These are all phone (Samsung S23) pics. We had a great time in Athens and then jumped on a Viking Sea cruise to Katakolo (then bus to old Olympia), Corfu, Kotor Montenegro, Dubrovnik & Split Croatia and then across the Adriatic to Venice. We spent a few days in Athens before the cruise and a few days after in Venice. It was hotter than normal to the point even the locals were complaining about it.
My favorite spot was Kotor. I'm already planning a trip back to Montenegro! Probably do some saltwater fishing as well as brown trout, grayling and huchen in the interior. The huchen get a lot of attention, but the grayling are among the biggest in the world.
Rooftop dining at Point A restaurant with the Acropolis in the background. Food and service was outstanding. And, of course, the view.
On top looking east. The Greek flag was flying everywhere. The Greeks are a very proud people despite knowing their government has let them down more than a few times. They were also very friendly and sweet even to us English speaking Americans. It was a good lesson & reminder given the current state of our country.
Corfu was a place that I didn't have much knowledge about. I can tell you now I want to go back! Beautiful city with all sorts of history. My buddy and I went swimming on the other side of this building after enjoying some lunch and a local beer. Great spot!
And with the Bezos wedding in Venice, we saw a fair number of HUGE yachts in Athens, Corfu, Kotor and Venice. This one is called LAUNCHPAD. It's 387 feet long and owned by Mark Zuckerberg. Remember when we thought you couldn't make money off a free app?
As I said, Kotor was my favorite stop. And the Viking folks sort of bank on that. It was the only port that we got in early and stayed late. And for good reason!
They had a rat problem back in the 1300 or 1400s so brought in cats. They're still there! This might be my best pic of the trip. I'm ok with that. Haha!
So many cool spots like this bar. The only problem is when 2 or 3 boats bigger than ours are in town it gets pretty darn crowded. The time we go there will be during the off season. I know October is a good time for trout, grayling and huchen so maybe October 2027?? Maybe 2028? We'll see.
Croatia was what I was most excited about. Mostly because we have friends that have been there a few times. They are sailors and I can see why they like it. It's very similar it the San Juans, just warmer.
The Game of Thrown fans will recognize this in Dubrovnik.
I have SO many pics from Dubrovnik and Split, but not many great ones. Part of the reason is it was so bright. This was the only place that the UV was high. Between the regular air pollution in Athens and then the added smoke in the air from some local range fires I didn't get burned on my arms or legs once. I only put sunblock on my face, ears and neck. The UV here is WAY worse. I found it very interesting, but it makes sense as they don't have some of the regulations that we do. I think we take that stuff for granted. Athens was very Houston like with the humidity and the smog layer. It was NOT like Houston in ANY other way.
Our last day on the boat was in Chioggia, just south of Venice. Venice built a nice big cruise terminal and then a few years later outlawed big boats from the lagoon. Or as they say, the laguna. So all the big boats, including our much smaller one have to dock in Chioggia and then it's an hour on a bus to Venice.
Well, we took the hour bus and then another 45 minutes on a boat to Murano and Burano. These are the glass blowing and fishing islands NE of Venice.
In Murano I wanted to buy this Orca for my oceanographer and marine mammal expert friend, but it was $30K!! The shop does big-time work for the world's richest folks. Crazy. For scale, this thing is about 3' long. So $10k per foot.
Burano was another favorite of ours and it was pretty sleepy as it was late in the day and mid-week. I could stay on the island a couple days and just eat the local food. And gelato!
Venice is a strange and amazing city. I had visions of super tight side walks and having to take boat after boat to get anywhere. Totally wrong. The city is mostly walkable and we put in some major miles. Sure, you need a boat if you want to cross a canal "right here", but if you walk less than a quarter mile up or down that canal there will probably be a bridge. And since no cars, you literally are walking down roads. Some are just sidewalks, but many are as big as a US neighborhood road.
It was stormy a couple of the nights we were there so got some good lighting.
This was the breakfast area of our hotel...Hotel Flora. Our room wasn't the greatest, but the breakfast was good, the bar was good and the people were very helpful. If you wife wants a boutique hotel with a really nice vibe and in a great location, I highly recommend. Just ask for any room besides #37.
Drank more than a few Hugos and Select Spritz.
We were only 3 or 4 "blocks" from San Marcos square and basilica. This is where the apostle Mark is buried. We did the basilica, the museums as well as the Doge's (Duke's) Palace. The Venetian Empire was pretty much the first successful democratic government. The Greeks had some, but the Venetians sort of perfected it. Very interesting.
Anyway, we saw a TON of art and the basilica was special. I'm a believer and this random mosaic in a hallway grabbed my attention. I think it's probably my favorite piece there.
We walked up the stairs in Doge's Palace to the prison rooms. They had many vents on that side of the building. Main reason was for fresh air, but also so prisoners could see their city before their sentence. This might be better than the cat pic.
You have to take a water taxi (private) or the vaporetto (public) to get to the airport. Hotel Flora arranged for a water taxi and I got a couple nice shots from the boat.
Some of the water taxis have really nice teak and chrome. They take a lot of pride in their boats. They are also expert drivers. It was fun to watch them interact with other captains. I didn't see a single collision. I'm sure they happen, but I doubt they have many. Very impressive.
It was a great trip. My phone would get hot from taking so many pics. The 2 things that helped relieve that the most...besides taking less pics, was turning down the screen brightness and going to airplane mode. My phone is setup to sync all my pics to my Google account. So going to airplane mode is a easy way to stop that while taking pics. Saves the battery a lot too. There were 4 of us so I didn't need to have it on all the time anyway.
