progol

Percy,
We walked up the other side and then walked back down on the stairs beside the funicular, but didn’t take any photos. I thought I did but, if I did, may’ve deleted it if the shot wasn’t particularly interesting or good.

jlf1

Your photo of "looking down" is both awesome and scary. Good thing that there is a railing.

progol

Yes, that is the little balcony in our Airbnb overlooking the sea! It's a spectacular siting but very close to the elements!

Just to give you an idea of the tiny balcony, here's a shot I took to see if we could actually sit outside (and no, not really)

progol

And so, it ends, or at least, our travels through Croatia ends. We had a most wonderful time in our almost 3 weeks! And I want to thank everyone here who contributed to my planning: @rialtogirl, @KarenWoo, @tripplanner, @yorkshire, @bilboburgler, @Lolazahra, @laurie_ann, @mike1728, @MinnBeef and everyone else who contributed to my planning who I may have missed. Thank you all! Both M & I felt that the trip far surpassed any expectations that we had. We are still amazed at how much we enjoyed our trip.

And now we’re on to our next stop! Off to Italy, or more specifically, off to Puglia, where we will spend the next week, then into Basilicata for the magnificent Matera, and a return to Atrani on the Amalfi Coast, finishing up in Naples. I'll post a link to the Italian portion of our trip, which will be a separate report.

Transition time:

Jadrolinija Ferry
Off to the port in Gruž, about 3km from the Old Town, where we will take the Jadrolinija ferry, scheduled to depart at 9pm, going to Bari, Italy. It's a quick taxi ride to the port, which we picked up right outside the Ploče Gate.

ferry docked at the port

After arriving at the port, we stopped into the ferry's office to check in and be assigned our room. I had been a bit anxious over the paperwork and whether or not we’d need to show a COVID test for Italy, but since we’d been in Croatia for over 2 weeks, we were under the EU requirements and didn’t need to take a test. The agent just required the PLF for Italy, which I’d filled out earlier, and our CDC cards. All good!

We had to wait till 7pm before the Customs office opened, but after that, we were among the first to enter the ship. We were directed to our room, and it seemed we descended so many floors, we must’ve reached one of Dante’s levels of hell! Finally found our room – the teeniest room ever, with tiny bunk beds! M graciously allowed me to have the lower level.


teeniest room we've ever slept in!

Having eaten a meal before we left for the ship, we didn’t need to find out the offerings aboard the ship. I’m not sure what was open at the time, anyway.

After checking out our room, we went back upstairs and sat on the deck, and watched the vehicles loading and waited to depart. And waited. It seemed there were more vehicles than space because trucks and cars would be directed aboard but then come out again. We sat outside till past 9pm, the scheduled time for departure, and eventually went down to our cozy cell where we went to sleep before the boat departed.



Sitting and waiting to go

The vehicles (left) took a long time to load - I wondered if they were overbooked


View looking back to Dubrovnik


And the next thing we knew, there was a loud knock on the door letting us know that we had arrived!

Benvenuto in Italia!!

(To be continued...when I start the next portion, I'll post the link to a new report)

TDudette

We took a train from Siracusa to a ferry going to Italy's Boot. We waited and waited until I stepped out of the train to see about the delay... only to find that the train was in the belly of the ferry!

Looking forward to the Italy portion of your trip.

progol

That is funny, TDudette! I can well imagine! We were never aware of the ferry departing, and certainly didn't feel it move. Not until we were woken up did we realize we had traveled!

progol

Italy, continued! Here's part 2:
From the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian: Part 2 - ITALY!

Much more to come in the next thread!

shelleyk

Thanks so much for your wonderful TR and photos. We were in Dubrovnik in 2018 , when it had the potential to be overun with tourists, which would have made walking the wall crowded and unappealing. Fortunately , I was able to avoid that by looking at the cruise ship schedules and picking a day to walk the wall when only one cruise ship was in port. The two days surrounding the day I picked to walk the wall had 5 cruise ships in port. Those were the days we left Dubrovnik. One of those days we went to Montenegro, which I highly recommend. We haven't travelled overseas since covid appeared, but your TR made me feel I should start planning to travel again. DH is close to 80, so who knows how many more years we will be physically able to travel. Thanks for the inspiration..

progol

shelleyk,
I'm so glad you're enjoying this! We loved Croatia and Dubrovnik was one of the many highlights for us. While there were tourists in Dubrovnik when we were there, it certainly didn't have the hordes of people that had made the city difficult to visit pre-pandemic. I do hope that the cruise ships are managed better in the future. I would've liked to visit Montenegro, but we decided to go on to Italy instead, where we visited Puglia, Matera with a return to Amalfi coast and Naples. We found travel surprisingly easy and we were so glad we went.

By the way, Mexico is one of the places at the top of our list for future travels and I've been enjoying your trip reports.

For anyone interested in the Italy portion of the trip, here's the link:
From the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian: Part 2 - ITALY!