Split, Croatia

Ahh, one of my favorite cities, Split, Croatia. We visited here in 2007 and it's a lovely city. What is really interesting about this place is how they have incorporated their old city with the new one. As you can see in the map below, the old town is to the right and to the left is a modern-day mall--all worked into the old city walls. Just incredible.

I was so delighted that to take the group to a part of the city that is somewhat in ruins but has amazing acoustics. Singers use it for performances and there was a group singing when we arrive. It was soooo much fun.

Instead of using chairs, I suppose to save space, some restaurants use stairs to serve you great coffee (very, very good) and meals. Hal and I weren't able to do that last time, but this time I did! What's interesting about this port is that it gets very, very busy with all the walking tours but by mid afternoon is dies down and one can have a great time taking pictures, drawing and/or shopping. 

It's very hard to believe that everything is marble here but it is. In fact, they are still continuing the tradition. We witnessed stone cutters placing pure white marble into a walkway around the main church. In the photo above the steps are made of marble as all the steps and walkways here are. Everything literally shines.

Last but not least, I can't finish this section without sharing a photo of the massive statue of Saint Ninksi. It is said if you kiss your hand and place it on his foot you will get a blessing or better yet, your wish will be granted. I think it's cool to see the locals walk by and nonchalantly kiss their patron saint's foot.

This statue is massive as you can see how large just the foot is.

Our last port: Venice

As with all good things, the cruise had to end and this one at the shores of Venice. Most of the group headed off to Marco Polo Hotel, while I took off for the airport to catch a plane to England in order to visit friends.  Venice is a fab city, one which I think everyone should visit, especially adding a boat taxi and a tour of the islands if possible. 


So there you have it, our trip on the Mediterranean. Hope you enjoyed the little bit I was able to share with you and hope that you consider a similar cruise yourself someday. 


My next sketching adventure will be in 2014 in the village of Chiseldon, England.

Civitavecchia, Italy

When arrived in Civitavecchia, Italy, three of us went on to Rome and the rest stayed behind in this fabulous old port.This was and is the main port to Rome with a fort designed by Michelangelo. Unforntately, he died before its completion. 


I fell in love with the city. The lesson for the day was photography and wow, does this place have some great photo OPs. It's necessarily filled with brilliant buildings, but more so with artistic touches that are nice to photograph. Fortunately for us as well, the lighting was just perfect. To show you what I mean, here are a few things we captured with our cameras.

My purpose here was to demonstrate that instead of taking snap shots of an area, one can take artist shots--ones that will be of interest and can later be great fodder for future drawings and paintings.

The best part of the port though was the Mediterranean and the city's beach. We were fortunate enough to find a wonderful place to eat that sits right off the sea. The food and wine were wonderful. Of course! We were in Italy. Here are some pictures of the beach area.

The Pirgo--cool!

Only one section of the fort

Sorry for the break in the action

Sorry for not posting. The ship would not take a flash drive and it cost $35 an hour to use the Internet, so I was a bit stuck after Florence. So I'm here now to catch up on things. BTW, I'm currently in England, visiting with friends. Some of the students are still in Venice. Some have taken off to other parts in Europe (including me). 

The duomo was built on the site of a 7th church,
called Santa Reparata by Arnolfo di Cambio in
the 13th century.

Let's return once more to Florence. While I was writing my last posting, most of the group walked on a tour of the city. It was very cold and windy that day, so a few students dropped out and went their own way. Most of the Mediterranean countries are easy to wander through with a map. From wherever you are, you can set a visual marker--a dome, a statue, body of water, etc. Then you will always know where to return. It seems dicey because of all the small alleys. But that's much of the fun, wandering around visiting different shops, taking photos of interesting people and places.

Bsilica of the Holy Cross

I met up with the group after my cafe stop. To be honest, I got lost, went in the wrong direction and wound up at the university. I knew something wasn't right when I saw dozens and dozens of kids and no tourists. I looked at my map, found the university and realized, oops! I had gone the opposite direction from our meeting place. Using the dome of the cathedral (or duomo), also called the church of Santa Maria del Fiore, as my landmark, I was able to turn around. We were meeting at the Basillica di Santa Croce (Piazza di Santa Croce), meaning the Basilica of the Holy Cross). While everyone knows about the famous dome of the cathedral in Florence few people know about this basilica, made famous with its buried guests: Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiaveli, Rossini and more. It's also referred to as the Temple of the Italian Glories.


