On the Road, Again!

Spring flowers

It’s been more than a year since the Near Normal Travelers have been out and about. We’ve been to a few restaurants near us, but not experienced anything new. However, now that we’ve all had our COVID-19 vaccinations we’re beginning to venture out, again. We still wear masks except when we’re eating, we use gallons of hand sanitizer, and we keep six feet of distance from other folks.

Burleson, Texas (Bounding to Burleson) is still one of our ‘go to’ towns to find good food. Surprisingly, we still locate restaurants we haven’t visited within the city limits. On this rainy Friday we sampled the cuisine at Villa Dianna Italian Restaurant (2475 E Renfro St, Burleson, TX 76028, 817-426-6664). Housed in an attractive building, this Italian restaurant has been in business since 2005, but in 2015 they had a fire that burned the building, but this disaster didn’t stop the owners. They rebuilt and have been serving customers ever since. During the pandemic they served take-out only; the dining room hasn’t been re-opened for long and is set up for the safety of the customers.

Splitting for Split

Although our meeting was in Dubrovnik, we’d been told that one of the most beautiful places in Croatia was a little town named Split, so that was our first stop in the country. But first we had to get there, and that wasn’t

Sunset on the road to Split

easy. Our flight choices gave us several options and none of them great. Barb ended up booking a flight that had two stops before getting to Croatia; I found a more direct route, but had to go through the dreaded Madrid airport.  However, the weather was so unsettled in the northern US that the airline was happy to put Barb on the plane from DFW to Madrid instead of her multi-stop itinerary. I was happy because I was on that plane, as well. We both had bulkhead seats, but not together. The lady who sat next to me had an elbow that resided in my ribs – I really missed sitting with Barb! Overly tight quarters, a completely full plane, and surprisingly bad food did not bode well for this adventure.

Scholar or Colossus?

So very early in the morning we boarded an island hopper to go from

Dolphin sculpture at the harbor

Athens to Rhodes. We were all sad that Constantine and/or Harry were not going to be there to meet us and drive for us, but new adventures awaited. The principal city on the island of Rhodes is Rhodes – not at all confusing. In long ages gone by there was supposed to be a giant statue that guarded the harbor: the Colossus. There is nothing on the island that overtly points to any ruins of this bygone wonder and although I knew we wouldn’t see it, I was vaguely disappointed.

Reviewing Athens

Agora

A week in Athens isn’t nearly long enough to see all of the monuments, ruins, points of interest, as well as sample all of the food options in the city. I also didn’t get to do more than glance at the sea shore or peek at some of the coastline. In August I thought one time in Athens was plenty, but I may have to make a return trip some fall or spring! For information about my rating system of where we stayed, what we ate, and what we did, see Reading the Reviews.

Acting out in Athens

Greek Folk Dance

The best time to visit Athens is in the spring (April, May, early June) or fall (mid-September, October); so of course we came in August. This is one of the hottest months, as well as the time of year that Athens has the most tourists. Was it hot – yes! Was it crowded – sort of. If you went to the tourist places, and who doesn’t, there were substantial numbers of people; if you hung out in museums or interesting places without air conditioning, it wasn’t too crowded. Our best idea was to go to the ruins early in the morning and save the museums for later in the day. In the evening the best place to be was in a café that overlooked the water with some sort of cold drink in your hand.

Geology, Hallucinogens, and Lots of Questions

One of the most famous places in Greece, and a tourist destination since

Mountains

as early as 1400 BCE, is Delphi. And being tourists, Barb and I hopped on a bus for a tour of the area. I was anxious to see the grotto down along some river or stream – one again, reality was not what stories of the area had lead me to believe. It’s about a four and a half hour ride through some very pretty mountainous scenery from Athens to Delphi; luckily we had a great guide.

Amsterdam, Again

And I came back to Amsterdam. This is my third trip and Dave’s second. Our first visit was in the 1980s with a tour group; we saw the ‘common sites’, including, after dark, the red light district. Neither of us was impressed. My next trip was with Barb, and we concentrated on museums. This time I came because this is where the cruise ended and stayed since it was a place Dave had never really explored. I was tickled to get to show him some wonderful museums. We weren’t in time to see the tulips, but the weather was lovely and it was fun to be out on the canals in the little boats. Once again, for me the down side was the number of bicycles – they seem to aim right at pedestrians with silent malice. (The video is falling blossoms from the Rijksmuseum.)