The Most Dutch of Days

It's been hot here in the Netherlands - getting into the low 30s (the high 80s / low 90s).  It may not seem too hot to you, but in the Netherlands, it's humid and there is no air conditioning, which means that sometimes inside the house is hotter than outside.  And there is no relief, not even at night, when temperatures inside the house raise to 32 and won't go down for days.

On one of these hot days, we decided to get out of the city, actually looking for wind (in the form of a nice breeze from the North Sea) by taking out bikes and going on a bike ride that almost reached the North Sea.

Bram, with friends Ivona and Harish, as we just begin the trek.

As we head out, we realize that this will be the most Dutch of rides, as we head out along a narrow path along one of the major canals, typically used to bring cargo in from the sea.

A cargo ship.

Then turning north, heading along yet another canal.

Check out the sign... cows ahead.

Let's just say the sign did not disappoint.

Which later led to this awesome picture - can this get more Dutch?

Local wildlife.

Finally, we reach the location of our lunch - placed near another windmill!

View from the windmill, over a bridge that crosses the canal, that works via cantilever.

Bridge rising.

Bram ordered a "salad".  It was mostly meat.

Back on the bike ride, Harish and Bram talk while biking.

And I take pictures while biking!  Haha!

Trees along a road.

A field of anti-Bram.

We reach a cute, tiny town, that is having its market day.

Even the trees are happy here.

More wildlife, this time in action!

Turning back to Groningen.

We took this ride on the Forth of July.  And who else did we run into but the Statue of Liberty!  What?  That's crazy!  A statue of Liberty in the middle of the Dutch countryside!!!

And other less patriotic statues...

On the Open Ocean and Other Tales of Peril

Heading further down the coast, we ended up in Split, where we rented kayaks and paddled out around a peninsula that is one of the big parks in the city.

Take to the sea!

Sea kayaking is one of my favorite things.  There is nothing like just a thin slab of plastic between you and the watery deep, paddling furiously to orient yourself so your boat doesn't flip in the wake of a larger and more motorized boat, and starting a friendly argument with your husband on what is the most effective paddling technique.

Our first stop was a small isolated sandy beach.

Here we stopped for a snorkeling break!  Even though the water was filled with life, few of them were photogenic enough to actually be caught on camera.  But there were a few photogenic creatures.
A sea cucumber, nestled among the rocks.  There were hundreds of them!

Some weird tubular thing.

A point if you can name it.

Next, back in the kayak and continued to paddle around the peninsula.  Our guide leads us around some steep rocky cliffs.

An old fortress on the cliffs.

A beautiful cliff... so beautiful, my husband is not happy just to look at it...

Rather, he wants to climb it!  He swims on over...

And begins to climb (even with wet tennis shoes and clothes!)

Go Bram go!  This was one of the items on Bram's bucket list - deep water soloing (climbing without a rope over water, so if you fall, you land in the water).  

Many people asked: did he fall?  Here's your answer:

splash!

But he's not easily discouraged, and he's back on the rock.

Then we got back in the kayaks and headed into the main port of Split.  It was really something to kayak next to cruise boats!  Ieee!

Our first view of downtown Split - approaching it from the water - the way it should be.  :-)

May God Have Mercy On Your Soul

Heading south along the coast of Croatia...

Our destination was Trogir.  It was established by the Greeks in the 3rd century BC.  It survived under the rule of various countries and cultures, including the Venetians.  Trogir is on a little island a short distance from the mainland (you need to cross a very short bridge to get there).

Beyond the island of Trogir is lies another island, Čiovo, a much larger island that is mostly empty.  Yet around the outskirts of Čiovo is a labyrinth of the most terrifying streets I have ever drove on.  Both Bram and I decided that these streets were more terrifying than the narrow, hedge lined roads of Wales, the maze and untranslatable signs of Naxos, and even the navigation nightmares of France. Yes, in Čiovo, the roads have names, but they are not actually marked anywhere.  Bram, using the GPS blinkie blue dot, directed me through the maze with the patience of a saint.  The roads were two directional but barely wide enough for two cars.  On either side of the roads were concrete walls. Then, of course, nothing was flat, so the roads either climbed precariously up the hill, or descended perilously down through the tunnel of concrete.  The speed limit is something like 30 km/hour, but the locals all go at least 60, appearing suddenly from behind the concrete wall.  I would have to stop, back up to where the road was wide enough to allow us both to pass, or, if they weren't patient enough, I would start praying as I drove as close as possible to the concrete wall while they barely squeezed past me on the other side, all the time thankful that I bought extra insurance for the rental car! Every time I climbed to the top of a hill, my cheap rental car began to thrum and vibrate, threatening to die.  Of course, this little island is where our hotel was located, so we needed to make this trip at least two times a day! Needless to say, it was a fun trip.

