July 13 – 18, 2019

So, avid reader, the first thing you are asking is “what the heck is a funicular?”. The answer is coming, but first you have to read a bit more.

Let’s start out with the town square. As with all of these old towns, the city, the wall, the churches, everything is built around town squares. There might be one of them in the small towns, there could be lots of them like in Venice, Prague etc. Here in Kaunas, there is one primary old town square.

The square features some pretty interesting sculptures.

Again, as with all of these old cities, there has to be a castle, or city wall. The castle in Kaunas is pretty much destroyed. The city lies at the junction of the Nemunas and Neris rivers, so it was a pretty strategic location. The castle, built in the 1300’s, did it’s best to protect the city, primarily during Lithuania’s heyday when it was aligned with Poland back in the 1300’s to the 1500’s.

Only about 1/3 of the castle remains today. The remains basically represent what it used to be, but are in no way functional or really complete anymore.

Of course, if you have a castle, you have to have a king or knight in the area somehow, right?

In addition to sculpture, there are some interesting painted works done on nearby buildings.

OK, patient avid reader, what is a funicular?

It’s a cable car, silly. Well, you’re not so silly. We had no idea what it was either until I dragged Andrea up yet another hill to see what the heck it was.

While in the area of the funicular, we found some more artwork. Some of it, the street art variety.

July 13 – 18, 2019

We crossed the border into Lithuania and I could feel the home country calling to me.

Sorry, I just couldn’t resist. So corny, yet kind of true in a way.

We are here in Kaunas,Lithuania because we think that Randy’s paternal great grand parents came from here, or close to this area. We are combining some genealogy research with travel to another very interesting country.

Like a lot of these Eastern European countries, Lithuania has been over run, taken over, subjugated, and basically been beaten up by the world for thousands of years. The more recent history had it as a part of the Polish empire in the 1300’s and then a joint Polish-Lithuanian government until the 1800’s. Then Russia took over for about 150 years. Randy’s great grand parents were born in the 1850’s – 1860’s and so were part of the Tsar of Russia’s rule. They left Lithuania in 1892 to immigrate to the United States in the Boston area.

In 1918 Lithuania claimed back it’s independence from Russia, and after a few testy years back and forth finally got international recognition in 1921. During the World War II time period, Lithuania got tossed back and forth between Russia and Germany as they went through their transitions of first allies then opponents. After the war ended, Russia again occupied Lithuania for decades. It was not until the 1990’s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, that Lithuania nationality was restored as it is known today.

We arrived at our Airbnb and meet our host Asta outside the apartment. We are now 3 – 2 in the Airbnb competition. It is a great studio apartment right in the middle of Old Town. We park the car in the tiny communal parking lot (got one scratch on the bumper from the one foot high wall I didn’t see; don’t tell the car company), and basically leave it there. We walk to everything in the area.

We explored several of the restaurants in town that featured true Lithuanian cuisine. This included local beers, wines, and spirits.

We had everything from dumplings to rabbit stew over the next few days. It was all delicious.

In the Old Town area, there are numerous churches, old buildings, statues and the City Hall. This building is very interesting as it was built in the 1300’s and has had quite a varied life. It features a clock tower that has 135 steps required to get to the top. How do I know how many steps? I climbed them of course. One member of the Goodell household had to make the trip.

After I made it back to the ground level, Andrea and I went exploring through the rest of the building. There was a very nice old guy there, who spoke pretty good English, that gave us some history of the building and basically let us go where ever we wanted.

That got me into a bit of trouble.

Once I talked my way out of the dungeon, we explore the rest of the building which was really quite fascinating.

Map progress. Bialystok, Poland to Kaunas, Lithuania by car.

July 11 – 12, 2019

After our visit to Prague, we are again on the move in our rented Fiat (the one with no power) towards Lithuania. We want to visit Kaunas, Lithuania as it appears that Randy’s great grandparents originated from there, before they immigrated to the US back in 1892.

