The Last Few Days on Seabourn Odyssey – The End of the Cruise: The last time I arrived in Dubrovnik was on the occasion of my first ever cruise. Then, way back in 1972, the City was part of Yugoslavia. It was also well ahead of the release of films like Game of Thrones and, for […]
Colourful Croatia – Trogir, Dalmatia
Lore, Legend and History in Trogir, Dalmatia: I’d been told that the historic island towns of Croatia were stunningly beautiful. And I was looking forward to visiting Trogir, Dalmatia, joined to mainland Croatia by two foot bridges. It’s a UNESCO heritage site and curiously has acted as a location ‘double’ for both Venice and Provence […]
Colourful Croatia – Salt and Lace in Pag, Dalmatia
White Gold – Salt and the Story of Pag, Croatia: The approach to Pag is over a seemingly nondescript looking concrete bridge (but of course a landmark, built in 1968 which has huge importance for the economy of the island); for a moment, perhaps subconsciously influenced by the young driver who’d told me it wasn’t […]
Colourful Croatia – Plitvice Lakes – Nature in Action
Plitvice Lakes – Walking Boots and Karma Lack of time to do any real research and an innate desire to reach the coast of Croatia on my recent trip were the key reasons for asking to visit the Plitvice Lakes. Having started my journey in Slavonia I needed a landmark midway between Osijek and Split. […]
Colourful Croatia – Wines of Slavonia
Slavonia #Croatia – Ancient Vines and Fabulous Wine: Visiting Croatia a few weeks ago just before they became part of the European Union, I met with both curiosity and hesitant anticipation. Hardly suprising from a Country which gained independence through a bloody home war less than twenty years ago. While many I chatted with were […]
Colourful Croatia – The Baranja
Food and Wine in the Baranja: The Baranja is an agricultural area on the far East of Croatia, bordering Serbia and Hungary. The region produces a wide range of crops including apples, cherries, walnuts and hazelnuts. And of course, where there are hills there are vineyards. The first vineyards in the Baranja were planted by […]
Colourful Croatia – Around Osijek
An introduction to Osijek : In my experience trips of this sort always end up running late and I half anticipated arriving late in Osijek. It only takes a delayed flight or a little over enthusiasm at one of the venues for things to start to slip. And, since the bad weather meant we were […]
Colourful Croatia – Slavonski Brod Fis and More
Fiš – a funny kind of soup – and more at Slavonski Brod: A friend of mine who came to the UK from the former Yugoslavia used to tell me that the smell of a paprika stew cooking was one of the strongest reminders of his childhood. We did our best to recreate a paprikaš with chicken, […]
Colourful Croatia
Colourful Croatia – thank-you and taste of things to come: So, I am now a confirmed lunatic. After my visit to Portugal a few weeks ago and then Abruzzo to speak at Blog-Away, I thought I’d have a week or so to catch up on sleep, work and generally settle back down again before I […]
Taste of Christmas and Chestnut Gnocchi!
Taste of Christmas – Excel London It was a bit of a lightening trip around Taste Christmas this year for me – but heavily incentivated by the chance to take part in the Electrolux Theatre event and learn some secrets from the chefs…in my case Aiden Byrne. More of what I learnt there in a minute. […]