the Siberians coming in 1990s trying to defeat the Croatians so they could gain more land.  Some of them stayed and over time they discovered it was too hard to live there so a lot of them left and the houses are just standing looking so derelict, it was sad to see. (a very poor area of Croatia).
Once we got into the National Park it was beautiful and we are looking forward to a full day tomorrow walking around the many Lakes here.

Day 4 of our Croatian tour

We woke to a wonderful sight of snow on the surrounding mountains, Julian ranges around the town on Bled, such a great little alpine village.  We left at 8.30am an drove out of Solvenia and onto Croatia.  Motovun was our first stop (2 hours drive). Motovun sits on the top of a cone-shaped hill 277 metres above sea level. The forests are famous for truffle hunting.   We enjoyed a truffle lunch of truffle cheese, pasta, omelette, spread on buns and truffle ice-cream, washed down with white and red wines from the region.  We all thoroughly enjoyed the new taste of truffles and continued to explore this medieval town on the top of the hill, we walked around the walls and learned a bit more history of the town from our guide, (big H as we call him because we cannot pronounce his name).  He is Croatian and a lovely guy.
We continued on to Rovinj, one of the best kept towns on the Adriatic coast, right on the top of a hill.  We also visited the venetian-style St.Euphemia church, dedicated to the early Christian martyr whose marble coffin is said to have floated to the Rovinj shoreline.
We then travelled to Pula and stayed the night.   The morning was spent walking around the city and exploring the Roman Amphitheatre, which is the 6th largest surviving amphitheatre in the world.  Built in the 1st century.  It was designed to hold up to 20,000 spectators.  The 30mtr high wall is made entirely of local limestone.

Tuesday 18th September
Today we awoke to wet and cold weather.  They have had a very hot summer here in Solvenia and now the draught has broken and have had so much rain continuing today, unfortunately.    We set off at 9am and drove in our mini bus to Bohinj where we caught a cable car to the top of Vogel Mountain, a height of 1535m.  As we came closer to the top of the mountain it began to snow and once we were at the top it was quite a snow storm, which excited us all until we became cold with snow falling everywhere, in some ways it was wonderful but we couldn't walk around and admire the views of the Lake below, so just stayed inside and looked in wonder at the amazing scene outside as the snow flakes fell and settled onto the trees.   Even our guide was surprised and said 'he had never had that happen before' whilst taking a tour up the mountain, there was always plenty of cloud but never such a snow storm.
After lunch we went by a special boat, rowed by an experienced rower to St Marys church on the only Island in Solvenia across Bled Lake, it was still raining but we were all dressed for it so no one was complaining.
Then we were off to  Bled Castle is one of the oldest castles in Solvenia, 16th century.  We had wonderful views of the area with Bled township in the distance.

We arrived back at our hotel early due to the weather, still raining, so we treated ourselves to the specialty of Bled and that is a cream cake (somewhat like our custard square) was very nice and enjoyed by all.

LeavingVenice

We were up early and left Venice with our Perigrine tour guide and group at 8.30am. The side door of the Hotel had their own jetty and a boat was waiting to take us back to the mainland.  After driving down some of the canals we opened out into the channel where the cruise ships and all other vessels sail.  It was quite rough but we had a good driver and in no time were back on dry land to meet up with our driver and mini van for the tour of Slovenia and Croatia.   There are 11 people on our tour, six from NZ, four from Australia and one from Canada who all seem lovely people so we should have a good time.
First stop on tour was the Postojna Caves (approx 2 hours drive).  A network of 20 kms of passages, galleries and chambers, Postogna is the largest classic karst cave in Europe.  An amazing ride in the train passing stalactites and stalagnites before we stopped and were let off to walk the amazing trails through the caves.  We were blown away with the enormity and scale of the underground system which was 4kms walk.   After lunch we travelled to the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana (approx 40mins).  A city full of style and a treasure-trove of history, monuments, churches and museums, unfortunately it started raining and so cut our walking tour short.  We also took a ride on the funicular to the castle on the hill with great views of the city.
Our last stop was Bled for the night where we are staying a Kompas Hotel.

