Lovely Split

After a quick night's stay at Gatwick, it was an early start to our travels in Split. We were in Split for 2 full days before we boarded our sail boat and island hopped for a week. So a little about Split... It is the 2nd largest city in Croatia and largest in the Dalmatia region. The city was founded in the 4th Century BC and has changed hands MANY times over time. 

Day 1 - We started out with a nice long nap! haha  After trying to catch up on some sleep, we went to a place the hotel recommended and had our first octopus salad. Jeffrey was hooked after this! After refueling our bodies, we were off to see the sights and get a better feel of the city. The views of the harbor were unforgettable. 

Nothing wrong with a Croatian pint to go along with these views either! 

After seeing the harbor views, we ventured a little further to see the 'sandy beach' everyone was talking about. Cleary our definitions of sandy beaches are different. We saw people trying to sun bathe on every inch of the coast line, on both sandy beaches and rocky beaches! 

After all the wondering, we grabbed an easy dinner (chicken wraps) and called it a night. 

Day 2

After understanding more of the city, we detoured away from the water and looked more toward the city center to learn more about the history. We started out with breakfast of champions, ice cream! (we are on holiday... calories don't count right?!?) 

We started the day with a walking tour of the Diocletian's Palace. The palace is in the heart of the city and considered to be alive today, even with the UNSECO certification. 

The palace was first built in 305 AD and was expanded and extended in the 14th, 15th and 16th Centuries. Throughout our tour, our guide was able to point out signs of construction throughout these periods. The key signs of style changes are evident in the windows. The larger the window the more wealthy the owner. Windows are one of the few things visible from the street, so it makes sense. It also makes sense, as the fashion and influences of the area change, the wealthier owners will update the style of the window to keep up and show their wealth. 

The tour guide was also able to point out great angles for pictures. I love this one!

Split is one of the few UNSECO sites that is still 'alive'. Alive in the sense that people are still living in the flats within the walls of the palaces. 

After our tour, we headed to the market for a little last minute shopping before setting sail! We grabbed some beach towels, trendy hats and a deck of cards. 

To top the day off, we did a little progressive dinner to try out more of the cuisine. We started out with some cheeses and meats outside our hotel and then did a hike to see the sun set from a viewing point up on the mountain. After seeing the sun set, we went back toward the harbor to for a main and got another delicious meal in the books! 

We loved Split! It wasn't overly crowded, prices were great and full of history! Croatia is truly a lovely place and the people were really nice and friendly. 

French Open & Versailles

Given Jeff's love for tennis, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to go to Roland Garros and see the French Open. This was not an easy task to accomplish though.... The process of getting tickets was rather tricky. You had to log into the site and then you were put into an online queue. We both logged into the queue and had over 3 hour waits to be able to buy the tickets. Needless to say we both got in and both bought tickets, so we ended up with 4 tickets for the same day! Lucky for us, the extra tickets sold in less than 2 minutes!

This was my first tennis match and I got hooked quick! 

I think it will be hard to go to a non-pro match now haha

There were lots of games and toys to play with!

I took a swing at hitting the ball and quickly realized, I am not that good! 

Surprise surprise :)

The first match we saw were the Bryan brothers for the quarter finals... 

and I really enjoyed seeing all the action of a doubles match!

The next match was Stan Wawrinka vs Roger Federer for the men's quarter finals

Too bad it wasn't a great day for Federer....

... but there was still some great tennis being played! 

And it is pretty cool we got to see the winning 2015 Champion play!!!

To tick something off my list, I was able to sweet talk Jeffrey

 into visiting Versailles before we left Paris.

In school, I felt there was always such a big hype over Versailles so I really wanted to see it. The chatter about the palace seemed to have been happening all over the place because it was super crowded, overly crowded in fact. I can only image what it would be like in peak season. 

The palace itself was really pretty, but nothing that sticks out in my mind over all the other palaces we have visited. However, the grounds and gardens were pretty awesome.

The 'backyard' was broken into 12 sections with fountains in each of the 4 quadrants. It was pretty cool to walk and get lost in them. In the summer, there is a light and fountain show that is synced to music which I can only image is a sight to see.

Stunning views everywhere you look! 

After our tour, we were able to make it to a pub to watch the Nedal vs Djokovic match and Serena Williams play.  Then we headed back to London for a short stay in a Gatwick Airport hotel before heading to Croatia. Overall, we got to see a different side of Paris and had another successful trip to Paris!  

Goodbye London... for now!

Well everything got 'real' as we began to prepare for our move back to the States. Despite the hectic time, we were still able to squeeze in a few things here and there :) 

We couldn't miss the parade to celebrate Chelsea's maintaining their champion status... especially when it was going right through the neighborhood!

There were two huge screens set up for the crowds to watch... and what an interesting fan base this team has!

