Adventures of a curious mind

Well – you have already seen the headline: 32 kms and 486m of climb. It was a looooong ride. We essentially left the boat then criss-crossed the island going up and over at least 4 small mountains. It was the ride that just kept giving. Every time we thought we had made it over the…

I woke up in the night, groggy and confused, to some amount of turmoil (the actual truth of it was yet to be revealed). The cabin had become hot and stuffy – the AC was not working. The lights were also not working and all I could hear was Rick’s loud snoring. When I called…

Bridget Jones Diary came out in 2001. And I appreciate that this seems a rather unusual opening sentence. I enjoyed the film (and Colin Firth) and have even watched it again on an occasional rainy Sunday afternoon. But there was one idea that really stuck with me – the idea of the mini-break. I love…

Farewell Dubrovnik! We left in the early morning with rain in the air and not a single drop of coffee in my belly. Ken had arranged for a private driver to take us to Trogir where we would meet the boat for our nausea risking adventures to begin. My pesky cough has persisted, so I…

Our boat, Romantica, is a twin mast sail boat that sleeps about 30 in a total of 16 staterooms (or more correctly ‘state closets’.) It is wooden and actually very beautiful and well maintained. The crew was on deck scrubbing the sides of the boat when we emerged for breakfast after a fairly peaceful night’s…

We started the day in Sibenik – which was not the original plan, so that meant we were up very early. Breakfast was originally scheduled for 8:00 but was served at 7:15. That left much less time for my pre-breakfast coffee. I am NOT a good eater at that early hour. I could hear the…

Writing is something that has always captured my interest. At the tender age of 10, I won my very first award, ever, for writing a short story, complete with very childish drawings to emphasize the things that I thought were the important bits. Since then, I have written to document for others, and written to…

We made it. It is stunningly beautiful even as you fly into the tiny airport. From the plane window as we fly in over the islands near Split (very close to where our cycling trip will happen). It really is stunning. And <Gulp!> a wee bit hilly. I am hoping our rides will be mostly…

Somehow we managed to sleep most of the way through the night – I was semi-confident that exhaustion would eventually get the better of me. The bed was very comfortable, and the apartment on a tiny side street with very little (foot) traffic meant it was a peaceful rest. Last night we had wandered through…

Last night was our last supper together as a group. The evening went very long, maybe because we knew we would be up early, or because we knew that there would be no bicycle to ride up and down rolling hills. The end of any tour feels a bit like the end of summer camp…