Our friends from New Zealand, Helen and Sue started planning a trip to Croatia with us last August. The original plan for them was a river cruise in France with friends and then meeting another mutual friend, Sue Klesniks to drive to Croatia together. These two girls planned a 13 day trip and had booked all of the accommodations, completed this January. We originally had invited a nephew Joel and Lacey Steen to join us but they had to back out so we then invited Rob, Jen and Jack to join us. Sue Klesniks, mentioned above was all in and paid up when she was diagnosed with lung cancer around the 1st of May. Sue K has spent time in London with us a few times, most recently in Kew last August. Given her diagnosis and poor prognosis Helen and Sue left New Zealand a couple of months early to spend time with Sue in the UK. Very sadly Sue passed away on July 4 just two months after her diagnosis. This trip is now in memory of Sue Klesniks.
Croatia doesn’t look much different from Denmark except for the mountains.We were met at the Zagreb airport by Helen Fletcher and Sue Rhodes sitting in the background left. We first met these two women in Bermuda in the mid 90’s. Since that time we have become fast friends.They have visited us a number of times at our home in Boston. This was September 2004, in our kitchen.We have visited them twice in New Zealand and are planning on returning this December and January. Pictured is Sandy’s 60th birthday with Sue and Helen in Auckland-2006.We spent two idyllic weeks in Tuscany that they also planned completely. Here they are at The Academia in Florence with Sue Klesniks.We have also spent time in London with them in 2018. All of these girls including Sue Klesniks, front right, spent a day together at Wimbledon. This is a lunch in the Theatre District.This is the last picture we have of Sue when we lived in Kew, London. Taken September 8 of last year. She is on the far left.Hope all of that is not too confusing but Helen, Sue and Sue are really good friends and we have had great times with them.We are finally back to the Croatia trip and Jack’s 24th birthday meal in Poreč.This is our rustic home in Rošini with our two rental cars.Olive trees and a swimming pool. It was a great place for the seven of us.Helen picking out wine for the week.Olive oil tasting. Croatia has world class olive oils.On to wine tasting.A new 2 million dollar winery renovation. Four generations of winemakers since 1920.We were not impressed with the sparkling wine here and moved on after the one tasting.Beautiful countryside.Our second winery.This winery had a very good red wine. Rob bought two bottles of it which didn’t last long.Night two we all walk a few feet down the road to a small family run restaurant. The tractor in the background has a trailer full of watermelons for tonights watermelon festival.Great starters, truffles in the middle there.Sue called this the best steak she has ever had.This leg of pig was roasting over the fire near us at the restaurant.The restaurant owner with the roast pork at the watermelon festival just down the street. He recognized us and gave us free samples. Mmmm good.Such a fun local watermelon festival with watermelon eating contests for kids and adults. Our last full day with Jen, Rob and Jack we spent the day in the beautiful seaside town of Poreč.We had a drink on the tower top cafe.
A brief video of our late night drinking and playing bar dice.
We should add that Helen Fletcher is an accomplished chef and she always arranges incredible meals for us no matter where we are. Rob wanted to be in Croatia with her because he still remembers a tenderloin she prepared at our home in Boston in 2015.
We rented two cars at the Zagreb airport and drove to Poreč which took us about four hours with stops. After Poreč Rob, Jen and Jack drove back to Zagreb and flew home through Frankfurt. Spending this week with them in Denmark and Croatia has been outstanding and spending another international birthday with our oldest grandson Jackson is priceless.
Looks absolutely amazing, but also sad that it was shadowed by Sue’s death. I hope you all were able to still have some joy, especially Helen. I have a couple of very good friends who are Croatian, but sadly never was able to visit. One of those friends, Elizabeth, had her apartment bombed during the Serbo-Croatian war. She was living in Sarajevo at the time. Enjoy the rest of your stay!
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