Monday 27 May was a public holiday in the US – Memorial Day – when the country honours US military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Services. It was a beautiful, sunny day (though the wind was chilly) and everyone was out enjoying themselves. Our cousins first took us to one of their favourite eating places, Brents – a famous family run Jewish deli and restaurant which has become one of the best delicatessens in the state. The place was packed with families enjoying their day off and we left feeling very replete.
We then drove to Santa Monica, a coastal town (or “city” as they call it in the US) west of downtown Los Angeles. It too was buzzing. We strolled along a delightful pedestrian street called 3rd Street Promenade and noticed lots of brightly coloured wooden rocking chairs (we discovered these are called Adirondack chairs) just sitting on the pavement for people to use. Then we walked to Santa Monica’s wide, sandy beach for our first sight of the Pacific ocean. Interestingly Santa Monica is the western end of the famous Route 66.
Our friend Sheryl took us to the Getty Centre for the day. It’s an extraordinary set of buildings set high up on a hill with stunning views of Los Angeles and the surrounding area (click on a picture to enlarge).
The architecture is beautiful. The buildings are very light in colour with clean lines.
The entrance hall has a superb installation by Mercedes Dorame entitled ‘Looking back’
Camille Claudel
A trailblazing woman artist working in France in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Camille Claudel defied the social expectations of her time to create forceful sculptures of the human form. Her innovative works of art treat the universal themes of childhood, old age, love, and loss with an expressive intensity in a variety of genres, materials, and scales. Collectors and critics immediately recognized Claudel’s talent, but today her art remains little known outside France.
Age of maturityFireside dreamBust of RodinPsalmCrouching woman
Other works within the studios.
Rembrandt Laughing- RembrandtSaint Bartholomew – RembrandtJeanne – ManetSunrise – MonetIrises – van Gogh
And further sculptures were to be found outside, down by the carpark.
Draped Reclining Mother and Baby – Henry MooreHorse – Elizabeth FrinkRunning Man – Elizabeth Frink
The Getty also has a restaurant with wonderful views and delicious food. All in all a fantastic day.
Ellen invited us to a barbecue at her beach cabin at the beach club on Long Island. What a fantastic experience. First we took the subway down to Wall Street and walked along the river to Pier 11. Then we took the Rockaway Ferry passing the Statue of Liberty, underneath Verrazzano Bridge and docks at Rockaway where we were met by Alan and driven to the beach club.
A cabin with electricity, a fridge and a shower! (far removed from our English beach huts). And a special area for barbecues – I counted 64. We had a wonderful salad followed by delicious barbecued corn and fish washed down with Mimosa (that’s what we call Bucks Fizz). And of course a fabulous beach with all sorts of birds.
After leaving Luxembourg we drove west into France and stopped at this town where there’s a very good motorhome park next to the river (49.7789, 4.7200). The old town has a beautiful square and restaurants where we found delicious monkfish with vegetables and risotto with scallops, with chocolate mousse and creme brûlée to finish off.
This area has lots of cycle tracks and the Trans-Ardenne Voie Verte. We planned to go on a cycle ride along the river but after getting the bikes off the back discovered that one tyre had a puncture, we didn’t have a spare tube or a repair kit and it was Sunday so no shops open. So we walked instead along the river to the next village (loads of cyclists, walkers, roller blade skaters, runners ) and got the train back.
From Kučiste we drove to Mlini, just south of Dubrovnik and stayed at a lovely little campsite, Camping Kate. We were glad we got there early as it was full by the evening. From there we took the water taxi to Dubrovnik, a beautiful half hour journey which took us right to the entrance to the old town. Through a website called Freetour.com we had booked a tour guide called Marco who took a group of about 15 of us on a just under two hour tour of the city. Marco was great. He spoke good English and he spoke loudly and clearly. He was very engaging and very interesting. We learned all sorts of things, including that Dubrovnik was founded by Greeks in the 7th century, managed to avoid being taken over by Venice and was an independent state for 500 years until Napoleon turned up in 1806.
Dubrovnik is very beautiful with its pale yellow stone buildings. Its pavements too are made of yellow stone and are very shiny, making the whole city seem very light. It’s also very clean. It has lots of narrow cobbled streets, enticing gift shops and wonderful gelati. What it doesn’t have much of is ordinary shops because, as Marco explained to us, ordinary people don’t live there any more. Instead they rent their properties to tourists. It also has no advertising in the streets. Shops are only allowed to advertise on street lamps!
