Our hotel (Pucic Palace) in Dubrovnik was in the middle of Old Town which is a UNESCO heritage listed and protected area. The hotel was built in the 18th century and was home to the Dubrovnik noble family Pucić, and still includes the original doors, furniture and fittings. Old Town doesn’t allow any vehicles in and we needed to walk to the Polce Gate to … Continue reading Day 26 – Getting to Athens
We stayed overnight on the boat at Dubrovnik and disembarked for the final time this morning. Thomas went around and said good bye to his favourite deck hand – who coincidentally had been working in Baku last year during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and had showed him some videos from the event. We left the boat and took a bus to the cable car which … Continue reading Day 25 – Pearl of the Adriatic
Today is our last full day on the cruise and we had an early-ish start as we rocked in Mljet. Mljet National Park is a stunning natural sanctuary on the northwest part of Mljet Island, featuring two deep saltwater lakes, lush green pine forests, and lots of cycling tracks. Founded on November 11, 1960, it is the oldest marine protected area in the Mediterranean. Once … Continue reading Day 24 – Trstenik to Dubrovnik via Mljet (Cruise Day 3)
We departed from Hvar right before breakfast and as our rooms are on the lower deck it is incredibly loud when the engines kick in. I can see why the boat stays docked in one location all night rather than cruising along. We had a “Swim Stop” scheduled in the morning where the boat anchors near the shore and we can hop in the water … Continue reading Day 23 – Hvar to Trstenik via Peljesac (Cruise Day 2)
After all the walking we did yesterday we had the chance to sleep in this morning. The kids were very excited as the hotel room had their beds in a little alcove – and it felt like they were camping. We went down for breakfast which included a live pianist who played a lot of the pop classics. It was a bit of a weird … Continue reading Day 22 – Split to Hvar (Cruise Day 1)
I don’t have enough superlatives to describe our experience today. We had an early start out of Zagreb and drove to the Plitvice Lakes National Park which was a couple of hours drive. It is one of the oldest and largest national parks in Croatia and is famous for its travertine barriers and waterfalls. The vast majority of the water in the park comes from … Continue reading Day 21 – Incredible, Fantastic, Amazing….
Our guide picked us up from the hotel and we headed out to the town of Varazdin. Varazdin is known as Croatia’s “Baroque Capital” and “Little Vienna”. It briefly served as the nation’s capital from 1767 to 1776 but lost the title to Zagreb after a devastating city fire that started at the blacksmiths shop – which ironically still stands. We started at The Church … Continue reading Day 20 – Experiences in Varazdin
We were up and out of the hotel in Amsterdam by 8 this morning to catch our flight to Zagreb for the penultimate leg of our trip. Amsterdam airport is quite spread out and our check in gates were almost in a little annex. After security, our boarding gates were in the furthest end of one of the terminals and was a good 20 minute … Continue reading Day 19 – Travel to Croatia
blackCarrot 