Cooking the NYTimes and Other Assorted Retirement Activities

  Trogir and Dan-O Pizza Night Yesterday My Friend Jeanie, Bill, bonus grands Gwen and Eleanor Smith (their parents, Tyson and Alison, have gone over to the island of Vis for a couple days to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.  Vis is where at least some scenes of Mama Mia was filmed.) and all the Lummas (Nico, Sibylle, Reike, Henri, Luise and Clara.  Nico is My Friend Jeanie and Bill's exchange son, currently living in Hamburg.  There might be a quiz at the end of the vacay :) ) drove down the coast to Trogir. Trogir was first established in the 3rd century BC, and has 2300 years of continuous urban tradition.  It has a historical city core, and is the best preserved Romanesque-Gothic complex in Central Europe.  ( Thanks to Wikipedia for that information.) The streets felt particularly narrow here and I took this photo because it was one of the streets that was not crowded with tourists and shops. This is the Church of St. Lawrence in the central sq...

               Sea Day While on the beach at Kastel Stari, we were approached by a young man, who turned out to be a huge fan of American basketball, about booking a day long sea cruise.  Given everyone had expressed an interest in this activity, we decided to go ahead so yesterday found 25 of us getting on board the M/V Horizon. Mulling around, head counting On board Sailing selfie We went out from port for 2 hours to our first stop, the Blue Lagoon off the island of Solta.   The water was the most exquisite shade of turquoise.  I don't think this photo really does it justice.  The well traveled in our group all agreed about the amazing color, and clarity, of the water.  As you swam, you could look down to the bottom of the Adriatic.  We also agreed that the Adriatic seems to be the saltiest of salt water. Afterward a whisp of my hair blew into my mouth, and I couldn't believe how salty it still was, even dry. L...

                                          More Kastels  and Food, Glorious Food I haven't provided a recent weather report, but you can refer back to an earlier Cro-A-Ti-A post that indicates the weather here has been unseasonably hot.  The temperature is now hovering in the low 90s and that is a dramatic improvement from 100.  Personally the warmth only adds to my enjoyment of whatever we're doing, because I then don't have to worry about being cold.  We've been encouraged, and may be considering, an Alaskan cruise; friends tell us that it's not really all that cold there in the summer and I wouldn't be freezing and the scenery is amazing.  I get the part about the scenery, however I have seen photographs of Alaskan cruisers in the summer and for my part, I would have to bring my down coat along to be comfortable.  My preference, for...

                                                              Exploring Some Kastels I believe I previously mentioned that we are staying in Kastel Stari, one of 7 Kastels located on the Adriatic that comprise the Kastela.   Kaštela  ( pronounced   [kǎʃte̞la] ) is a town and a  suburb  of  Split , in  Split-Dalmatia County ,  Croatia . The town is an  agglomeration  of seven individual settlements which are administered as a single municipality with populations individually ranging from 3,000 to 7,000 residents. The town is located northwest of the city of  Split , west of  Solin  and east of  Trogir , on the central  Dalmatian  coast. With a total population of 37,794 as of 2021  census, it is the 14th  largest...

  The Split for Split Yesterday we attempted our first mass outing, with all 20 of us making our way from Kastel Stari, where we're staying, to the city of Split.  This involved a couple Ubers and 3 cars.  I can report everyone traveled safely, which is always questionable when commuting in any city/area you're unfamiliar with, in particular when the road signs are written in a foreign language.  (I believe My Friend Jeanie's husband, Bill, just recently stopped getting speeding tickets from the car son-in-law Marty drove while we were in Italy 5 years ago.) Impressions of Split from what we drove through:  Plenty of 60s and 70s type architecture, tall, blocky, concrete apartment buildings that I think would be easily transported to the Communist Eastern Bloc countries of ago.  Laundry hung out the windows, sometimes two and three lines deep.  Traffic dense, scooters attempting to make their way in between the lines of cars on the streets, giving drive...

  Didn't Do Much And An Abandoned Hotel Yesterday Tyson, My Friend Jeanie's oldest, and I walked back down to the beach in an attempt to see how sweaty we could get since the high ended up being a sultry 96.  Being the curious sort, we headed down the path neither of us had already taken just to see what was there.  And we found this.  And I can't get the photo to download.  Suffice this description: the abandoned Hotel Palace.  According to the Total Croatia website, this beach front property was constructed in 1928 and from what we could see when we wandered (very briefly) inside, it was once a luxury property.  Evidently it was purchased in 2008 by an investor intending to renovate the building, but instead has let it fall into ruins.  When I say this place is on prime beachfront property, believe me, it is.  Again, per the website, Hotel Palace is located in a conservation area and is a protected cultural heritage and it appears that cau...

 The Best Laid Plans... Yesterday I wrote the plan for the day was to visit Split.  I also wrote that it has been unusually hot here.  How hot?  As Robin Williams playing Adrian Cronauer in Good Morning, Vietnam said... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXR0uoxUvaw With the forecast calling for temperatures in the high nineties...and indeed it hit 100 yesterday...plans changed and a group of us walked to the beach. W e very much enjoy staying in neighborhoods when we travel.  I think this gives us a great opportunity   to experience what life is really like wherever we are, and yesterday we walked through the neighborhood to what seemed to be a beach that locals use on a hot summer day.   The Adriatic was cool enough to be refreshing because after the walk, the first thing everyone wanted to do was get into the water.  I took advantage of this convenient cabana to change, which I thought was quite clever. There's one changing area on each side....