Bowlin Beige

On our last stop in Croatia we visited the sleepy little town of Rovinj. This beautiful fishing town has an exact replica of St. Mark's bell tower from Venice sitting atop it's church on the hill. It is like a small Venice - the food, the small narrow streets. Such a lovely spot, and a wonderful end to our cruise. Once again they had wonderful little coves and spots to swim off the rocky coast. The build in steps and ladders to help you get in and out of the clear water.  We rented chairs and soaked in our last bit of sun and salt.  Love this cute little town! Our last views from the ship - Goodbye Croatia!  With our new friends Dave and Kelly! Our whole crew! Eric, Steph, Kim, David, Kathy, Scot, Kelly and Dave! Goodbye good friends! We sailed overnight to Venice and woke up to a beautiful morning. Unfortunately we had to fly home that day, but luckily we had been able to spend 3 days in Venice when we came 9 years...

Today we visited one of the larger cities in Croatia - Split. The main part of the old city was built around Diocletian's Palace. We took a quick wander around the palace ruins and visited a local fish market. After stopping by the ship to change clothes, we headed out for lunch and beach time! The bell tower from the cathedral built on top of Diocletian's moseleum We found a wonderful cove for swimming about a 10 minute walk from the ship. It was lined with people swimming, eating and soaking up the sun! The water is so clear! They do a great job of building ladders and steps all around the cove, making it easy to just dive right in.   We rented some chairs and umbrellas and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon! So true!  Our server, Charlie, was a fun friendly guy from Indonesia. He entertained us each night with some fun tricks.  This was a pretty cool trick of balancing two forks on a toothpick!

 Dubrovnik! Our first stop in Croatia certainly lived up to the hype. It is a beautiful old city, and although a lot of it was destroyed during the civil war in the early 90's, it has been rebuilt and you can hardly tell what is original and what is new. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, there are strict rules about where you can build, and everything has to be in keeping with the original city architecture. We rode a cable car up to the mountain above the city to take in the breathtaking views. This is the view of the old town from our ship. We took a walking tour of the city and the walls. If you are a Game of Thrones fan, you will recognize most of this, as much of the show was filmed here and in the surrounding mountains. View from on top of the city walls - you can walk all the way around on the walls that encircle the old town. Every turn was a beautiful little street, lined with shops, apartments, and laundry hanging outside windows....