Passage To Eastern Europe Viking River Cruise
Monday, November 07, 2022 - Osijek, Croatia
The day's statistics:
- Weather: rainy, mid-50s
- Steps: 8.983 Linda; 11.451 Steve
Breakfast was with Jon and Leslie from England.
Usually we are already at the destination port when we awake. Today we hadn't gotten there yet.
But it only took about ten minutes until we were.
Next to the parking lot was this nice restaurant.
And this was captured before boarding.
Our group of 24 departed at 8:45 for our excursion, Croatian Countryside and Wine Tasting.
Today's driver was Anton, and our guide was Inga (she has a Scandanavian name, but was Croatian).
We were headed to Ilok, a fifteen minute drive awaay. We were going to visit a museum, and then a winery.
A couple shots en route.
Across the street from the museum is this chapel / guardhouse / whatever it might be.
The museum was a former residence, and the walled property also had a church called Saint John of Capistrano.
It was equally overcast going in and coming out.
A couple other views of the property before entering.
We approached via the sidewalk to the main entrance.
We walked through the gate where carriages previously entered.
A picture of the entire property from above from the past.
From the property, the Danube can usually be seen. Trust me, it's there...
The brick section in the middle, dating from the 15th century, is the original section of the building.
The sections protruding on the left and right were added afterward.
We entered and immediately proceeded to the second floor. We didn't see all the artifacts, but saw a few major
sections. The artifacts were pretty much layed out in chronological order, starting with pre-historic all the way
through WWII.
The aisles were a little narrow and there were other travelers about, so some shots are not great.
We started with a map of the archaeological sites in the area.
Mammoth remains.
Some pottery.
Some more artifacts, including coins.
We moved into the next era.
"Suggested reconstruction of part of the Gothic vaulting of the church of St. Anne (14th / 15th cent.)l scale 1:1".
A model of the entire property.
Nikola Ilocki's, King of Bosnia, tomb-stone / epitaph, original kept in John of Capistrano's Church in Ilok.
The book from 1554 in which St. John of Capistrano is mentioned (the oldest book in the library of the Municipal
Museum of Ilok).
Getting newer on the timeline.
Some 18th and 19th century weaponry.
We finished on the second floor and went up the stairs to the third.
This work was on the wall in the stairwell.
Some period rooms, including some individual pieces.
An early 20th century globe.
There was a collection of glassware on display.
This reads "Sibice", which is a small town in Croatia. As this was hanging on the wall in the "kitchen", this
might have / probbly held matchsticks.
A couple shots of the ceiling.
A coat of arms.
Another piece that looks to be Turkish.
There was a section - the last section we visited - relating to WWI and WWII. While I know some people find this
interesting, I was not really interested in it. Part of this stemmed from the fact that, at the time, Croatia was
considered an agressor during the war. While it is part of history...
Some scrollwork on the door as we started to make our way out.
The archway was "paved" with wood blocks, much like the streets were in Bucharest.
The museum visit was over and it was time to walk all the way to the winery.
Our next trek was a two to three hundred meter (750 to 1,000 foot) walk to the winery next door.
After we got home, we found out that this wine cellar was the most award winning cellar in Croatia.
We had a convenience break in the main building before going into the wine celler.
The cellar was 300 meters (almost 1,000 feet) deep.
There were a LOT of barrels, of various sizes as well. This particular example was a 500 liters (500 liters).
The largest barrel in the cellar.
A selfie in front of said largest barrel.
There was a collection of bottles (filled) that were lockwed up. Some of these were used for the corination cerimony.
Another section of aging bottles.
More aging bottles. The yucky looking crusty stuff is actually a build-up of mold.
I was the last to leave this section of the cellar and I was trying to be quick so the employee could leave too -
so a couple are a wee bit blurry. And there are two Traminacs from 1997.
After we visited the cellar, we returned to the main building for a tasting.
Above the main entry door and the door out the back was this stained glass.
Out back was some outdoor seating - I'm sure it is a great place to be in the warmer weather.
We sat at a long banquet table.
We prefer red wines. However, this winery most produces whites. And we preferred two of the whites to the red.
We had a little bit of bread and cheese to cleanse the pallet in between the samplings.
We sampled five vintages in all.
After our tasting, we actually purchased three bottle from the vineyard. We look forward to enjoying them in the near
future.
On the property, on the way back to the bus, we passed more flowers in bloom.
It had started to rain just a little bit when we were getting on the bus. It continued for a spell, then subsided.
We boarded the bus and took our twenty or so minute drive back the ship. One sight was this ... three or so meter (ten feet)
tall sculpture? model? of a wooly mammoth, assumedly associated to the wooly mammoth find in the area, as noted in the
museum at the old palace.
And elsewhere the way back to the ship, some additional sights including some of the vineyard's vines.
A section of a watertower, and a building, showing damage from being hit by shrapnel / bullets.
We did the usual drop-off in our cabin and headed to the restaurant for lunch.
Today's lunch was with Julie and Mickie from MA.
The menu.
Linda had Beef consommé niçoise, Scandinavian baby shrimp sandwich, and New York cheesecake.
I had Beef consommé niçoise, Pappardelle alla boscaiola, and Chocolate mousse.
We didn't sit to chat after lunch since we had another departure soon after. So we headed back to our
cabin to freshen up and grab our supplies.
After lunch we dparted for our next excursion in Osijek (oh-see-yek).