If you want to get to Lithuania from the Czech Republic, you have to drive through Poland. Which is what we did.

First part of the drive was Prague to Warsaw. The GPS said it would take 7 hours. WRONG. By the time you factor in road repairs, road closures, and potty breaks, it became 11 hours.

Guess what this leads to avid reader? You’re right. Another travel tip. One really has to factor in the road conditions as you drive through Eastern Europe.

We in the United States are accustomed to road construction and road repair. You see the signs, you get the warnings on the various travel apps we have and you deal with it. Eastern Europe is like that, only about 100 times worse.

The first thing is the lane closures. These happen everywhere, from towns to the major national highways (or carriageways as Andrea likes to call them). You get maybe 200 – 300 meters warning on the highways and no warnings in town. You’re tooling along and boom, one lane is shut down. Or, in the case of our trip to Warsaw, the whole damn highway is shut down. I mean a major 6 lane highway just closed. No warning, no detour signs (they don’t even know what those are), no nothing. They kick your butt off the highway, the GPS keeps telling you to “Make a U turn as soon as possible” and you struggle through to find a new route. Occasionally, there may be some cussin’ in the drivers seat.

Usually you can see the reason for the lane closure. It’s pretty obvious when you go along in the open lane and look over and there is NO road. They have literally torn it up, down to the dirt. Or, you look over and there is a huge hole, 15 – 20 feet deep where there used to be a lane. Those are real fun when they occur on a 2 lane street in town. They set up traffic lights at each end of the lane closure. No signal men over here. You damn well better pay attention to the strange light sitting in the middle of the road. If it is red, the guys from the other side are coming quickly. If it is green, punch it so you make sure you get through it.

All of this doesn’t even take into account the grass cutting guys. They have these huge tractors and mowers like we have in the US, but they move around in waves. They give you no warning at all until the last possible moment when you either get over to the other lane or run up the butt of a big tractor.

Now, lets talk about how they drive over here. On the major highways, 2-3 lanes, the trucks can only go 80-90 Kilometers Per Hour (KPH). This sounds like a good safety thing, as they will not go buzzing past you at 90 MPH like they do in the states. However, what this does is totally block up the right hand slow lane. The trucks will only move over to the left lane if they are passing someone. Then they immediately get back.

The issue is that the normal speed limit for cars is 110 – 130 KPH, so the cars are going significantly faster than the trucks. This sounds good in theory; trucks in slow lanes, cars in fast lanes. However, you have a large number of European drivers that think they are driving the Grand Prix on these roads. The speed limit is 130 KPH and these guys come up on you at least 30-40 KPH faster. They flash the lights, they get on your butt, they consider you a menace if you are driving the speed limit, or a bit over. So, the end result is people do not drive slow in the fast lane like in the US. That is great. However, you really have to pay attention and constantly either get out of the crazy person’s way, move around the trucks, and keep looking out for lane closures. The end result is you just can’t put the car on cruise control, turn up the radio and zone out and drive. You really have to focus and pay attention at all times, other wise you get a BMW up your butt.

Now, avid reader, you would ask. Well, why don’t these speeding drivers get pulled over for speeding? Good question. We, as yet, have not seen one guy pulled over. We have seen one or two cops off the exits, or in small towns with radar guns, but not the major highways. Very strange. So, you would also ask, if everyone else in doing it, why don’t we? Refer back to the beginning of the post where we state that we are in the Fiat with no power. We are lucky to make it up the hills, much less maintain 160 KPH.

Most of the areas that we drive between cities are full of crops. Mostly, corn and wheat. I mean miles and miles of it. It is very striking how these countries are still very agricultural for their basic existence.

You also get the occasional, what the heck is that sight?

Yep, cows made out of car parts. We could not figure out what they meant, but they were pretty cool. About 5 of them in a field off the highway.

We made it to Warsaw after a very long day, crash in the hotel and continue on to Lithuania. We headed for a half way point, the town of Bialystok, just short of the Poland – Lithuanian border.

