Dubrovnik - June 20

Today we were physically tired from all the walking yesterday, so we decided to have a low-key beach day. SO glad that we decided to walk the walls yesterday in the late afternoon as the cruise ship was leaving, because this morning from our balcony the top of the walls were so full of people, it looked like an ant colony!

We first walked down the steps (157 of them, in sets of 5 (except 2 at very bottom), with a short landing between each set - but who counted?!) and into Old Town (also jam packed with tourists) for breakfast (crepes again - so good!). Then back up the steps to change into our swimsuits and switch out laundry. We don’t have a dryer here, just a washer, and will be in hotels for the next week, so need to get it all done and dry before we have to check out tomorrow morning.

We had several options for beaches, but chose Banje beach because it was within walking distance (about 10-15 minutes) and recommended by our apartment manager (who lives downstairs and shares the lower patio with us). It is on the other side of the City Walls than us, so we had 2 options for getting there - back down the steps and through Old Town (tourist central), or up stairs from our apartment, then walk a sidewalk down a steep road, around the outside of the City Walls. We chose the latter - you can see the road, and how it switches back to go down to sea level in front of our apartment. I also included a pic of why people like to drive Smart cars here - it makes finding a parking spot SO much easier! Same with scooters and motorcycles - you see a lot of them, and they even have their own dedicated parking lots and/or spaces.

The beach was part sand (mostly), part rock, We were right on the edge where the two met. There were a LOT of people there, and when we weren’t in the water, we were very hot - it sure felt like more than the 84/85 degrees it was.

We’ve also been talking to Nudi in Thailand, and getting so excited to see her! While we at the beach she texted, saying she’s flying into Bangkok tonight (from her hometown of Udon Thani, where she’s been helping care for her grandparents) and would see us tomorrow - yikes - thank goodness she texted - we don’t fly into Bangkok until Saturday, and she has offered to meet us at the airport - that would have been a long wait! The confusion was because the information I had sent her only had our fly-out date of tomorrow, but it’s an overnight flight.

After we got cleaned up and threw in one last load of laundry, we walked into the newer part of Dubrovnik for dinner. It was a 25 minute walk, up the steps from our apartment, then downhill in the opposite direction as Old Town. It’s a place Natalie’s friend recommended, and it was delicious. We had the best bruschetta ever, and for a meal, Terri had cevapi, which is what Latica & Amir cooked for us. Those of you who know Terri (the “closet vegetarian” as my family calls me), know that it must be pretty good if she ordered it!

Tomorrow, we need to be out of our apartment by 10:30 am, but our flight isn’t until 9pm. For the first time on this trip, we don’t have a firm plan on what we are going to do for the day - we would like to avoid water only because we won’t really have a good place to get cleaned up before our flight, and would have wet swimsuits and towels.... but on the other hand, we don’t really want to do any more hiking and we’ve seen most of what we wanted to see here.... so we will play it by ear after breakfast. Our apartment manager will let us keep our luggage in his apartment, and has offered, for a fair fee, to take us to the airport, so we do have those things worked out.

Can’t believe it’s already our last evening in Croatia!