Dubrovnik, Croatia - 105km

Ferry

Well, we now have a sick guide. Primoz who was driving the van with Norma yesterday has the same symptoms – vomiting, etc. Doug feels like Typhoid Mary. Sincerely hope it does not spread through the whole tour group. All three guides room together so we will see if our other two guides get it next. Pretty soon no-one is going to want anything to do with us – couldn’t blame them. Norma is feeling a bit better, but Doug is still having some issues so once again we opted for a short ride following the van (with Norma in it). The rest of the group went into the mountains and took the long route.


Bay of Kotor

 Today involved a ferry ride across the Bay of Kotor. Also today involved changing countries (again) – back into Croatia. The border inspection station has a red light you are supposed to stop at before proceeding. The van made it through but the light would not change for the bike. A truck driver motioned Doug through anyway but he was not going to run a red light at the border. Visions of a windowless cell in some Croatian prison loomed. Finally he motioned a car to pull up beside to trigger the stupid light. It was a sensor problem as he suspected.



Our Veranda View

If you are unfamiliar with European traffic, perhaps a one word description would be appropriate – chaotic. Lane infringing, sidewalk parking, sudden stops on narrow roads, no signal lights being used. We don’t even flinch anymore when going around a corner and seeing an oncoming vehicle taking up part of your lane. The tour company saying “you are responsible for what is in front of you” couldn’t be truer. To illustrate the chaos here is Norma to describe an incident that happened in front of the van.

Old Dubrovnik alley

We were driving along doing quite well in spite of the traffic and BANG. A car quickly pulled out into the other lane and ran into a motorcyclist knocking him off his bike and onto the sidewalk making a real mess of his bike. The guy was up and sort of walking so not sure of injuries. The old case of “sorry, I didn’t see the bike”. The fact that his helmet flew off probably says that he was a less than a dedicated rider, however.

 

It is a beautiful sunny day. The view of old Dubrovnik was stunning. You could see the city wall which surrounds the entire area. Hope to get some pics tomorrow.



Dubrovnik cat lady

Of course, as we arrived here so early the rooms were not ready but after a short snooze in the lobby we were escorted to our room. We have a beautiful view of the ocean with our own deck and little garden. They are building more areas to this very convoluted hotel so there is lots of construction noise out there. We did hear some people complaining in the lobby. As we were sort of getting hungry or at least wanting to try to eat we went to the Cave Bar. Yes, it really is a cave dug into the mountain side under the hotel. We sat outside enjoying the fresh ocean air. Later we taxied into the old city of Dubrovnik for dinner (NOTE: we had dinner!!) and had a short walk around - a prelude to tomorrow's adventure as it is a nonriding day.