Dubrovnik was the main filming location in Croatia for King’s Landing, the capital of the Seven Kingdoms in Game of Thrones and the city is full of shops selling merchandise. Some tours take you around all the filming locations.
not much left of the gelatidelicious waterstreet lamp advertsMarin Drzic – Croatian writer -people rub his noseChurch of St Blaisewindows in St Blaise
The view of Dubrovnik from above was stunning with its red roofs. Our guide Marco told us that originally the roofs had been the yellow / grey colour of the local stone, but as a result of the attack on Bosnia during the homeland war in 1991 many buildings lost their roofs. When the war ended, France donated new roofs to help with the restoration of the city and those were terracotta.
Campsite
Just across the road from the campsite was a restaurant where we were able to have a delicious meal on our last night in Croatia.
Whilst staying at Kučiste we cycled to nearby Orebić and then took the ferry to the island of Korčula, 15 minutes away. The medieval old town is gorgeous, a city wall, pale cream stone buildings, narrow alleys branching off the main. There were lots of restaurants, but we were on the hunt for a Croatian speciality we’d read about called “brodet” and we finally found it in a little restaurant along an alleyway where everyone else eating was Croatian. It’s a delicious fish stew served with slices of polenta.
Our third campsite in Croatia has been a delightful small family run site on the Peljesac Peninsular called Camping Palme in the village of Kučiste. We are on the front edge of the site, right by the sea. Fantastic. The sea is crystal clear, calm and warm enough for swimming before breakfast.
We discovered a lovely little wine bar called Dino’s not far from the campsite where you can sample local wines by the glass whilst looking out at a wonderful view of the sea and neighbouring island. We asked if they had any snacks we could have with the wine and this is what they brought. Both the rosé and the white were delicious. Didn’t manage to get on to the red as we still had to cycle back to the van.
Snack at Dino’s
Cycling along the coast we stopped for lunch at a restaurant by the sea and had a variety of vegetable dishes – all delicious.
Lunch – Djuvec rice, chard with potatoes and olive oil and roasted mushrooms
On the way back Valerie took a detour up a mountain to a Franciscan monastery above Orebic. “It was a steep 1km climb, partly cycling but mostly walking, up to the Franciscan monastery above Orebic. But it was worth it for the view of Korčuk and the other smaller islands.”
We stayed at Amadria Park Camping. It’s a very large site but extremely well run and with an ACSI card costs 23€.
From the campsite it was a lovely half hour boat trip to the medieval town of Trogir, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. With its narrow cobbled streets and beautiful buildings of pale yellow stone it’s delightful. Unfortunately that makes it a popular destination for cruise ships, so we kept becoming overwhelmed by large groups of people wearing identical red boxes round their necks (so they could listen to their tour guide).
The first pharmacy in Europe was established in one of the houses on Trogir’s main square.
the fortressCathedral entrance
The coffee is very good in Croatia so naturally when Valerie spotted a shop selling the Trogir speciality Rafioli , we had to buy one and head for a cafe. The recipe for Rafioli is of course a closely guarded secret but apparently its main ingredients are almonds, butter, rum and citrus peel. So, not surprisingly, it was delicious.
We went to Porto for the day with my cousin Isabel and had coffee, lunch and tea, interspersed with a bit of business with a lawyer.
Cafe Majestic
Cafe Majestic is a very famous cafe in Porto with a wonderful interior – definitely to be visited if you go to the city.
We also tried to visit Libraria Lello (a famous bookshop) which was the inspiration behind part of the interior scenes of Hogwarts in Harry Potter, but the queues went down the road and you actually have to book on line. Here’s a link to some photos
Lunch in a delightful restaurant down a little side street
Wandering around the streets we came across a few more sights. A shop named Coutinho so of course we had to have a photo of Isabel and myself outside, an amazingly old cash register which still worked, and a church covered in beautiful tiles.
Valladolid was our first stop. There’s a great camper stop in a car park near the city centre for €5 per night (see park4nite).
To get to the centre you have to cross over the river Pisuerga and the town have made great walks along the river bank, bringing in sand to make a beach for bathing.
We went out for something to eat and just happened upon a Tapas bar called Jero. There was a queue outside of people waiting to get in before it had even opened at about 8pm. So we were lucky and able to get a table.
