Monday July 31st
It was strange, but wonderful, to go back to Croatia so soon after our Island Hopping cycling trip in June! But this time was to be much more relaxing... or least that's what we hoped😉. John booked this trip several months ago, having spotted it in the Sunday Times travel section. It was a treat to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. (officially in March, but too cold to go on holiday sometimes in March!)
Booked via Trailfinders, our trip included two nights in Venice, before we joined our ship, "Silver Spirit", one of Silverseas fleet, with just 600 passengers, rather than 1000's. Looked very smart. Since we are not regular cruisers, we didn't have much to compare it with, but the ££££ suggested luxury with good food and wine included. Oh, and a Butler thrown in. 😬
Since we had other holidays in spring, it wasn't until a couple of weeks before our trip, that we actually checked which hotel in Venice we were booked into. And having googled it, we realised this was THE hotel to stay in, not just in Venice, but in Europe. Cipriani (pronounced Chipriani).
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| Arriving into Venice airport. Our hotel on the island opposite St Mark's Square. |
We were met by a private taxi, and driven across the causeway initially, before transferring to a private boat to take us through the canals to our hotel on the island opposite St Marks Square. So far, feeling very spoil.
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| Arriving at Cipriani. |
As we checked in, over a glass of bubbly, a pleasant surprise to get an upgrade to a junior suite! After a guided tour of the hotel, by a very professional young lady (who had worked for 5 years at Claridges, London during its multi million (or billion) basement addition), we arrived in our room. I commented to her that we should have 2 cases, not 1. "Yes madam, the other bag is in the other dressing area. 😂
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| John's dressing area and bathroom through that door ahead. |
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| And mine on the opposite side. Also a long thin balcony outside. |
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Rather lovely Venetian glass light shades.
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View from our balcony. A bit over the top dressing up!
They were part of a group who do this every year. About 20 of them had a party later. |
We had a wander around the grounds to check where the hotel restaurant was that we had booked for the evening, called Cips (pronounced Chips).
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| Cips restaurant. WOW. We needed to get changed into something a bit smarter. |
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| Stunning location. |
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Best seat in the house, and of course a couple of Belinnis.
(invented by Guiseppi Cipriani, founder of Harry's Bar)
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| The perfect ending to our first day. Can't remember what we ate, but it was excellent.😂 |
Tuesday August 1st.
We were only at the hotel for 2 nights, so after an amazing choice for breakfast, our plan was to relax by the pool for a couple of hours, then walk out for lunch to explore the island of Guidecca.
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| Breakfast view. |
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| Pigeons were a bit of a pest, so this Hawk called Blondie is resident. |
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The enormous pool is 3 times larger than planned since the builder read the plans
wrong. Metres instead of feet. 😂 I did widths rather than lengths. |
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John outside our first floor room.
(2 canopies and the two smaller windows either side) |
A few more photos around the grounds....
Exploring Guidecca Island on foot to find a simple lunch.
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We had a small pallet under out table to lift our feet out of the floods!
This boat was delivering a sofa. Quite amusing to watch. |
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On our way back to Cipriani to get the private boat transfer to
St Marks Square (runs 24 hours) |
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| The Cipriani private boat into St Marks Square where they have their own jetty. |
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John forgot to pack his shorts (he had 4 new pairs!)
So first priority in Venice was to buy shorts. (the hotel had some at £250 😅) |
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We had been to Venice once before, so no need to queue up for
the usual sites. Just wandered around. This is the Rialto Bridge view. |
A few more photos, but it's all been done before......
We had drinks, but could not find anywhere to sit for an ice cream! Long queues for takeaway only.
We had tickets for an early evening Baroque opera performance, so a pizza fitted the bill sitting by a small canal, before we headed to our evening entertainment.
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| 2nd front row, and excellent acoustics in this old Palace. |
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Excellent performances.
Mozart, Verdi, Rossini, Offenbach, Bizet, Puccini, Mascagni. |
It finished around 10ish, and we walked back to St Marks Square to meet our boat. It was flooded!
