History

by Julie Skurdenis

(First of three parts on Australia, jump to part 1, p

We toured Prague for two days in August ’05 and on a third day took a trip to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Cesky Krumlov with a guide and an air-conditioned car.

On the island of Crete, we stayed at the Minoa Palace Resort Hotel (73014 Plantanias, Chania, Crete, GREECE; phone 011-30-28210-36500 or visit www.minoapalace-chania.gr) in September ’05. Our third-floor room with a king bed overlooked the garden and pool and (if we stood on tiptoe) the ocean. €170 ($210) included a fantastic buffet breakfast.

The dinner buffet surpassed any buffet we’ve been to in recent memory. It cost €48 ($59) including wine.

The April ’06 issue carried a very well done, highly informative report (pages 65-68) by a La Jolla reader who enjoyed a 5-day “Flanders Fields” tour by a British company. American visitors to this area should include a visit to Flanders Field Cemetery, one of the many cemeteries in Europe that are maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC).

A “must see” in Bodrum, Turkey, is the Museum of Underwater Archeology, housed in the Castle of St. John. The Institute of Nautical Archeology has been excavating in the Mediterranean since 1973, and the collections displayed include treasures from a series of historic wrecks along Turkey’s southern shores. Mycenaean and Cannanite artifacts from the 12th century B.C., a reconstruction of a seventh-century Eastern Roman Empire wreck and finds from the world’s oldest shipwreck, a 14th-century B.C.

For the past three years, we have explored the REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA during its so-called “secret season” of October. We have been awed by most all of the country’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites and even more impressed by the spirit and graciousness of the South African people.

While in Bled, Slovenia, you should definitely spend a couple of hours in Bled Castle. In addition to touring the museum and chapel, be sure to stop by the print shop where, with the help of a friendly, traditionally garbed printer, you can print a souvenir certificate for yourself for a small fee.