We got there mid day and had some time to explore the town. It was a very pretty, typical Polish small city. We wandered into a park with a small medical college that had some really nice gardens and statues in it.

Map progress. July 11th, Prague to Warsaw by car. July 12th, Warsaw to Bialystok, Poland by car.

July 4 – 11, 2019

The next day, we head out to the metro station in Zlicin, buy our tickets, and head into Old Town again. We are pro’s at it now.

We want to finish seeing the sites in the Jewish Quarter. We started yesterday, but ran out of time to see them all. These historical sites consist of synagogues, museums, and the old cemetery.

One museum in particular is particularly haunting, as it is the Holocaust Museum. The entire building has the names of all the Lithuanian Nazi Holocaust victims written on the walls. A voice continually reads the names out throughout the day.

The Jewish Cemetary is ancient. There are graves there back to the early 1600’s. They look all jumbled up because they are so old, they have fallen or broken apart over the years.

Next it is off to Prague Castle. We jump back on the Metro, do a line transfer (man, we are really good at this) and head up to the Castle. Oh yeah, one note. We got off one station too late and had to walk up yet another hill to get to the castle. Wasn’t until we left and found the closer station that we realized what we had done. Someone in the Goodell household was not happy about having to walk up that hill (guess we aren’t quite as expert as we thought).

The Prague Castle is not really a castle anymore. It originally was built in 870 and modified many times over the millennium. Since 1918 it actually houses the national government for the Czech Republic. It is officially the largest castle complex in the world.

The main attraction of the castle is the cathedral. The original building was constructed in 930. The current building is the 3rd version and was built in 1344. The buttresses and artwork on the outside are truly amazing.

Prague Castle also has an honorary guard, and a lot of real one’s too. The real guys are packing automatic weapons and are very serious.

We saw a bit of the guard change in progress as the troops marched through the square.

One other interesting feature was the dungeons, complete with a skeleton still inside the torture cage. Oh, the good old days.

Map progress; still in Prague. No movement except around town.

July 4 – 11, 2019

As we are staying in this great house, outside of the city of Prague, we decide to use the Prague metro system to get into the city. As with all big cities, driving a car into town is easy. Finding a place to park said car is a very difficult thing to do, usually.

This is a opportunity for another travel tip, avid reader. The Prague metro system is very nice. Simple to use and understand, but it has an interesting feature we have never seen before. You buy a ticket like anywhere else, but you then only validate it the first time you enter the metro system. They do not have the typical turnstiles that require you to use the ticket every time you enter, or leave, a station. You can buy the tickets for specific time periods. An hour for a quick trip, or 24 hour time frames as we did.

The question is, well if you only have to validate the ticket, why buy one in the first place? Why not just walk on and not pay? The answer is, you could if you want to risk the wrath of the subway cops. These cops spot check people through out the system on a fairly regular basis. We ran into one spot check with 3 mean looking cops. They had spotted some young folks ahead of us and demanded to see their tickets, which they had. We then scrambled to find our tickets and then just watched them looked us up and down and kept on walking by us. I guess we look like honest, stupid, American tourists.

Actually, the hard part of the system was finding the metro station. They don’t give you the exact address in any of their system information. We finally figured it out off some travel posts and found it, after a few navigational issues of course.

Prague is located on the Vltava River, so it features many bridges and great river front areas. The primary features in this lovely city are the Charles Bridge over the Vltava, the Astronomical Clock, the Jewish Quarter, and the Prague Castle (which really isn’t a castle any more).

The city features the typical old buildings, narrow, twisting streets, and a modern touch or two.

The Charles Bridge is quite an active and fun place to spend some time.

The Astronomical Clock is an amazing device. It was built in 1410 and is the oldest, functioning, astronomical clock in the world. It features 3 components. They are the position of the sun and the moon, an hourly show of moving Saints, and a calendar function. We saw it strike 3PM. It was an interesting show.

On the way to see the clock, we saw a few weird sights, in my opinion, anyway.

