Trip Home

We said our goodbyes to the guides yesterday at breakfast. They both did a nice job. The American, Dave (with the hat), was the “Ryder-Walker man” doing the money and out-of-the-box things like changing the last hike to a kayak day. Nicholai, the Serb, knew the routes, the towns and the logistics.

One reflection from our Dubrovnik city guide: She explained the most recent war (1991 – 1992) which devastated Dubrovnik and other parts of Croatia as the result of misinformation spread by all sides, but mostly the Yugoslav government. She said if the truth had been known by all, there wouldn’t have been a war. Her point was fake news wasn’t new and the US should also be careful.

Our next trip will be to Colorado in August. Stay tuned….

Mike

Last day in Croatia

We had the choice of a 5-mile hike to a spot 1000 ft. above Dubrovnik for a view or a couple of hours of kayaking. We went for variety. Our tandem watercraft experience hasn’t been good – Lake Dillon and the Snake River – so we were going to do singles. None were available, but the tandem worked out OK this time – no significant disagreement about paddling techniques or steering methods! The views of the fortified old town and the harbor were great. We even saw some crazy tourists jumping from cliffs.

Before dinner we had a guided tour of the old town. We learned that St. Nicholas is “father Christmas” because he once dropped gold balls down the chimney of a poor family so they would have dowry money for their daughters rather than having to put them into prostitution. St. Nicholas was also the saint of sailors. We were wondering if there could be any connection – sailors and prostitutes?

St, Nicholas Chapel (also dining spot)

The farewell dinner was at another restaurant with a great view – this time the view was of the old harbor. But reflecting on all the good food we have had both here and in Italy, the key seems to be local ingredients. It clear that to get good flavor, meals need to be based around freshness and the only way to get that is locally.

Here are the other clients on our hike – The Logan family. Ben, I discussed yesterday. His wife, Lucia, is a homemaker since her first child. Didi is a junior at University of Washington and a rower. Benjie is 26, living with his grad school girlfriend and thinking about finishing college.

Tomorrow we go to Rome overnight and catch a flight home in the morning.

Island of St Mary on Mljet

We did a short hike to catch a ferry to the Island of St Mary, a 12^th century monastery (see pic from yesterday). As with many of these type places, it has been many other things over the centuries – fortress, church, hotel, etc. It is now being restored as it was in the 12^th century. Monks still live there and could be heard chanting in the chapel.

Bikes to rent on Mljet

We then hiked about 4 miles to a 800 ft. summit that overlooked most of the east end of Mljet.

Finally ended up tonight in Dubrovnik. We are staying at a luxurious Hilton – built in the 1800’s as the Grand Hotel Imperial and recently renovated by Hilton. It is just outside the main gate of the old town.

Dubrovnik old town wall from our restaurant

Old town plaza at night (gelato walk)

Forgot to mention that Ben, the husband/father of the family that is on the hike with us, is an amateur magician. Last night he did two tricks – one where my cell phone ended up mysteriously inside a balloon I had just blown up. The guy is a retired bankruptcy attorney who now teaches college level negotiating, He uses magic at the beginning of each class to encourage promptness. One question about a trick is on every exam!

Kayaking, old town guided tour and farewell dinner tomorrow. 

Mljet Island

We took the fast (catamaran) ferry this morning to the little island of Mljet (don’t ask how to pronounce it) and are staying at the only hotel – the Odisej (again, don’t ask how to pronounce it). This is our first day with no sun. In fact, it has drizzled on and off. Not enough to stop us intrepid hikers. We did a short, flat hike around a small inland lake, national park. Now the late afternoon to relax, blog and maybe nap.

But a note about the fabulous dinner last night in Korcula. People had everything from shrimp risotto (Lauve) to squid. I had Leskovacka Muckalica, a beef & pepper stew which was delicious. Lauve has already figured out the recipe.

Tomorrow another hike on Mljet and a visit to this island monastery in the middle of the inland lake.

Tuesday in Biokovo National Park

Hiked to the Vosac (4200 ft.) overlook near the second highest peak in Croatia, Sv. Jure at 6000 ft. Most of the elevation was done by van so it was a short hike of about 2.5 miles. The Vosac is the launch site for hang gliders, but there weren’t any today. The views of the Adriatic coast were spectacular.

Looking down on Makarska

Then we took a private ferry three hours to the island of Korcula, the supposed birth place of Marco Polo. The ferry captain supplied various snacks and drinks for the trip. Our guide added a bottle of homebrew brandy that our restaurant had given him the night before to thank us for coming. It tasted homebrewed, but grew on you after a couple of sips. Nap’s followed!

Approach to Korcula

We are staying two nights here at the Marco Polo, naturally. It has a nice setting and lobby, but the rooms are less than expected.