The town was 90% destroyed in the war/
Our first stop was at the Holy Name of the Virgin Mary church. We headed inside.
The stained glass / painted windows.
We were visiting the church to see the church, but to also hear a solo concert. A Bulgarian woman named Martina
played an electric piano and sang five songs for us, though the last one was actually a capella.
I captured a 1:00+ clip of her playing at the beginning, then sat back down and turned off the camera (while enjoyable,
the songs were all in Croatian). It turns out that she wound up singing "Ave Maria" and I didn't capture it because I
was already seated and the camera was off. By the time I would have gotten set up, the song would have been over.
It starts off out of focus, but within a few seconds it's clear - but this should be enjoyed more for the sound than the view.
After the concert, we used the church's school's facilities for a convenience break. Additionally, there was a
really small gift shop and a vendor behind the church too. I asked the guide if we would have any other opportunity to shop
elsewhere during this excursion, and she said "no." So our shot glass had to be acquired here and fortunately, they had
some. This one was hand painted by one of the students at the school.
Another vendor had samples of three different brandies to try.
In all, our time at the church was about 45 minutes, and we boarded the bus at 5:00 to continue to our next stop.
We stayed in Osijek and had a brief drive to the Osijek Fortress, or the "Tvrda Fortress".
The fortress was built as a military fortification to protext against the Ottomans, but it was never
used as such. It was converted to civilian space. Here are some of the facilities / offices / buildings.
Though the fortress wasn't used as a fortress, there was some fighting going on around
the fortress and here are some damage from said fighting.
We walked along the road, toward the river, then through the gate to the other side.
We got a selfie on the other side too (yes, we've taken a lot of selfies on this trip...).
On the other side - the outside - was a model of how the town fortress looked in the mid-18th century. The white
button near the two stones just off the middle is the "You are here" marker.
The walls were formidable.
The main gate.
We walked back through the gate, up the slight incline, turned right, and went through the archway.
Some architecture and designs.
This church, Crkva Svetoga Kriźa, or Church of the Holy Cross, was built in M D CC XXX II (1732 for Roman
numeral challenged). We first saw the church from the "outside of the complex". Eventually we were in front of it.
We were not told nor could find any information as to why the righthand statue is pointing at his leg.
The altar through a heavily tinted small window on the door, from a distance, then closer-up (offset slightly because
the right looked more interesting than the left).
We walked over to the town square. They were starting to set up for Christmas, including setting up a ferris wheel
(partially visble here in the background). The fountain was turned off for the season.
While we were hearing about the town, there were thousands - perhaps tens of thouands - of birds flying overhead.
We stepped under the lone small tree nearby in order to prevent being hit by anything a bird may drop... This is
just a moment in time of them, but they were flying overhead for quite a few minutes.
Here is a clock on a church (?) in the square. The close-up shows the hands and the build date: 1872.
More architecture and design.
The old stables building, now the offices of City Council and the Mayor (I'd like to think they got the smell out
by now...).
Some of the old barracks and offices have been converted to shops.
These yellow buildings are now part of a university.
We walked out fo the fortress, along the roadway, crossed the street, and boarded the bus.
We were headed to the countryside. Along the way, some sights, including a football stadium and arena.
Our next stop this evening was going to be a house visit. We'll admit that both of us didn't think that this was going
to be as interesting as it actually wound up being. There was a bus with about 30 on board. We made three stops and
ten travelers exited and visited a house. We were last.
We visited the home of Susi. Our guide and in-home host.
We climbed a short staircase that was under some trees and or vines. For me (and some of our taller travelers),
they needed to be pruned - but we were just visiting so it was no big deal.
An interesting staircase in her home.
Her husband is German, and she was an OR nurse before moving to Croatia. Since speed in an OR is of the essence,
and there was a minor delay in the translation from Croatian to German and back, Susi decided to leave the field.
Susi started her own bakery called "Susi's Cakes". We entered her home, and she treated us to pastries - she was
a baker, afterall - and coffee and tea.
Ssusi told us about her life (see above), and we asked her questions and she asked us questions.
Her kitchen, that also had a counter with a built-in glass portion for a monitor underneath - look up recipes
and keep them clean and safe (barely visible in the second image, but it is under the mouse).
We were stepping out of the living quarters.
Her foyer tiles.
Her front door.
Then we visited her on-site bakery / bake shop.
She make custom cakes too. Here are some samples, both some in
progress, as well as some photos from her book-of-work.
And she sells honey, jams, and other items as well.
Between the house and shop is the 1969 Jeep that the couple uses to take camping vacations into the mountains.
At the far end of the driveway were a few roses still in bloom.
She also runs a B&B.
We bid our host adieu and boarded the bus to head back to the ship.
After dropping off our belongings in our cabin, we headed to the lounge for the port talk.
We stopped by the coffee stand to get a cup of coffee and noticed that tonight's cookie selection was a little
different than the chocolate chocolate chip cookies previously. Though we didn't take a cookie with our coffee,
they had Oatmeal cookies and Kokosbusserl.
We ate dinner tonight with Jill and David.
First, the menu.
Linda had Roasted bell pepper Á garlic soup, Grilled vegetable lasagna, and the day's ice cream selection.
I had Hortogbágyi palacsinta, Roast chateaubriand béarnaise, and Malakoff cake.
We sat and chatted for a little bit and then headed to our cabin.
Fun fact:
- With 17 parks, Osijek is the "greenest" town in Croatia.