Bristol to Belfast

We left the beautiful fine warm weather in Croatia and arrived to 15degrees & rain in Bristol. England. Luckily the rain stopped briefly & we were able to walk to see the Clifton suspension bridge & have a nice meal.

The next morning we flew to Belfast in Northern Ireland and 10 degrees!

 Near our hotel was the Titanic Belfast centre where we spent nearly four hours looking at the interactive galleries depicting a journey through the Titanic story from Edwardian Belfast to the discovery of the wreck in 1985.

It was very well done & very interesting.

We also went on board the Nomadic which was used as a tender for the Titanic.

In the evening we wandered around the city, seeing the sights.

More Dubrovnik

Our last day in Croatia was again very hot, in the mid 30's. We took the cable car up to Srd where there were great views of the city of Dubrovnik.
We went through the exhibition of the Serbian/ Montenegro aggression against Dubrovnik in 1991/2. It was very moving.

Dubrovnik

We took a ferry and spent an afternoon at Lokrum Island, 15 minutes from the old town of Dubrovnik. The island has thick pine forests and cultivated gardens first begun by Benedictine monks. A monastery was founded on the island in the 11th century. We swam in a small, salt filled lake linked to the sea and also off the rocks. We hired a kayak & paddled around the island and also to the old city walls.
In the evening we walked Dubrovnik's city walls. The defences were built between the 8th & 16th centuries.

Dubrovnik & surrounds

On our last day 22 of us went on a countryside tour. We saw medieval water mills  and saw flour production in the old, traditional way. We were fed Dalmatian smoked ham, local cheeses and wines. Next was a stop at the town of Cavtat where we swam again.
The next morning we disembarked from our boat after 7 terrific days. We took a ferry back to Cavtat after visiting there briefly the day before. It is the most southern town in Croatia with a population of about 1400 and is about 15km south of Dubrovnik. It was another very hot day so we had several swims. It was sad to see buildings which were bombed in the 1990's war.
That evening we had a lovely meal beside the old town and the sea. Below us was a film set for a new series on the History channel.