I'll be over here planning my Montenegro trip! Ciao!
My favorite spot was Kotor. I'm already planning a trip back to Montenegro! Probably do some saltwater fishing as well as brown trout, grayling and huchen in the interior. The huchen get a lot of attention, but the grayling are among the biggest in the world.
Rooftop dining at Point A restaurant with the Acropolis in the background. Food and service was outstanding. And, of course, the view.
On top looking east. The Greek flag was flying everywhere. The Greeks are a very proud people despite knowing their government has let them down more than a few times. They were also very friendly and sweet even to us English speaking Americans. It was a good lesson & reminder given the current state of our country.
Corfu was a place that I didn't have much knowledge about. I can tell you now I want to go back! Beautiful city with all sorts of history. My buddy and I went swimming on the other side of this building after enjoying some lunch and a local beer. Great spot!
And with the Bezos wedding in Venice, we saw a fair number of HUGE yachts in Athens, Corfu, Kotor and Venice. This one is called LAUNCHPAD. It's 387 feet long and owned by Mark Zuckerberg. Remember when we thought you couldn't make money off a free app?
As I said, Kotor was my favorite stop. And the Viking folks sort of bank on that. It was the only port that we got in early and stayed late. And for good reason!
They had a rat problem back in the 1300 or 1400s so brought in cats. They're still there! This might be my best pic of the trip. I'm ok with that. Haha!
So many cool spots like this bar. The only problem is when 2 or 3 boats bigger than ours are in town it gets pretty darn crowded. The time we go there will be during the off season. I know October is a good time for trout, grayling and huchen so maybe October 2027?? Maybe 2028? We'll see.
Croatia was what I was most excited about. Mostly because we have friends that have been there a few times. They are sailors and I can see why they like it. It's very similar it the San Juans, just warmer.
The Game of Thrown fans will recognize this in Dubrovnik.
I have SO many pics from Dubrovnik and Split, but not many great ones. Part of the reason is it was so bright. This was the only place that the UV was high. Between the regular air pollution in Athens and then the added smoke in the air from some local range fires I didn't get burned on my arms or legs once. I only put sunblock on my face, ears and neck. The UV here is WAY worse. I found it very interesting, but it makes sense as they don't have some of the regulations that we do. I think we take that stuff for granted. Athens was very Houston like with the humidity and the smog layer. It was NOT like Houston in ANY other way.
Our last day on the boat was in Chioggia, just south of Venice. Venice built a nice big cruise terminal and then a few years later outlawed big boats from the lagoon. Or as they say, the laguna. So all the big boats, including our much smaller one have to dock in Chioggia and then it's an hour on a bus to Venice.
Well, we took the hour bus and then another 45 minutes on a boat to Murano and Burano. These are the glass blowing and fishing islands NE of Venice.
In Murano I wanted to buy this Orca for my oceanographer and marine mammal expert friend, but it was $30K!! The shop does big-time work for the world's richest folks. Crazy. For scale, this thing is about 3' long. So $10k per foot.
Burano was another favorite of ours and it was pretty sleepy as it was late in the day and mid-week. I could stay on the island a couple days and just eat the local food. And gelato!
Venice is a strange and amazing city. I had visions of super tight side walks and having to take boat after boat to get anywhere. Totally wrong. The city is mostly walkable and we put in some major miles. Sure, you need a boat if you want to cross a canal "right here", but if you walk less than a quarter mile up or down that canal there will probably be a bridge. And since no cars, you literally are walking down roads. Some are just sidewalks, but many are as big as a US neighborhood road.
It was stormy a couple of the nights we were there so got some good lighting.
This was the breakfast area of our hotel...Hotel Flora. Our room wasn't the greatest, but the breakfast was good, the bar was good and the people were very helpful. If you wife wants a boutique hotel with a really nice vibe and in a great location, I highly recommend. Just ask for any room besides #37.
Drank more than a few Hugos and Select Spritz.
We were only 3 or 4 "blocks" from San Marcos square and basilica. This is where the apostle Mark is buried. We did the basilica, the museums as well as the Doge's (Duke's) Palace. The Venetian Empire was pretty much the first successful democratic government. The Greeks had some, but the Venetians sort of perfected it. Very interesting.
Anyway, we saw a TON of art and the basilica was special. I'm a believer and this random mosaic in a hallway grabbed my attention. I think it's probably my favorite piece there.
We walked up the stairs in Doge's Palace to the prison rooms. They had many vents on that side of the building. Main reason was for fresh air, but also so prisoners could see their city before their sentence. This might be better than the cat pic.
You have to take a water taxi (private) or the vaporetto (public) to get to the airport. Hotel Flora arranged for a water taxi and I got a couple nice shots from the boat.
Some of the water taxis have really nice teak and chrome. They take a lot of pride in their boats. They are also expert drivers. It was fun to watch them interact with other captains. I didn't see a single collision. I'm sure they happen, but I doubt they have many. Very impressive.
It was a great trip. My phone would get hot from taking so many pics. The 2 things that helped relieve that the most...besides taking less pics, was turning down the screen brightness and going to airplane mode. My phone is setup to sync all my pics to my Google account. So going to airplane mode is a easy way to stop that while taking pics. Saves the battery a lot too. There were 4 of us so I didn't need to have it on all the time anyway.
I'll be over here planning my Montenegro trip! Ciao!
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