We had a nice visit with Jinni, who was over from the States. She brought us all kinds of goodies from the U.S., and we had a nice dinner of nachos and a good game of Ludo. Andrea was there, too, and everyone had a great time.
We had another visitor to our port before we left. The Wilma came in and dropped off a bunch of large chain. At the same time, the crane ship did a lift of two of the concrete structures they have been building on the pier next door. Cool stuff!
And now for our trip. We left Monday morning and flew through Frankfurt (4 hour layover) and on to Dubrovnik. We were quite surprised by how mountainous the landscape of the Croatian coast actually is. It almost seems that the mountains drop straight off into the Adriatic.
Our hotel is very nice, and well worth the price for the week. The room has a view of the sea and the hotel has a private beach. It is a little cool for sea swimming, but there is a pool and hot tub. It is also nice listening to the waves roll in onto the beach.
We had a nice dinner of pizza and salad (about $30 for two large pizzas, a large Greek salad, one liter of mineral water and 0.5 liter beer.) Quite refreshing both in taste and in price!
We got up this morning and, after a great breakfast buffet at the hotel, headed to the Old Town. We started out by walking the city walls (about 2 kilometers and certainly some of the most beautiful views of the old town.) One thing that impressed me most was that the old town is still very much a "living" city, with schools, apartments, people hanging out laundry, etc. It is quite a spectacular place.
This city dates to before the 12th century, and has been under many flags, including its own. It once rivaled Venice in importance as a port, and has seen such names as Ulysses, Marco Polo, Richard the Lion-Hearted, and Napoleon in the area. Modern times have brought many other celebrities, as well as conflict. Bombed during WWII as well as the more recent Croatian War of Independence, the city had rebuilt with a spirit that hides the physical scars but honors the people who died for that spirit.
The people here are very friendly, but it helps to have Sidney around. She seems to be able to get anyone to do anything, regardless of the language they speak. The hotel staff all know her name, and some of the other tourists we ran into remembered her when we saw them elsewhere. What a con!
We walked down one of the main streets in the old town to find a place for lunch.We had lunch at a cafe just across from the Orlando column, a statue erected in the 1500's to honor independence. Sidney ate several bites of my octopus salad. When I asked her what she would say if she went to an aquarium and saw an octopus, she replied "Yummmm!" Definitely not a vegetarian!
After a little more leisurely walking through the old town, we returned to our hotel. The wind picked up today and the sea was quite spectacular, so we walked down to the beach for some pictures. Afterward we went for a swim in the pool, then a relaxing evening before the adventures of the next two days.
Tomorrow, we are heading south for a day trip to Montenegro, the country just south of here. Thursday we are going into Bosnia-Herzegovina to see the city of Mostar, the meeting place of East and West and the scene of some harsh battles from the recent war.
No comments:
Post a Comment