Cres, Croatia to Izola, Slovenia
May 8-15, 2002

Travelog 4 of 2002

May 8, 2002. I am sitting in the center of the village of Cres on the island of Cres, Latitude 44 degrees, 57.2 minutes North - Longitude 14 degrees, 22.77 minutes East. The island of Cres is adjacent to and east of the Istrian Peninsula. Cres is located about half way down the western side of the island, which is the longest island in the Adriatic. Kathy and Daline have returned to the boat with some supplies and I am waiting for the butcher shop to open so I can get some meat for supper. There is a special lamb fed and marketed on Cres. The lamb is fed on a salt-water nourished grass, which imparts a distinct flavor to the lamb. There is a patio type structure in the center of town which houses the vegetable market in the mornings and is used for cover form the rain or other inclement weather at other times. This is one of those rainy times.

Have you ever had a summer romance, perhaps associated with a trip with a relative to an unfamiliar place? You had an interchange with a new individual and got stirred to thinking how great life is. So it goes on a trip if it is viewed that way, the visits are usually short in length. In our travels I frequently get really excited about a new location and the environs. It is as though one has found something brand new and is difficult to describe the feelings associated with the new person or place. When I am writing this log I am reminded of each of you who receive it and enjoy sharing what I experience I am having but often can't find the right words to express my feelings. This adventure is a series of mini experiences so the analogy would be like having a series of “summer romances”. There is one great difference, I can share the details of this experience with you and write them down in detail for my enjoyment at a later time. I am aware that each mini experience is short lived and we will move to the next one. Most of the places we visit are most certainly not on the calendar to revisit but some we will visit again when we take the boat south from Izola, Slovenia and out of the Adriatic in the late summer. For those of you familiar with the Sea of Cortez, it would be like visiting San Juanico and enjoying the magic of the place knowing that when you depart, you will not return. You really would not want to spend the rest of your life in Juanico but it is a magical place for a visit. I can look to returning to the true long-term commitment of our place in Tucson and the true happiness that is shared there and among my friends in Tucson. I can tell all, write all and somehow hope to record the events of our journey in such a manner that I can relive them again someday.

Another way to look at is, if you were from Oslo and really, I mean really*, liked Mexican food and found out that you were going to spend a week in South Tucson. You could spend the whole week going from Mi Nidito to Crossroads to L & L, Michas and so on. Your memory would be of a smorgasbord of the finest Mexican food available and each would be different, but you really would be ready for some home cooking and this type of an experience with the many contrasts really enhances the wonderment of your true home. It is hard to describe.
*This has a special meaning to people from Tucson

Enough!

We are in Cres and about a 20-minute walk from town. The area has been a port of convenience for more than 2000 years. The protection is from all directions and the ACI Marina is outstanding. There is a classification of “Blue Flag” marina in Europe. Membership is earned and requires a very dedicated effort, with success, in keeping the marina clean and tidy. It is a sought after distinction and several of the ACI marinas have this designation. This is an exceptional one. For example consider an area between two facing lines of yachts. The boats are between 40 feet and 60 feet long and there is at least 100 feet between the bows. It is roomy and has two restaurants, a café/bar, market, chandlery, exquisite showers and heads, a few apartments that can be rented and a dentist’s office. The trip is enhanced by facilities such as this.

We have been here two days while a Sirocco moved through. A Sirocco is a weather system that comes from Africa and is associated with a low pressure over Europe. The low brings rain, we had that, and then the low pulls dry sand filled wind from Africa. The wind is not great but the change from rain to less than 10% humidity is abrupt and very noticeable. Today it is dry and we are leaving for Pula.

Pula is a town that we visited on the initial delivery trip in October 2000. The town is celebrating its 3000th anniversary, which means that they were celebrating their 2500th anniversary just shortly after Christopher sailed to the Americas. This is an attempt to get the age of this place in perspective. Some of the buildings and or monuments have survived especially the large coliseum that was built about 50BC by Augustus. It is the 3rd largest coliseum in existence at this time and in relatively good condition. The outer ring of the structure is complete with a full height of all the walls and columns. The rows of stone seats are not complete but one side has been restored to accommodate about 10,000 people for concerts. The night lighting is great and we see the coliseum from our cockpit. We are in the downtown ACI marina in Pula, which is a two-minute walk from the coliseum. This is the view we wanted the first time through.

We have found the Internet café, local fruit and vegetable market, best Pizza place and a fine restaurant. We also located a movie house where they are currently showing Spiderman. This will be our Saturday afternoon entertainment. The movie is in English with Croat subtitles. However, everyone in attendance is not old enough to read so a parent or friend is reading aloud to them. It is very noisy and additional people who want to talk have to speak a little louder to be heard over the interpreters so it is very noisy. The movie is a new movie, I think, and Daline is surprised that it is already here and even more surprised that it only costs $1.40 to see it. We have now finished the movie and returned to the boat and prepared to leave tomorrow for Rovinj.