Last day in Venice
We had one whole day in Venice to do what we liked, it was luxury to just wander the streets and alleyways and get lost amongst the shops, restaurants and bridges of this most fascinating place.  It must be very hard living in a place like this as all goods have to come over by boat and that takes time.  We arrived and were met at the airport by a driver who took us as far as he could, then we hopped aboard a water taxi and had a lovely boat ride along the Grand canal with great views of the city all lit up.  As they had a high tide we couldn't go all the way to our mooring, so were dropped off and walked about 10mins to our Hotel, (a kindly man taking our luggage over bridges and along alleyways).  We stayed at the Hotel Kette and was a lovely place to stay as were not far from St. Marks square, so a leisurely walk there was easy.   The weather was superb and the cruise ships were in and there were people everywhere, we managed to get into some quieter streets and enjoyed wandering in peace and quiet.
We had two wonderful meals here in the same restaurant and as we left there were people waiting outside and had been there for quite awhile, just wanting to get in for a meal (and it was a big restaurant), now that wouldn't happen at home.

Day 5
As we had our last day in Zurich we took a bus out to Rhine Falls, one hours drive into the countryside.  We took a boat out on the Lake and experienced a close up view of the falls and thought they were exhilarating to be so close, a great trip for anyone to take if staying in Zurich.
We left Zurich that same night at 6pm and 45 mins later were in Venice, flying over the snow covered Alps and looking down onto Venice was wonderful.  Were met at the airport by a very friendly helpful driver and taken to a water taxi where we travelled (with our luggage) onto our Hotel, as they had a very high tide we couldn't go all the way by boat so were met by another friendly helpful man and walked to our Hotel right in the middle of shops, restaurants, singing, chatting and general noise and not far from St. Marks square, has to be the most unique city in the world.

Day 3 and 4
We flew out of HK at 11.30pm and headed for Zurich arriving early in the morning, so another busy day as we were able to book into our room at the Hotel and made the most of day one exploring Zurich and finding the tram system very convenient and easy to use.  Unfortunately we had rain all afternoon so tried to keep dry until it abated by evening.  Very much cooler here as Autumn is on its way.  
The next day we travelled by train to Bern the capital of Switzerland and spent the day walking around this beautiful city, the architecture, history and beauty all around kept us busy for a long time.
The train journey took an hour each way and going there we had upstairs luxury finding the journey so pleasant, on the way back we did just the same and settled in, we had half the trip done and had tickets checked to be told we were in first class and did we wish to pay extra or go down to second class, well we stumbled back and squashed ourselves in with everyone else.   Very enjoyable day out.
Had another beautiful meal out in Zurich old town, a wonderful city.

Our holiday to Croatia and Amalfi Coast, via HK, Zurich and Venice.

Day 1 and 2

Flying from Napier at 8pm made for a very long day as we left Auckland at 12 midnight and travelled to Hong Kong.  A bumpy flight took 11 hrs and we arrived early in the morning HK time.   We made the most of the day and took a lift to the top of the tallest tower. Sky 100, 393mtrs above sea level, we had a marvelous view of HK a huge city in a very small space.  
First thing we noticed, after the heat that hit us,  was the expansion as there was construction going on all over the city ( a big change in the 10yrs since we visited) it is a booming city.  We stayed at the Eaton Hotel, very central and very enjoyable to stay at.  Once again we were blown away with the efficiency of the railway system running from the Airport to city and back and made for very easy arriving and leaving

We had a full day booked on a tour taking us to Lantau Island where we visited an old and unique fishing village, the Giant Buddha which is situated at the top of Ngong Ping Plateau. The statue is more than 34 metres high and is the largest seated bronze Buddha on earth.  Quite an impressive sight.  We had a vegetarian lunch at the monastery which was most enjoyable and headed on to the gondola, the Ngong Ping 260 sky rail cable car.  The 25 minute trip was spectacular and we opted for the glass bottom carriage which added further excitement.
A wonderful two days in Hong Kong and apart from the heat we all enjoyed our stay very much.