October 6/16

We really counted our blessings for the beautiful weather the day before as today started out cool and cloudy and quickly turned to rain!  Luckily it was partly a transfer day as we made our way from Dubrovnik to Split.  However, we did cross into Bosnia and Herzegovina to travel to Mostar.  We had to endure rain for the majority of our time in Mostar but we made the best of it!

We had a very good young guide.  We walked through the old town and visited the Karagoz Bey Mosque and a Turkish house that showed us what life was like over 100 years ago.  The big highlight of Mostar is walking across the Stari-Most, a UNESCO recognized 16th Century Ottoman bridge.  It was rather hilarious because it was wall to wall umbrellas!  A bit of a pain!  However, we were really happy and lucky to get good pictures back at the bridge from the terrace of the mosque (with only a few umbrellas going across)!

After doing most of our walking tour in the rain, we were happy to find a quaint little restaurant for lunch that was warm and dry!!

This tour has been extremely interesting as it involves 6 countries that still have their share of problems with getting along.  We could sense that there are many sides to each story, depending on who tells the story.  It is hard to imagine that merely 20-25 years ago cities were under seige and a full out war was raging in this area.  We have seen so many remnants of the war still visible on the sides of buildings.  They have done wonders in rebuilding but they still have a ways to go. It has certainly been an eye opener!

We arrived in Split at 5:30 and had some time to rest before gathering for our predinner drink.  Then we walked down to a local tavern and had a fabulous meal.

October 7/16

Our final day and we woke up to clouds which turned into showers!!  Oh well, we were certainly lucky for the first 12 days of the trip!!  We began with a guided tour of Split.  Luckily, over half of our tour was under cover!  We began with a visit to the Ivan Medtronic Museum.  This guy was an amazingly talented sculptor and architect.  The museum is now located in the palace that he designed and lived in.  We were ready to move in!!

Next we went down to the port and the old city.  We toured the Diocletian's Palace, an enormous 3rd Century complex and UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It was very amazing and it has been fun listening to Carl, Ron and Roy as they speculated about the workings and building of these old buildings.

We did have one very funny incident today! I was walking behind Iris as we followed the guide through a narrow street.  Suddenly something fell right in front of Iris!  It was a pigeon that fell from way up and was lying on the sidewalk, flapping his wings, his neck obviously broken.  Poor pigeon!  We were sure thankful that it didn't fall on Iris!!

We once again were happy to find a warm and dry place to have lunch.  After lunch we had a bit of time for some power shopping and we made the time count! 👍

For the afternoon we all took an optional excursion to the little seaside village of Trogir.  It is another UNESCO world heritage site.  It continued to rain lightly as we did our walking tour through the old
town but the sun did eventually come out towards the end of the tour!!

We got back to the hotel at 5:00 and are relaxing a bit before heading back to the same Tavern as last


night for dinner.  This is our final night, tomorrow we are heading home.

It has been an amazing journey.  I hope you have enjoyed sharing it with is!  I will post pictures from today in a few hours!

If you think that you would like to join one of my tours, contact me at chicosan@sasktel.net.  I would be happy to put you on my email list!! Ciao!

,