To say Rovinj, let the j be 90% silent, so just before you take your tongue from the roof of your mouth terminate the word. As I am writing this I have been requested to put some music on the boat. The local stations, and that means local throughout our travels wherever we are, the music has a lot of American influence. In fact they play a lot of American music and in that I don't have perfect hearing, I can't tell what language they are using. I frequently ask, “Is that American music?”.

Last night we were docked next to two Bavaria 44 aft cockpit boats full of Austrians. It was a kick to see what happened as soon as the lines were tied. The 4 guys on one boat got off and began looking for fish to catch. They were on their hands and knees and on their bellys looking between the sections of the pontoon. They were dead serious about catching a fish or any food from the sea. They used their knives to pry muscles from the pontoons, a crab trap lowered from the bow, a fishing pole with hook and bobber to be unattended and a spear gun to catch the lonesome fish that happened to be available. Kathy said, and the wives of the guys also said independent of Kathy, “just being boys”. They had 13 fish for dinner and when we got up this morning they already had two more. There is a large cathedral on a hilltop in Rovinj that has a very spectacular display.

There was this young lady, soon to be known as St. Euphemia, born in Constantinople, not Istanbul, in about 291 AD who was a very sincere in her Christian spiritual life. She refused, at the age of 15, the orders of the Roman Emperor Diocletian to honor the town idol and was imprisoned along with 49 other Christians. First she was tortured in particularly cruel ways using the torture wheel, yet she maintained her faith and devotion to Christianity. She was thrown to the lions in the amphitheatre, was killed by the lions but they did not eat her to the amazement of the spectators. Thus she met her end on Sept 16, 304. The Christian believers kept her body in Calcedon until threatened by the Persians when they moved it to Constantinople and placed in a large church built by Emperor Constantinople. When Emperor Nicefor, who was against icons, ruled Constantinople, the faithful moved her marble coffin out of Constantinople. It was loaded in a small boat and amazingly appeared in Rocinj that same year. Rocinj is about 2000 miles from Constantinople, and there is very little tide movement in the Eastern Mediterranean. It supposedly washed upon the shore and could not be moved except by a young man and two calves. This coffin is in the cathedral and is one big coffin. It must be 7 feet long, 3 feet wide and 4 feet high. I would imagine it weighs at least 6000 pounds. The coffin is the town symbol for Rocinj. How it moved the 2000 miles from Constantinople to Rocinj is anyone’s guess.

Today, May 13, we have but 9 miles to go to get to Porec. Kathy, Lee and I stopped here on the delivery trip in October 2000. This is a town built and maintained for tourists. It has been here for 2000 years but currently it is one of the most popular tourist towns on the Adriatic. It is but 5 hours by car from Vienna, Munich, Milan and many more of the highly populated areas of Europe. We are tied to the town quay and feel like we know the place. There is a restaurant in town that specializes in Mexican food, which is where we eat tonight. It will be less than expected but great enough to satisfy our taste buds. It is but 20 miles or so to Izola and the end of this trip, so we are to milk the most out of it. There are numerous gelato operations, and one needs to try several to determine which is the best. The Mexican food was not; it is a Croatian’s idea of what he thought Mexican food should be. It may, however, be a popular spot to eat for the tourists. The food is well presented, not so expensive and different than all of the other restaurants in the area that fall into a single mold of (Italian/Sea Food) type food. The chimichanga is a somewhat flat folded burrito which is about 4” wide by 6” long cut into two pieces. It is filled with some meat, so I was told, and peas, corn and other vegetables. Most of the tourists won't know the difference. We spent the night on the town quay and left about 8 or so the next morning for Umag.

May 14, 2002. We have arrived in Umag. Again we are tied to the town quay where we were in 2002. This is one of the better places to provision, large stores, great selections and good prices. It so happens that we are at the end of the trip and need nothing. The check out of Croatia is as trouble free as was the entry, very formal and straightforward. This northern area of the Adriatic is even more studded with small outcroppings of rock. There are small islands, rocks that are unmarked and others that are in the center of a larger area of hazards and have a navigation light. One should not move after dark in these waters, even with radar.

May 15 and we are leaving for Izola. We had a very nice trip of less than 10 miles to reach our final sailing destination, Izola Slovenia. The bay is somewhat small and all man made. It is right in the center of town thus easy to walk to any place of interest. There is a ferry service from here to Venice Italy on a hydrofoil that is scheduled twice a week except in the summer when it is more frequent. Upon arriving Kathy is busy cleaning the boat and I made a trip to Koper, the next Slovenian town to the north, there I will check on their facilities. We are satisfied that we are where we want to be so we are settled in for a couple of days of preparing to leave the boat for a few months. The town is small but offers all that is necessary to have an interesting two or three days ashore. We met a gentleman from Lebanon, Bill, who is taking delivery of a Bavaria 44 from Horst Anklam. We have been invited to share information with him re Bavaria, the Adriatic and other such pertinent things re sailing in these waters. He will sail his boat “Alfred” with Horst and 3 other gentlemen from Izola to Venice and then to the southern towns of Italy. He will sail through the Gulf of Corinth and the Corinth Canal to the Aegean and on to Cesme, Turkey. This trip will be completed in 2 weeks. Bill is going to Cesme to deliver Horst and have Horst’s facility fix the problems that arise during a shakedown cruise. From Cesme he will go around the southern end of Turkey by Syria and to Beirut where he will keep Alfred. It is very interesting and educational to meet so many people from other parts of the world and have meaningful conversations with them.