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| Wasn't expecting this in August. But a full moon tonight, so high tide. |
Wednesday 2nd August - Transfer and Embarkation Day
A second breakfast at Cipriani, another beautiful day, but unfortunately we were being collected by boat to take us to the Embarkation Terminal at 10, so not much time to enjoy the hotel today.
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| Breakfast view. |
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Another private boat transfer this time to the Fusina part of Venice,
where the cruise ships leave from... out of site! |
We got to the "big holding shed " MUCH too early, about 90 mins before check in was due to begin. Initially muttering and considering complaining to Trailfinders. We could have been relaxing by the pool again! But then we were handed a ticket "Group 1", so at least we were going to get priority transfer to the ship when it finally happened. Wet met a couple in the Q who had been on the ship before (Anne and Chris, and who would be aboard for 2 weeks!) They suggested we head straight to Level 7 for lunch to a restaurant called Terrazza. (we would used this several times for breakfast too).
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| Lunch views from Level 7 of our ship. Venice in the distance. |
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| Room keys around 2pm. Home for the next week. Very smart! |
Our Butler, Abraham, came in to introduce himself, and later the cleaner too. Then a bit of exploring around the ship, a spot of afternoon tea, and probably cocktails too. 😊 We had booked into " La Dame" French Restaurant tonight. A beautiful meal, only spoiled by the fact that we had a huge unexpected wine bill, which we thought was included. (John taking this up with Trailfinders). Very nice wine, but £40 a glass x4. We were seated next to 2 lovely American sisters, Jennifer and Joanne. (one ex Pan-Am stewardess, and part of a large group who were all meeting on the ship.
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Desserts at "La Dame". Pistachio Souffle, with chocolate sauce for me.
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| Our balcony view. Hardly felt a thing, as we pulled away from the port at 11pm. |
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| A well lit channel guides the ship out of Venice, heading to Trieste. |
Thursday 3rd August Trieste
We docked in Trieste early morning. We had opted for an afternoon trip, so a lazy morning. We had a male guide, who spoke very slowly and precisely and every word ended in "ande." His audio transmitter wasn't great either, but we got the general idea it. We toured Trieste by coach initially, being told it has the
most coffee shops in Italy... but saw none.😂 Eventually we arrived at Miramire Castle. (Home of Maximilian and his wife Charlotte)
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| Arriving at Miramire Castle |
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| Views from the Castle looking back towards Trieste |
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| Walking back to the coach. Cormorants on the rocks |
Back in Trieste, the plan was to drive to a hilltop Cathedral, but Amazon film crews blocked the road, so the guide decided to get us all off the coach, and to walk the short distance up to the Cathedral. Fine with us, but others not happy. It really wasn't far!
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| White vans connected with film crews around the Cathedral |
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With the coach now gone, our guide led us downhill to Trieste.
Again, we were fine, but other passengers were not at all happy about this. |
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By the time we got back into the square in Trieste, all but 4 passengers
decided to leave the tour. We felt it quite rude, so stuck with the guide for the remainder.
Just another 15 mins or so. He wasn't the best guide. |
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| Cocktails at 5pm, and the ship left Trieste at 7pm |
We had a lovely meal in the Asian Fusion restaurant tonight, listened to piano music in the Dolce lounge for a few minutes and retired at 10.
Friday 4th August ZADAR
Early start today to join a coach trip at 8.45 to a Salt Museum, wine tasting, and a short walk in Zadar centre. A very good guide today!
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View from the ship. The large circle is made of solar panels, representing the sun and after dark
changes colour. (we didn't see that happen) |
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| On the right of the paving, "organ" pipes react with the waves creating musical sounds. |
At the salt production factory, a guide explained the process in the museum. Interesting. A couple of photos outdoor whilst others spent money in the shop.
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| The saltwater pools. |
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| The end result. |
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| We then walked into a very pretty village crossing between the sea and the saltwater pools. |
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Great acoustics in the tiny church, but no one would sing in chorus,
but one brave lady did sing a short solo. |
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| Lavender on the raised walling edges. |
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| Croatian flag. Blowing well today! |
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Then on to a wine tasting in the hillside. Got stuck with "The Chinese"!
