There’s always more to see and do than can be crammed into any visit, of whatever length. London’s the perfect gateway to the rest of Europe and the proliferation of budget airlines hubbed near London is testament to how fast this role is expanding. Just think – traveling to other European destinations on a whim, for a long weekend, with just an overnight bag. I could get used to that!

One obvious reason I finish with London is that I usually fly Virgin Atlantic from the US and their only destination from here is London. Another reason is that I am one of those dinosaurs who must buy books and a trip to Waterstone’s is simply foolish until my last few days. This time, I packed eight books into my checked bag and one in my carry-on having already shipped five or six home. And lest this sound somehow highbrow, I’m not talking about distinguished literature or hard-to-find titles, either. Mostly European murder mysteries. A Croatian language CD and a small volume of Confucius this time and, yes, I can get any of the titles through Amazon or Barnes & Noble, but where’s the fun in that? I did make one concession to luggage and postal weight; I decided not to buy the UK edition of Bring Up the Bodies, Book Two of Hilary Mantel’s trilogy of histories on Thomas Cromwell. Wolf Hall was more than 600 pages and this second volume is of similar thickness.  I also try to purchase texts of any plays I see and three of those came home with me – the fourth not yet in print. Then there are souvenir booklets from museums and the like – this time from Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, the Roman antiquities of Pula in Croatia, Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia among others. Even worse, most paperback books are being published in trade format which takes up a lot more space and costs more than the smaller mass-market size. Foof.

Since my hotel was a mere city block from Paddington, I decided the Heathrow Express was the easiest way to get to the airport – no wrestling with the luggage on the Tube or in and out of buses or cabs. Not even any stairs, just a couple of curbs. My flight was after 5 pm, so I checked out a bit early and stowed the bag at Left Luggage at Paddington. (It’s soooo nice to travel in places where paranoia hasn’t yet eliminated this option – left luggage is almost extinct in the US). This meant I only had to deal with my backpack so I finished my shopping, had a snack and said my silent goodbyes to London. For once, it was overcast and spitting drizzle on my last day. It’s so much harder to leave when the sun is out and there are large expanses of blue sky just when I’m heading to Heathrow.

I’d woken with a raw throat and could feel the beginnings of a head cold. Ah well, better the last day of vaca than the first even though it meant spending the first three days back home in bed. Finally started to feel better yesterday, else I’d've posted this a bit sooner.

Spring has definitely arrived here while I was away. The spring shrubs and flowering trees seem flashier and fuller, more colorful somehow. Maybe those ridiculously paralyzing snowstorms we had this winter helped the plants. The unprepared garden is threatening to go wild on me but much of that is the strawberry bed spreading out. There’s still time to get things under control over the next few weeks.

There are many more stories and fotos (I know, sp! but I like it) to come. I’ve begun a series of workshops for Photoshop so I can improve the quality of the images I load up with the blogposts.  As noted previously, I’ll be reposting and new-posting in the weeks to come, with fotos included. Watch this space.

A nice quiet spell, apart from some headaches getting to or from Heathrow.

A chunk of the District Line, some of London Overground and a hefty section of the Piccadilly line. The recommendation for getting to LHR is to take the Central Line to Ealing B’way, take a bus to skip past the downed segment and then take the Piccadilly line from Boston Manor.

My alternative would be… cough up £20 and take the 15 minute Heathrow Express from Paddington or, for less than half that price, Heathrow Connect makes the trip in roughly half an hour also from Paddington with only a few stops along the way. It’s up to you.

Most of the closures are outside of zone 1. The exceptions are parts of the Circle line between Kings Cross and Moorgate and a section of Hammersmith/City over by Liverpool St station. Once again, the text doesn’t match the map, so double-check. London Overground and DLR, Bakerloo, Central and Northern lines all have disruptions outside zone 1.

Since I use the Tube so much when I’m in London, I like to know this stuff even if I’m not gonna be there. This weekend, though, I DO need to know and I am staying at a hotel just one block from Paddington station which allows me to get to shopping and theatres as well as not needing the Tube should I choose to get to Heathrow via the all-too-expensive 15-minute Heathrow Express.