There were thousands of people and everyone was throwing celery?! Not sure what the celery was for but we got hit by a few. I will never forget the team chants echoing through the streets either!

As tradition, we both had our respective leaving do with work. 

Here are a few pictures from Jeff's drinks

I think one could call it a success!

We had a few days after our last working day to hit up more on the bucket list before our back packing adventure began!

 

We had always wanted to go to the transport museum... so we did :)

It was really cool to see how the underground started and how it much it affected the growth of the city and how people lived and worked. 

Given we were in the land of Shakespeare... 

it would just be wrong to not tour Shakespeare's Globe.

We would have loved to see something there, but we were happy with a tour. It was very informative and we had a pretty funny guide!

On the last day... it only made sense to go to the Sky Garden at the top of the 'Walkie Talkie' and take in the view of the city we have called home for the last 2 years! 

We had a beautiful day and clear skies to see for miles.... we could see the Shard

... and we could see Tower Bridge

 

With a beautiful garden inside... 

and tasty treats, it was the perfect send off!

With our bags packed... the next stop was the French Open!

Krakow

As we wrap up our time in Europe we headed to Krakow for our last weekend getaway in May. Krakow is the second largest city in Poland and one of the oldest. In 2000, it was named European Capital of Cultures. We have had several friends visit and they really enjoyed the history and culture the city offers... so we packed our bags and headed that way! 

We arrived mid-day on a Friday and did a little wandering in the town square and then joined a walking photography tour. 

The horse and carriage really set the scene and helps bring you back in time. 

There was a market, similar to the christmas markets, with lots of new snacks to try! Here is a picture of some of the creative ways you can dress up pretzel rolls :) 

We also tried some grilled cheese bites... and of course we got our hands in some traditional pierogis to try!

Here is a good picture of Old Town and the tower. The square was added to the UNSECO list in 1978. 

There is an old tradition where a trumpet plays a song every hour on the hour out of this tower, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. There are two 12 hour shifts carried out by 2 men. We met under this tower for our walking tour. 

I am always amazed how the simple things, like street signs and language can vary so much from country to country. 

Despite being in May, we were blessed with COOL weather and no jacket due to some poor planning on our part. 

Interesting statue with fallen soldiers in the front. There are suppose to be some cool shadows here at night... but we were a little early for that :) 

Our tour took us around the wall surrounding the old town square. To help preserve the wall, the city created a park all the way around and had some great art and tributes to artists from the region. 

 

We ended up the tour by walking by the Wawel Castle and getting some great views. 

After the tour we make our way toward our dinner reservations in the Ghetto area. I made these reservations about the same time that we booked the trip....so I was pumped about finally getting to eat there. I booked the #1 rated restaurant in Krakow, which was a vodka and traditional polish food. It was great and really cheap! They had some live music and the overall atmosphere was really warm and welcoming. Would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting. 

Day 2 was focused on remembering the past so that we may never repeat it. We took a tour of the both Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. Visiting and seeing these places literally took my breath away to think of all the horrible things that occurred there. It is a completely different experience to see first hand what the living conditions and scale of these operations were, than to read about them in text books. In general, the volume of people visiting/attending these camps has increased year after year and I am really glad that we were able to visit and learn more as well. It is important to always remember and never forget. Normally I am snapping pictures on these trips but this time we were just absorbing the surrounding and letting all the feelings surface to live serve as our memory. 

Our tour had two parts, the second part was visiting one of the world's oldest salt mine, Wieliczka, and it is still in operation! I had no idea what we were getting into when starting down the shaft... but it definitely exceeded my expectations. First of all, who would expect there to be salt statues and four chapels in the mine?!?! People even rent out the chapels for weddings!

Beautiful chandler made out of the salt crystals

The miners were very religious and wanted to be able to pray regularly while in the mines. Given the dangerous job, the miners had four chapels to worship in and several statues to honor various people. 

Here is a picture of the largest chapel. There are 12 detailed reliefs in the walls that are carved out of salt, including one for the late Pope John Paul II. 

Here is a picture of one of the smaller chapels.

The stats on this place are pretty unbelievable as well... there are over 100K miles of tunnels and only 2 are on the tour. These tunnels are approximately a football field length underground and horses were used up to 2007 to help take the salt to the surface. 

Needless to say we went on an emotional rollercoaster that day with our tour! From remembering very serious crimes against humanity to exploring and learning of how salt changed the lives of humans. Not only was it a rollercoaster, but it also made for a very long day. We wandered to find a good dinner and stumbled upon a seafood restaurant. The food was great... or so we thought. I ended up feeling terrible on the way back to our flat and did not have a restful night. Needless to day we took it easy on Sunday and did a little venturing on a Big Bus to see some more sights. Not the best way to end the trip, but overall I am really glad that we were able to see some of what Krakow has to offer.