Perhaps that is the way I will scratch my Mediterranean itch after we bring Traumerei to the USA is to deliver boats to Turkey for Horst. There are 3 and sometimes 4 Bavarias delivered to Izola/Koper daily. This is about 30% to 40% of the factory production. This is a commissioning yard where they put the boats together and prepare them for delivery to the owners. The work, workers and business of the yard far greater than any I have ever seen. There is not so much repair as there is assembly. I find it very interesting to see so many different sizes and kinds of yachts being assembled. It is also a yard of preference for Benetau yachts.

Alfred departed for Venice at 9 am and shortly thereafter we began to notice a great many sailboats leaving the harbor. It comes to be that there is a regatta today and there must be 40 sailboats in the race. The race is a buoy race that extends north to a point that it is in Italian waters. Everything is really close here in Slovenia, 4 miles by land to the south is Croatia and 3 miles north is Italy. We are ready to return to Arizona and plan to leave for Venice tomorrow morning. We will enjoy a full day of the Lagoon and Murano Island where the classical Italian glass is crafted.

We left the marina at about 9 or so and in that it is Sunday there is no public transportation to Trieste so we took a cab from Koper to Trieste. We arrived at the central rail station to find a repeat of the problem that we encountered the last time we were in Italy, “The transportation system is on strike” It sure could make one vow to not return to this area if Europe. We are now trying to rush home for a family emergency so it is imperative to get to Venice by tomorrow morning so Kathy can fly home all the way tomorrow. All the public transportation is on strike so we have tried to find a rental car, they are all closed for Sunday. We have been told that the strike will end at 9:30 this evening, but why believe anyone concerning this system. We are resigned to have to stay in Trieste until we can catch a train tomorrow morning so we have checked into Hotel Italia for a god nights sleep. After checking in we were ready for a little exercise and decided to walk about the town and find a place to eat. It so happened that we ended up at the restaurant where Kathy and I ate on our first night in Trieste two years ago. The pizzas are great and there are at least 4 pages of them. Before we can get all of our meal and drinks consumed it starts to thunder and finally rain on our parade because we are in an outside area of the restaurant. So much for that. After we returned to the room we began to reconsider the options and decided that there was a plus side to traveling to Venice tonight so Kathy Could catch the 6 AM flight to Frankfurt and connect to the 10:25 flight, tomorrow, to Phoenix. She will be in South Dakota tomorrow night while Daline and I stay in Venice and keep our schedule for an overnight in Frankfurt. We are now on the train awaiting a departure for Venice.

We got to Venice and immediately went to the Hotel Ducale, called Marcia and got to sleep. Kathy must get up at 5:00 so she can get a cab to the airport at 5:15 and leave for Frankfurt at 6:30. Today she goes to Phoenix while Daline and I stay to complete trip as planned. I have returned to the hotel and slept until about 8 AM when I thought it was time to get Daline going and go to the lagoon. Venice is overcast and before the morning is over it will be raining. We enter the lagoon area and just wander around until about noon when we found ourselves at San Marcos Plaza, probably the most important point of interest in Venice. There are pigeons and people everywhere; I can't imagine August when the crowd will be double or triple. Don't come then. We got on one of the waterway transport ferries and went to Murano. This is a gem of a place to go, there is much less crowding and there is such a treasure of glass artwork to be seen. At lunch we found a small table beneath an umbrella near a group of 22 English-speaking men on a boondoggle trip. They are behaving very well and chatting in many different accents of English. It seem that they are ordering a preset 5 or 6 course meal, each getting the same thing, it is good food but they all get the same thing. The chef sends out a large platter or serving dish with the next course and the individual plates are compiled. So we get to see each course as it is served. There is quite a bit of course 3, riglioni (I am sure this is misspelled, but it is the pasta which is long, about a quarter of an inch wide and flat) with crawfish and tomatoes. Our waiter asks if we would like a taste of the dish and we gladly accepted. It was great and there was enough for him to offer a second serving. He joked that he was acting like we were a member of the group. We decided that we should slow down and see if the feeling continued through the dessert course. It did and wow what a great layered rum cake with chocolate icing. We finished our visit to Murano and continued shopping in the stores on the lagoon. We have now returned to our room and are preparing to go to our last meal in Italy preparing to leave for Frankfurt tomorrow.