Dazzling Dubrovnik

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Geo: 42.6537, 18.0948

We left Split at 9am with the depressing news that the Crows had been beaten by Collingwood. Unfortunately there were Pies supporters on the tour so we had to endure a short(thankfully) rendition of Good old Collingwood Forever.!!
We drove along the Adriatic coast. Every turn brought us to beautiful bays and inlets with stunning views. We crossed the border into Bosnia -Herzogovina where we made a stop in Neum. This is the Bosnian access to the sea and is only a very narrow strip of land. We had an icecream so we could claim it as another country visited!!
We arrived in Dubrovnik at 1pm and had an hour before we could check into our rooms. Fletcher and I wandered down to the local beach where we had a quick lunch of Pizza and salad while overlooking the pebble beach and the Adriatic coast.
Our city tour left at 4pm. We went to Pile Gate, the main entrance into the old town. This city is fantastic. It is a totally walled fortress and is exceptionally well preserved, desptie the bombardment in the 1990s war with the Serbs. We were shown the main sights including the Rector's Palace, the Franciscan and Dominican Monasteries and the beautiful old churches. the city sits on a peninsula overlooking the sea. This is now a main port of call for Cruise ships and there were several to be seen anchored outside the harbour with their tenders providing a taxi service back and forwards to the ship. that night we returned to our hotel for dinner.
Today we ventured back into the city on our own. This was a totally free day so we took our time and then caught the local bus into the old city. We lined up for our ticket to walk the city walls. This was a 2 k walk and the weather was in the mid 30s. This gave a fantastic view of both the old city and the surrounding city and port. We did make the entire trip, although we were rather tired by the end as there were lots of stairs both up and down.
After a nice lunch just outside the city walls and further shopping expeditions within.we caught the bus back to our hotel. We then went for a swim in the Adriatic. The local beach was entirely pebbles. We pu tour towel and gear down and inched our way into the water. It was fantastic. The waer was very salty and bouyant and we spent a happy half hour swimming, floating and splashing around, and most of all cooling down.
Back to our rooms for a shower and then we set off for our sunset cruise and dinner. This was on a boat called the Marijana. We had red snapper and salad followed by Apple Strudel. Food was great and this was accompanied by good wine.
The tour dropped us off at the south end of the old city so we got to walk through the town at night. We returned to our hotel by 8-30.
It was nice to have a day where we could dictate the pace. Tomorrow we return to a regimen of up at 6 and leave at 7-30!! This is sometimes hard work!!

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