I described our visit to Mostar in Part 4 of My Croatian Itinerary series. It was a terribly hot murky day and it felt as though we had reached the end of the earth, but the little cobbled street leading up to the famous arch bridge and over the other side was absolutely full of tourists. It was so wonderful when we finally reached the shady inner courtyard of the Ottoman house and had it to ourselves.
When we got to Split from Ancona in Italy, we drove off the ferry and were immediately searched. Maybe the customs official found it strange we should have so much luggage. Well, the car fridge already takes up a fair amount of room and then there’s the bike gear and stuff. Anyway, she finally waved us on and we followed the Tom Tom to our rental flat. Unfortunately, the entire street was being dug up and we eventually decided to drive through the roadworks to get there despite protests from the workers at the other end but our hostess Antonela was waiting for us and explained the situation. The up side was that Antonela said we could park in the courtyard.
The flat was clean and comfortable with free wifi and a washing machine. It was also very well located, just a short walk from all the sights. We couldn’t use the terrace with the seaview because of the roadworks but it didn’t really matter. We really enjoyed Split. There were lots of historical places to visit, we found a restaurant on the edge of the bay with an excellent “fish plate” (Atlantida) went to the early-morning fresh fish and fresh produce markets and had a wonderful bike ride on Marian Hill which I have described in Cycling in Croatia.
After two nights in Split, we went to Dubrovnik via Mostar in Bosnia Herzegovina where it was shockingly hot. We went through border control twice and waited in long queues each time for no apparent reason.The speed was limited to 60 kph most of the time, also for no apparent reason. We saw shell-shocked buildings along the way and walked over the famous arch bridge built by Suliman the Magnificent which was destroyed during the Yugoslavian war and rebuilt, bought a souvenir for the Christmas tree, had lunch in a very friendly restaurant called Hindin Han and visited Biscevica House, a traditional Ottoman home.
The drive along the coast to Dubrovnik was quite stunning, with little islands everywhere. We went through a small stretch that is part of Bosnia Herzegovina, its only coastal section, waiting in long lines at the border once again. When we got to Dubrovnik, we had parking problems. We hadn’t realised you can’t take your car into the walled city, not even to drop off your luggage. We finally parked in an extremely extensive parking lot near one of the entrances, grabbed a minimum amount of stuff and went to find our flat.
The apartment we stayed in was recommended to us by Black Cat and it was perfect. A large comfortable room with a basic kitchen and a shower room, right in the middle of the old town, but in a tiny street up several flights of steps, a haven from the noise and bustle of the tourist trade and very reasonably priced. The owner’s son, Matko Jelic, who speaks both French and English (his wife is Irish) was very kind and helpful and even found us a free parking place outside the city walls from which we were able to take a bus back to the city. There wasn’t a wifi connection but Matko indicated a café in the old town called the Skybar with free wifi. The connection code is on the bill – you just have to order a drink.
We stayed three nights in lovely old city of Dubrovnik and I particularly enjoyed the rampart walk at sunset. Unfortunately, it was there that I ate some unsavoury prawns and got the infamous “turista” that kept me indoors and close to the bathroom for most of the time we were there. We had booked an all-day boat ride to some of the islands but I wasn’t up to going. But one day we’ll go back!
Next instalment – Zadar. The itinerary so far: Paris – Annecy – Milan – Ancona – Split – Mostar – Dubrovnik.
Antonela Cmrlec Apartman Riva Branimirova Obala 6 SPLIT +385 (0)98 937 0942Prague is one of my very favourite cities. I love the architecture, the atmosphere, the mixture of old and new, the fact that you can find wonderful places on the river to eat, the buskers, the people in general. Our hotel was slightly outside the main area, which meant we had to take a tram to get reach the centre. I think it’s better to be able to walk everywhere. Perhaps you have some suggestions? We were there early September which was just perfect.
Sunday being a day of rest, we decided to have a late brunch then visit one of the many châteaux in the Loire Valley with Thoughtful and Brainy Pianist who had come to spend the weekend with us. In the end, we decided to go to Blois Castle, particularly as it was open between 12 and 2 pm, in order to escape the Easter weekend crowds. Once we got there, Relationnel and I were both amazed that we hardly remembered it at all from our last visit a few years ago.
The château is right in the middle of the town, overlooking the Loire River, and encompasses several different architectural styles from mediaeval times to the 17th century. I won’t go into its very complicated history. Suffice to say that it all began in about the year 1000 with a rather horrible fellow called Thibaud the Trickster. Three of the original mediaeval towers still remain. One of the main features of the period is the magnificent hall of justice or Salle des Etats built in the early 13th century.
At the end of the 14th century, the château was bought by the Orleans family and nearly a century later, Duc Louis d’Orleans became Louis XII and brought his wife, Anne de Bretagne, and his court to Blois. They modernised it all, so to speak, with stairs at each end and balconies on the first floor and decorated it with their emblems, the porcupine for Louis and the hermine for Anne.
