Sunday 3 June 2012 Dubrovnik

We had a little extra time this morning due to the time change, so we went out on deck to take in the view of the port. We discovered an observation deck that we had not found before.

I was looking forward to this stop as one of the highlights and I was not disappointed. Every time you turn around you are looking at a postcard. Our tour this morning first took us to the cable car that runs to the top of the small mountain overlooking the city. What a view! They fed us some juice and tasty cake at the top.

Then it was back down to the old town for a walking tour.  After showing us around for a while, our guide turned us loose to explore on our own. He was about the best guide we have had yet. His English was very good, the speakers on the bus were good, and he was very knowledgeable on ancient and recent history. The other guides have also been very knowledgeable, but their English was more accented and sometimes the bus speakers have been somewhat muffled.

I wanted to walk the town wall, but Celeste was not keen on the walk, the sun, or the heat, so she returned to the ship with our bus at 12:30. Walking the walls took about 1.5 hours and I arrived back at the ship on the shuttle bus by 2:30. It was quite a hike in the heat with lots of stairs, but the views were worth it.

Back at the ship we cleaned up from our day in the heat. On TV we watched a bit of the flotilla on the Thames celebrating the Queen’s diamond jubilee. We had eaten nothing but snacks since our early breakfast, so we went down for some sail-away snacks at the main pool, then some salads from the buffet to tide us over. Then it was back to our room to dress for dinner. The itinerary called for two formal nights on our At Sea days and we thought we were done, but they snuck another one in on us. Celeste went 4 for 4 on her menu picks. Escargots for an appetizer, asparagus soup, steak and lobster, and baked Alaska. But I did even better! I had the same except I had a cold grape and cranberry soup. It was like melted ice cream. Mmm! We took pictures of everything but the steak and lobster. We were so excited to see it that we dug right in without hesitation. This might have been the best meal of the trip.

We finished up just in time to race off to the 7 PM movie in the theatre: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It was a bit hard to follow, but pretty good. Then back to the room to write blog and manage pictures while Celeste caught a few Zz’s. We took in the 10:15 performance in the Showroom, and then called it a night.

Weather: Sunny and hot with light wind. While I looked at the display on the ship after my return, it changed from 86F/30C to 88F/31C.