Dalmatian Coast cruising without a dog in sight

[OATEK]

Now this was funny. We travel along a road for some time along White Lake. I was hanging out the front window where back visibility is limited. I heard a huge Vroom from behind.

Oh. Nice car. And Red. Very fast.

View attachment 127103

Then another. Oh. Very nice.

View attachment 127104

And again.

View attachment 127105

And another.

View attachment 127106

They were all going really fast but then breaking. Tying to beat the train?

Then ding dong ding dong.

Ha. Train 1. Fast Cars 0.

View attachment 127107

Cossie should enjoy these. Not rally cars, but no doubt great fun on the open road.

 

[RooFlyer]

The typical blue colour of glacial melt streams. @RooFlyer - I bet you know why?

Well, yes. Funnily enough, I was showing off explaining on Denali's Iceland planning thread the same phenomenon. When glaciers grind against the underlying rocks, and the rocks against themselves, they create very fine grained rock fragments, called rock flour. These are so small they are suspended in the water and the blue colour is caused by light scattering around these particles. Suspended silica particles in the case of the Blue Lagoon.

Peyto lake in the Rockies is a fine example

They were all going really fast but then breaking. Tying to beat the train?

Or a Top Gear scene?

 

[henleybeach]

Oh. Once I wake up properly I have some amazing pictures from yesterday.

Cuppa consumed. 7.51. I’m awake now.

Yesterday was fabulous. We wandered around in the morning (pics posted yesterday) then caught the BEX panorama train back to Milan. Long day with 5 hours in trains. There were just 4 of us and a dog in the wonderful cabin. So luxurious. At the end of the cabin was a tiny window each side you could open up for non reflection pictures.

This was an express pretty much so sight seeing stops were out. And of course today (yesterday) Diavolezza chairlift stop was perfectly clear and sunny as opposed to our stop the day before when it snowed.

I’ll just post the photos and some funny ones as well. First two posts are of the train for Mr @henleybeach.

View attachment 127078

View attachment 127075

View attachment 127076

View attachment 127077

Amazing scenery and viaduct . Love the scenery viewing windows in the carriages , unobstructed views for hours

 

[JohnM]

Well, yes. Funnily enough, I was showing off explaining on Denali's Iceland planning thread the same phenomenon. When glaciers grind against the underlying rocks, and the rocks against themselves, they create very fine grained rock fragments, called rock flour. These are so small they are suspended in the water and the blue colour is caused by light scattering around these particles. Suspended silica particles in the case of the Blue Lagoon.

Peyto lake in the Rockies is a fine example

View attachment 127113




Or a Top Gear scene?

I didn't get a chance earlier to tell you he'd make up something...

 

[Pushka]

We are currently in the Lufthansa Business lounge awaiting our morning flight to Dubrovnik via Zurich on Swiss Airlines. We are travelling in J only because the fare for that was cheaper than the fully flexible Y flight that was the only one on offer. Had great benefits. Fast J check in. Priority scanning away from a very long queue. Priority baggage. Plus we both have window seats so hoping for great views.

Yesterday we developed our cultural side. MrP is very much into design so we navigated the trains to Triennialle, the design museum. The display changes every few weeks. There is a free section that we decided was way better than the paid for area that to me was just the arty design stuff that leaves me asking ‘why’.

The free displays were fabulous. The first one was about The Mini and the car of the future. My Skoda Fabia is very much based on the Mini design.

Car of the future.

 

[Pushka]

More Mini.



Love.



Various patterns were projected onto the car.

 

[love_the_life]

More Mini.

View attachment 127190

Love.

View attachment 127191

Various patterns were projected onto the car.

View attachment 127192

View attachment 127193

View attachment 127194

You touched it? Was that allowed? Or are you doing that thing that tourists do with the Leaning Tower of Pisa?

 

[Pushka]

Last couple




The other free display was about Construction around the world. It was a very clever display and the photos don’t tell the real experience. Clever lighting and changing effects.