François 1er, whose salamander is ever-present, lived in the château after he ascended to the throne in 1515. The Duc de Guise was assassinated in the King’s Chambers on the orders of Henri III in 1588 after plotting to take over the throne and Catherine de Medicis, wife of Henri II (son of François 1er) and mother of Henri III, died there the next year at the age of 70.
The interior is extremely rich and colourful with many fine fireplaces and majestic pieces of Renaissance furniture. We could see how they inspired the Henri II (or Neo-Renaissance) buffet, sideboard, tables and chairs now decorating our new Renaissance house ! I particularly liked the toad-foot feature on one of the buffets and the many beautiful firebacks. Any one of them would look just perfect in our upstairs fireplace.
There is also a lapidary section with gargoyles, statues, pediments and other bits and pieces taken from buildings on the site.
The grounds around the château offer wonderful views of the rooftops of the city of Blois and the Loire River and an excellent view of the city’s most interesting church – that of Saint Nicolas, built in the 12th and 13th centuries, a combinationof both Romanesque and Gothic. We couldn’t quite see our house because of the trees but we could pick out the general direction.
After our visit we discovered a brocante on the esplanade along the river which takes place on the second Sunday of every month. Relationnel was not keen because he said there were obviously only professionals. But we managed to find a walnut bedside table for our bedroom and three long-handled gardening tools. While he went off to get the car, we rooted around but didn’t find anything else worth buying.
Where to buy wine in Paris, a helpful traveller’s phone app and healthy eating the French way are the subjects featured in my Wednesday’s Other Blogs this week. Thank you to Like Home in Paris (vacation apartment rentals in Paris), Femmes Francophiles (fellow Australian blogger with an ongoing passion for France and the French language) and Mademoiselle Slimalicious (a young Sydney-based French blog writer who promotes healthy eating, fitness and exercise based on the principles of the French Paradox).
Sipping on Saturday – Favourite Paris Wine ShopsI know who I go to ask when I have a wine question or can’t decide which glass to take – Preston Mohr, that’s who. Our favorite drinking partner tells us about his favorite wine shops in Paris and believe me you’ll want to take note. Read more
Phone Application: Google TranslateTranslation apps are a growing market. No longer do we need to fossick in back packs or handbags for our bilingual dictionary or phrasebook. No doubt there are now young international travellers who have never had to worry about the weight associated with carrying these books with their dog-eared pages. Read more
Creating a Healthy French PantryCooking at home (rather than ordering take-away) enables you to be fully in control of what you eat by being aware of the nutritive value of your meals. In order to manage your weight efficiently (the way French women do), it is important to make cooking everyday one of your priority. Read more.
It’s easy to take a day trip to the little islands on the other side of the Venetian lagoon – Torcello, Burano and Murano. The most picturesque is Burano, which is actually a little achipelago of four islands, known for its brightly coloured homes and beautiful lacework. We succumbed to the charm of both. Even the dish antenna is painted pink in one of the photos!
The posts from other blogs that I’m featuring this Wednesday are by American blogger Mary Kay, from Out and About in Paris, who is a fund of useful and interesting information and will help you have a pickpocket-free holiday, fellow Australian and photographer Karina from Carams who takes us to Siena in Tuscany and Doni Belau from Girls’ Guide to Paris who recommends a visit to Burgundy as a day trip or weekend out of Paris. Thanks to them all!
After dodging holiday shoppers and having my foot run over by a renegade baby stroller while visiting the Christmas Market on the Champs-Elysées yesterday, Stéphane, Sara and I decided to take metro line 1 from George V to Tuileries to have some hot chocolate. As we always seem to arrive at Angelina’s just after it has closed for the night, I stood on the metro platform with my back to the wall to check their opening hours on my iPhone. Stéphane and Sara were facing me, we were speaking English and for all anyone knew we were tourists in Paris. Read more.
Up until last year when we found ourselves in the area, Siena had never been near the top of my travel list. Yet there we were one morning, driving winding roads through Tuscan valleys, following signs to the old city, named (according to legend) after Senius, son of Remus, of the Remus & Romulus duo. Read more
As much as all Parisians love Paris, they also adore a petit weekend—a getaway, either a day trip from Paris or an entire weekend. Recently, during autumn, I hightailed it out of the city for a wine-tasting trip to Burgundy. My friend Kelly and I headed for Beaune, which is perfectly situated to explore both côtes, Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune. Read more
Spring is without doubt the best time to go to Venice. The wisteria is out everywhere in April and it’s quite splendid. The photos below capture the essence of my Venice. Since we were there for a week and had a vaporetto pass, we took the time to venture outside the main tourist areas. One thing I remember is the somewhat misty light that pervades most of my photos. I also loved the slightly decrepit look of many of the palaces. And I absolutely adored the masks.
