Yet again I have come home with a cold, thanks to taking public transport. Just like the Italian covid cold last September, this also is a hardcore virus - it’s certainly not covid but is a very long lasting cold. Not only me, but Keith, who was totally floored. Then my brother got it, though two days in bed seemed to do him some good and he flew home yesterday. I kept telling him to change his flight but he was adamant he could cope. I wouldn’t have fancied it, especially after we waited 50 minutes in a queue at check in (and then they opened up two more desks as we got to the top of the queue, isn’t that so bloody annoying). By the way I am on day 15 and still coughing and blowing my nose occasionally and having to sit down after any burst of energy.
But, you don’t really care about that, and would much rather hear about our travels! Did we have a great time? YES! Croatia is fabulous, although it is bloody expensive. Diesel was much cheaper (thank god), restaurant prices were slightly higher than France, but the campsites were really, really expensive. So were entrance tickets to various places, and many churches charge to enter (so we didn’t). Food was good, though the portion sizes are ENORMOUS! I don’t know what that is about! Ok for K and my brother who have huge appetites, but a bit much for me. On the downside though, nearly every restaurant had pretty much the same thing, which was a bit boring - though at least there was a large choice of seafood, meat, pasta, salads etc.
The towns and cities we visited were for the most part lovely, though Dubrovnik was a disappointment. I couldn’t do the city walls and after the long walk from the bus stop downhill and including a number of steps, there is only a relatively small area that is flat. It’s a city more suited to fit people! There were loads of tourists of course, with cruise ships moored around the city, and lots of tourist shops with typical tat.
Going into Bosnia &H was fun. We had to get out of the van at the border to do the eyeball scan and fingerprint scan things, and we got stamps in our passports. Didn’t get any when leaving though, and Malc who has already done the scan things coming in from the UK, didn’t get a stamp at all, which was a disappointment. Anyway, Mostar was one of my favourite places. Loved all the old bits, and the modern town around peppered with unrenovated shell and bullet damaged buildings from the 90s war was an eye opener. I found it all so hard to imagine, how only 30 years ago war ravaged through these beautiful lands with their fantastic historical cities, yet now it’s all modern, tourist orientated and with typical Mediterranean seaside vibe.
We also loved Split and Trogir, and had a lovely time on Rab Island where I even managed to brave the cool water for a dip. Twice! But then I was coming down with the cold from hell. We also enjoyed the island hopping on ferries.
We were planning to visit Lake Bled in Slovenia at the end but the weather was forecast for rain and 14C, so we decided to go on from Rab to Krk Island for a couple of days instead, which was much warmer! So we’ll do Lake Bled some time in the future.
The three day journey home was tough though, especially for K who is the driver and was feeling rough.
I bought loads of fridge magnets and other bits and bobs. I forgot to include in the photo the pumpkin seed oil I bought at Piran in Slovenia, part of the small coastline the country has, and I’ve just remembered the Delft plate I bought at a flea market which is still in the van. K also bought an insulated water bottle covered in a Mostar print, with all the minarets etc. Oh and the Croatia T-shirt I bought!
The beach towel has a map of Croatia on it as well. It's the first new beach towel I have bought since the 80s - goes to show how few beach type holidays we have these days. But as there are three of us, and one of our towels has holes in it, it was a good excuse!
I do love looking at and occasionally buying jewellery and the bracelet on top is supposed to be Murano glass from Venice (probably a knock off, after all we saw loads of 'designer' handbags 😂) and the one below is blue coral from the Adriatic. How ethical this is I have no idea, I wouldn't want to be be aiding ruining the Adriatic's coral beds. But a bit late now as I have already bought it.
