Day 11: Dubrovnik, Croatia

When we arrived in Dubrovnik we were surprised to see 7 other cruise ships. This made getting around challenging. Dubrovnik was breathtakingly beautiful!!! I would LOVE to visit here again. The sea and trees were so pretty! The old Dubrovnik was full of neat shops and very friendly people. This was one of my favorite stops for sure! Old Dubrovnik is surrounded by a huge brick wall and is located on the Dalmation coast of the Adriatic Sea.

A close up of the wall surrounding historic Dubrovnik

When we walked up to the entrance to the wall, I felt like we were about to enter a castle.

Onofrio's Fountain, a free public drinking fountain


A close-up to the fountain and a musician playing in front of the fountain

Some of the people of Dubrovnik

Stradun, Dubrovnik's main street

Some of the beautiful architecture:

Church of St. Blasius
The Orlando statue the symbol of a free city

The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is in the background and Rector's Palace is to the left in that same picture

Another view of Rector's Palace

Dubrovnik bridge of Franjo Tuđman

Some of the lifeboats we tendered in on

A view of the Adriatic Sea.... isn't the water beautiful?

Robert, me, mom, and dad as we are waiting to ride the tender back to the ship.

Day 10: Corfu, Greece & Albania

When we booked an excursion for July 4th, we booked online. Robert started with my parents first and then did ours... which meant on this day, my parents were able to get the tour for Corfu and we weren't. It was sold out. So.... my parents toured Corfu and we went to Albania. We rode a hydrofoil from Corfu to the Port of Saranda, about a 30 minute ride. Then we boarded a tour bus and headed to the ancient town of Butrint. The drive there was interesting... we drove down old military roads that were very narrow. We stoped near a monument and checked out all the bomb shelters. They were hard to spot from the road, but once we got out and walked up the hill, we could spot them. Our tour guide referred to us Americans as ex-enemies. He meant it as a joke and told us about how when he was in school they would talk about how much they hated Americans. Hearing how he described his life in the past, made me really thankful to have been born and raised in America.


Robert and our tour guide sitting on a bomb shelter.

The monument showing the Albanian flag.



We then drove to Butrint. The ruins here were only about 20% excavated. We all sprayed mosquito spray and then headed into the gates to see the ruins. After seeing Rome, Ancient Corinth, and Ancient Olympia.... this wasn't all that impressive.









After our hike around the ruins we walked to a little bar area where I had a nice cold coke and Robert tried some Albanian beer, which he liked. Then we boarded our bus to go and see more of the Port of Saranda. We ran into a problem as we were headed back down the old military road... we came upon another tour bus and the road wasn't wide enough to pass. The other bus had to back up a mile or so to a place where it could pull over to let us pass.

A view of the Port of Saranda.









Here is the hydrofoil we rode to and from Albania.

While we were in Albania, my parents were seeing beautiful views like this:

I would love to go back and visit Greece again and spend more time at each city. It is so beautiful there! AND.... the food is so yummy!!!

Day 9: Katakolon & Ancient Olympia, Greece

We docked at the port city, Katakolon in Greece on July 3rd. We had an excursion planned so we boarded the tour bus and headed to Ancient Olympia. We were looking forward to this since we knew the Summer Olympics would be next month. Here are some various pictures taken in Olympia.....

Dad and Robert





You can see, in the picture on the left, how the columns were smaller pieces of limestone stacked on top of each other to form a big, tall column. The arch you see, on the right, is the gate leading to where the first Olympic races were held. Only men were allowed to participate and watch the sports. One day a woman was discovered to be watching in the stands and from that day, all spectators and athletes were not allowed to wear clothes to the Olympics. This, of course, made sure that women never entered the gates. In the picture below on the left, you can see the length of the track. In the picture below on the right, I am standing in front of the starting block for the races.

Mom & Dad
























After visiting Ancient Olympia, we went to a hotel to watch the "Dancing Zorbas." We ate Greek food as we watched the dancers perform. I felt like I was in the movie, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." We all tried some steamed octopus, which I didn't care for.... so I washed it down with some wine. We enjoyed the musicians playing a bouzouki, a stringed instrument, while singing along and the Zorbas dancing to the music.




Notice the musicians in the background.

A view of Katakolon, Greece as we were sailing on to Corfu, Greece.