To the Ship, Dubrovnik, Corfu and Santorini

We left Trieste early and jumped on our train.  We had first class tickets but there was not a first class car.  The conductor told us to get a refund at the train station when we got to Venice.  Which we did.  It ended up being 10 Euros a piece to go from Trieste to Venice.  Can't beat the trains.  Of course we had luggage which  is not good in second class.  We had our bags piled in 2 seats and the train was packed. 

We got to Venice and had to go over a bridge to get to the people mover.  We made a wise decision to pay a guy to haul our bags since the bridge had steps.  When we got to the other side, we bought people mover tickets for a Euro.  It dumped us off at the ship.  We checked our bags then went to the check in which was very efficient.  Next we went to the café for lunch.  It was cafeteria style and the food was good.  Bill especially liked having several small portions of desserts.

We were allowed to go to our room at 1 and I unpacked our backpacks.  We had to wait awhile for our bags but met our steward Angelica.  She was fantastic.  We had a lovely balcony room which we used a lot.  We had lots of storage.  When our bags got there, I send our dirty clothes off the laundry and unpacked the rest.  Bill discovered the English movie channel and ESPN.  We saw more soccer and poker than we wanted since football games and the world series happened in the middle of the night.

We went to dinner where we sat with 4 other couples every night.  We sat with the same Dane's 3 times and several people twice.  We did a 6:30 seating which was perfect for us.  The food was good and lots of choices.

Our first stop was Dubrovnik, Croatia.  We fell in love with the place.  The water was beautiful but there was no sea life in the Mediterranean.  Overfishing then pollution from boats killed it.  We were so disappointed.  The only boats out were pleasure craft.  No fishing boats to be seen.  Most boats were just on docks.

 

 

We went to a sidewalk cafe and drank very expensive drinks.  Bill got a coke and I ordered Orangina.  One of my childhood drinks from Germany.  It was just as good as I remembered and Bill liked it too.  We tried to find it in Greece and no one had any clue as to what I wanted.

 

 

We took pictures of an old fort but just walked through the town.  Our waiter noticed our binoculars and said he raises birds.  He told us to go to a park several blocks away.  We thought we found the park, but it was wooded.  We ran into some hikers trying to find their way out, so we told them how to get to the road and they told us where the woods were.  It was a lovely time.

 

 

 

Here are some pictures of a canon and a lovely moon!

 

 

 

Corfu was our next stop.  It was also nice.  It had an old fort with a university in the middle of it.  We walked around looked at the birds, listening to the music from the classes. 

The fort is old and the steps were cool!

 Lovely sunset!!

 

 

The next stop was Santorini.  Santorini is all on top of a hill.  To get there you take this lift!  It was very fun, but a monopoly.  You either paid 6 Euros to go up and walk the path that would have killed us.

The architecture was stunning.  At the top of the hill is miles of shops.  We did find some nice things to buy.  Bill got a CD of Greek music.

 

 Santorini at night! We would just eat on the ship and go ashore until our legs couldn't stand it any longer!  We ended up taking lots of naps.

 

Santorini is just beautiful!!

Honeymoon - Flight and Italy

Last February I decided I was going to Greece and Bill could come if he wanted.  I told him I found a cruise out of Venice and that way we could go to Trieste and see Paul before the cruise.  Meanwhile we decided to get married.  So it turned into the honeymoon.

Then Paul's mom needed surgery in England so he set us up with Enrico and Emily.  More on that later.

 

We got to the airport early since we never know how long the bus will take from parking, how long the line is to check bags and how long the lines are in security.  It was Tuesday, and we were picked up at our car and taken immediately to Terminal E.  No line for checking bags or security.  But our gate was not by Jamba Juice.  So I parked Bill with the bags and went to the other end of the earth to Jamba Juice and then got us Cheese Enchiladas at Papasitos. 

 

Our flight to Frankfurt was uneventful.  The guy next to me had the shade down so I couldn't see Kelsterbach and I was sad.  We did have extra leg room which was nice.  We watched movies the whole way and didn't sleep.  Bill and I timed Drive together so we watched it "together".  We got to Frankfurt and were afraid our connection was too tight but it wasn't.  We got through customs quickly and waited for our flight.  Somehow I mixed up our boarding passes and Bill went through but they stopped me.  So I was the last one on the plane.  Of course he never looked back  We didn't have a window because we were on the exit row and missed the Alps. 

 

We took the bus to the train station from the airport.  We get dropped out and can't see the train station but someone points it out.  The first train had first class seats but wasn't the really nice train.  But for 17 Euros it was great.  We get to Trieste and lug our bags about 4 blocks to the hotel.  As soon as we get to the room the phone rings.  It's Paul and he is downstairs.  He was on his way to the airport and saw us lugging the bags.  It was great to see him albeit for only a few minutes.  We then walked across the street for pizza since we were not going to make it to the dinner hour and then slept.

 

The next day we have a lovely continental breakfast.  They had meats that we didn't not eat, cheeses and fresh breads with lots of jams.  Also yogurt and cereal.

Enrico and Emily are there to pick us up.  Enrico is an Italian bird guide and Emily is a British birder.

Both were fantastic and we had a great time.

