October 5,2023

We tendered to the lovely port of Opatija…our last port on this wonderful cruise. As we left the tender, I turned around and snapped this photo of Symphony.

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My guy💙

Although the port is tiny, it is beautiful. We arrived a few minutes before our guide, so I parked Tim and walked around for bit. This is probably a port where you don’t need to hire a guide… there’s a lovely beach, restaurants and and a very pretty park all within a few minutes of the tender drop off. We did engage a very knowledgeable guide and spent a fun (if slightly long) day with Dean. The following photos are out of sequence…I’m not quite sure how that happened…

Dean drove us up the mountain (it really is a recurring theme with us) to a cool little town called Grad Trsat. I popped into this church that is dedicated to Mother Teresa.
We continued up the mountain to Rijeka (Love me a random lion♥️).

Rijeka offers fabulous views all the way down to Opatija. While on top, Dean added to our knowledge of the history of Croatia, explaining the importance of Kvarner Bay and Rijeka to the economy. Rijeka is strategically located with a deep water port, so it was fiercely contested among the Holy Roman Empire, Italy and Croatia…changing rulers many times over centuries.

This is Trsat Castle, it dates to the 13th century and was built atop a Roman fortress, on a steep hill overlooking the Rjecina gorge.

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That’s the Rjecina gorge.
I left Timmy and Dean to discuss Roman and Croatian history and climbed around the castle.
Beautiful day…beautiful views.
Rjecina gorge in foreground…Kvarner bay in the distance.
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The small town is adorable.
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We left the mountain and spent some time looking for a parking spot in Rijeka. This is a school yard.
This photo was Tim’s idea…I executed it perfectly ♥️
Roman ruins in Rijeka
The preservation of Roman ruins is slowed by the lack of resources.
Not sure why I took this pic…perhaps the bat?
La Guardia was the 99th mayor of New York City, so we were surprised to see this plaque.
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Andrija Mohorovicic was a Croatian geophysicist…there is a crater on the far side of the moon named for him.

Back in the port of Opatija, we entered a park – Park Angiolina – that is bordered by a wall mural of famous Croatian folks …and right smack in the middle we saw this likeness of Robert De Niro. Dean did not know why De Niro was afforded this honor. Anyway, it’s a very pretty park.

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Upon exiting the park, we walked along the waterfront, appreciating the beautiful estates and hotels lining the shore.

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A courtyard in one of the waterfront homes.
So the story here is that the town erected this monument to a resident who faithfully sat on this bench and greeted the fishermen as they returned each day. ♥️
I remembered the tale about the old man greeting the fishermen, but cannot for the life of me remember the origin story for this statue …don’t get old.
A better pic of Symphony from the tender at the end of our day.

Upon returning to the ship, we packed and enjoyed one last wonderful dinner … clearly I was exhausted from our tour and packing, as I only took two photos of dinner…my lobster and Tim’s dessert.

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We had a super time on Symphony…every minute of the cruise was an absolute joy. We were so grateful to be back at sea with so many wonderful crew and staff. Thanks for following along.