Before I start, I must confess that I am doing this blog on the 19/8. Since we left Dubrovnik, we have had some issues with power, so I have not been able to keep up daily.

Our first job this morning was to recover Heathers glasses from the bottom of the River. We called for volunteers, but everyone stepped backwards except for Stuart, Ray,Ray and myself. They obviously had seen what effect the water had on Ray,Ray so they thought the better of it. (Ray,Ray could make a good Soprano opera singer as his voice in now permanently 2 octaves higher.) We made our way down to the restaurant and entered via the rear, as it was locked. It did not take long for us to locates the glasses, and Ray,Ray and I appointed Stuart as the chief diver. Stuart stripped off and reluctantly lowered himself very slowly into the icy water. But this was his opportunity to look like a super hero in front of Heather, so nothing was gong to deter him. To his credit, he did a great job in duck diving to the bottom (2m+) and retrieving the glasses. Yes! Success. Heather owes him big time now, it is a shame he will not be able to take advantage of it for quite some time. In fact if he even found his appendage again, it would be considered a modern miracle.

Now that the glasses have been sorted, it was time to go in to Dubrovnik and see the Old Town. This is what I googled. The 'Pearl of the Adriatic', situated on the Dalmatian coast, became an important Mediterranean sea power from the 13th century onwards. Although severely damaged by an earthquake in 1667, Dubrovnik managed to preserve its beautiful Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque churches, monasteries, palaces and fountains. Damaged again in the 1990s by armed conflict, it is now the focus of a major restoration programme co-ordinated by UNESCO.

Ray, Jo, Pete and Roz had already left earlier, and Cheryl and I were going to catch up with them in the Old Town. Dianne and Brian were going to have a free day, as they have already seen the town a couple of times. Cheryl and I made our way in on the local bus service together with Ray,Ray and Jenny, and Stuart and Heather. The bus was very crowded, but the trip from the mariner is only 15 minutes. Heather was kind enough to give us all the directions etc, and off we went. We caught up with the others as agreed, and had a cool drink at a restaurant in the Old Town over looking the bay. It was an extremely hot and uncomfortable day, made worse by the copious amounts of people in the town. There were 5 cruise ships in the port for the day, so the place was filled to the brim.

We all took off to walk the wall. There is 1940 metres of walls, and what seems like an endless number of steps along its path. The view from the walls was simply stunning, and if you can imagine that these walls were built between the 12th and 17th century, you begin to admire the structure for its durability.

Walking the wall takes approximately an hour. After coming down off the wall Cheryl did some more shopping, while I stood under the air conditioners in the shop to keep cool. Eventually we caught up with Heather and Stuart and Ray,Ray and Jenny for lunch in the Old Town. Once we had lunch it was off to the Cable Car to visit the highest point in Dubrovnik. Again, more walks, more hills, more steps. Finally we made it, then Cheryl asked a chap where we could get the tickets. He pointed down the hill about 500m away. So Cheryl very quickly appointed me to get the tickets. (down the hill, down the steps and back again!) only to find there was a ticket office at the entrance anyway!

It wasn't long and we were on our way up the mountain. The ride was great and the views were magnificent. We had a look around at the top and after about 15 mins we made our way down again. That was it, we were exhausted, and so we made our way to the bus station back to the ACI mariner.


Once we got back, we showered and got cleaned up for a meal which were to have with the others in the pub that exists on the mariner. The mariner is built around the Rectors palace, the most important building in Dubrovnik. The mariner itself has been voted the best mariner in the Adriatic for 15 years straight, It is not hard to see why.

We all enjoyed our meals at the pub, and again Brian befriended some more cats. But it was now time for bed, as we had to get up early to prepare for our return trip to MLjet.