The place where I’m staying is owned by people who also own one of the many restaurants in town. On my first night, I ate there and had some yummy grilled fish caught that day. Fish dinners is turning into one of the themes of this trip. Rovinj’s harbor has a few sightseeing boats but it’s mostly filled with hard-working  little fishing boats (all in need of a [purely cosmetic] paint job – the boats are seaworthy, what more do they need?) that bring in catches of the day for the restaus. There are also fish farms and mussel and oyster farms only a mile or so away, big business along most of Croatia’s coast.

On Monday, I took the public bus to nearby Pula to visit a bunch of Roman ruins scattered about the old town. Pula is on the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula and only 40 minutes from Rovinj. Pula feels more like a small city with an urban vibe very much in evidence. A large, well preserved amphitheatre is the town’s UNESCO centerpiece with restoration work in progress. A stash of ancient stone amphorae sits in the underground vaults where dead and dying, the losers from the old gladiator days would have been hauled so the next act could get started. There is an exhibition of olive oil pressing methods and equipment,  more sophisticated than I expected and maps showing the trade routes for the oil, wine and other food products.

Out in the fresh air, turning left down the hill leads you to the center of the old town area and a Roman temple, more excavated ruins – which is to say walls and foundations – a triumphal arch (are arches always triumphal?) an excavated floor mosaic and other bits of wall here and there. I also found a shop selling local Croatian products and bought a small sampler of olive oil, honey and fig liqueur.

At first I had considered renting a car so I could see more Istrian towns but in the end I settled for taking the public bus to a town it served with the most to see (Pula). This just means there will be more to see next time. Already I can hardly wait for the time when Croatia and I can be together again.

I’ll be adding photos and reposting, so stay tuned.

I did get my seafood dinner in Barceloneta overlooking the Mediterranean. Started with a glass of sparkling cava (why not?), accompanied by bread with garlic and tomato, a small bowl of olives and anchovies marinated in olive oil. This last not a dish I would ever contemplate at home but, hey, I’m in Spain! Slightly fishy but only barely.

The main dish was mussels marinera (I’ll look up the Spanish word for mussels when I get home). The sauce was so good, I spooned it into the bowl the olives had come in and drank it like soup!

Next stop was Venice. I started off not being crazy about Venice. Already so crowded that it feels like Times Square on a weekend. Even the main drags feel like alleys and only about a third of the streets have signs!

My main gripe with Venice is that you really need to be in shape to get around. No public transport to fall back on except for the water buses and you need to be near the water to use them.

In the end, my opinion softened and I may actually enjoy my next visit, a one-nighter in a few days when I return from Croatia on my way back to London. I found I was able to find my way around and, most importantly, got to the ferry terminal in plenty of time for my ferry-replacement bus connection to Croatia.

Rovinj is a tiny, hilly town on the Adriatic that Rick Steves has placed on his current list of ten hidden gems in Europe. I can see why.

More on all this later. Time for dinner and it’s raining and I’m out and about without any rain gear.

Just what everyone looks forward to – a three day weekend away from the job. And all sorts of Tube disruptions to complicate your holiday plans.

I´m not at my home computer, so the link above will show the multi-colored schematic calendar rather than the usual laundry list, which I`m locked out of today. 

Outages seem to be limited to areas away from tourist central (i.e., beyond the Circle Line ring).  Enjoy the holiday, London!

Coming to the end of the first week on vaca. Wi-fi has been spotty to say the least. The hotel in London only had access in the lobby, a real pain. The place I stayed in Alkmaar in the Netherlands claimed to have wi-fi but the signal was so poor that it shut down before I could complete signing in. Here in Barcelona, the place I’m staying is pretty basic and good for the price because it’s right on the Rambla and here, finally, the wi-fi signal is strong and I’m finally able to sort through my emails. Most of them become `Recently Deleted´ since I can´t see the point of spending vaca time reading junk mail or even stuff that is important when I´m at home.