Next is the Beer Bike. Propelled by a bunch of soon to be drunk guys. Looks like fun.

We continue to wind our way through the streets and finally just follow a tour group to find the Astronomical Clock. Pretty much every time it gets close to an hour on the clock, every one heads that way that is in the area.

Map progress. Fussen, Germay to Prague, Czech Republic by car.

July 4 – 11, 2019

We head out of Fussen, and the flies, and finally start to drive east, toward Prague. It is a fairly long drive, back through the narrow, twisty, mountain roads until we arrive at our new digs, just outside of Prague. This is another Airbnb booking. This time we hit the mother lode! We booked an entire house for a week and it was fantastic. The cost was extremely reasonable for the week in US dollars, much less than a standard hotel stay. It contained a full kitchen, living room, dining room, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a jacuzzi tub, and a sauna (which we didn’t use, as it was still pretty hot at the beginning of the week).

We took it easy our first day there, and the next day took off for Houska Castle. We first heard about Houska Castle on a TV show that Andrea and I like that is called Expeditions Unknown and hosted by Josh Gates. Josh is an Indiana Jones want-a-be (which he readily admits) but goes to some fascinating places. He does a lot of scuba diving, climbing, rappelling, etc., so he is just not narrating the show, but actively participating in the explorations. He is also pretty self deprecating and funny at times.

Houska Castle’s legend is that it is the only castle that was built to keep someone, or something in, rather than out, as all other castles are. The story is that there is a pit that is bottomless and supposed to be a gateway to hell. Hundreds of years ago the city officials lowered a convicted prisoner volunteer into the pit to see how far down it went. They lowered him down and after awhile heard him screaming bloody murder. They hauled him back up to discover that he had aged 30 years while he was down in the pit. They blamed it on the devil and built the castle around the pit to keep the devil locked in.

The castle was built in the second part of the 13th century and had many uses over the years, including being occupied by the Nazi Army during World War II and used as an administration building. The current chapel portion of the castle is supposed to cover up the “Gateway to Hell”.

We got lucky during our visit as they were having a kind of renaissance faire on the grounds on in the castle itself.

But first, of course, we had to hike up the steep mountain trail to get to the castle from the parking lot at the bottom of the hill (why they couldn’t put it at the top, we never figured out).

We finally make it to the castle and join the party.

We buy tickets for the tour of the castle, and get a surprise once we get inside.

After the devil gets his say, we see the rest of the castle, pretty interesting, to say the least.

After a good day at “Hell’s Gate”, back to the house in Prague.

July 1 – 4, 2019

See, we told you there was a reason we were heading west and not east. Andrea has always wanted to see Ludwig’s castle (we didn’t count on the flies). Walt Disney used this castle as inspiration for Cinderella’s castle set in Disney World, in Orlando, Florida. We were close enough to add this destination to our travel plans so we decided to go for it (or Andrea decided we were going to do for it).

We pack up in Zegreb, hike the 100 miles to the parking garage and head out. As we approach Slovenia our GPS (provided to us by the rental car company) starts to spit out a warning that a highway toll vignette is required in Slovenia. If you don’t get one, the fines are severe if caught with out one.

The first question, of course, is what the heck is a highway vignette? Well, dear avid reader, here is another valuable travel tip for you.

The vignette is required by the Slovenian state government for all use of the state major highway systems. It is a sticker, like a car inspection sticker, that you purchase and display on your windshield. For the minimum 7 day time period in Slovenia it costs us about $15.00. There are all kinds of signs warning people about this as you approach the Slovenia/Croatian border. You can buy them in roadside gas stations or convenience stores. No body checked for it as we entered Slovenia, through another pretty serious border check. However, when we left Slovenia it was a totally different story. The customs agent lady obviously looked for it and when she was questioned by her boss about our car (as she charged us a highway toll on top of the vignette), she pointed directly to it on our windshield. There were numerous police around checking vehicles also. This vignette system is required in several EU countries. They are; Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Switzerland.