While the main square in Florence is the Piazza della Signoria where you can see replicas of Michangelo's work and view an open air sculpture gallery, my favorite square is the Piazza di Santa Croce. Along with the church, the buildings are splendid. I met a Canadian couple who used to study art in a studio located on the square. Today he is a monument sculptor and she is a teacher.

Here are some photos from the square. If you're ever in Florence, don't forget to visit Pont Vecchio over the Arno River. It's a great place to buy jewelry. The bridge is a jewel as well.

Cool brown and white pigeon

Pont Vecchio

Barcelona to Florence

Day Three/Four

I'm currently in a Internet Cafe in Florence, while the group is taking a walking tour. The ship's WIFI is awful so I'm restricted to finding a cafe. This is a very cool place. No one speaks English and I don't do a very good job of speaking Italian. In fact, to get here I asked some store owners about a WIFI Internet cafe. I spoke the little Italian I know and well, I got back lots of Italian. But eventually I met a man on the street who told me about this place. 

I'll see if I can share some photos  of Florence from the group--when I get to another cafe.  Right now I'm surrounded by eight men, three young, two middle age and one elderly. They're all talking and visiting. This place is also a bar, so everyone is enjoying their vino and beer. One of the servers (a girl)  is obviously dating one of the guys and the amore is flowing between them. It's sooooo cute.

Yesterday we went to Aix en Provence. Definitely a place I want to experience again. Lots of open cafes and open markets. I'm definitely coming back to this place. Both Hal and Alex would love this place. So alive and vibrant. The French are so nice and accommodating. I had to go to the pharmacy for some medicine and between my broken French and their broken English, I got just what I wanted. Here are few shots I can share. 

Day Two

We made it to Barcelona. Most of us are running on very little sleep. Even though we took the shut eye from NYC or Atlanta to Barcelona, none of us really slept much. We got settled in the hotel and wandered around the neighborhood. Then we took the hop-on, hop-off bus from 1:30 to 7:30 with a short lunch break. Whew, we were all very tired to say the least. Had dinner in a quaint restaurant off an alley near the hotel. Alleys abound here with cool little cafes and restaurants. Very romatic. This place was wonderful—good food and service. It took us about 15 minutes to figure out the bill. We probably looked silly but in the end the waiter kissed us goodbye. In fact,  there seemed to be a reception line formed on the way to the door, waiters in line  to say good night to us. It’s either the typical Spanish male  attraction to women or they were just glad to get rid of these silly women.

Whatever the case this was a perfect ending to a perfect day, despite the evening brought rain . We just can’t rid of that wet stuff can we.  Here’s a pictorial update of our day. Hope you enjoy. Sketching Sagrada Familia will be extra credit.  J  Ha, ha. Later, will be off to the cruise ship but before we go, we’ll spend some time sketching and photographing more of the nearby cathedral and alley ways.

Here's the group sketching a church tower, three point perspective
is fairly easy, once you learn it. 

Sagrada Familia
This magnificent cathedreal, designed by Gaudi should
completed in 30 years.

Many of the buildings here are just
architecture wonders!

Day One: Arriving at Four AM

I can’t believe I did it, but our travel agent told us that we had to be at the airport three hours early. So I was bright eyed and busy tailed at 4:06, dropping my luggage off at the sky caps in front of Delta. Of course, my son had said I would be the only one there. He was right, not a sole was sitting in the waiting area. I had the whole place to myself!

Fortunately, Starbucks has just opened. So wandered over there to grab a cup of java. The airport is very strange—a little bit eerie, that early in the morning. Everyone seems pleasant, but we have that sleepy edge we’re trying shake off.

Within an hour, people started filing in. Barbara Silner and her husband Don showed up first. Wow, it felt great to see someone I knew. They too were excited and thrilled to be taking advantage of this well priced cruise and air fare. We really lucked in so many ways. Not more than a few minutes later there came Marty strutting down the promenade, flashing her bright white smile.  Things started to move then and we were seated in our seats the plane with some time to spare. We were actually going to take off earlier than expected.