Apart from the Prado, Madrid’s main attraction to me are all the unusual things you keep coming across that I’ve never seen anywhere else. These are just some of them.
You can just see a building on the left that’s a squat and has signs up that seem to indicate the people have been evicted. During the day, all their clothes and furniture are gathered together in the middle of the square (Santa Cruz) and at night, they line up their mattresses under the nearby arches.
How to keep warm in a terrace café!
We saw a lot of cartoon characters in various places throughout Madrid posing for photos and asking for money.
Particularly in front of the Palacio Real, various invisible men were to be seen. This was my favourite.
The “living statue” is a well-known attraction everywhere in Europe but we were not convinced that this “escapee from Vesusius” was really alive. I think he might just set up his plaster cast and collect the money at the end of the day!
There are many shops with this type of fashion. Always very colourful. Lots of fabric shops as well which have virtually disappeared in Paris outside the Quartier Saint Pierre.
We came across seemingly hundreds of these queues and couldn’t work out what they were all about until we eventually came to a church that was bursting with people already.
Another indication of how alive religion still is in Spain is this stall on the Sunday flea market.
And on the same flea market, just look at this sofa!
On the same market, the dummies are obviously having a whale of a time.
I don’t know whether the emergency medical service is a colourful in the rest of Spain!
Our Plaza Mayor turned into a very busy and eclectic collectors’ market on Sunday.
Anyone for crisps?
And you can follow them up with sweets …
And last, but not least, we have Cervantes with his famous Don Quixote and Sancho Panza with a typical skyscraper from the Franco era (1950s).
Part 1 ended as we left Castello de la Sarre on our way to Milan. Hotel Vecchia Milano turned out to be somewhat old and decrepit despite the photos on the website. I gave up staying in the “oldest hotel” in this or that city long ago. I should have paid more attention to the “vecchia” bit. However, the room was fairly spacious and the bed was comfortable. The breakfast was awful but that is often the case in Italy. I’d chosen the hotel because it was so well located – very close to the Duomo – and the fact that we could park in an underground parking lot at a reasonable price. Remember we had our bikes on the back. But more about that later!
We fell instantly in love with the Duomo as everyone must. The change of colour as the light waxes and wanes is fascinating and so are all the incredible architectural details. We had our aperitivo at a café opposite the northern façade (I only know that because churches always face east) and spent a lot of time with our binoculars scrutinising the impressive number of sculptures. Then we found a very nice little restaurant for dinner called “Da Vin – La Toscana e il resto del mondo” in a little street near the Porta Ticinese and ate a tagliata in memory of one of our most unforgettable culinary experiences in Italy. We arrived in a little town called Castiglione Fiorentino at lunchtime, tired, hot and hungry in our pre-Tom Tom days, with our tempers a little frayed. There was a nondescript restaurant next to the church called “Da Muzzicone”.
There was no menu and no one spoke anything but Italian. When the lady told us what we could have, I identified insalata mista and tagliata which I knew was some sort of red meat. It was cooked on hot embers in the far corner of the room and was served with an olive oil, rosemary and green pepper sauce. We still talk about that meal. Tagliata means “sliced” so can actually be any cut of meat but the version you get in Tuscany is really a côte de boeuf without the bone. And we know how much I like côte de boeuf.
Back in Milan, we visited the inside of the Duomo next day and were not disappointed. I also love the statues outside that are shiny from everyone stroking them. Other places to see are the Piazza delle Scala, home of the famous opera, the immense Galeria Emanuelle Segundo with its mosaic floor, Piazza Mercanti with its mediaeval façades, Santa Maria delle Grazie containing Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper for which you have to book a couple of days in advance (which we didn’t of course), San Maurizio, once a Benedictine monastery, with its magnificent frescoes of Noah’s Ark and the Castello which contains Leonardo’s last unfinished sculpture which he started at the age of nearly 90.
Excellent aperitivo at the Marcenti Caffe, 21 Via Dei Mercanti, where we were joined by friends who happened to be in Milan that weekend! We trekked down to the canal which was literally alive with Milanese and tourists. It was also alive with mosquitoes to my great dismay as mosquitoes find me particularly attractive. We sat down in the armchairs outside one of the many bars along the canal and discovered that you can practically have a complete meal just buying a drink that gives you unlimited access to the buffet inside. A lot of the people had repellent with them. Had I only known! I had some Wackoff back at the hotel. However, I would recommend going to Cheese at 11 Via Celestino IV just next to the Porta Ticinese instead. By the time we got there for dessert, covered in mosquito bites, the buffet was over, but we’d seen it the night before and didn’t know how the system worked. It was sumptuous.
We left next morning after paying a horrendous garage bill – 103 Euros for two days instead of the 60 Euros announced by the hotel. It turns out that their “agreement” with the underground parking lot had changed but they had omitted to tell us. I was furious but it didn’t change anything of course. Next stop Ancona.