As we are limiting our driving to about 4 – 6 hours per day, we had a stop over in Lienz, Austria in the Tyrolian Alps. It is very pretty in the summer, but obviously primarily a ski resort. It was a nice hotel that said they had air conditioning. What they neglected to say was that the public areas were air conditioned, not the guest rooms. We kept the windows open, which helped a lot, until the kitchen staff opened up at 6 AM right below us.

The next day we make it to Fussen, driving through the Alps the whole days. This sounds very nice, and it is, but remember this is a 6 speed manual transmission we are driving up and down the narrow, twisty, mountain roads. It still not too bad until you pass the big trucks coming the other way. That can be a bit nerve racking.

Fussen is another Airbnb booking, so we were holding our breaths as we approached. We read some reviews about the place on line and found out that it is basically some rooms above an Italian restaurant. You check in with the restaurant hostess (when she is not gossiping with her friends in the corner), get your key and head upstairs. Once again, no air conditioning, but at least they gave us a pretty good fan that made it comfortable enough to sleep. The rest of the unit was as advertised and very comfortable.

This is a very beautiful area, but has one major drawback to summer tourists. The flies here will absolutely drive you crazy. They are every where, are mean, are persistent, and want your food and drinks more than you do. They are EVERYWHERE.

We couldn’t quite figure out why they are so bad. The lake is there, but you would think mosquitoes, not flies. Granted, there are a lot of farms in the area, but not necessarily too close to the hotels. Except for one restaurant we went to. It had a very nice out door sitting area. There was one great location right on top of the hill that no one was using, so we snagged it. Ten minutes later after the first wave of flies hit us we realized that the building right behind us was a barn with cow manure oozing out of the doors. No wonder no one else was sitting there. We managed a few bites and got the heck out of there.

The next day we head out to the castle, or should I say castles? While we came to see Ludwig’s castle, or more properly Schloss Nueschwanstein, there are 2 castles right in the same area.

We made it to the ticket booth, waited an hour and a half to get through the line (kind of like Disney, right?) and decide to do 2 castles, Schloss Hohenschwangau and Schloss Neuschwanstein. It costs about $30 admission per person for the 2 castles. Not too bad.

Another travel tip, avid reader, is to pre-buy your tickets on line. We did not realize they had this option, so we did not do this. Bad move on our part.

But remember, these are castles. Where are castles built??? On top of mountains, right? How do you get to the castle(s). Well, you can walk up the mountain, take a bus, or take a horse driven buggy.

Hohenschwangau has only one option. You guessed it, walk up the mountain. Somebody in the Goodell household used some pretty bad language on the way up. It was worth the trek though.

Neither one of the castles allowed pictures of the interior, so all we have are exterior shots. The interiors of both feature incredible artwork on all walls and ceilings. These are not only the expected religious scenes, but scenes depicting the great warriors and legends of the past, like Saint George killing the dragon etc.

After walking down the steep, twisty, mountain road from Hohenschwangau, we go back to make our way to Neuschwanstein. Remember those 3 options for getting up there? No way are we walking. We want to do the horse and buggy ride but the line is too long, so we take the bus. That in itself was like a Disney roller coaster ride. Even once the bus dumped us off at the end of the line, it was another 10 minute walk up the face of the mountain to get to the entrance. No wonder those kings never left their castles. You’d get a heart attack just taking a walk outside one of those things.

We crawl up to the top and get into the inner courtyard to wait for our tour appointment. All of these sites use tour guides, so you have to schedule one in your language at the ticket office. There is definitely no wandering around by yourself in one of these places.

What was a pretty interesting sideline to the castle visit were the hang gliders circling the mountain way above us. Them and the gawkers from the suspension bridge across the way kept an eye on us.

After a great day walking around the castles, it was back to Fussen and the flies.

Map progress. Zagreb, Croatia to Fussen, Germany by car.