The entrance.



This was a white room that had fantastic changing lighting effects. When I arrived there it was a tribute to subways. The railway tracks were lighting effects that continually changed.



Then the next scene became a tribute to the building of the Aswan Dam. The light blue stream tracked over the flow then up the sides of the walls.

 

[Pushka]

The next scene then had this design piece all by projection.






Then a tribute to the Pyramids.



We stood there for about 15 minutes watching all the various displays. Fascinating.

We then went upstairs to see the paid exhibitions.

This is a photo of the stairs. Because quite frankly they were much more impressive than the paid-for exhibits. Oh well.

 

[Pushka]

You touched it? Was that allowed? Or are you doing that thing that tourists do with the Leaning Tower of Pisa?

Very clever effects. I wondered who would ask first when I posted

 

[Pushka]

We had a bit of a snaffu at dinner last night. The Hotel restaurant. We’d eaten there the first night and it was excellent.

The menu is in English and Italian. MrP ordered the duck, in English. It arrived. It was not duck but looked like steak. MrP isn’t a great fan of steak and he wouldn’t order it in a restaurant and only just bears it when I cook it at home.
We called the waiter over. He said yes, the menu has a known translation error and it was actually steak. I googled the Italian and it’s Beef Cheeks. Now, even I as a steak eater, do not like Beef Cheeks.

Here’s the menu.

He ate a little but not so happy. We wondered how they were going to sort it. We went to pay but were only going to pay for my meal but they said we were their guests and it was all gratis. That was nice. MrP still hungry but we’d eaten sufficient during the day he said.

We were next to 2 cousins from Scotland. They were doing a day trip to Lake Como but were wondering about going to Venice for the day. As we’d travelled from Venice to Milan by train recently we encouraged them to do it. The train arrives within a five minute walk to the Grand Canal. It’s weird how people who live so close haven’t been.

There were some pop up clothing stalls right next to the Hotel yesterday. I was getting sick of the 2 T shirts I’d been wearing and washing each day so purchased a couple. They are Italian and have an interesting cut. Wearing one today and it’s an excellent buy for 10 euro.

Lufthansa lounge in Malpensa is nice.









Love this mural. See, I’m becoming very arty farty now.

 

[love_the_life]

We had a bit of a snaffu at dinner last night. The Hotel restaurant. We’d eaten there the first night and it was excellent.

The menu is in English and Italian. MrP ordered the duck, in English. It arrived. It was not duck but looked like steak. MrP isn’t a great fan of steak and he wouldn’t order it in a restaurant and only just bears it when I cook it at home.
We called the waiter over. He said yes, the menu has a known translation error and it was actually steak. I googled the Italian and it’s Beef Cheeks. Now, even I as a steak eater, do not like Beef Cheeks.

Here’s the menu.
View attachment 127205
He ate a little but not so happy. We wondered how they were going to sort it. We went to pay but were only going to pay for my meal but they said we were their guests and it was all gratis. That was nice. MrP still hungry but we’d eaten sufficient during the day he said.

We were next to 2 cousins from Scotland. They were doing a day trip to Lake Como but were wondering about going to Venice for the day. As we’d travelled from Venice to Milan by train recently we encouraged them to do it. The train arrives within a five minute walk to the Grand Canal. It’s weird how people who live so close haven’t been.

There were some pop up clothing stalls right next to the Hotel yesterday. I was getting sick of the 2 T shirts I’d been wearing and washing each day so purchased a couple. They are Italian and have an interesting cut. Wearing one today and it’s an excellent buy for 10 euro.

Lufthansa lounge in Malpensa is nice.

View attachment 127206

View attachment 127207

View attachment 127208

View attachment 127209

Love this mural. See, I’m becoming very arty farty now.

View attachment 127210

I’ll have you at the classical music concerts on Cunard soon then.

 

[Pushka]

A quick travel day on Swiss airlines from Milan to Zurich to Dubrovnik.

