Off to Dubrovnik

On September 1, 2013, we awoke early to get ready to catch a 10:30 bus to Dubrovnik.  I made arrangements for the hotel to store our luggage for two days.  Dolly was a bit skeptical about those arrangements, but we trusted the hotel to do the right thing.  We walked from the hotel to the bus station after having a buffet breakfast at the hotel that consisted of cheese, bread, fruit and yogurt.  Very Mediterranean!

We caught the 10:30 bus and headed to Dubrovnik.  The bus went through town and got on the new highway, a four lane divided freeway.  Not long after getting on this great new highway, we went off because it had not been completed.  After that we went through several small communities with narrow roads that were very close to the Adriatic.  Two buses could not have passed each other on some of these roads.

Shortly, the bus pulled into what appeared to be an immigration station.  It was!!!  An armed soldier got onboard and demanded to see each passenger's passport.  We were preparing to enter Bosnia-Herzegovina.  As it turned out, part of the settlement of the war was that Bosnia received 8 kilometers of coastline into the coastline of Croatia.  Below is a photograph of a part of that coastline.

There was a rest stop about 2 kilometers inside of Bosnia.  It had a restaurant and toilets.  It was time for a toilet break!  Downstairs was a small market and Dolly bought some items.

We proceeded on and quickly exited Bosnia.  We arrived in Dubrovnik in early afternoon.  As we got off of the bus and collected our bags, we were approached by a gentleman asking if we needed transportation.  We agreed and I gave him the address of the apartment.  We walked to his vehicle and it was not a taxi, but a relatively new Chevrolet Impala.  He knew exactly where the apartment was and on the way, he gave us many important tips on where to catch a bus and where the old city was in relation to where we were staying.  He rang the bell and our hostess came and told us to come inside the gate.  The driver gave us his phone number and left.

The hostess showed us to our apartment, a very comfortable one bedroom with a very nice terrace overlooking a playground.  The terrace was accessible to the living room and the bedroom.  She gave us the password for the Wi-fi, told us where to catch the bus to the old city and what number bus to catch and left.  We rested for a while and decided to go up to the Old City to eat and look around.

We got dressed and walked to the bus to head to the Old City.  We arrived and walked to a terrace adjacent to the walls of the Old City and the old fort.  We decided on an outdoor restaurant overlooking the fort and the Adriatic Sea.  Dinner was quite tasty and we left to explore the Old City.  We took the short walk to the bridge and gates to the site.  The place was teeming with tourists!  I was also surprised as we walked around at the amount "capitalism" there was.  There were shops, cafes and restaurants throughout.  The structure is quite old and the buildings were quite beautiful. We spent a couple of hours walking around and left and went to a restaurant to have dessert.  A long and beautiful day.  We took the bus and returned to our apartment.