June 29 – July 1, 2019

It’s off to start the drive across, around, up, and through Eastern Europe. So, of course we head west (hey, direction is a relative thing) from Belgrade, heading for Zagreb, Croatia. We’re not going to tell you why we are heading west, avid reader. You will have to follow the posts to determine why we made this very significant decision.

We are now in our Fiat, mid sized car, 6 speed standard transmission, with absolutely no power what so ever; but it does have a huge trunk to hold all of our bags. When you are on a 4 month trip, you gotta’ pack for all contingencies. Everything from formal nights on the cruise ships, to cold weather, hot weather, rainy weather, and beautiful weather. Our family master packer (it ain’t me folks) has got us covered for all contingencies.

We are traveling from Serbia to Croatia. Most of us have forgotten the terrible civil wars these countries experienced as the Soviet Republic and Yugoslavia broke up. Most of the really bad fighting was in this area.

As we passed through the Serbian – Croatian border, there was a very intense border crossing area that featured armed guards and police that were very serious about their jobs. We had not seen this in other border crossings and determined that there were still hostilities between the residents of both countries. We got confirmation of this through talking to various people once we got to Croatia. We got through with no problem, but did see them inspecting a truck and one young man waiting on the side of the road obviously waiting for some thing. A few minutes later, Mommy showed up, gave him his passport, and he was on his way.

On the road we noticed some interesting crops they were growing.

Sunflowers!! Croatian store were full of sunflower oil and sunflower seed products. Good for us, we like sunflowers.

The reservation for Zagreb is another Airbnb booking. Remember, we are 0 – 2 with these so far. We are hoping to not go 0 – 3. Hey, we finally scored! The apartment is exactly as advertised, with the correct address, true pictures and everything. A studio apartment literally in the main square within walking distance to everything. Oh yeah, it even has air conditioning. One note about the air conditioning in Europe. When it exists, it is limited and not very powerful, as in the US. When the owner suggests that you not run the AC all the time, you should listen to him. Other wise it could freeze up and you wind up sweating your butt off all night. Not saying this happened to us of course, just don’t want it to happen to you.

Now, let’s think about this for a moment. This is a test, avid reader. If we have this great little studio right in the heart of the 500 year old main city square, what is missing? Come on, think a bit. Yep, parking.

There is absolutely no place to park a car in the area (and all other old city areas). The few spots down the stairs, around the corner, and up the hill are reserved. They are actually gated off, otherwise we might have tried to use them. We wind up parking in a parking garage about 100 miles away, up hill both ways. Which isn’t too bad, because remember, we said everything was in walking distance from the studio, which it really was. So, what’s the problem?

Here it comes, another traveling tip. Refer back to paragraph two where we specifically mention filling up the trunk (and back seat) with luggage. This luggage consists of 3 matched set rolling bags, a very heavy computer case, and 3 other assorted bags with shoes, clothes, bathroom stuff etc. Not stuff you want to regularly take in and out of a car every couple of days. So, what do you do? You rely on your family master packer to set up 2-3 days worth of your stuff in a manageable bag or two, or three, that you can carry from the parking garage to the lovely studio apartment 100 miles away, uphill both ways. Plan accordingly, avid reader.

As we mentioned, our studio in right on the main square in the middle of the city. It even has a market, like a farmer’s market, that they set up and break down every day. It is full of the typical fruits, vegetables, clothes, shoes and bars and restaurants lining the perimeters.

It’s pretty cool, until the next morning when they are setting it up at 7AM, literally right below us.

We read about a changing of the guard ceremony that occurs on the weekends during the summer months. We were pretty excited about seeing that and got up, dressed, and headed out to join the adoring crowds as they watched this age old tradition. The guide book said the route started at Saint Marks Church and ended at the Cathedral. We figured we would get close to the start as the end would probably be full of people and we wouldn’t be able to see anything.

