Dubrovnik, Croatia

I was especially looking forward to Dubrovnik for a long time as it was one of my mandatory stops when I was researching cruise itineraries. There’s something very intriguing about a medieval walled city that is nestled into the cliffs of the Dalmation coast. While it’s no longer a well-kept secret, the crowds were not too bad. Surprisingly, and despite the long day that would’ve permitted us to sleep in and start touring late, Andrea wanted to get up and start early! This worked out really well as the walls were not that crowded. I thought it would take at least a couple of hours to walk the walls but we did it in about half that time! Everything did seem to get busier and more crowded by late morning both in town and at the beach. We also found a jewel of a clean bathroom right on the walls—and the lady attendant there was insulted when we tried to pay or tip her! What a pleasant surprise!


There were only two non-Euro countries during our trip: Tunisia, Croatia and Turkey. Only in Croatia however, did the lack of having local currency become a small issue. While the taxi, the wall admission and most restaurants and shops accepted Euros, a few places only accepted Kunas. So this was the only country during our trip where I had to get non-Euro, local currency out of the ATM—albeit it was just 300 Kuna or about US$58.

We had lunch with Margo’s family at Teatar and later wandered the Placa for ice cream and souvenirs. Then we headed for Banje Beach. I wish we had brought our sandals because it was very painful to walk on the rocky beach with bare feet. It didn’t seem to slow down the kids though.
All in all it was a great day! The only downside to the day was that I got a cold—or it’s my allergies cropping up.