On Sunday Tamar and I took a tour of the old Jewish quarter which included a museum and cemetery. The first photo is a grove of trees pruned to have six branches representing a Star of David. The next photo is a section of the wall surrounding the cemetery which contains markers for every Jew… Read More More from Frankfurt

I have now been in Frankfurt over 24 hours. This morning, Tamar and I went to a dinosaur museum and then to a large covered market. For my book club buddies, the museum had a skeleton of a woolly mammoth. On my flight to Seattle I sat next to a man from Britain. He was… Read More Arrived in Germany

My tour ended on Monday morning in Montenegro. I took a shuttle back to Dubrovnik and am staying in an Airbnb right in the center of the Old Town. Monday afternoon I just walked around, had my customary gelato and actually did a little shopping. I was saving my energy for my Tuesday morning walk… Read More On my own in Dubrovnik 

I made it completely around the wall. What an incredible experience. I am posting all the pictures I took even though there are multiple photos of similar vistas. I just wanted everyone to see it as it unfolded for me. Part way around stopped for a fresh squeezed pomegranate mandarin orange juice and had a… Read More Walked the wall in Dubrovnik 

Absolutely love this town in spite of its being crowded with tourists. We got a short tour then with a few of my shipmates I had a wonderful lunch and then rode the cable car up to get some spectacular views of the town. 

We have spent two nights in Herceg Novi on Kotor Bay, Montenegro. Kotor Bay is a large very protected bay, oddly shaped, off the Adriatic Sea. Montenegro, whose population is mostly Orthodox, was part of Serbia until 2006. Montenegro is a very mountainous country so felt little impact in the 1991-1995 war. Through its history… Read More Kotor Bay, Montenegro 

The republic of Ragusa was a maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik from 1358 when it broke of from Venetian domination until 1808 when it was conquered by Napolean. We had a lecture on the diplomacy of this republic and it was fascinating. It was ruled by a small group of aristocratic families.… Read More Republic of Ragusa

On the way from Hvar to Korcula we got a lecture on Croatia from WW II to the present. Croats and Muslims sided with Germany during the war while the Serbs did not. Even though Tito was Croatian he led the resistance movement against the Nazis. After WW II, countries in the area were so… Read More Korcula

Woke up in Stari Grad, the fog was as thick as pea soup. Eventually we got under way to the town of Hvar on Hvar Island. There we visited the Arsenal, Cathedral and monastery. Everything here is made of stone. This makes the Cathedrals quite interesting and not as ornate as their counterparts in other… Read More Hvar