Croatia Intensive

[upwarduk]

Great photos, I am re living our time in Split!😍

Can I ask how you have spaced the last uploads? 

They are much easier to look at than those in post # 1&2 which are not spaced.

Edited July 11, 2019 by upwarduk

[Grandma Cruising]

Just now, upwarduk said:

Great photos, I am re living our time in Split!😍

Can I ask how you have spaced the last uploads? 

They are much easier to look at than those in post#, which are not spaced.

I'd like to know that too. When I post photos they end up 'stuck' to each other!

[Werangels]

8 minutes ago, upwarduk said:

Great photos, I am re living our time in Split!😍

Can I ask how you have spaced the last uploads? 

They are much easier to look at than those in post # 1&2 which are not spaced.

 

 

Thank you.  I am learning as I go along!  I hit the return button a couple of times.

[Grandma Cruising]

1 hour ago, Werangels said:

 

 

Thank you.  I am learning as I go along!  I hit the return button a couple of times.

Thanks, I’ll give that a try

[Werangels]

Day 5 - Dubrovnik

 

Up early to watch us arrive in Dubrovnik.  For the first time, we had breakfast in the MDR, eggs royale each and lovely it was.  The Captain was with a group on the next table.  Having the tourist information lady on Deck 4 at each port has been so useful.  So armed with our map and a route we headed into Dubrovnik by 9am and headed for the cable car first.  I remembered on the way up in the cable car that I don’t really like heights and felt a bit wobbly when we reached the station!  Great views.  We then made our way into the old town and stopped for coffee.  Castle walls next.  A struggle to climb in the heat but worth it.  It certainly makes you realise why the city lived in peace from invaders for 500 years; inpenetrable.  We wished we had brought our swim stuff ashore as there are cafes with roped off swimming areas outside the walls.  Beautiful city and fortunately not overly busy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[QueenP]

Wow, looks gorgeous! So looking forward to my trip next year!

[Lottie A]

Beautiful Dubrovnik. How fortunate you were that it wasn't too overcrowded, as it can be in July. Great photo's again. 

[janerlve]

Pursuit in port in Venice ready for Croatia.

(We sailed out the same day)

 

[Werangels]

24 minutes ago, janerlve said:

Pursuit in port in Venice ready for Croatia.

(We sailed out the same day)

 

 

 

Thank you. Looks good!

[upwarduk]

11 hours ago, Werangels said:

headed for the cable car first.  I remembered on the way up in the cable car that I don’t really like heights and felt a bit wobbly when we reached the station!  Great views.

That's one thing we have never done in Dubrovnik. But love walking the walls.

[excitedofharpenden]

13 hours ago, Werangels said:

I remembered on the way up in the cable car that I don’t really like heights and felt a bit wobbly when we reached the station!  Great views.  We then made our way into the old town and stopped for coffee.  Castle walls next.  A struggle to climb in the heat but worth it.  It certainly makes you realise why the city lived in peace from invaders for 500 years; inpenetrable.  We wished we had brought our swim stuff ashore as there are cafes with roped off swimming areas outside the walls.  Beautiful city and fortunately not overly busy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the lovely photos. It was my second visit before I really appreciated what Dubrovnik had endured during the war and siege of the early 1990s and what an amazing job they have done as a World Heritage site. You couldn't even walk the streets for fear of being shot by snipers. Picture below of not long after the war. There's a nice memorial at the top of the cable car station too. 

 

Phil 

Edited July 12, 2019 by excitedofharpenden

[Mrs Miggins]

We were fortunate enough to have a holiday in Dubrovnik in 1987 I think.  It was beautiful and we went up the cable car, which was shot down during their war, but has now been rebuilt.  This main street did have shops but there was very little to buy.  I found leather gloves and coloured pencils for my son Richard who was with us and was about 6.  The market had tables with very small amounts of produce that were obviously grown in the sellers gardens.  There was no tourist 'tat' at all.  The Department Store just outside town had one washing machine and one refrigerator on sale - but you had to go on a waiting list if you had the means to buy one.  Dinner in the hotel was whatever they could get that day.

On returning after the war the main difference we noticed was the number of bright orange tiles roofs you could see when walking the walls.  So many of them had been shot through from the gun emplacements on the hills overlooking the town.  On one visit we took a small boat around the Islands and the boatman told us some horrific stories about his time fighting,  his legs were very badly scarred.

Lovely place and we were so pleased to back there in early June.  Sadly it rained in the evening and we our Azamazing evening had to take place on board, rather than in the beautiful main square.

[upwarduk]

We were there in 1990 for our Silver Wedding. We went on a tour to the Salt pans and the firing in the hills was pointed out. That was the beginning of the unrest. I couldn’t believe that even the bridge in Mostar was damaged. 

[Werangels]

6 hours ago, janerlve said:

Pursuit in port in Venice ready for Croatia.

(We sailed out the same day)

 

 

 

Thank you. Looks good!

[Werangels]

Wow all of you.   I have to admit I hadn’t considered the impact of the Bosnia war on Dubrovnik.  For some reason, I thought it was too far south to have had much damage.  I thought most of the war took place further North.  I visited Porec in 1989 and remembered the ‘communist’ approach to serving food in that it took about 5 people to serve you with a sandwich in a shop.  Seeing all of the places we visited, you would have no idea now of what the countries went through.