 

We first went to Monte Srena overlook at the Val Rosandra Rieserve.  Wow!  Check out this cute church we looked down on.  Emily said it no longer has services but people do get married there.  She said she knew someone that married there and it was very muddy.  We were lucky, the weather was beautiful.  There used to be a train that ran through the valley but now there are walking trails.

Here is an olive grove that we could see.

 

Here is the sign that we are entering Slovenia.  We mainly wanted a new country and it was beautiful!!!!We went to Lake Cerknica.  Gorgeous!  Everything was clean and so beautiful.

 

We went to a place that was a cave that caved in.  It's now a gorgeous rock bridge and waterfalls.

There were so many beautiful small churches.  This one had bells in the bell tower,

 

Lovely reflections of the trees.

 




I don't know where we saw this sign.  Too funny. 

We found a dipper!!

 

 

Day 2 Emily couldn't come with us and we were sad.   The first stop we found a Blue Rock Thrush, juvenile 

At Valle Cavanata we found a Kingfisher.  The European Kingfisher is gorgeous!!!

The gulls are all different from what we are used to.

 

We loved watching the fisherman in Duino feed the Mute Swans.

 

I neglected to put in any pictures of the Grifone Vultures.  They are endangered and are cared for at a refuge.  It was a spectacular place. 

 

We were exhausted after both days and ate pizza across the street both times!!

Proposal, Marriage and Ever After

The night before we flew home, Bill asked Bryan out to the hall. I thought it was weird, but knew I would find out what it was about later.

Arley picked us up at 3:30 AM and we got to the airport.  Bill was still feeling poorly.  We asked the lady at the front of the Copa line if he could go sit down.  She said yes, but then bumped us to the front of the line.  I can't get over how nice the Colombian people were.  Despite the fact our Spanish is bad, and no one spoke any English, they went out of their way to help us.

We were pleasantly surprised when we boarded the plane and it was only 2 seats on each side.  Since we didn't have internet, we were not able to check in early.  We were in the back row, which was nice that I had no kids kicking me.  Right after we took off, Bill said he talked to Bryan about something and didn't know where to talk to me now or wait till we got home.  I told him that he could have me hound him the whole way home, or he could talk now.  This is what it looked like from the plane.  Dawn was just peeking through.

Bill asked me to marry him and all I could do was laugh.  We just had a rough 3 days of him feeling bad.  But I said yes.  He asked "Catholic or Baptist?" and I said JP.  He said good.

So after 9 years together, 10 states, 6 countries, 220,000 miles logged in the car together, countless cat rescues, we decided to make it official.  So I will not die an old maid!  This is my first.

We suspected Bill was passing kidney stones and Monday morning he went to the doctor and he was.  So I took Friday afternoon off and we went to the courthouse on Cypresswood.  There was no line, so we were able to get the license.  We went to James Avery and picked out a ring that I had already looked at.

I had no meetings the next Tuesday afternoon, so we made an appointment with the JP in Magnolia.  He was wonderful.  My sister Becky made me this beautiful bouquet with hummingbirds.

 '

 

Here we are dressed up for us! 

 

My sister Becky came in for the ceremony.

 

She also made these yummy cupcakes.  We took some to the JPs office and she said I could take some to work.  We decided to eat them instead.

Rio Claro, The Ameobas and Kidney Stones

We took off from Rio Blanco to drive over the Andes to the Rio Claro.  It is a very long drive through the mountains.  The views were beautiful, but the drive was treacherous.  We had numerous delays because of road construction.  Meanwhile, Bill was not feeling well.

We got to the lodge which was quite nice.  However, it is very hot.  Jose managed to score the only fan in the place for us since Bill was under the weather.  Scott and Chris were not there yet, but Arley was on the road, and found them.  Bryan decided to stay with them that nice, which was a wise decision.  The next morning Arley and I went into town to get drugs and the pharmacist told us Bill needed to see the doctor.  We were pleasantly surprised to find a doctor in town.  We thought we would have to drive 12 hours. 

So Arley and I drove the 12 miles back to get Bill.  We loaded him in the car and Arley blew through all the road construction screaming "hospital".  Here is the storefront.  It was a pharmacist and doctor all in one.

 

This is the outside sign.  We thought it was hilarious.

 

This was next door.

 

The put Bill on IVs, and gave him a bunch of pills. The next morning he still had horrible gas so back we went to see Dr. Martin.  More IVs and Bill was much better.  Here is Dr. Martin, Nurse Sandra and ambulance driver Arley. 

 

All was well, but then 30 minutes from Pereira where we were catching the plane, Bill passed a kidney stone.  By this point we were tired of rain, humidity and heat.  At least it was cool in Pereira.  We didn't see much of Rio Claro, but I did get to hike to the oilbirds and we saw the screamers on the way out of town.  The lodge was lovely and the food was pretty good!  I did get some good birds from our room, which was in the trees.

Rio Blanco, Manizales, Colombia

 

Rio Blanco had some amazing birds.  The lodge was very quaint, but the food was not good and the beds were awful.  Flora was also beautiful!  We suspect this is where Bill got sick.

The butterflies were amazing too!

 Johnnier, the biologist was amazing.  He could whistle the birds to come in.  Every day he feeds the antipittas.

There were surprises everywhere we looked!

 

 The most amazing hummingbirds!  The Long-tailed Sylph!  .

 

After one walk, we came back to the car and Arley had the snacks laid out for us! It was pretty hilarious!