(long story!)
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Finally, a brief walking tour of Zadar old town. Very nice.
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We had lunch back on the ship and with a free afternoon, decided to have a go at painting a little scene from this morning.
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| lol. Artistic licence! |
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And we found out that if you time it right, delicious Canapes available
at the Arts Cafe! |
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| We left Zadar in rather stormy looking skies. |
As we got ready for dinner, an announcement from the CAPTAIN. "All passengers to stay indoors this evening. A storm ahead." Oh joy!!!
A little distracted by regular flashes of lightening, we ate in the Silver Note restaurant. A rather strange menu, but delicious food, and later Jazz music from a duet form South Africa, Kim and Didi.
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| Singer Kim and pianist Didi. |
Lots of lightening as we cruised overnight, but thankfully a very steady ship!😕
Saturday 5th August Hvar
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| Arriving in Hvar at 07.30. Still very dark skies this morning. |
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| This THIS happened! We were going ashore in our lifeboats! |
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| Inside the lifeboat tender. This lady from Australia, had left her husband at home. 😊 |
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It was more than a bit lively getting into them, but fine once we were underway.
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Another good guide today. We got absolutely drenched as we arrived onshore just walking the short distance through Hvar town to our coach. We had decided NOT to take an umbrella. We were here just a few ago, and were suffering with the heat!
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| lol. spot the idiots without umbrellas. |
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After a 30 mins coach trip, we walked down a track to this family agricultural setting,
where Brunch was served. Wine with local cold meat etc. |
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Stormy skies again!
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| Our guide today was a local school teacher on summer break. |
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| Ready for a night out.... aboard the ship. |
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| Dinner at Atlantide |
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| That's better! A calm cruising ahead as we move on overnight to Dubrovnic. |
Sunday 6th August Dubrovnic
Large cruise ships are no longer allowed into Dubrovnic, but our "smaller" ship is permitted to anchor in view of the old city walls. Another tender into port this morning to get ashore. Arriving in the city by 9am Sunday morning was a bonus, since for the first hour it was empty! Perfect.
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| Heading into Dubrovnic on the tender |
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| Great way to arrive in port. |
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| Today's guide. Also very good. |
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| The old Monastery |
An hour of free time in Dubrovnic, but since we had been before, decided to just relax with a coffee. I also set up a timelapse in the main drag for fun.
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| As we left Dubrovnik on our coach, a brief stop to see our ship at Anchor. |
And then to the interior of the island to a family run winery. We tasted 4 wines, accompanied by the usual meats etc, only to be told we were then going to lunch in about an hour!
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| Beautiful dramatic setting at the winery. |
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We sat with this group of friends.
Debbie and Lyle (married) from Alaska and Adele and Layla (?) from America. |
We moved on to a lunch, with music! lol Two rather enthusiastic musicians. But a good bit of fun. They had us all joining in.
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And for this lunch we sat with Carlos and wife Elizabeth from Miami.
and the two retired "Trolly Dollies", with stretched faces.😉 |
As we headed back to ship, the land disappeared in cloud and rain, very soon followed by this!
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| And back on ship, a double rainbow for afternoon tea. |
We had told the ladies at this mornings wine tasting, about the afternoon tea/cake in The Arts Cafe. So when they appeared we sat with them again. Good company.
Dinner tonight at Indochin Restaurant again. And later, cuppa tea as we listened to the jazz again in Silver Note restaurant, with Kim and Didi. She came and spoke to us at the break to thank us for coming again. They were leaving to join the brand new Silver Seas ship next week.
Monday 7th August Split.
We had done a tour of Split on the last day of our bike trip in June, which is fascinating. So, we had prebooked a trip to leave it behind today, and travel instead to the neighbouring island of Brac. We sailed FROM Brac to Split in June, which took best part of 90 mins. This trip was bit quicker.... it was in a very fast speedboat. Took 15 mins. This was our only "paid" trip of the cruise, since all the rest had been "free" 😂
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Ready to hang on to our hats as we leave Split to go to Brac,
in the Great White speedboat.
