S&J Scenic Journeys

  Sibenik, Croatia Krka National Park Sibenik from our ship in port at sunrise Sibenik is the oldest Croatian city on the Dalmatian Coast.  In recent history, Croatia was a part Yugoslavia until it declared its independence in 1991.  It took 4 years of war to successfully establish it as an independent country.  Croatia is now part of the European Union (Schengen area), and member of NATO and United Nations.   Where exactly is Croatia you might ask?  I am sure for many (me included),  Croatia was not labeled as such on any maps studied in geography classes when we were kids as it was still a part of Yugoslavia.  So here is a little geography lesson.  Croatia is on the Adriatic Sea across from the eastern coast of Italy.  To its northern border, Hungary is to the northeast and Slovenia is to the northwest.  Serbia is on Croatia's eastern border and Bosnia and  Herzegovina is on its southeastern border.  Montenegro is also s...

Snapshots from Italy...   - Part 2  Polignano a Mare Naples, Sorrento and Pompeii After we left the port of Civitavecchia, we headed south along the western coast of Italy stopping in Naples, the gateway to the Amalfi Coast.  We arrived in the port of Naples which was right at the edge of the city.   View of the city of Naples from the ship Overlooking Naples from our ship From Naples we visited the city of Sorrento in the morning and had lunch there.  Sadly, visiting Sorrento is the closest we got to the Amalfi Coast in the daylight.   Sorrento After spending the morning in Sorrento, we drove to Pompeii!  I was so interested to see Pompeii.  If you don't know the history of this ancient city, let me give you some history.  It was an ancient Roman city which was buried under feet of ash when the volcano Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D.  Pompeii was a wealthy and bustling city of up to 20,000 inhabitants at that time.  It was still ...