Dinner setting in Korcula

Wednesday Hike

We took a short ferry ride from the island of Korcula to the mainland to climb Sv. Lliju. It was a toughy so only Lauve and I went with the two guides. It ended up being 10 miles and 3000 ft. of gain. As usual the views were great.

At the top of Sv. Lliju looking towards Korcula

Lots of scree

First Hiking Day

It was another day of perfect weather. The hike was steep and rocky from the start. We soon split up into two groups – Lauve and me with the two kids, Mom and Dad behind. The guides split with us and we eventually did a longer route. The total ended up being about 6 miles and 3000 ft. of elevation. The trail followed the base of a massive limestone mountain with an awesome view of Makarska and the Adriatic below. Lauve and I did a refreshing dip in the ocean afterwards. Dinner out tonight with the group.

Mike

Meet the hiking group

The Hotel Park in Makarska is the start of our hike. We have a small group – guides Dave from Telluride and Nicola from Belgrade. Hikers are a family from LA – parents and two adult kids from Michigan and Seattle. We just had cocktails and dinner with the group so can’t really tell too much yet. All seem nice. After a couple of glasses of wine we did start to get some background on the former Yugoslavia vs. what exists now – complicated, but something I never understood and hope to know more about before we leave.

The hotel is on the water with great views of the ocean and sunset. Mountains behind are where we head tomorrow.

Our Beach

They serve dinner on the beach

A Day in Split

As we boarded our ferry, the SNAV Cagliari, in Ancona, Italy we were amazed at the variety of passengers. We felt pretty adventuresome till we saw this family boarding with us.

They had traveled from France by bike with their three kids! Look close, there are three. The mom is on a kind of recumbent tandem with one kid in the front and the oldest on a tag-along that actually had gears. The dad had a young one zonked out in a rear seat and was hauling most of the luggage on a trailer.

Caught both sunset and full moon

Our “state room” must have been all of 100 square feet, but we slept ok and the shower worked. We arrived in Split refreshed and cleared immigration quickly. We had time for a coffee and French toast breakfast on the harbor promenade (Riva) before a walking tour of the old section of the town which was originally Roman Emperor Diocletian’s palace and grounds built around 300 AD. Our hotel room here at the Cornaro is in stark contrast to the “state room” last night. Backroads groups stay here!

There was no time for lunch so a wine tasting had to suffice. The Croatians don’t have a great wine reputation, but the three we tasted were good. Their Zinfandel stock came from California, but the grape was first grown in Croatia according to our guide.

Tomorrow we bus to Makarska to start our hiking trip.

Wine Tasting day (Thursday)

But first I wanted to show the neat graphic our ride leader had from Wednesday’s ride. It looks like the route they show on televised coverage of the Tour de France:

https://www.relive.cc/view/1025218861

Last night was a full moon so we took a romantic walk on the beach after dinner.

Today we rode to the Muretti vineyard where we did wine tasting and had lunch. Some of the roads we traveled were used in last year’s Giro de Italia. Via Panoramica gave a beautiful view of the countryside down to the Adriatic. The road was not in the kind of shape I would have wanted for a pro race, but maybe that is supposed to be part of the challenge.

The hotel has a "farewell" party every Thursday night. It was spectacular. There was a cocktail hour with a DJ, dancing and adult face painting. Then dinner poolside. Half way through dinner the DJ started with music to get the various nationalities going on the dance floor. Canadians were the largest group then Brits, Americans, Israeli’s and Australian’s. The Canadian’s got some hockey drinking song I had never heard. For us Americans it was “Born in the USA.” After getting thoroughly worked up some in the crowd started jumping in the pool with their evening wear on. We didn’t get to bed till midnight.

Friday – day off and travel day

This is the day we take the overnight ferry to Split, Croatia. It leaves at 8 PM. We have a stateroom, not sure what to call a hotel room on a ferry. The point is to be able to sleep before we get to Split at 7 AM tomorrow.

Instead of riding there today, we took the tour bus to San Marino – discussed earlier. It was worth the visit just for the vistas.

San Marino Government Offices

Mike

Barbeque Ride

We decided to do a ride one level up from what we have been doing. It was 77 km and 800 m of elevation gain at a much faster pace – 25 kph average. We can say we did it, but it wasn’t as fun as the slower ride. Our guide recorded the ride and here is the Strava link:

https://www.strava.com/activities/1025218861

He did more distance because he lost me and another guy and spent time trying to find us. We found our own way, but ended up on a motorway to get back. 

At about 55 km we stopped at the hotel owner’s mountain estate for a barbeque with prosecco to start and lemoncello to finish! Maybe that is why we got lost after the barbeque.

Us with San Marino in the Background

The ride was through the usual rolling farmland, but today we were near the land-locked independent Republic of San Marino. It is about 9 miles across with population of 34,000 and has been known as a banking haven. The country has fallen on hard times – the NY Times reported yesterday they have a total of 1.8 b euros of bad loans or 113% of their GDP! We ride to San Marino on Friday.

