We arrived in the city of Split after a long day coming from Zagreb. The next few weeks of this journey would take us through Split, Korcula and Dubrovnik, but first, while we were in Split, we would take a day trip along with our friends Connie and Paul, and the Ninomiya family who happened to be taking a short vacation to Croatia from London, where Nino is currently working.

We met Nino, maybe in the mid-90’s, when Eileen worked with him (working for M.O. Bulk Carriers), doing her chartering business. And we’ve been fortunate enough to keep in touch with them as he and his wife Akiko have raised their family. The last time we had a chance to see them was when they visited in Hawaii, maybe 4 years ago.

Anyway, we had a great day on a boat trip from split with everyone, first visiting the famous Blue Caves, just off the island of Vis, on a small island called Bisevo. These caves are amazing, and as they are at the top of many tours, we raced to get there from Split (about a 90 minute trip) to get in the queue to go through the caves. You arrive at a staging point, and then they put groups of about 10-12 people on smaller boats to go through the caves. If you were on your own, you would never find the entrance - everyone had to duck to get our little dinghy of a boat in - but once inside, it was incredible. Think Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland, but everything was real - the colors were amazing!

I guess it is best to go in the morning, as the sun strikes the sand beneath the caves and creates the reflections and these amazing colors, and you can see through the crystal clear water to the bottom. Only about 15 minutes inside, but well worth it to see this.

From here we then took our boat across to the island of Vis, and the town of Komiza. A cute little fishing village, where we took time for a swim and to have a bite of some pizza, before heading on around the island.

As we head around the island toward our next swimming hole, we pass by many other caves, which were pretty cool. My understanding is that these have been formed over thousands (millions) of years as winter weather brings waves crashing onto these cliffs and hollows some of them out. Another chance to swim, and then we head on to see the town of Hvar on the island of Hvar. Here we take a couple hours to have lunch and walk through the town (I think Nino & Co. did some more swimming, while Connie and Paul did the hike to the fortress! We were lazy and just relaxed in town.). And after Hvar, we headed back to Split to end our day, and prepare for our next adventure. The Ninomiya family would head on toward Zagreb the next day, while the Petrovich’s and Sullivan’s would get on the ferry and head to Korcula.

We arrived in Korcula the next day after about a 2 hour ferry trip from Split. Korcula is a beautiful old walled city, famous as the place where Marco Polo was from. Our AirBNB was right on the water of a beautiful bay that was just a 5-10 minute walk from old town. For the next five days, we would just relax on the water here, and take one boat trip to visit the Island of Mijet. Oh, and of course we visited a few wineries along the way!

And so relaxed were we all...that we even got Connie to try the paddle boarding! (Paul did as well, but unfortunately I only have photo’s of Connie's adventure!). Way to go Connie - you’re a pro!

After our time in Korcula, we had arranged for a driver to meet us across from the island on the peninsula to take us to Dubrovnik. This was a great experience as well, as we not only got to visit some excellent wineries, but our driver Petar had a chance to discuss Paul’s heritage with him, and as it ends up, he knew exactly the city in Bosnia where his grandfather had come from. As a result, Petar would take Paul and Connie for a day trip to see the area, and meet up with a local clergyman to go through various records. Eventually, this led to Paul being able to track his family tree all the way back to the mid-1700’s, and to find a few distant cousins! Pretty incredible, and a very small world for sure! Hopefully Paul will have a chance to come back to meet some of these relatives in the future.

In Dubrovnik, there is one “must do” - you must “walk the wall”. The ancient city is surrounded by an incredible defensive wall system which was built from the 12th-17th centuries, but most of the current system was built in the 14th and 15th centuries. Running about 2 kilometers around the entire city, these Middle Ages walls were never breached by any army.

Most recently known for its role in The Game of Thrones, the city of Dubrovnik is simply an amazing place, and just a 30 minute water taxi ride from the Sheraton Dubrovnik Riviera, which was our home for several days.

Heading back to our hotel on the water taxi, we had a chance to see the “Christina O” out in the harbor. This is the yacht formerly owned by Aristotle Onassis and named for his daughter. Anyone old enough to remember can probably still see the images of Jackie Kennedy Onassis in their minds. We saw several amazing yachts during our time in Croatia, including the "Vibrant Curiosity" while we were in Korcula at 280 ft. (I thought that was big!) In Dubrovnik, the final "mega-yacht" spotting was the largest - at 533 ft long, we saw the “Eclipse”, which is owned by Russian Billionaire, Roman Abramovich, who just happens to also own the Chelsea F.C.

Oh, so we decided to rent our own yacht, and go for a cruise...not quite like the others, but we had a grand time!

We had a great time in Croatia, and are looking forward to coming back again soon (probably next summer). This country is beautiful, and the people are friendly and the summer weather in the islands is absolutely amazing. And it is still growing as a tourist destination, so not overly commercial - at least not yet! This one should be on everyone’s “list” of places to visit!

Eileen and I stayed on for another couple of weeks, after Paul and Connie headed back to the U.S. We spent another 10 days back on Korcula, and some additional time in Dubrovnik as well. Now rested, and ready for our next adventures in Greece!

All the best,

Tim & Eileen