The Palace Hvar Hotel

... and smaller towns. Not that Venice wasn&#8217;t nice in it&#8217;s own way, but I really like non-tourist destinations more. <br><br>But being too cold we took another train. Thankfully this time there was only one transfer and we didn&#8217;t even have to change platforms! Slightly warmer temperatures are tempting me to stay and cycle, but the only thing around is the ferry port. Everything I wanted to see was on the other side of ...

... on the other. I found myself reading the Italian, pronoucing the words carefully in my head like they are babies that need to be craddled. Then I would realize I had no idea what I just read, and would, again, redirect my attentions to the appropriate side of the page. Werid no?<br><br>Italy never ceases to amase me, but there are characteristics that I don't particulary like. I can understand why this land, this ...

Arrived early in the morning and it took us forever to get off the boat. No kind of organisation at all and then we had to queue for an age to go thru customs in the van, but then we were on our way. I was driving and got my first taste of Italian traffic... oh my god. It was crazy and we werent really sure where we were going and neither was Harriet our GPS. I love how everyone just pulls out wherever they ...

A relaxing day. We do our morning exercise by climbing the hill to the Venetian Fortress from 1551. The views from here are stunning. It is evident as we climb how poor condition most people are in as they struggle. We explore the coast by foot, grab lunch at a posh little café then hit the beach. The beaches are mostly big rocks. Vendors attempt to put beach chairs ...

... I think. It's kinda hard to tell if I was asleep or not as I had my music going..but either way I managed a doze/nap. The bus wasn't particularly smooth but we were all relatively happy flopping around attempting to sleep. <br> So 2 hours later we were pulling up to old Delphi and the ruins, where Apollo answered questions through oracles and had his worshippers. The ruins were in terraces, the stadium was the on the 5th terrace which was unable to ...

... vista of lumpy and spiky territory. Getting towards level ground again, we came down towards the dual carriageway at Bagni di Romagna and were relieved to spot a petrol station. It was only self-service and, though we were sure it took notes, we weren't quite sure how to operate it. Therefore, Paul ventured into the attached cafe and - in his words - "bowed" at the girl inside, informed her (in Italian!) that he didn't speak Italian, and ...

... in the front commenting on how awkard these stations are with 5 officials watching your compsure,body language and generally every move for the slightest hint that you are suspicious. A friendly young official informed us that we'd have to park the van over in the corner, which we did. We were then asked to come into their office. When the wicked head official introduced herself to us as crime investigation I thought that we were done, running the ticket booth in Slovenia ...

... closed at 230 and thats when we really called it a night. We decided to stay one more night in Hvar. We would leave the day after. I convinced Franca to travel one day like me. We would go somewhere for just one day and not reserve a place to sleep. We would manage once we got there. I suggested we go somewhere along the coast between Split and Dubrovnik as we saw some beautiful places when we first drove to Split. She was game. Dino Vagabond

... That fate a seasoned traveller dreads had befallen Cameron. His bag had not turned up. Having waited for the bag and then waiting in a queue to report the bag missing, it wasn't until nearly 3.30 that they were able to jump into a cab. Given that the journey from the airport to the ferry terminal normally takes around 30 minutes, things were going to be cut very fine indeed. At 3.30 we were able to put our bags on the ferry so Jess, the kids and I walked down to the large ...

... that we were in for a rough ride. Thankfully though it was actually quite soothing and even sent me off to sleep, that is until I woke myself up with my snoring, whoops. The boat pulled up at Hvar town and it was like a rugby scrum trying to get off, the harbour was quite narrow, and I had visions of a nasty fall into the sea..... I had a series of directions to follow ...