Fall in Queens & Rhinebeck

A Surprising Fall Getaway to Queens and Rhinebeck

October 2018 

          One of my regular Red Cross runs delivering blood to regional hospitals takes me to Northern Duchess Hospital in Rhinebeck, then thru town toward hospitals in Poughkeepsie. That takes me past an old inn, the Beekman Arms, in the center of the pretty town, often thinking what a nice getaway that would make. I saw an opportunity this year when Marjorie was spending her mid-September birthday in Kansas City with her sister Mary. We couldn’t do anything for her birthday then, so I thought to combine birthday & our mid-November anniversary (#47, for those keeping score), making it a surprise  ̶  telling her only to keep the dates open. Our friend Marlene, who lives in Poughkeepsie, was a co-conspirator, advising on places to eat. Adding to the outing, we decided to visit the Queens family  ̶  son Matt, daughter-in-law Anthea, and grandsons William & Miles  ̶  to start things off.

Friday, October 19: “Special Deliveries to NYC”

We’re pretty much back to normal following a wonderful trip to the Balkans (Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, and even a bit of Bosnia!) October 4-14, so I guess we can handle this more limited outing. The car’s pretty full of things to take down for the family: t-shirts for William & Miles from our trip, framed photos Matt wanted for Manhattan School of Music, treats baked by Marjorie, and more. A bit of our first frost in early AM. A nice PM drive down, some Fall color tho not too spectacular yet. A lunch stop at our favorite Plaza Diner outside New Paltz. Festive Halloween decorations, and another surprise for Marjorie: my credit card has fallen apart, so we’ll have to use her card to pay for things on “her weekend;” she manages to keep grumbling to a minimum.

Touring Along the Adriatric Sea

Jewels of the Adriatic

October 2018

Croatia has been on our travel to-do list since an earlier European trip (Bavaria in 2006) when in the airport on the way home we chatted with other travelers who raved about Croatia. Marjorie’s cousin Jim and wife Susan also raved about their trip to Croatia last Fall, adding further impetus. Gate1, with whom we’ve happily traveled a number of times, has an “11 Day Affordable Croatia & Slovenia” tour that looks just right. One unhappy note: friend Kay, a companion on the Bavaria and some other trips, is unable to join us. But Una (who had traveled with us in Andalucia) and her friend Nancy will be joining us. Well, “joining us” turned out to be a bit uncertain when they booked a night in Venice at the end. Una tried to arrange “Bus Unity” for the 4 of us to be on the same tour bus, but discovered their Venice add-on put them into a different group (and bus). We’ll share some but not all of the hotels; don’t know how much we’ll be touring together. I’d vouched for Gate 1, so I hope things go well and that we’ll have plenty of time together. Una seems to have forgiven me for being picked to join the Doug Ward family on a Viking Ocean cruise “Into the Midnight Sun” this summer; she was the next choice, but “blood” won out. We learned another friend, Beth, will be on a tour to Croatia with a friend that begins the same day as ours, but with a different company. Will we cross paths?

This region has become a popular tourist destination, with spectacular scenery from seacoasts to mountains. It also has a complex and violent history. I’ll attempt a brief (and probably oversimplified) recent summary: After WWII Yugoslavia was an uneasy federation of 6 republics, including 4 we’ll visit (Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia). Tensions among the various ethnic groups were suppressed by Tito until his death in 1980, when calls for autonomy escalated. Croatia & Slovenia declared independence in 1991 and were attacked by the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army. The Balkan Wars of the 1990s entailed allegations of “ethnic cleansing” and war crimes. NATO bombings (“Operation Deliberate Force”) were followed by a US-brokered peace agreement. Montenegro declared independence in 2006. Croatia and Slovenia are members of NATO and the European Union; Montenegro joined NATO most recently (2017) and is a candidate to join the EU. Bosnia (and Herzegovina) declared independence in 1992, and is also a candidate to join the EU. But the varying status of these countries creates different situations for crossing borders. It also means some juggling among different currencies: Croatian  kuna ($.16), euros ($1.16), Bosnian convertible marks ($.59).