Now we are back and I am battling the enormous pile of laundry (which includes housesitter bedding and towels, M’s bedding and towels, and our Moho and tent bedding and towels. Haven’t even got to that little lot yet!😱
The garden needs a good water as there was a crazy heatwave in May with high temps, and now the same is happening and it’s hard enough keeping up with watering all the pots. The plants look lovely though, and my tomatoes are going crazy and look so healthy. The only problem is that my housesitter doesn’t know about removing side shoots (I thought it was too much to ask) so they are now multi branched and have swamped the poor chillies. I did remove loads of side shoots when we got home, but you can’t take off all the huge side shoots which have tomatoes forming on them, so I will just try to keep on top of the jungle. I have harvested the first two large courgettes, which was exciting! 😄
Ignore the weeds in the gravel, that's another job I need to get on top of. 😱 Also the bark was put down in the gaps to keep the cats off the soil! I had a grill mesh over the area to start with, but obviously plants grow. I had very poor germination of spring onions and something sap sucking ate the rocket, but it is just starting to come back to life again.
The lettuce stuff is a mesclun mix, i.e cut and come again lettuces and endives which are a bit past that stage now. I pulled out those that had completely bolted! There's plenty of dill to harvest plus it is flowering, which I love. I just hope some Swallowtail butterflies will lay eggs on them so I will have my favourite caterpillars to talk to. 😀 Also the coriander on the right is flowering, which is great as I want to save seed as there wasn't a lot of seed in the packet.
One courgette plant is far more sensible than two so I shouldn't end up with far too many! We have already had courgette and bacon fritters which were delicious.
Blogging friends, in time I will pop around to visit your blogs and say hello, in between the many things I need to do now I have a bit more energy, for example after six days most of my clothes are still in the Moho. Garden takes precedence!
First of all, this photo was taken at a local walk a few weeks ago, called the botanical trail. It's full of lovely wild flowers in the spring and usually, lots of butterflies too. However this time we walked to the end of the path having seen only one white butterfly! That was really very odd. At least there were a few more on the way back and we finally saw one Orange Tip, a few Cleopatras, a blue of some sort and a Wall Brown. Even so we normally see far more than this. What made up for it at the end were several Owlflies flitting about together, always a lovely sight. No photos of anything with wings as everything was too flitty. Oh, heard first cuckoo too!
Back home and I spent a fortune in both a garden centre and the local nursery buying plants for my pots, to replace all the ones I lost to the sudden freeze. It took ages to pot them all up.
I have put a few plant pots out the front of the house but there are plenty here and I hope by the time we come back from our holiday they should have bushed out and be a riot of colour! I've gone for more pinks and purples this time to make a change, as I had a lot of yellow and orange before.
I now have three plant stands in black cast iron (or faux cast iron, probably) which I have picked up from brocantes (flea markets) in our village, and the most recent one I found in a brocante shop. The most expensive was 5 euros and the most recent only 3 euros! Bargain! You can see the other two in the previous photos - they just take one plant.
Our Pyracantha hedge is covered in flowers, but it never seems to have as many berries. Possibly because it doesn't get trimmed until the autumn as we are not supposed to cut hedges during bird nesting season, which is a very good thing. Of course not everyone takes notice but if just some of us take note then that is a help for birds. Anyway, it then is not so easy to prune back without losing some of the berries. The yellow labels are marking where the orchids are - right now there is a mass of Pyramidal Orchids coming into bloom.
This is my Meyer Lemon which lost all its leaves after minus 6.5C and I thought it had died at first. However, there were some branches that were still green, not brown, and I was over the moon when it started sprouting. Now it has really healthy leaves all over, even on the trunk, and even one flower bud! It has never looked so healthy before.
We bought a new Kaffir Lime - I wasn't going to but Keith spotted one in the garden centre and we decided to get one after all - but from now on I am bringing it inside to an unheated room in winter. There isn't much room as my huge lemon grass goes in there in the winter, but I'll make space for it somehow.
I’ve planted out three cherry toms, one courgette plus two chillies which I bought - yet I'm laughing as self seeded tomatoes are appearing in the new veg bed from our own compost! I thought I’d try to keep a couple, if they survive this holiday, as they are too small to tie to a stake yet. The poor toms are shivering as it’s been really windy and we are going through the usual mid May dip in temperature.
Well they will either live or die, I do have a housesitter who I hope will water regularly though!
I don’t have time to finish the Italian trip before we go away as we’re off to Croatia (and briefly, Slovenia and also Mostar in Bosnia) for 4 weeks on Sunday. I’ll sign off now and see you in about a month!
