After a lovely visit with Howard’s family we had an early morning drive to the airport. We enjoyed a scrumptious English Breakfast and washed it down with England’s finest cider at Manchester Airport. Talk about a breakfast of champions!We flew from Manchester to Munich to Dubrovnik, Croatia where we really started our vacation!

We cleared thru customs, met our brilliant driver who drove us to the harbor, and took a quick boat ride to Lopud, an island just off Dubrovnik. This will be our home away from home for the next 4 nights.

The walk up to hour hotel was breathtaking and I knew that we were in good hands for the week.

After settling in, we walked around the hotel and headed into town to grab dinner. Cat was overly excited about the infinity pool, but I was much more impressed by the enchanted garden that was close by.

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I am sure everyone is completely surprised that Cat ordered spaghetti for dinner.We were all surprised that the meat in the marinara was bits of ham.

With a full stomach, I must admit that jet lag won the war and I was asleep by 8pm.

After 13 hours of sleep we were up and ready for our adventures. We started our day with a hike to the Sutvrac Fortress at the top of the island. It was straight up hill…60+ flights of stairs. It was a great walk and we only saw one other small group of people the entire way.

We stopped at a debilitated chapel about 2/3rds of the way up and then continued up to the fort.

 

View from the Chapel

The views from the fort were amazing. The clouds had cleared, the sun was shining, and we could see the harbor of Lopud as well as the harbor of Dubrovnik. After some exploring, H and Cat were ready to get back down to town for an ice cream. I was still checking things out and went to one of the walls/windows to look out. I needed to put my hand down for balance and nearly put it down on a snake. There might have been a small scream that came out of my mouth. H and Cat might have thought I fell and hurt myself because of the high pitch and length of my screech! They soon realized I was fine when they saw me running towards them! We all had a small giggle as we left the fortress and headed back down the mountain.There were tons of butterflies on the trail. I joked that they were our navigators but a few times I questioned our directions.

 

Remnants of a room

Someone painted the fortress so I thought it would be a good place to leave a rock.

 

 

Do you see the snake? It’s hard to miss it!

H always knew where we were going and before we knew it we were enjoying some amazing Croatian gelato! Afterwards we headed over to the Franciscan monastery/church built in the 15th century at the edge of the harbor. The government did a great job of creating a beautiful tourist attraction out of this building. The lighting, gardens, accessibility and modern upgrades on this building were first class. The bathroom that they created in an old corner was one of the best bathrooms I have ever been in!

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Dinner was at a lovely local restaurant with amazing seafood. H and Cat thought it entertaining to watch me eat an oyster and I thought it equally entertaining watching Cat try to peel her shrimp!

We ended the night with another ice cream and are looking forward for the adventures that tomorrow brings!

Steps: 17542

Flights of Stairs: 68