Day 7--Dubrovnik, Croatia

 Today was a busy day.  Usually our tours start at 9 am but today the bus was ready at the gangplank at 8:30.  Breakfast is served every morning from 7:30 to 8:30 so we left the dining room in time to grab our coats.  Zoran said to dress warmly as the borac winds were blowing.  The skies were clear and very blue.

Our first stop with our local guide was up on the hill to look down at Dubrovnik.  I'm sure that anyone that has visited the area has stopped at this spot.  

Any pictures you've seen of Dubrovnik are just as beautiful in person.

This medieval city is very clean and charming.  Hard to believe they could construct a city like this and it still be standing today.

Our local guide told us about the three islands where this was the first place to ever quarantine anyone.  They built wooden structures as they burned them down after the quarantine from the plague.

Our guide said she was born in that apartment and she knows everyone in town as the people all stopped to say "hello".

Here's the produce that some local people produce.

I have no idea how large this walled city is.

Here's everyone in our group except Joe.  Joe was in a war bird plane crash a few years ago and has a walker.  He thought it would be too much walking so stayed onboard the ship.  

We had a women give us a lecture on what it was like when Yugoslavia invaded Croatia back in the early 90's.  She told of her personal experiences.  It gave you chills up your spine to hear of her experiences.  

As we were leaving the seminar room we passed many young people in Croatian clothing.  I stopped one girl and asked if I could take a picture.  I did a snapshot and she said no, she then took off her coat and asked her companions to pose for me.  The people of the coutry are so nice and welcoming

I don't know why, but I also seem to take photos of canons.  

Croatia only had 6 canons while Yugoslavia had 120 but they still defeated Yugoslavia. 

I still hold my breath when I see a cat near Bill.  We will be in port two days so decided to do walk the wall tomorrow.

We returned to the ship in time for lunch.  After lunch we had a Sir Edmund Hillary meeting.  To become part of the Sir Edmund Hillary you have to do three trips with OAT or the sister company, Grand Circle.  This is our 15th trip but there were two other couples with 31 and 21 trips.  Of the 17 passengers there were 13 people that attended.  There was much champagne and raki flowing.  The two couples received gift bags of gifts made in Croatia.  The rest of us all received our trip pins.

As soon as that was over, we went and got our coats as we were leaving for our home hosted dinner.  We were divided into smaller groups.  Bill and I were in a group of 8.  The girl was waiting on the corner when our bus arrived.  

We were escorted into the smoke house.  I really wasn't sure what to expect.  There were two boards that we sat on.  The daughter passed some dried figs to us and then she passed out raki.  Now if you've never had raki you need to try it.  It will take your breath away.  You are suppose to drink it in one swallow.  The family  makes the drink and this tasted different than the one we had on the ship.

They smoke all kinds of meats and store their vegetables in the smoke house.  This family lives in a small village of 120 people about a 45 minute drive from the ship dock.

We had a pasta with meat and cinnamon sauce and apple strudel for desserts.  I didn't have any of the homemade bread but those that did had seconds.   

We enjoyed our time and learned a lot about the life of typical Croatia family.  

Turtle Safely.........