On our last day of the Croatian itinerary, we rented a boat for a tour of Elafiti islands, off the Adriatic coast north of Dubrovnik. We opted for a traditional Dalmatian boat, which afforded a private day-long arrangement at reasonable cost. The downside of that was the low speed at…
From Dubrovnik in Croatia it takes less than an hour of driving to the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro, which is technically at the southern edge of the Dalmatian Coast. Or, should take, if Montenegro ever joins the EU and the border controls are relaxed; nowadays, crossing the border on…
The second part of our Croatian itinerary had Dubrovnik as the base. Similarly to Split, we gave ourselves only one full day for exploration of Dubrovnik proper but returned every evening for a meal and a stroll, so managed to acquire a certain level of familiarity with the town. Objectively,…
My latest travel itineraries have been unapologetically influenced by the desire to visit as many World Heritage sites as I come near. In the instances of Portugal or the Dalmatian Coast, that aligned reasonably well with the notion of a typical first-time tour since the most popular and interesting destinations…
In a not widely known quirk of geography, a tiny sliver of the Dalmatian Coast belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina, making it impossible to travel by land between Split and Dubrovnik without entering and then quickly exiting Bosnian territory. The border checks are comparatively relaxed on this stretch, never creating…
Krka National Park was not in our original plans. Just like the vast majority of first-time visitors to Croatia, we instead planned on visiting the much more famous Plitvice National Park (even bought tickets online in advance). The latter, however, is two-and-a-half-hour drive away from Split, where we made our…
The historic center of Trogir sits on a tiny island – roughly 500 meters long and 250 meters wide – that has been continuously inhabited for over 2,000 years. Since the early 13th century AD, the town was gradually rebuilt and embellished with examples of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque…
Šibenik, about halfway between Split and Zadar, has a visibly lower profile than other great towns on the Dalmatian Coast. That standing is probably reasonable: the town offers a single unmissable point of interest, and then a picturesque hillside old quarter that does not take long to get a fill…
While in Croatia, we technically only explored sights on the Dalmatian Coast. This historic region today encompasses counties with seats in Split, Dubrovnik, Šibenik, and Zadar, all of which featured on our itinerary. The latter is the northernmost of great Dalmatian towns. Wait a second!, says an attentive follower of…
For the first part of our adventure in Croatia we were based in Split. We budgeted only a single day for exploring the town, but we also returned to the city core every evening for 5 nights, so by the end of that stay we could plausibly claim a pretty…
I have now come to the end of my photo-material from the spring trip to Portugal. For those interested, over 600 photos from the trip have been uploaded to my Flickr galleries. Central Portugal (Coimbra, Alcobaça, Batalha, Tomar, Évora) Northern Portugal (Douro Valley, Guimarães, Bom Jesus do Monte, Amarante, Aveiro)…
As my Portugal photo-essay series over the last couple of months clearly shows, our traveling targets in the country were heavily aligned with my well-publicized pursuit of the World Heritage. And yet, practically all of the places that we visited would likely feature – or at least be considered as…
Sintra is one of the most impressive and attractive places to visit in all of Portugal. It is also one of the most maddeningly overcrowded. We were there in late April; boarding the local bus to drive up to the higher-situated sights, navigating the sole road that leads to those…
The trip almost did not happen at the very last moment. We were waiting for boarding our outbound flight only to be told that it was cancelled due to mechanical problems. Three hours standing in ticketing line later, the best we could do was to rebook ourselves on a really…
Not many people would use “love” and “Lisbon” in the same sentence. Ask anyone who toured Portugal to name their favorite stops, and it is highly unlikely that the capital of the country will feature even among the top five. This lukewarm impression is not entirely unfounded. Lisbon is visually…
We started our exploration of Lisbon with a morning trip to Belém to take a look at the World Heritage site that consists of a monastery and a commemorative harbor watchtower. Together, this complex is recognized as representation of Portuguese power during the Age of Discoveries. Here is the perspective…
The third point of the Portuguese World Heritage monastic triangle, along with Alcobaça and Batalha, is the Convent of Christ in Tomar. The oldest of the three, it has been built and improved upon for several centuries; the variety of the styles in its construction came to symbolize the opening…
Our drive from Porto to Lisbon started with the rain-out in Aveiro. We had two more sightseeing stops along the way, and unfortunately we kept dragging the rain behind us everywhere we went. Thankfully, the moments of downpour alternated with periods of calm and blue skies, and in Batalha we…
Just as in Amarante, our visit to Aveiro was negatively affected by the weather, only in a more dramatic fashion. We arrived in town on a beautiful spring sunny morning, shortly after starting our exploration decided to stop by for coffee at one of the local establishments, and emerged from…
The first capital of Portugal way back in the 12th century, Guimarães is recognized on the World Heritage list as an authentic example of the evolution of a medieval settlement into a modern town. Its historic center is a homogeneous architectural ensemble in a style that is native to the…