Flights up were nice and excellent service. Business simply means a nicer meal, shadow seat and lounge access. I have more lounge photos on my camera for Zurich lounge as phone was charging.

We booked an apartment through booking.com and had to ring so they could let us in. He had his phone turned off. Sent him an email and tried again and this time it answered. A rather expensive taxi and ended up a back lane. Oh well. It’s just for a night. But the apartment is excellent t. The lady opening it up said it was a quick stroll down the promenade to restaurants. A load of washing put on and off we went. Talk about understatement.

So many restaurants and they trail all the way to the beach. Glorious.

View from the Balcony. Celebrity Constellation was in port.



The Promenade









Connie going out to sea.



Just realised I also have some nice alp pictures from the flight so will post those later.

 

[henleybeach]

A quick travel day on Swiss airlines from Milan to Zurich to Dubrovnik.

Flights up were nice and excellent service. Business simply means a nicer meal, shadow seat and lounge access. I have more lounge photos on my camera for Zurich lounge as phone was charging.

We booked an apartment through booking.com and had to ring so they could let us in. He had his phone turned off. Sent him an email and tried again and this time it answered. A rather expensive taxi and ended up a back lane. Oh well. It’s just for a night. But the apartment is excellent t. The lady opening it up said it was a quick stroll down the promenade to restaurants. A load of washing put on and off we went. Talk about understatement.

So many restaurants and they trail all the way to the beach. Glorious.

View from the Balcony. Celebrity Constellation was in port.

View attachment 127271

The Promenade

View attachment 127272

View attachment 127273

View attachment 127274

View attachment 127275

Connie going out to sea.

View attachment 127276

Just realised I also have some nice alp pictures from the flight so will post those later.

The weather looks
Perfect !

 

[Pushka]

Nightime in Dubrovnik. Perfect night.





Water slide.





Balcony view.

 

[Pushka]

Going back to the flights yesterday. We were flying over the Swiss Alps twice so looking forward to that. For the first flight we were both on window seats. J class for Swiss means spare seat better food and lounge. I’ll just post phone pic as I can’t be bothered just yet with transferring the camera.

We boarded by bus with J and Senators and family boarding the bus. Then everyone else. Same bus. Which means that J pax ended up boarding the place last. We were the first on the bus and last onto the plane. Go figure.


Same seat as Y just with a spare.

 

[Pushka]

On landing in Zurich it was bus entry again but this time a J bus that got us into the terminal early. Zurich as expected is large and our terminal needed a train stop. We knew we could access a Swiss Lounge but couldn’t see if there was one in our terminal but we made our way anyway. Just as well as we needed to go through passport control for that terminal. Must be out of schengen area or something. There was a query on the day we arrived into Europe. Of course it was a day later than I stated because of the cancelled flight so that was queried. The immigration lady joked about names too, hers was Sommer. First time I’ve ever laughed at immigration.

Found the rather nice Swiss lounge. Photos later. On the camera. Boarded the full flight on time. Had a screamer of a kid in row 2. Parents were seated in Row 1 and relatives on the other side. They’d put the kids, aged say 4 to 8 in a row together. When the 4 year old started screaming instead of changing all the seats around so she had an adult they started hanging over the top. Stupid. Kid went on for ages then started the awful coughing noise that we know where this is ending. Stupid.

Scenery not too shabby though. And nice meal.



No intruders from Y. One of these.

 

[Pushka]

The meal was nice and actual champagne. I did not partake.

 

[Pushka]

I just got MrP to read the ‘cruise’ booklet. coughk Their guidelines for tipping come out at €200! He wondered why I getting a bit antsy. Tipping is customary in Europe? BS. Rounding up maybe but not adding an extra 10%. Oh well, I only have 85 € on me. There will be tears. Not mine.

 

[drron]

The only times I have had real priority boarding when the plane is at a stand is with RJ who have a J only bus and TG F where you are taken out in your own van.
And 10% tipping for a cruise?NFW I say.