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Published: September 17th 2022
My window view
Just after we took off from GatwickGreetings from Dubrovnik!
We had a very early morning, getting up about 3:45 am. We showered, finished packing, and went downstairs to find Carolann (sorry Carolann I’ve been spelling your name wrong!) already up and the kettle boiled for tea. We had a cup of tea and Carolann made us each a lunch to bring with us - cheese (and pickle for me) sandwich, a bag of chips, and a chocolate biscuit. It was so thoughtful, and we really appreciated it. Carolann drove us to the Eastbourne train station with plenty of time to get our 5:20 am train to Gatwick. We were there shortly after 5 am, hoping that the coffee shop might be open, but not surprisingly, it wasn’t open that early. It was VERY chilly this morning, and since I didn’t bring any warm jackets with me, I was shivering on the platform waiting for the train. We soon hopped on, and we were off.
The skies lightened along the way, and we got to Gatwick about 6:30. We got the shuttle to the north terminal where EasyJet flies from, and joined the line up to drop our bags (we carried them on board on our
In the emergency seat aisleflight from Vancouver to London, but they aren’t small enough to carry on EastJet flights). We had bought a ticket which included a checked bag each, so there were no expensive surprises at the bag drop. Then we joined the very long line up to go through security. Eventually we passed through, and we found a restaurant where we could get breakfast and a much needed coffee. Though I must say generally the coffee hasn’t been very good in England. (The best one was the flat white I had the other day from the coffee shop in the Eastbourne train station).
After breakfast we found our gate and soon boarded the plane (turned out our tickets got us “speedy boarding”, so we boarded early). We were seated in an emergency row, so we had lots of legroom. I was pleasantly surprised as I thought the EasyJet flight would be very tight. The seats don’t recline, so you don’t have to worry about the person in front of you reclining their chair into your face. We waited on the tarmac for quite awhile, waiting for our slot to take off. We were supposed to leave at 9:05 but it was
View from our room - the port
It had gotten a lot cloudier by then about 9:55 by the time we took off. I am wondering if the flight attendants get a commission for the duty free sales they make, since there was quite the sales spiel for items like perfumes and liquor during the flight. Around noon we had some of our packed lunch, and we landed about 1:15, just 20 min late. I had a window seat and it was nice to watch the scenery as we took off and landed, though most of the time we were above cloud cover.
We expected it to be rainy when we landed, but it actually was much nicer, cloudy with a bit of sun. It didn‘t take too long to get though passport control (I was happy to get a Croatia stamp, as they didn’t stamp our passports when we landed in London). Our bags arrived quickly, and we found a taxi and headed to our hotel for the next two nights, Hostel Sol. It is located in the Gruz area of Dubrovnik (the port), an easy city bus ride to the old town. It was about 1/2 hour drive from the airport. We saw the old town as we drove the windy roads
Neighbour views
That’s a big bridge, from the side to Gruz, and it looked amazing!
Hostel Sol is basic, but is just fine. We have a double room with ensuite, and a bit of a view of the port, and there’s good wifi. We settled into the room, I had the other half of my sandwich (thanks again Carolann!), and started the blog. Susan is having a nap as I type. We will soon go out to the Dubrovnik Beer Company, which is practically right next door (happy coincidence!). At 6 pm we have a meeting with our trip leader (whose name is Zigi) and the other members of our group, and likely will go out for dinner together afterwards, so I will finish the blog later tonight after that.
Ok, it’s now after 11, and we are back from dinner and ready for bed. After I finished the earlier part of the blog I woke up Susan and we headed down the street to the Dubrovnik Beer Company, getting there about 4 ish. (It was cloudy but quite pleasant, around 25 degrees, but quite windy). We each had a flight of their four beers (lager, pale ale, India Pale Ale, and milk stout). We then shared
a glass of a sour beer, which I think was a guest tap. We liked them all, but I liked the sour best. We also got t-shirts (I mean, we had to have a t-shirt from the Dubrovnik Beer Company 😀).
We then walked around the port area, and admired the views of the sea. A lot of the port is fenced off so you can’t get right to the water, but we walked past the fenced area for some nice views. We stopped for a quick coffee before heading back to Hostel Sol for our 6 pm group meeting. There are 11 in our group, and I think it will be a good group to travel around Croatia with. Very surprisingly, there are no Australians or New Zealanders in our group; since Intrepid is an Australian company generally the bulk of the travellers are Australian. But Zigi said that the Australians have not really resumed travelling since covid. So our group is primarily Americans. We have Lois and Jim from Colorado and Virginia, Parmjeet from London, Sarah from Arizona, John and Jenny from Washington State, Patty from Florida, Roy from London, Michelle from San Francisco, and then us
two Canadians. We’ve never had so many Americans on an Intrepid or Peregrine trip before.
Following our meeting we all went down the street to a restaurant called Porat, and had an excellent meal. I had the poached sea bass and Susan had the swordfish. The sea bass was served with julienne vegetables (zucchini, eggplant, onion, tomato) and it was delicious. Because there were no carbs it wasn’t too filling. We each had a glass of the house white wine, which was local and quite nice. Zigi recommends the house wines because they are always local. We had a very nice meal getting to know our travel companions, and by the time we finished and paid up it was about 10 pm. Considering our very early morning and my not sleeping well last night, I was pretty tired at that point and glad to get back to our room so I could finish the blog.
Tomorrow we meet the group at 8:30, (following breakfast at Hotel Petka just down the street), and we will head to the old town for a guided walk around the city walls and explorations of the old city. It is supposed to be
a nice sunny day tomorrow, highs of 23 or so, so it should be very pleasant for walking around. We are really looking forward to it!
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Faye Walker
non-member comment
Dubrovnik
So nice to hear you last week. Have a good time in Croatia!