We head out and find signs for Saint Mark’s church, but for the life of us, can’t find it. We go this way, that way, with the signs, around the signs. Can’t find it. We know where the Cathedral is, it’s huge, you can’t miss it and head that way. We get there 10 minutes before the guard change and there is like no one there. Just folks wandering around looking at the Cathedral and going their merry ways. We see a tour guide with a very neat old car (more on that later) and ask him if this is where the guard change is. He says yes, just wait a few minutes.

Then we start to hear some drums and horse hoofs clacking and see this.

Not quite Buckingham Palace, but still pretty interesting.

After the guard change, we head back to the tourist guide to see if we can book him and his car for a city tour. He says he is now booked, but his buddy will be available in about 30 minutes. Sounds good to us. We headed back to the apartment, 2 minutes away, for lunch.

We head back to the Cathedral and meet up with Vladimir and his car. We got a very interesting tour of the old city, including a pub that we went back to at night.

Here are some of the sights of Zagreb.

Cathedral outside main square in Zagreb.

Stairs leading up to the square, painted to show an old lady shopping.

Map progress. Belgrade, Serbia to Zagreb, Croatia by car.

June 27 – 29, 2019

We depart our cabin in the Viking Star at 8AM, translate that to mean they kicked our butts out of the cabin at 8AM, grab some breakfast and head out to the Athens airport via taxi. We get to the airport about 3 hours early for the flight, no problem.

We head into the terminal and can not find the Air Serbia check in counter. Pay attention avid reader, another important travel tip coming up here.

There are over 100 counters with every imaginable airline in the world including the Magic Carpet Express. So, we go to the information counter and ask where the check in counter is. We aren’t even thinking about the departure gate yet. The nice guy, who spoke a little English, said counter number 23, two hours. We thought he meant check in at least two hours before the flight. Wrong. We go to counter 23 and find Norwegian Airlines there happily checking in their Oslo flight. I go up to the counter and ask the agent is he also checking in Air Serbia flights? He looks at me like I’m crazy. Hey stupid American tourist, right? Then he realized I’m serious and don’t understand the cockamayme system they have in Athens for the different airlines. He explained to me that they actually rotate the check in counters like you rotate gates for the airplanes. Instead of the 100+ airlines we thought were in the airport, there had to be about 200 different little regional airlines utilizing Athens airport.

We go settle in and wait for Air Serbia to get their turn at counter # 23. They finally show up, we check in, and clear security just in time to get a text saying that the flight is delayed. Of course. We wait another few hours, they change the gate on us right at the last moment and we finally board the flight and actually land where we are supposed to, Belgrade, Serbia.

We pick up our baggage and head down to the Sixt Rental Car counter to pick up our car. We had booked it through Auto Europe, an American company, about 6 months ago. Turns out, since we booked it so long ago, it wasn’t completely in their computer system any more. So, now it is a series of negotiations to get the right rate, unlimited mileage, etc off a booking that we have confirmed and already paid for. So, avid reader, what is the lesson to be learned here? Always carry your confirmations with you. Very important. Because we had the documentation of the rate and unlimited mileage, they got everything sorted out and we were on our way. One good point that came out of the negotiations was that the counter guy said it would not be a problem for us to take the car into Lithuania, where the Auto Europe guys in California said it wasn’t allowed. So we were able to cancel the car from Poland into Lithuania and save ourselves a few bucks.

We check into the Hotel Garni, a very nice little 13 room real Bed & Breakfast just outside of Belgrade. We made friends with Vladimir, a very nice young man that was in charge of the afternoon shift. He mentioned that he wished his parents had known that Vladimir Putin would take over Russia so he wouldn’t have to put up with all the Vladimir jokes.

The next day, Andrea isn’t feeling well, so I head off to see the sights in Belgrade. I drove into town and only got one parking ticket. Pretty good, huh?

