MONDAY MUSINGS: THE HILLS Of CROATIA...

MONDAY MUSINGS: The Wisconsinites and I had a day and a half to ourselves at the beginning and end of our visit to Croatia.   

This European journey began in the city of Dubrovnik, where we would embark on our yacht the second afternoon. So we had time to orient ourselves to this beautiful seaside city.

We rode the cable car up Mount Syd for the best city views. 

            Pretty magnificent, right? 

A bit blustery, but we warmed up with our first toast with a spectacular view and had my first of many lemon drinks- 

 a limoncello with a sprig of rosemary and berries ,,,

You realize Italy lies across that body of water, right?

Some young men were even playing hacky sack with apparently little concern for losing their hacky sack ball/ one of their group over the edge..

Dubrovnik started as a small settlement in the 7th century. Then in the 14th-19th century, it grew into the independent Republic of Ragusa, with its own government and laws, a maritime power, trading with the Mediterranean. 

A massive earthquake destroyed Ragusa but it was rebuilt in 1667. After being Yugoslavia, it became Croatia, suffering the damage from fighting for its independence in the early 90's. Evidence still remains of this destruction. 

Heading down to the old city, a myriad of roof tiles with interesting chimney covers and stonework- a lot of stonework...

Rocks are used everywhere on all the islands we would visit as walls, houses, streets, paths, floors...

The old city awaited us below and we would wander and our dinner reservations were sitting by the water. Of course, I ordered fish: sea bream and a local glass of wine.   

That's our restaurant with the curved roof on the right...

These two lovebirds at the restaurant welcomed us to Dubrovnik and told us to go for the walk to get a bird's eye view,,, It was definitely on the agenda for day 2. 

What a wonderful beginning to our adventure! 

Stay tuned ...