Fortification isn’t only about food and drink, but in safety and strength gained. There’s a ‘je ne sais quoi’ value-added ingredient in feeling encouraged and powerful.
A 3-day reunion with our extended family in Essex County, in southeast England, fortifies us for our adventure. Our defenses are built up. We rest. We gather and celebrate.
Amsterdam
Our first hop-off is a bike tour with Ashton of Mike’s Tours Amsterdam. He has us close our eyes (after we get off our rental bikes) and jump up and down at Vondelpark, Amsterdam’s largest urban park. Our hotel room backs onto this oasis of greenery where we’ll take in an open-air jazz concert later in the day. A squishy sensation is what our guide is after.
“Planners floated the city on wooden pilings (later concrete),” Ashton says. “We are standing two meters below sea level… on peat.”
Back on our bikes, with eyes wide open, he leads us along some of the 100 kilometers of canals (more than Venice) in a four-stranded pearl necklace around the city.
Tall, narrow houses incurred taxation by width of building. Steep stairs keep the Dutch fit, as does bicycle-riding. The city has more bikes than residents.
“Watch out,” says Ashton. “Cyclists break the rules.”
Up early to beat the heat, we see hundreds of bicycle commuters. Maybe one in a hundred goes through a red stoplight.
We hoof it with due caution down Hooftstraat (the shopping street) to Rembrandtplein where the art of Van Gogh and Rembrandt are in two separate museums at either end of the plain. Like us, Van Gogh loved the outdoors, as depicted in his still lifes (sunflowers) and his landscapes. Portraits of peasants (including him) radiate colour in over 200 paintings.
‘The Night Watch’ by Rembrandt, at the Rijksmuseum, catches the-class-before-the-class-photo. Rembrandt depicted countless moods and nuances, starting with himself in 80 self-portraits. My husband goes upstairs to see a Dutch-designed fighter plane; I view antique furniture, silverware and signature blue-and-white Delftware pottery.
The latter comes to life in a flower pyramid on display in the coffee shop where we sample Dutch apple pie. The flowers are the streusel. Degas, Pissarro, Monet, Millet, Vermeer, Mondrian, Goya, and The Hague School artists are the apples. The crusty crux is the fortifying art of Rembrandt, Van Gogh and others.
Dalmatia
The essence of our trip comes in Dalmatia, the coastal region of Croatia. Adriatic breezes and refreshing waters counter September’s residual heat.
We float like corks. Many locals take to the waters expressly to chat and socialize. They look at me swimming laps like I am crazy. I slow down. I wish I knew more Croatian than ‘bok’ (hello) and ‘hvala’ (thank you).
It is our good fortune to be here. We feel comfortable despite the effort it takes to ride. The Croatian archipelago (2nd only in size to the Greek archipelago in the Mediterranean) provides hundreds of natural formations: islands, islets and cliffs for fortification.
Trogir’s medieval harbour town encloses the sacred art of cathedrals, and their treasuries. We marvel at silver incense burners and reliquaries (in which the remains of saints are kept in the shape of the body part).
We meet up with our group of 16 fit (another word for ‘fort’) cyclists in Kastel Kambelovac, one of seven castle districts between Trogir and Split. Our guide leads us to Fort Kastilac, completed by Benedictine nuns (for 17 war-torn families). In Split, we tour the primo ‘Game-of-Thrones’ filming fort: Diocletian’s palace in his hometown.
Diocletian was the only Roman emperor to take early retirement (abdication) in the year 305 AD. From the 11th century onward, the trend caught on…if one had money, one built a castle (or fortified house). Diocletian’s fort was ahead-of-its-time, and today is the only UNESCO World Heritage site in which people live within 220 buildings. In the courtyard where Diocletian entertained his guests, a male quartet sings a cappella in exquisite harmonies.
We ferry across to the island of Hvar where we cycle through lavender fields to the top of the island on our electrically-assisted bicycles. There, we purchase lavender oil and let its aroma waft while seated on a swing. Onward, to the town of Hvar where the hillside fortress of Fortica oversees our every move. After an Adriatic dip, we’re on the seawall savouring a Balkan specialty, Pita Zeljanica, a smoosh of spinach, sour cream and cottage cheese rolled in delicate pastry.
A catamaran ferries us to Korcula Town/Island, where we tour the Venetian town, designed in the shape of a fish skeleton with the main street its spine. We meander the cobblestone streets – angled like fish bones to optimize summer breezes and deflect winter gusts. Korculan skillful creativity is on display in shipbuilding (holm oak and pine) and stone masonry. Later, we enjoy a seafood risotto paired with Grk, an indigenous white wine, in readiness for our biggest cycling day to come.
We climb 16 kilometers to a village where we sit in a shaded area with locals before descending to a restaurant in the village of Zavalatica, overlooking the calm blue-green of the Adriatic. The return trip lolls through vineyards and pine forests interspersed with dark green spears of cypress.
We finish the cycling portion of our trip when we ferry back to the mainland and ride along the Peljesac Peninsula. To extend our cycling enjoyment, we opt for one more guided cycle tour through olive groves and ride the lush Konavle Valley to a village café with a stream-driven mill.
En route, we re-fortify with local figs, peaches and pears at a Franciscan Monastery turned museum where artifacts, encrusted in barnacles, have been recovered from three shipwrecks.
I’m fitted with 3-D glasses so that I can dive down into antiquity. It is a little dizzying but we maneuver back in time for lunch in Cavtat, the original town from the 6th century BC of present-day Dubrovnik. The people of Cavtat were looking to bolster their defenses. It took 450 years to build the thick seaside walls; the fortresses, bastions, and breakwaters. We get a 3-day Dubrovnik pass and see it every which way from the enclave’s streets, walls, and from the ocean in a 1-hour kayak ride.
We enter through City Gate and ramble. Two exhibits impress us: one is contemporary Croatian art (Masle, Dulcic, Ettore) along the lines of Van Gogh. The other is a permanent exhibit: ‘War Photo Limited’, telling of the Balkan War, but also of Ukrainian and world conflicts.
On the crowded bus back to the hotel, a woman sits opposite me. Her tee-shirt is inscribed: ‘FOREVER’.
“Forever what?” I smile at her.
“Forever Free.”
“You are Croatian?”
She nods.
Our cable-car ride to Mt. Srd’s Imperial Fort helps us understand this hunger for freedom. The French, under Napoleon’s rule, built the fort in the early 1800s. We learn of Croatia’s Homeland War of Independence of 1991-95. The fortress is a symbol of defense from the high ground.
It’s been thirty years, but for some, the memories are fresh.
Latin origins of the word ‘fort’ may imply moral and mental courage. ‘Holding the fort’ takes all kinds of strength.
From the fortifying embrace of family in Essex County to the fortified structures of Amsterdams’s canals and Dalmatia’s historic fortresses, this was a physical and emotional journey that married exterior defenses with the inner resilience one needs to navigate life’s challenges.
If you go:
Explore! (Bicycle tours range in difficulty from easy to difficult…this trip is moderate. We pay extra for e-bikes.) https://www.exploreworldwide.ca/holidays/cycle-around-the-dalmatian-coast