Paris! The city of love and the unexpected. We didn't start well! We arrived and took the metro to our motel, but got lost! Just getting tickets in a new country with a language we don't speak nor understand, and with crowds of people hurrying home from work, was a nightmare. Thank God for the kindness of those who did help us, we finally made it to our motel at about 10pm and settled in for a good nights sleep. The next morning we had breakfast at a local caf...

Milan, at first sight was disappointing, but when you scratch the surface it is an amazing & beautiful place. We were fortunate to stay at the Sheraton four Points at a very discounted rate. Our first day was waisted on trying to book our train tickets for Paris. First we discovered a rail strike that put us back one day, and then Bastille day celebrations in France cut us short a day in Paris. We then discovered that the Italian rail system would not acc...

We arrived in Venice on the 4th after a two hour bus ride from Rijeka to Trieste, and a two hour train journey from Trieste to Venice: it was a wonderful trip through Croatia, Slovenia and finally Italy. It did take us about 40 minutes to go through customs in Slovenia, but Jean did elicit a smile from the customs officer, the first smile on this trip from customs officers. The train trip is not as scenic as the bus, but there is plenty of room and the ride is ...

Sunday night was a killer! Hot, humid and stifling heat in accommodation without air-conditioning. So we fled from Split, or split from Split for Rijeka on the north coast of Croatia. These will be our last days in Croatia, it is such a beautiful country: the scenery on our way here was gorgeous, mountains reaching the sea, a trip of several hundred kilometers took 9 hours on the bus, yes we stopped at many little villages along the way, but the top speed was jus...

Beautiful Dubrovnik! Dubrovnik is a beautiful place, we arrived by ferry at about 7am and were stunned by how beautiful this place is. High mountains almost reaching down to the sea, with some of the most breathtaking scenery! We made our way on foot to our apartment, about 20 minutes walk, we should have caught a bus or taxi as the last part was a bit strenuous. But we discovered a beautiful little apartment run by a retired lady called Mira. She was so very h...