Our guide likes our bikes organized for coffee breaks!

Mike

Cloudy Tuesday

The ride today took us to the medieval Montefiore Conca castle. The views were endless even on this cloudy day.

Our hotel always has something interesting going on after the ride. Today Lauve did an Italian cooking class where she learned to make pasta – looks like little worms. It will be a part of this evening’s meal along with another night of paella! The teacher in the picture is the hotel owner’s mother – this is a real family organization.

Another Countryside Ride

Well, today there was more than just a ride. We discovered a prickly pear variety with large orange colored blooms. 

We stopped for a pecorino cheese tasting – to be called pecorino it must come from the region around Riccione.

Outside the Pecorino "Factory"

Our hotel bartender hosted a mixology lesson at the poolside swim up bar. He made an Aperol (like Campari, but less bitter) spritzer, a Hugo and his version of a Mojito. Both the spritzer and the Hugo have prosecco. His Mojito tip is to muddle the limes and the brown sugar before adding the mint. Muddling the mint first results in “little flakes of mint that get into your mouth and feel like you are drinking salad.” The other tip was to use Sprite rather than soda to cut some of the bitterness of the lime rind.

Cheers

Sunday Ride

The crowds seem to be thinning out as the weekend and bank holiday come to an end. That is good news for the parts of the rides getting out of and back into town – sometimes hair-raising. There are beach-goers on clunker bikes, pushing strollers and riding mopeds everywhere.

Today’s ride was similar in terms of distance and grades to yesterday’s. Starting and ending on the coast with climbs into the rolling farm land. Since it is the start of the “regular” Belvedere week, we had more riders in the group – 21 divided into two groups making it a little more difficult to guide. It was refreshing to realize that, for the most part, it wasn’t my problem!

We always stop for “coffee” in one or more cute villages, but the views across the rolling fields are the highlight. Today we toured Castle Gradara which was having a festival complete with a blond dressed as Cinderella.

I have looked closer at the rental bikes we ride. For those interested (Lauve wonders how many that actually is) the Campy frames have a logo saying “Nick.” I can’t find that model on the Campy site. The components are Veloce which are towards the bottom of the price range – I’m thinking 105 or Tiagra level in Shimano, but they shift well and the brakes are powerful.

First Ride Day

Last night was paella night prepared by the hotel owner. The pictures say it all.

They have assigned seating for the morning and evening meals. We have been seated at the kids table! They are British, very cute and here, presumably, with their cycling parent(s). This is the last day of their holiday so we’ll see who we have tonight.

Today’s ride was 55 km with 700 m of climbing. Despite being a little hot it was beautiful. We are not so used to the climbing, but it was doable. We plan to stay with the same level ride tomorrow. One thing that convinced us to stay was that as the lower level ride today came to the half-way coffee stop behind us they walked the hill up to the stop and were using platform pedals. I know that sounds a little elitist, but it’s too hot to be out there longer.

Views from the ride (bottom is onion seed, not poppy!)

A view from our room

Dinner tonight is a welcome to the newcomers. The hotel routine is aimed at Saturday to Saturday stays. 

Mike

Travel Day – Rome to Riccione (on the Adriatic)

But first, our last-night-in-Rome dinner: We had a table at the edge of the roof garden with a perfect view of the Roman Forum. As we finished dinner lights came on for all the antiquities adding an additional dramatic touch. The food was good, but the highlight was the service. Our starter was shrimp and guacamole. For the main, Lauve had the tornados and I had the veal with ham. Both served with nice grilled vegetable medley. We don’t seem to have the capacity for the three-course routine. The dinner, the sites and the walk back the hotel were a perfect ending.

The train ride from Rome changing in Bologna was routine at least for Europe – a 300 mile trip in roughly three hours downtown to downtown. Actually, Riccione doesn’t really have a downtown. Sarah Evans arrived about the same time we did from Florence. (Lauve here) It’s a beach town, reminds me of Delray Beach in Florida - loads of people out on the sand, gobs of chairs, cabanas, etc. with little walking area between chairs and water.  Very hot today.  Hopefully we will have a breeze during our rides to cool off.  A very friendly group is departing tomorrow, and some others from Tucson arrive later - so looks like the Tucson “3” will be some of the only riders out tomorrow – a transition day for most hotel guests.  Tonight is a paella night hosted by the hotel owner. 

We got fitted for our road bikes. They are pretty high-end de Rosa’s with Campy components. They road well on our short test around the block. Our hotel, the Belvedere, was recommended to us by Gwen Hyatt and, so far, is everything she told us it would be. The food (lunch so far) is great and included with the room price. They also wash your riding clothes after the guided daily rides. There are four different levels of rides each day.

Some pictures of the hotel and food.

Mike