Coastal Croatia
Our trip to Dubrovnik was a little longer than expected because the plane left Istanbul took off almost two hours late so we missed our connecting flight in Zagreb. Zagreb’s International airport is quite small, but still has room for two European outdoor cafes. We played a travel game and had some Croatian beer and wine.
We got into Dubrovnik at night so we had new fantastic views waiting for us in the morning. To get an idea of the old walled city, we spent the morning making a complete circle atop the walls. We also visited a couple of monasteries and wandered the cute streets. We finished the day with a seafood medley of sorts, octopus salad, seafood risotto and a bucket of mussels and shrimp. Contrasting our first day in Dubrovnik, we got a birds eye view of the city by taking the new cable car to the top of the hill. We also got our feet wet at the city beach. Croatia beaches are a little different, pebbly, small and cold. After about an hour of strolling and people watching, we went strolled back home through the old city once again. We had missed sunset the night before, so after a quick costume change we headed for a bar perched on a rocky outcropping next to the city wall. It turned out to be a great sunset, but Bill took a picture of a menu picture on his iPhone for a background.
The next morning we were in our rented car off towards Split. The highway is not completely contained within the boarder of Croatia so we took that opportunity to have lunch in Bosnia. After a small detour and a tight turn around – expertly handled by Bill, we had a delicious lunch at a nice roadside cafe, more great seafood. Once we reached Split we had enough of the afternoon to do a quick self-guided walking tour, go up a bell tower and drinks on the steps of a plaza all within the Diocletian Palace. We also took a night stroll along the Riga (promenade).
Bill and the hotel manager found a safe place to leave the car on the streets (sidewalks) of Split for the next three days while we enjoyed the island and town of Hvar.