Excitement right from the start !Take off was uneventful, which we all want. I got to pull some stuff out of the overhead bind and just ahead was an elderly man (actually he was only 60) who fell over the seat and onto the floor. I kid you not. Suddenly you could hear bing, bing, bing. Everyone was trying to get the flight attendants’ attention. I looked down the back of the plane and there were two getting the beverage cart ready. I motion to one to come and then moved back, pointing to the injured man. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone move that fast  on an airplane.

Literally with in seconds there were several attendants pouring over the man. I overheard that he had had heart surgery last week and was a diabetic. The attendents quickly pulled as much information from him and then called for medical help. Nurses came to the rescure, using Delta’s emergency medical equipment. It was fascinating and heart-warming to watch. This is my first time on Delta and I must tell I am very, very impressed with their professionalism—not only with the medical emergency, but also how they treat us passengers. Guess I’ve been using BA too long.

NYC—JFK

 Once we landed in JFK, we met Marty’s sister Gloria who is joining us for the cruise. We had a quick bite to eat at this out of the way restaurant—rather pricey, but, hey we’re in NYC. As the server was asking me, “Do you want to add this and that?” I said yes, never imagaining the bill would come $35—that’s almost as much as Hal and I spend on Happy Hour at Oswego Grill. Go figure.

At this moment we just a little over two hours frm Barcelona. I took some sleeping pills, but they didn’t seem to work as they usually do, so I’ve only had about three hours sleep. This is the one thing I hate about traveling to Europe, it’s always so hard to catch on your sleep. I see a little like coming through the windows, so we should be getting close.

Today, I’m hoping will jump the Hop-on, Hop-off bus that tours the city. Hal and I have done this in Barcelona before (and other cities as well) and it’s a great way to see the city—hopping off when you want to see attraction over another. If all goes well and we’re not all too sleepy, we can visit the gothic Cathedral, Sagrada Familia, take pictures of the fabulous architecture while the bus winds through the city and finally the Park Guell. We may have to save that for tomorrow morning as it is supposed to be huge.

Much of the architecture in Barcelona is influence by Antinio Gaudi and other creative geniuses. Pablo Picasa went to school in Barcelona, Goya painting his experience of the Spanish civil war and so. Barcelona is an artist’s paradise. Art shows up everywhere, even the front steps of a business building.

Leaving Friday, April 20th

Harbor in Split, Croatia

I can't believe the trip has finally arrive. I'll try to post here as much as I can. We'll be sketching and photographing at each port. So they'll be lot of visual stuff to bring home. Hope you'll draw along with us from the photos I intend to post. See you in May.

Aix en Provence

Split, Croatia--Venice, Italy

When my husband and I went on this cruise in 2007, we were curious about Split. I don't even think we understood where we were going until we got on board. You can tell what kind of crazy adventurers we are. Heck, it didn't matter anyway, the ship would take us to the destination. Our only chore was to walk around and gawk at the beautiful scenery.


We weren't disappointed. Of all the cities we visited, my favorite was Split. Even Venice didn't top this place. I think I was more familiar with Venice because of all the photos, paintings and movies we've seen. So it's cool to see Venice, but not so surprising. On the other hand, wow! Split was exciting for us. You get a real sense of eastern Europe (Croatia was part of Yugoslavia before the Communistic break up). The water, the beaches, the boats, the hilltop living, the marble sidewalks, everything about it was very cool. You may not feel the same when you see Split, and perhaps I shouldn't talk it up so much, but I did love the visit. BTW, this was the only place where I saw real old-time beggers--not a pretty site, but way different from the other cities we saw.


Here are some photos, which really don't do the city justice. Please note, these photos are all mine and I own the copyright, however, you can use them as reference photos is you want to sketch them.

People pass by, kiss their right hand and place it
on this saint's foot for a blessing.

This is the only place where I have seen people
dining on steps with tables.

Flowers abound on all the balconies.

If you like boats, this is the place to do some photo shooting.

They are very serious about their stone work here.
A stone cutter at work. 

One last place is Venice. I would highly recommend visiting the outlining islands, especially Berano. Here are few from my library of photos: