My last column left off with me preparing to fly from Houston to Atlanta, then on to Venice, Italy, where I hoped to meet up with my wife, Cathy. She had been vacationing in Greece with some high school friends. As her friends flew off together to return to the U.S., Cathy had to fly alone to Rome, then change planes and fly to Venice to meet up with me in time for the two of us to board a cruise ship.
We had worried about making the connections for weeks, especially Cathy, whose favorite pastime is imagining worst-case scenarios. We had a small time-frame, and many things could go wrong: flights could be delayed or missed; baggage lost; or we could be unable to locate each other because we couldn’t use our cell phones to communicate. But we managed to pull it off.
Cathy’s plane landed 10 minutes after mine. After I collected my luggage, the first person I saw was my wife heading to claim her luggage.
Our cruise ship would take us to the Dalmatian coast; Athens, Greece; and Ephesus in Turkey. Following the cruise, we planned to travel by train to Munich, Germany, where we would spend five days seeing the sights.
There was just one problem: I was unable to obtain tickets for the train before I left home. I went on-line to buy the tickets only to discover the email option was not available for this particular train. Don’t ask me why. Email tickets were available for other trains, but ours required paper tickets mailed to a physical address. But we would be on a cruise ship. Thus we were left with the uncertain prospect of how to get from Venice to Munich after the cruise.
Our first port of call was Dubrovnik, Croatia. Croatia is a new nation created 25 years ago when Yugoslavia fell apart. It’s on the Dalmatian coast, which stretches along the Adriatic Sea opposite Italy. It’s a region isolated from the rest of Europe by rugged mountains that stretch to the Alps.
Dalmatia was a province in the Roman Empire and is predominantly Roman Catholic rather than Greek Orthodox, giving it a west European atmosphere. We spent the day exploring its well-preserved walled city built in medieval times to fend off Slavic invaders; and its narrow stone streets, now filled with tourists visiting its shops and sidewalk cafes.
We then sailed on to Athens. Cathy had seen the Acropolis and climbed the steep hill to the Parthenon with her friends. She warned me it was not for old people with mobility issues like me. So in spite of its fame and historical significance, we elected to take a bus tour through Athens and up the coast of Greece to the more modest Temple of Poseidon.
It was probably a wise decision. I was impressed by the size and beauty of Athens. Twenty years ago, the city was covered by a cloud of pollution that was eating away at the Acropolis and other ancient treasures. But the city has taken significant actions to clean up its air, such as banning industry within 25 miles, expanding public transportation, planting trees and encouraging solar energy.
I don’t know the price tag for all this — it may be part of Greece’s financial troubles today — but it has had a visible effect on the city.
Our next stop was the port of Kusadasi in Turkey and the nearby ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus. Ephesus was established by the Greeks in the 10th century B.C. and was the site of the Temple of Artemis (Diana), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was a cosmopolitan city — a crossroads between east and west where many religions were tolerated. It was here the Apostle Paul spent three-and-a-half years establishing a Christian community and church. Later, it was the place where John wrote the book of Revelation. Many believe the Virgin Mary spent her last days here, and there is a holy shrine to the Virgin Mary nearby.
In the first century, the Roman Empire took control of Ephesus and greatly expanded the city, building a 36,000-seat stadium, a 24,000-seat theater, a huge library and many other public buildings. But over the centuries, earthquakes destroyed the great structures; the harbor gradually filled with silt; dirt covered the streets; and the magnificent city was “lost” for 1,000 years until archeologists rediscovered it in 1863.
A tremendous amount of time and effort has been put into reconstructing the ancient city. And while the work is not complete, what has been rebuilt is truly impressive. Cathy and I agree that Ephesus and The House of the Virgin Mary were the highlights of our trip.
The final stop on our cruise was Split, another Croatian city on the Dalmatian coast. Its big attraction is Diocletian’s Palace in the center of the city. The palace was built by the Roman emperor Diocletian in the fourth century as his retirement residence. It was later used as a fortress against the Slavs in medieval times.
Today it is filled with shops, restaurants, churches and residences.
We enjoyed Croatia: it is modern, the people are friendly, the climate is great … and local goods and services cost about half what they cost in Germany and Italy.
When we returned to Venice, we rushed to the train station and were able to purchase tickets on the afternoon train scheduled to arrive in Munich at 10:30 that night. So we checked our luggage, had lunch and poked around the city until 4 pm, when our high-speed German train arrived. It took us past sprawling vineyards and quaint villages, passing through tunnels and crossing bridges as it climbed higher and higher into the Tyrolean Alps. Soon pine forest replaced the vineyards, the homes took on a distinctive Alpine look with steep roofs and wooden second floors, and German replaced Italian on the signs.
It was dusk when we entered a tunnel just outside Innsbruck, Austria. That’s when we heard a loud clunk and the train ground to a halt. Soon the distinctive smell of burnt oil wafted through the air. Some passengers panicked and exited the train, but the crew quickly rounded them up with a warning that there was a second track in the tunnel and they could be killed by a south-bound high speed train. We sat there in the dark, wondering how long we would be stuck in the tunnel.
Some passengers worried they would miss their connecting trains to other cities. We had a reservation at a small hotel in Munich, but the front desk closed at 11:00 pm. If we didn’t arrive by then, we would be locked out for the night.
To be continued …
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