I mentioned the crush to get on the bus in the previous post, but I didn't tell you about the fun and games involved in driving a full sized bus up these narrow winding mountain roads. One of our buses was driven by a woman who liked to parp her horn going around every corner (probably a sensible thing to do) and there were times when we would meet a car coming towards us and there would be some interesting maneouvres to get past.
At the bus station in Amalfi the drivers really showed their incredible skill. They would back the buses into their parking slot amidst hundreds of people all rushing up trying to get near the doors to get on the bus, cars trying to drive past and just general tourists milling about.
On our first trip in to Amalfi, we had to get off the bus about a kilometre from the town as the bus couldn't get past something - we were not sure what that was about but it looked like some roadworks. As it happened this was great as we got to see the town from a different vista and take more photos!
I didn't bother taking my heavy camera and just took photos with my phone.
The jetty for the ferries up ahead. At times the queue was the length of the jetty. I would have loved to go to Positano by ferry, but it was in the other direction, past where we were staying. But we couldn't get there any other way (as far as I could figure) than to go all the way to Amalfi, then back again. Just too much hassle, sadly.
The famous Amalfi lemons! (Or are they the famous Sorrento lemons? They actually look more like their oval shape). They are huge, aren't they? Compare them to the basket of oranges!
The Duomo, or cathedral, of Amalfi, Sant'Andrea. Building began in the 9th and 10th centuries, but it has changed over the centuries using many different styles and now sports a Norman-Arab-Byzantine facade, after part of the previous facade collapsed in 1861.
Looking back down from the top of the steps at Piazza del Duomo.
Before entering the cathedral we walked through the Cloister of Paradise, built in 1266 in the Arab-Norman style. I must say I have never heard of this architectural style but apparently the Norman bit is actually Romanesque, so it's a fusion of Arab, Byzantine and Romanesque, which is known as Norman in Britain.
When we entered the church, it was quite a surprise. It is simply breathtaking! I read that it is C18th Baroque style but with elements of many other styles.
I think this might be the most ornate Italian church we have ever been inside.
Back outside and we indulged in a little window shopping.
Funny! 😁
I have to say, not for me. 😂😁😂 Though very much photo worthy!
Wandering back to the seafront there was a beautiful old ship which sailed off somewhere whilst we were there. 'My' boat is the one on the left, however. It's about the right size for me, I reckon. 😁
Looking back at the town which is so scenic with the mountains towering above it.
More wanderings back in the direction of the ferry jetty, we stopped to have a look at this little marina area. There was a private beach here (out of view) with plenty of people on it, although I wouldn't fancy swimming where so many boats were moored up.
Now this is another boat that caught my eye. It's not as big as my ideal 'gin palace' but it would do at a pinch. ;-)
We then wandered back to the bus stop area to get our bus home. It was all a bit confusing and we waited around for when a bus put the name of San Lazzaro on the front of the bus. However when our bus arrived, we couldn't get on as too many people were in front of us.
A few minutes later a bus pulled up across the road and lots of people rushed towards it. I got on and asked if it was going to San Lazzaro, but they told me 'Bomerano' which of course didn't make any sense. Amazingly the drivers all seemed to speak English so said this bus was going to an area not that far from San Lazzaro, so we decided to get on it rather than wait another hour for our proper bus.
When we got off at Bomerano, we realised that we would still have to wait another hour for the next San Lazzaro bus. Some Italian people phoned someone who came to pick them up. Then some young guys hitched a ride. Some time later a taxi was going past and some of the other people at the bus stop hailed it and got in. Left at the bus stop were just K and me, and another couple. Resigned to wait another 20 minutes, suddenly a taxi appeared so I rushed out and hailed it. We negotiated a price and offered to share with the other couple, who were going to San Lazzaro too. In fact it was only about a ten minute ride!
The owner of the camp site was out the front when we arrived, and being a very friendly soul, we told him about our fun and games. He said that the young guys were staying at the camp site too, and so were the other people who took the first taxi. And it turned out it was the same taxi who dropped them off, then came back in the hope of getting more customers, i.e. us!
So you see why after the bus shenanigans the following day, we had totally had enough and headed north towards Umbria and Tuscany!
