Dubrovnik Post

Greetings from Dubrovnik, Croatia on the Adriatic Sea.

Croatia loves soccer

The past few days have been filled with driving, flying, and early wakeup calls. We departed the South of France (Port Grimaud) on Tuesday morning after 8 amazing days hanging out on the beach, swimming in the Mediterranean, and  rarely out of our swimsuits. Our drive from the South of France to Milan was supposed to be 3.5 hours but due to the traffic on the French Riviera it took about 5 hours.  The drive between Port Grimaud and through parts of the Italian Riviera were spectacular. There were so many towns built in to the mountains overlooking the Mediterranean. This is  another spot on our list to spend more time on our next visit.

We finally arrived in Milan around 5:00 and our Airport Best Western Hotel was amazing!!!! Yes, that is right, Airport Best Western - The people were friendly, the room was big, it had a pool, a shuttle to the airport, and they picked me up after I dropped off the rental car. I was dreading having to deal with the hotel and rental car. Remember I had a damaged car and it was disgusting, inside and out.  The entire process turned out to be simple and easy to navigate. I forgot to take a picture of the car but it had seen better days. I was only charged 100 Euro for the smashed mirror and American Express was covering it, so the car ended up being a success.
Today (Wednesday) we woke at 5:30 and caught a plan at 9:00 AM to Dubrovnik - we took EasyJet, basically the European answer to SouthWest. Overall, it was a pleasant experience and ridiculously cheap.  After an 1:20 flight we arrived in Dubrovnik. What a beautiful city with amazing architecture and a blue sea to complete the picture. We spent the day walking around Dubrovnik from the Old Town to the Port - close to 8 miles. Our apartment is very close to our apartment and is the center of Dubrovnik. Old Town is beautiful but very touristy,  we figured out why when we were at the port and there were three enormous cruise ships docked loading tour buses heading straight to Old Town. Nighttime in Old Town was a dramatic change in pace and scenery - it was peaceful and easy to walk around. The temperature throughout the day was about 95 degrees with about 90% humidity, after our walk around town we were drenched with sweat, very disgusting.

Tomorrow we connect with my mom and Alain for a week long trip on the Adriatic ending in Split, Croatia. I can't believe our trip is at the halfway mark.