bakery – Energy and Time

Italy day 47: Fontanella to Duino

October 5th: Our B&B came with breakfast, which turned out to be coupons for a bakery two blocks away

Carol got a fruit pastry, and I got a croissant sandwich. Note the wiggly spoon hooked over the cup rim.

Fontanella is an ancient town, going back at least to a fort built in the 5th century.

La Porta di Sopra, part of the ancient boundary wall (but possibly remodeled at a later date).

We chose to drive back roads through this part of Italy, which is rated very high for “quality of life”. We stopped for lunch at a random restaurant, but the food was excellent.

First course. Carol is a gnocchi-holic, but I opted for the squid pasta. Both the gnocchi and pasta were handmade.

We split one second course. Veal, in a lemon-caper-mint sauce that was amazing.

After lunch, we walked around the town square and got some gelato.

The weather cleared up to merely cloudy as we continued our long drive to Duino. But we arrived around 7 PM, and it was hard to find an open restaurant. We finally ate at Dama Bianca down by the water.

Croatia day 25: Zadar

September 13th: We started by grabbing breakfast at the bakery near the bus station.

A slice of meat pie, and an apple pastry

Bakeries all over Croatia are multi-purpose. They’re breakfast places, and early morning coffee shops, as well as serving desserts and breads. (This was also true in Iceland.) One breakfast staple is a flaky deep pie with either cheese or ground meat inside.

The main task for the day was for me to find a medical clinic and get a blood test that I usually have once a month. My doctor insisted. 🙂 The first clinic I visited could not do the test, but directed me to one that could.

Me at the first clinic, waiting to be told that the test could not be done here.

On the way to the second clinic, we passed a “pyroshop” claiming to sell “pirotehnika”. My head swum with fantasies of hundreds of new ways to make fire. But sadly, it was only selling sporting goods like bicycles and scuba masks.

When we reached the second clinic, I had to show my vaccination certificates again, and wait a bit, but the doctor doing the blood draw was very professional. The charge for the test was 65 kuna (= about $10.72). That’s the full price; I was a foreigner with no applicable health insurance. Results were emailed to me in a little under 2 hours, about the same time as the Express Lab in Fort Collins takes. Makes “socialized medicine” (= “affordable health care”) start to sound reasonable.

The only minor snag was that “prothrombin time” was abbreviated PV, not PT. Because the Croatian word for “time” is “vrijeme”, naturally. So “PT/INR” became “PV/INR”.

Zadar is the oldest continuously-inhabited Croatian city, going back further than just Roman times (when it was called Jadera). The easiest way to get to the Old Town was to walk further out the harbor and cross over on a foot bridge.

Random columns dot the landscape. I just column like I see ’em.

I found the local EDM bar, but it was too early for anyone to be dancing.

Finding lunch took a long time. We could have just eaten near where we were – there were at least 2 open restaurants – but Carol was fixated on a particular street-food restaurant, so we walked a kilometer to get there. But it wasn’t open yet, and there was nothing near it, so we ended up walking almost back to where we started, through sights we had already seen. I think we need to start taking that “bird in the hand” idea a bit more seriously.

Carol had some mammal with gnocchi, and I had the seafood pasta.

Our main goal for the afternoon was the Museum Of Ancient Glass.

Bulk glass raw material, from a shipwreck near Mljet, 2nd century AD

An optical illusion mosaic “Old man and young boy”, made from glass tiles. Don’t see the young boy? Try turning it upside down.

The theme of the main exhibit was originals and imitations.

On raised stand, a glass bowl with ribs, 1st century AD. Below, 3 attempts to imitate it.

Some ancient tableware sets were all-glass, including plates, bowls, cups, vases, and jugs for wine and oil and vinegar.

Some public benches in Zadar are for sitting, but some are for lying back and resting.

For dinner, I had “mixed shells”, mostly clams and mussels but with a few razor shells. Carol went for the seafood risotto.

Around sunset, we went to listen to the Sea Organ and see the Greeting To The Sun.

Iceland day 12: Heimaey

The Westman Islands were created about 45 thousand years ago by a large undersea eruption. They were enlarged by further eruptions 10-14 thousand years ago, and most recently in 1973 when Eldfell was formed in an eruption that destroyed half the town and threatened to block the harbor. Heroic efforts stopped the lava flow by spraying seawater on it, and in the end the harbor actually improved. Only one man died; everyone else was evacuated by fishing boats, which were all in port due to bad weather.

Our campsite Glamping & Camping was in the bottom of an ancient volcanic caldera called Herjólfsdalur. One side had eroded away, but the rest was shielded by crater walls up to two hundred meters high. It was easily the most spectacular campsite of our trip, AND had excellent facilities open 24/7, including 4 WCs, 4 showers, and a spacious kitchen.

We grabbed breakfast at a bakery before heading out to circumnavigate the island counterclockwise.

There are many other small islands in the archipelago, all volcanic, none permanently inhabited.

Our first stop was the hill at the southern tip of the island, which features a weather station and a bird sanctuary. Around 5 million puffins nest in this area each summer. Unfortunately for us, they had all left a week or two earlier.

The closest I got to a bird was in the parking lot for the bird sanctuary.

The closest animals to the viewing station were sheep.

The island on the left features “the world’s loneliest house” (actually a hunting lodge); you have to take an inflatable boat there and then climb those cliffs to reach it.

The weather station at the summit near the sanctuary

The bright red band looked like paint, but was actually a red seaweed.

Next, we climbed Eldfell, the volcano that destroyed half the town in 1973. The red and black tephra and lava is on top of hundreds of buildings that were buried.

The mountain in the left background is the volcanic shield wall that surrounds our campsite.

After that we went horseback riding. Most Icelandic horses are small, almost pony-size, with a max load of 90 kg. But Lyngfell Stables had strong full-size horses. I told her my weight, afraid it might be too much. “Have you seen my husband?”, she replied. 🙂

The bird sanctuary / weather station spit in the background

After that, we visited the Eldheimar eruption museum, which was built around a complete house excavated from under the volcanic ash.

Then we went swimming/soaking at the public pool. Carol thought this was the best pool of our trip, but I liked the water at Stykkishólmur and the view at Hofsós better.

Finally, dinner and a well-deserved sleep after a very long activity-packed day.

Iceland day 3: Snæfellsnes peninsula

We ended up yesterday in Stykkishólmur because we had signed up for the “Viking Sushi” cruise. It started in the afternoon, so we had time for a leisurely breakfast at the local bakery.

Breakfast in Iceland often means a meat-and-cheese sandwich

And to catch a few sights in town.

the most modernist of the three churches

Then it was off. Our first stop was the famous Kirkjufellfoss (“Church mountain waterfall”). It was raining so we didn’t stay long.

Then off to Saxhóll, an old volcanic crater.

Then on to Djupalonssandur, a famous “black sand beach”. I don’t think Iceland understands what the word “sand” means, since this beach was entirely rounded pebbles. I got so intrigued by looking for natural Go stones that I forgot to take any pictures. But the rock only looks black when it’s wet; when dry it is darkish gray.