Finding the hotel in the first place was also an adventure.  Since the names of the roads aren't marked, we went to where we believed the hotel to be, and instead found a house of a local family.  Not knowing what else to do, Bram walked through the yard and knocked at the outside of the house.  A very nice local man came out.  He didn't speak English, but Bram pointed to our hotel confirmation paper trying to explain we were looking for this hotel.  Apparently we were not the first lost tourists to show up in his yard - he had the hotel on speed dial.  He called them and then the nice man walked us to the hotel which was actually about 200 meters in a different direction.

Čiovo

In this picture, you can see Čiovo behind the island of Trogir.  Everyone who wants to go from Trogir or Čiovo to the mainland has to cross a choke point - a single bridge that links both the islands of Trogir and Čiovo to the rest of the mainland.  At the end of this bridge is an intersection that doesn't have any traffic lights, or indeed any sign, save for the "stop" painted on the ground for one of the roads that leads into the intersection.  But, since it's on the ground, it's safe to ignore, right?  Needless to say, no one entering this intersection wants to stop.  Instead, everyone proceeds at once into a jumble in the middle, containing cars, bikes, tourists on foot, busses, and even an occasional donkey, and then somehow they sort themselves out on the other end.  As we approached this intersection, my amazing husband who was navigating took one look at the map, one look at the intersection, and then said to me, "Turn left.  And may God have mercy on your soul."

I've been to India, so I know scary roads when I see them.  This was like a microcosm of India, centered over a single intersection.

Adventures continued back at the hotel that night.  Of course, the internet didn't work.  I was trying to plan an excursion for later on in the week, and had been emailing the company back and forth, so I took the computer out of the hotel to another hotel down the road that let us use their internet. However, on attempting to leave our hotel, I discovered we were locked in!

The hotel room we were in shared a building with many other apartments.  Bram knocked on each of them, but no one responded, even though we could hear the TV from one of them.  I called the owners of the hotel.  Another man answered, and explained that the owners were out for the evening at a wedding.
"Could you call back tomorrow?" he asked.
"No, I'm locked in the building."
"What?" he said incredulously.
He then ran down the street to our building.  I stood on the deck and yelled down at him, explaining how the front door was locked and we were trapped inside.  He ran back, and came back with a set of about a thousand keys, and proceeded to try each of them at the door.  Of course none of them worked.  He ran back again looking for more keys, when the friendly neighbor across the street noticed the ruckus.  As he came back, she asked him what was going on.  I don't understand Croatian, but I was pretty sure that she was telling him that there was someone in the building besides us - she could hear TV.  She tried all of the doorbells for the apartments in the building while he tried additional keys.  Then the neighbor started yelling up to the apartment whose TV was blaring.  At about the same time, the guy finally found a key that worked, and the neighbor with the loud TV came down and explained that she locked the door because she thought everyone who went in this building had a key (a logical assumption).  Now that we were free, I asked the guy in charge if we could have the key so this wouldn't happen again.  He shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot and explained how it wasn't his key, and if it was lost on his watch it would be his fault.  The neighbor slapped him on the side of the head and said something in Croatian which I can only assume translates roughly as "You moron - just give her the key."

Needless to say, we got the key, and were able to sleep soundly knowing if there was a fire, we could escape the building.

Anyways, back to pictures.  Besides all of this excitement, Trogir is a really nice place - a tiny, pretty town with narrow cobbled streets.

The clock tower.

Near the sea is the "fish market", which was built in the 1500s and used to be a customs house.

Beautiful back alleys of Trogir.

Trogir is a very popular destination for yachts.  Many yachts lined up parking lot style to resupply.  We saw people load everything from food to a flotilla of bicycles onto these yachts.  It's interesting to see how the super rich vacation. A week on a boat like this could cost as much as $100,000!

My yacht

Oh look, my other yacht!

Actually, they are all my yachts!

That evening, on the sea, my husband, who normally doesn't like fish, decided to give fish a try once again, since he enjoyed the fish on our island cruise so much.  After all, on the edge of the sea - what a better place to try fish!  He was especially adventurous and tried a plate of mussels!

On our way to our next destination.

The road leading away from Trogir.