Hvar to Korcula
Cruising to Hvar through the night - we did have a midnight pause there somewhere which after having difficulty getting to sleep, woke us up when it stopped, off to sleep again then reawoke when our boat restarted. Noisy ship compared to the Odyssey which you hardly knew you were on board a boat most of the time, but this one has a low monotonous drone which is very irritating, but this may be due to sensivity of its occupants ( i.e. us) rather than proximity to the engine room. See through curtains also ensure we get woken rather early which wasnt appreciated much either. One can however compensate to a certain extent with the endless wine and fabulous food. One aspect I must mention are the Filipino staff, 90% of waiting, cleaning and general dogsbody types are from the Phillipines. They are great and while they may not be as coolly efficient as the Odyssey, they are lively and add a lot of character.
Hvar had been written up as the new St Tropaz. Lots of sunshine (2,700 hours pa) and little rain. The Poms on board where rather enthusiastic about Hvar, considering their climate. Actually to tell you the truth the Christchurchians were too.
We caught up with our guide and wandered off into the old town, via the Fransciscan Monastery. Nice just to poke around the old twisted streets seeing whats what and getting the odd cold can of coke zero to remind us we are in the 21st century. Plenty of money tied up at the wharf too, very nice for some.
Not a lot of room to manoevour for the big boat in departing for the Island of Vis, the Captain getting a bit dramatic with the horn when a small cruiser/yacht got in the way whilst completing his 3 point turn. There are a lot of hire craft out there so I suspect a part timer wont be crossing paths with our Belle again.
Vis I cant remember. Its an island in the Adriatic where we had lunch. Didnt rain.
On board after Vis we settled in for a snooze in the afternoon sun on board the Sundeck. So did a few French types, although I have to say the sight of a 70 plus year old woman (actually several men and women) strutting their stuff with saggy bits all over was not a pleasant sight. Geriatrics with bikinis and budgie (or canary?) smugglers! - please get on your fluffy slippers, dressing gowns and shuffle back to your resthome. Made even worse by one particularly bad offender snoring loudly as he lay asleep in the sun getting a little extra tan on his leather hide.
Arrived in the town of Korcula in time for a Folklore Show. About 8pm we were all herded down the gangplank and into a modern theatre for a stylised sword fight. Real steel swords slashing left and right, sending sparks flying in a carefully choreographed show, all accompanied by an orchestra. One mis-hit though and you would know all about it. Makes the English Morris Dancing look like pansies waving their hankies. I would suspect violence is not too far under the surface here with the Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian war and its alleged genocides within the memory of most people that we meet. There seems to be a quite a need to appear to be normal here now.
Korcula is a wonderful medieval old town, much retained from the Venetian days, and supposedly the birthplace of Marco Polo. The Marco Polo Shop is run by a NZer who had run away to do a Shirley Valentine imitation and live a life in the sun. The streets run off the spine of the main street like a fish bone. designed so to reduce wind and sun! Another superb example of craftmanship in the building of the local cathedral, which also has a couple of Tintoretto paintings of the usual Virgin Mary, Last Supper etc. The Church must have totally dominated lives then as 1. All painting were as above - no exceptions, and 2. Nothing much else of importance was ever built ( except fortifications)
Cruising to Hvar through the night - we did have a midnight pause there somewhere which after having difficulty getting to sleep, woke us up when it stopped, off to sleep again then reawoke when our boat restarted. Noisy ship compared to the Odyssey which you hardly knew you were on board a boat most of the time, but this one has a low monotonous drone which is very irritating, but this may be due to sensivity of its occupants ( i.e. us) rather than proximity to the engine room. See through curtains also ensure we get woken rather early which wasnt appreciated much either. One can however compensate to a certain extent with the endless wine and fabulous food. One aspect I must mention are the Filipino staff, 90% of waiting, cleaning and general dogsbody types are from the Phillipines. They are great and while they may not be as coolly efficient as the Odyssey, they are lively and add a lot of character.
Hvar had been written up as the new St Tropaz. Lots of sunshine (2,700 hours pa) and little rain. The Poms on board where rather enthusiastic about Hvar, considering their climate. Actually to tell you the truth the Christchurchians were too.
We caught up with our guide and wandered off into the old town, via the Fransciscan Monastery. Nice just to poke around the old twisted streets seeing whats what and getting the odd cold can of coke zero to remind us we are in the 21st century. Plenty of money tied up at the wharf too, very nice for some.
Not a lot of room to manoevour for the big boat in departing for the Island of Vis, the Captain getting a bit dramatic with the horn when a small cruiser/yacht got in the way whilst completing his 3 point turn. There are a lot of hire craft out there so I suspect a part timer wont be crossing paths with our Belle again.
Vis I cant remember. Its an island in the Adriatic where we had lunch. Didnt rain.
On board after Vis we settled in for a snooze in the afternoon sun on board the Sundeck. So did a few French types, although I have to say the sight of a 70 plus year old woman (actually several men and women) strutting their stuff with saggy bits all over was not a pleasant sight. Geriatrics with bikinis and budgie (or canary?) smugglers! - please get on your fluffy slippers, dressing gowns and shuffle back to your resthome. Made even worse by one particularly bad offender snoring loudly as he lay asleep in the sun getting a little extra tan on his leather hide.
Arrived in the town of Korcula in time for a Folklore Show. About 8pm we were all herded down the gangplank and into a modern theatre for a stylised sword fight. Real steel swords slashing left and right, sending sparks flying in a carefully choreographed show, all accompanied by an orchestra. One mis-hit though and you would know all about it. Makes the English Morris Dancing look like pansies waving their hankies. I would suspect violence is not too far under the surface here with the Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian war and its alleged genocides within the memory of most people that we meet. There seems to be a quite a need to appear to be normal here now.
Korcula is a wonderful medieval old town, much retained from the Venetian days, and supposedly the birthplace of Marco Polo. The Marco Polo Shop is run by a NZer who had run away to do a Shirley Valentine imitation and live a life in the sun. The streets run off the spine of the main street like a fish bone. designed so to reduce wind and sun! Another superb example of craftmanship in the building of the local cathedral, which also has a couple of Tintoretto paintings of the usual Virgin Mary, Last Supper etc. The Church must have totally dominated lives then as 1. All painting were as above - no exceptions, and 2. Nothing much else of importance was ever built ( except fortifications)
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