24 - 27 March 2023 - Amersham / Zagreb / Biograd

Our Spring / Summer adventures started when the alarm went off at 04:20 on 24th March. The flight to Zagreb was completely full, the passengers including Welsh football supporters going to watch their team play Croatia in the Euro qualifiers, and a Para-Olympic Boccia team going to play-offs for next year’s Olympics.


We had a superb 22 hours with our friends Stevo and Jasna in Zagreb, during which we managed to walk around the centre of the city. There are lots of late 19th century buildings, making it very attractive, along with the outside cafes and restaurants of European cafĂ© society. The centre being largely pedestrianised and serviced by trams just adds to it’s appeal.

The cathedral is undergoing some repairs after the earthquake a couple of years ago

Ties were invented in Croatia, and there is a shop selling beautiful examples

If you want a Tesla, this guy was the original

On the way to the bus station, on Saturday morning, the taxi driver had said that, as we were travelling to Biograd, we would be able to sample the Spring, wild asparagus. We subsequently also saw a piece about this on the TV. Of course then, one of our purchases amongst the fresh produce from the local market included some of this wild asparagus.

What joy to arrive at the marina and see Equinox looking spotlessly clean and gleaming in the afternoon sunshine. She is in the best condition, after the winter, that we’ve ever had. This is down to Marko and his team, who have looked after the boat while she has had her winter hibernation and restoration. It has made our part of putting her back to a home much easier than in previous years.




Now we are here we are very happy to be enjoying the blue skies and enjoy Biograd in the low season. It is very quiet, but with a hive of activity going on, the locals getting everything ready for the next big influx of visitors. The stall holders in the market were delighted to see us. The lady at the local laundry even opened up on Saturday / Sunday evening, so we could get the bedding washed and sleep on board Sunday evening.

Marko popped in on Monday morning and we have our plan for completing the jobs needed to ready the boat for setting off. It’s all good.

Tricia (and Steve)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

24 - 30 October 2023 - Bari

Image
Now that we are back to our base for the winter, we have stopped blogging regularly.  We are spending our time working through the checklist of things to do, and this is probably not that interesting to write or read about. The weather is still great, tee shorts and shorts.  we don't think that England will be like this when we arrive back. Over the weekend there was a big end of season race, with about 100 boats competing. The guy from the yard was trying to persuade us to enter, saying that it was all pretty light hearted.  It didn't seem so when boats turned up from other ports, with full race crew.  Anyway, we had decided not to participate for a number of reasons. The racing fleet heading out So we will draw this a close for this year, and pick up from a new blog address next year. Thank you for reading.    Miles today                0    Miles in 2023       1349 Steve (and  Tricia) 
Read more

20 September 2023 - Benitses and Kerkyra (Corfu Town)

Image
As we had booked into the marina for 2 days, but completed the necessary maintenance tasks in 1 day, we took the opportunity to go into Corfu town for some site seeing. The bus stop was right outside the marina, so it was very easy,  there was even a ticket machine at the bus stop (of which more later). Alighting from the bus, we started to wander through the narrow streets and alleyways of the old town. It was the sort of place to ignore the maps and just wander and see what you would find. Like many other places in this part of the world, Corfu has a very long history.   It was one of three Greek naval powers in the fifth century BC, with Athens and Corinth. Since then it has changed hands multiple times. It was part of the Republic of Venice from the 12th century, and there are still many buildings and avenues which seem typically Venetian. They built two huge forts to guard the city against pirates and the Ottomans, making it one of the most fortified places in Europe.   In Nov
Read more