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| We travelled in convoy with this boat with 6 of us on each boat. |
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First stop in Brac, was to a family Art studio and gallery,owned by the very talented
JAKSIC family. Website link |
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The son is a sculpture, and is working on this piece, in memorial
for a fireman who died. Made from the local limestone eventually, but plaster first. |
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The mother, explained the process of measuring for accurancy, making a plaster verion.
(She is a jewellery fashion designer, and also artist) |
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| The measuring tool..... |
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| ... used to mark out dots for accuracy. |
Most people bought something from the gallery, but some of it very expensive! We bought a small square vase and single flower. It's the same limestone used to build The Whitehouse, amongst others.
Then we moved on to climb, by coach, all the way to the top of Brac island to Vidova Gora. Interesting journey, with a handy car park near the top. 😊 A short, but lovely walk on a good pathway, with pine trees and lot of rocks.
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This group are 4 sisters and husbands. All the sisters names begin with J.
Julie, Jamie, Janice and Judy. They have Slovakian Grandparents. |
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| And this couple are called Anne and John. 😂 |
Back on the coach and all the way down almost to Supitar, where we had spent a night in June on our biking trip. (The place with the horrendous new massive hotel called The View. ) We visited this man who makes soap, and sells it worldwide on etsy. It's all named after Croatian Islands.
Our guide who lives locally was telling us about the local reaction to the monstrous new hotel. It may be called The View, but no one else has a view anymore. Outrageous.
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| Soap man. We didn't buy, but the Americans did of course. |
And then to lunch. A buffet lunch, with lots of choice. Very nice, and with great views.
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| Lunch, with a couple of the "J" sisters. |
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| Today's guides. They got the table with the best views. |
And back on the speedboats. The wind had picked up!
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| Dinner time. |
We had arrange to meet with "Northerns", Chris and Anne for dinner. (they are onboard for 2 weeks) We had planned to sit outside at The Terraza, but it was too windy. Another lovely meal. They are creatures of habbit and eat here every night.
Tuesday 8th August OPATIJA
Another tender ride this morning into the beautiful town of Opatija. We boarded a coach for a trip into the mountains. Stunning scenery, and our first stop was at small "Millhouse" in Kvarner. We were expecting a water driving Mill, but it was infact electric. We arrived into a pretty couryard to music played by the the owner's father on his accordion.
Once drinks were served, he was accompanied in song, by the daughter and also our tour guide. She lives in this village. The grandfather was pioneering in bringing power into the village in the early 1900's.
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| Our hostess, grand daughter of the original Mill builder. |
Back on the coach, and moving to FUZINE , we were expecting to see a beautiful lake view. BUT once every 20 years, the lake, a reservoir, is emptied. And this is the year! lol. But apparently, people are travelling long distances to see this"empty lake" .
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| The empty Lake, which was originally flooded to create a reservoir. |
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| And the view just to the right of the reservoir. |
Whilst creating a channel for the water from the reservoir, a toolbox fell into a hole. It turned out this hole was big one! And a whole underground cave was discovered, and now a tourist destination. It was only 5 degrees inside, and today we had brought no jackets. 😂 (a very kind lady lent me a fleece, but nothing offered to John.) Our local guide talked a lot,, but with her accent and the echo, we couldnt understand most of what she said.
A bus tour always includes a snack and drink of some kind, so a short walk to a hotel for Brunch before returning to Opatija. We spent a little while on a walk. The architecture is beautiful.
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| Opatija |
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| Opatija |
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| Silver Spirit at anchor off Opatija |
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| Back on board for our final cruise to Venice. |
For our final dinner, we were back in Silver Note restaurant,and to listen once more to the Jazz duet. We "Good evening Mr and Mrs Massey. " They have an amazing ability to remember names, even if you meet them in the corridor! We had to pack and leave our cases outside our rooms by 11pm, and an early breakfast before disembarkation.
From the Captain's Log ....we travelled 927 nautical miles, and were looked after by crew from 42 different countries!
A fabulous holiday. We always poo pood cruising... but watch this space!
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