The two most important issues for me at the moment are the fact that the ferry I was booked on from Venice to Rovinj, Croatia in a couple of days has been cancelled and I’ve needed to verify the alternate arrangements. My UK mobile was acting a bit finicky, so I didn’t want to pass it on in case it kept acting up.

The other communications have been with a couple of hotels to confirm arrival times and to sometimes to say that I don´t require a parking space.

After barely two days in London (apologies to my London friends; I hope to have time in a week or so to hook up) when I managed to see a couple of plays, it was on to the Netherlands.

So far, I´ve spent time at the newly reopened (after ten years´renovation work) Rijksmuseum whose multi-story atrium reminds me of the British Museum´s new entrance. Then there was Keukenhof, the most amazing flower festival in the world (my third visit) though it´s been so chilly here that the trees have barely begun to leaf out. Then I spent time with zillions of other people crowding into Dam Square in Amsterdam to watch the jumbo TV screen showing the official procession where the queen stepped down and her son stepped up as king.

And the Heineken `Experience´. Interesting, high energy, interactive multimedia presentation, surrounded by hundreds of people young enough to be my grandkids!

Here in Barcelona, I took public bus #24 to Parc Guell and spent a couple of hours trooping up stone stairs and dirt pathways from one amazing construction to another and being totally gobsmacked by the view down to the city, Sagrada Familia and the Mediterranean. The weather is finally warm enough for May. 20º Celsius (about 70º F). I can´t get enough of this sea view. I´m hoping to get down to the beach area known as Barceloneta for a seafood meal.

I may or may not get into Sagrada Familia. I had the foresight to buy online tix for Rijksmuseum and Keukenhof, but was unsure of my schedule in Barcelona, so… the queue may swallow up the rest of my day and may not even get me inside. Oh well.

When I get home, I´ll have some photos and more stories.

Getting up close and personal with Siena’s cathedral ceiling. Thru October 27th, 2013. A  fabulous alternative to that boring Stairmaster!

In Venice, a Manet exhibition thru August 18th, 2013. I wonder if this is the same exhibition that recently came from the Royal Academy, London. If so, I saw it in a movie theatre a week or so ago, the art world’s answer to NT Live. The only issue with these satellite art shows is the fact that you don’t really get to see all of the exhibit. Still, better than seeing none at all. Not sure I’ll have enough time in Venice to see any museums.

Most of the closures are on the western side of the city – Bakerloo beyond Queen’s Park on Sunday, Circle and Hammersmith/City between Baker St and Hammersmith all weekend. Parts of London Overground are off on Sunday.

Portions of the District line and Circle lines between Edgware Rd and Earl’s Court or Gloucester Rd both days and a smidge of the Circle Line between Aldgate and Tower Hill.

Since I use the Tube so much when I’m in London, I like to know this stuff even if I’m not gonna be there. This weekend, though, I DO need to know and I made sure my hotel was on the Piccadilly line so the closures won’t mess me up too much.

A list of ten architecture walks from London to Glasgow and beyond.

Ten of the best flea markets around Britain. Mind you, most flea markets in the US are weekly affairs at the very least. Some of these in the UK list are annual events. Fleas must not be much of a problem if they only need an airing once a year (!)

From France 24. Britain has just outlawed excessive surcharges for credit and debit card use. I think this is an important bit of news for those of us who use our cards for big ticket items which, increasingly, means pricey airfares. I recently noticed that buying a plane ticket on EasyJet was going to cost more by credit card than by UK debit card, the latter of which, naturally, I do not have. It was only a few pounds, but still. Since this happened after the law changed, I suppose these few pounds were not considered excessive.

From London Independent. London goes to the dogs – finally! A couple of new restaus with so-called dog-friendly menus are due to open. I may just have to seek one of these out for a laugh. I can enjoy a few pooches without needing one of my own. Perfect!

From Oxford Mail. An art exhibit all month at a local vineyard.