[Bloodaxe]

1 hour ago, Mrs Miggins said:

We were fortunate enough to have a holiday in Dubrovnik in 1987 I think.  It was beautiful and we went up the cable car, which was shot down during their war, but has now been rebuilt.  This main street did have shops but there was very little to buy.  I found leather gloves and coloured pencils for my son Richard who was with us and was about 6.  The market had tables with very small amounts of produce that were obviously grown in the sellers gardens.  There was no tourist 'tat' at all.  The Department Store just outside town had one washing machine and one refrigerator on sale - but you had to go on a waiting list if you had the means to buy one.  Dinner in the hotel was whatever they could get that day.

On returning after the war the main difference we noticed was the number of bright orange tiles roofs you could see when walking the walls.  So many of them had been shot through from the gun emplacements on the hills overlooking the town.  On one visit we took a small boat around the Islands and the boatman told us some horrific stories about his time fighting,  his legs were very badly scarred.

Lovely place and we were so pleased to back there in early June.  Sadly it rained in the evening and we our Azamazing evening had to take place on board, rather than in the beautiful main square.

 

We had a wonderful Azamazing evening in the square on the following cruise, the weather was just perfect, we were very lucky.

 

[Lottie A]

A few years ago we stopped for a drink in the little bar near Onofrio's fountain. The waitress serving us pointed out the many bullet holes in the fountain's base from sniper's above and told us her uncle had been badly injured by a sniper during the conflict. 

I also remember a holiday in the former Yugoslavia in the 1970's. We were told we could eat in any hotel in the resort Porec, and not just in our hotel, because they all had exactly the same food and it all cost the same. Any profits from the hotels were pooled so it didn't make any difference to them. 

[Werangels]

2 hours ago, Lottie A said:

A few years ago we stopped for a drink in the little bar near Onofrio's fountain. The waitress serving us pointed out the many bullet holes in the fountain's base from sniper's above and told us her uncle had been badly injured by a sniper during the conflict. 

I also remember a holiday in the former Yugoslavia in the 1970's. We were told we could eat in any hotel in the resort Porec, and not just in our hotel, because they all had exactly the same food and it all cost the same. Any profits from the hotels were pooled so it didn't make any difference to them. 

 

I think we must have stayed in the group!

[Werangels]

Day 6 - Hvar and White Night

 

Boat day 👏👏👏

 

Up and out early again.  Hvar is beautiful.  As we walked around the harbour early in the morning, my thoughts were I would love to come back here for a holiday.  Lots of pavement restaurants around the square harbour, lovely place to sit and watch the world go by.  Perfect.  

 

We had had hired a 60hp speedboat for the day.  The safety checks were disappointing, he never even asked to see DH’s licence.  Anyway, it was a decent boat, less than a year old properly kitted out and off we went.  Left out of the harbour initially to some small coves the hirer had recommended where the sea is greener than anything I have ever seen in the Indian Ocean or the Caribbean.  What was good to see is that every beach had a cordoned off swimming area which you don’t see in Greece. You could still take your boat right onto the shore if you wanted as there were small gaps to one side of each bay for you to get through.  I had a dip off the back of the boat; it was refreshing 🥶!  We then continued down the coastline to view the red rocks then turned around and headed for the Pakleni Islands.   We had booked lunch on St Klement, one of the islands and enjoyed a very good lunch.  We had a Dalmatian platter of cheese, meats, chutney, etc to share then DH had tuna whilst I had scallops and prawns 😋. Along with a very good local rose for me.  The sea got rather lumpy and bumpy after lunch so we headed back into the port around 5pm.  It was heaving, very different to the calm of early morning!

 

Whilst we didn’t eat at White Night, we did watch the procession, etc and saw the dancing getting underway.  The whole thing was really lovely and hopefully we will take part on our next cruise.  We were privileged to be given an aft window table in Prime C for dinner by April so watched the sail away.   We found the service in both speciality restaurants excellent; our favourite waiter was Vishal, lovely guy and really looked after us.  

 

 

It does make you wonder if the mooring fees are cheap?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turquoise.  Wow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lottie A]

Looks like a fantastic and memorable day! 

[Werangels]

8 minutes ago, Lottie A said:

Looks like a fantastic and memorable day! 

 

Yes and very tiring!

[malcliz]

Lovely photos. We were on the same cruise and wonder if we met you.  Were you invited to a galley tour but you couldn’t go because you had hired the boat?  We went in the wrong day initially.  We loved Vishal as well!

[Werangels]

24 minutes ago, malcliz said:

Lovely photos. We were on the same cruise and wonder if we met you.  Were you invited to a galley tour but you couldn’t go because you had hired the boat?  We went in the wrong day initially.  We loved Vishal as well!

 

Yes! Haha!  Lovely to put names to faces so to speak!

 

Did you go the following day?

Edited July 12, 2019 by Werangels

[malcliz]

11 hours ago, Werangels said:

 

Yes! Haha!  Lovely to put names to faces so to speak!

 

Did you go the following day?

Yes we did!  It was good. Missed the engine room one though. I knew it was you when you mentioned hiring the boat!  Loving your photos - we loved the cruise so much!

[nycruiser80]

On 7/10/2019 at 10:49 AM, Werangels said:

 

Thank you.  Please chip in if there is anything you would like to add.

 

Really?  I do wonder about it being the port’s fault as the team from Azamara were with them for quite some time discussing embarkation.

Interesting. My issue was when we arrived, the port agents where calling numbers but no one heard them. I was sitting there for almost an hour and realized my number was called a while back!