Can you see what’s coming next avid reader? Yep, another invaluable travel tip. Turns out, just because you park in a lined space with all of the other cars, with no place to pay, even though it says Parking Allowed, doesn’t mean these spaces are free. Serbia, and a lot of other countries, have a texting SMS sytem to pay for parking. They register their cars like we do for a Sunpass or EZ Pass highway system. The parking cops stroll along the streets and check the cars to be sure they registered their spot (there are numbers spray painted on the street to identify your car). Well, I didn’t know that. Costs me $20 to pay the ticket on the way out of town. It was pretty easy to pay, all of the banks can do it. Just another revenue source for Serbia evidently.

First sight to see was the Belgrade fortress, situated on the junction of the Danube and Sava rivers. This fortress is so big, they have turned most of the inside into a park and used the exterior walls for a zoo.

Belgrade’s history goes way, way back. They have identified remnants of Neanderthal men from 50,000 years ago here. The city is mentioned in the tales of Jason and the Argonauts. It has been inhabited for a long, long, time.

The Belgrade fortress has been in existence since at least 600 BC. It has been destroyed and rebuilt many times over the years. The existing structure was started in the 1400’s and continually rebuild and renovated up until the 1800’s.

By the way, another tip avid reader; it is free to enter the fortress. However, it costs you about $5 to enter the zoo. They conveniently put the ticket booth for the zoo at the bottom of the hill so unsuspecting, stupid American tourists who can’t read the signs, will pay the zoo entry fee, even though all they wanted to see was the fortress. Oh well, the zoo was fairly interesting and obviously a great spot for families and school groups.

Next, it it time to walk up the hill into the fortress, for free. Oh, it turns out I could have parked the car up here for $1.00 and not gotten that parking ticket. Oh well, lessons to be learned.

After the zoo and the fortress, it was on to the Nikola Tesla museum. Most of us have heard of Tesla. No, he did not invent the Tesla car. That would be Elon Musk,thank you very much.

Tesla was a contemporary of Thomas Edison, and a partner with him for awhile. He invented alternating current electricity, which is the basis of all industrial and commercial applications of electricity that we know today. Edison promoted direct current, like you have in the battery of a flashlight, which couldn’t be transported very well. Tesla was the high prince of electricity for many years. He lived in New York, but slowly lost his credibility and his mental stability and died mysteriously in the New York hotel he was living in. Tesla was a Serbian – American, having been born in what is now Croatia.

The Nikola Tesla museum was founded in 1952 by the Yugoslavian government. Tesla’s cremated remains are on display in a metal globe. Many of his original inventions, devices, papers and research documents are housed there.

The tour of the museum is fascinating as they give practical demonstrations of how electricity works, how it is transmitted, and how it is used.

After seeing a short video about Tesla’s life and accomplishments, the fun part started. The first experiment showed how electricity can be transmitted through a generator. The guide had several people stand close to the transmitter. They held fluorescent light bulbs in the hands. Watch what happens.

Next we moved on to static electricity with a field generator. It was a shocking experience, to say the least.

Of course I had to try it myself. Kind of tingly. Not too bad.

Here are the cremated remains of Tesla, inside the metal globe on top of the stand.

Map progress. Athens, Greece to Belgrade, Serbia by plane.

Jun 26, 2019

Our final port of call on the Viking Star is Athens, Greece. Athens is just amazing. There are Greek and Roman ruins and remnants literally where ever you walk. We all know about the Parthenon, Agora, Acropolis, and the fantastic museums. But just walking down the street you see bits and pieces in the rail road tracks, along side roads, parts of sidewalks have clear acrylic panels that show you 2,500 year old flooring underneath.

We have one day in port, then off to Belgrade to pick up the rental car and start the driving portion of the trip. At the end of the drive, we head back to Athens for a few days before we fly to Cairo, Egypt and begin the Viking River Cruise down the Nile.

So, Andrea decided to pack and relax, Randy went into town for a bit. We have been to Athens before, so this was more like a “hey, how have you been?” visit.

After a fun afternoon of walking around old Athens, a couple of beers in a local Greek restaurant, time to get back on the shuttle and make it back to the ship on time.

Tomorrow, to the airport and Belgrade, Serbia.

Map progress, Santorini to Athens, Greece by ship.