Leaving on a jet plane....... or not.

So then after hurrying home in the car, a journey that took something like six hours, absolutely no fun at all.

We had one day to pack, well obviously David went off to play golf and I did everything else.

We were going to join friends on a cruise around the Adriatic coast of Croatia, touching on the Dalmation coast.  Anyone know the difference?  No? Well nor did I.

Finally ready we left home to stay the night at the hotel at our local airport.  It was a tremendously antisocial flight at 6am hence the hotel.  Sadly one half of our friends had to pull out due to illness, the husband had cancelled the 4th place a fortnight before, a week ago the boarding passes had been issued to the remaining three of us.  Our friend had decided against the hotel room as he wouldn't sleep anyway, so he'd arrived at 3am to check in.  We joined him at 4am to tell us the unbelievable new that all our tickets for the flight had been cancelled.  We were speechless.

Some human had, I hope in error, cancelled the entire booking instead of the one place.

Not at all annoying.

Hours later and many phone calls to the travel agent, we were luck enough to; 

A) Get rebooked onto the next flight 

B) Get the very last spaces on the next flight 

C) Have a next flight available.

But we did and landed in Split to a comfy 25C.

So a few photos of historical sights for your delight and a few others in the mix.

This is our wee boat, we think it could accommodate 28 passengers, we were 23.  I would not consider a whopper, this was plenty big enough.   

Lovely views whilst we motored along.

El Capitano reversed into sheltered coves for swimming.

I'm working on one of these for the back garden.

We three were watching the sunset from the luxury of a deep sofa on the quayside then literally in minutes all these ships had zipped into the moorings, blocking the view. 

Oh my word the Gelato...

Approaching the town of Korcula.

The birthplace of Marco Polo, Wikipedia lists him as being born in Venice, but here they insist although his parents were Venetians, Marco was born here in what was then part of the Venetian Empire.  

Luxury whopping yachts, someone onboard looked up the prices but it was so high I can't remember but thousands a night.

And down to Dubrovnik, "The Jewel of the Adriatic"

Dubrovnik is really stunningly beautiful in the very real sense of the word.  It was a place I wanted to visit for years.  The city is a UNESCO World Heritage site and has in turn been occupied by many, each leaving their mark on the city.  What was impossible to understand was why why oh why did the Serbs shell it during their siege of seven months back in the 90's.  Hardly any buildings were undamaged, the rebuilding took a decade.

The Keep on the right and although not in sight the keep on the left were both used in the filming of Game of Thrones.

Pretty amazing castle.

Split is wonderful.

Republic Square in Split, built by the French.

   

We followed our noses around the also very historic Split and came across this square not exactly a copy but built in the style of the famous square in Venice.

So there you have it.  A great trip and if I were to be invited I'd go back again like a shot.  

In a few days time the packing starts again to go back to Tattenhall Marina to move WaL back down to Staffordshire and Great Haywood marina again.  We would have chosen to go via Middlewich, Heartbreak Hill, Harecastle tunnel, Stoke  and down to Great Haywood but I doubt "The Cheshire Locks" are open yet after this dry summer so we will head down via the Shropshire Union, not my route of choice as I consider it a little on the dull side but I'll take a good book.

Oh I meant to have said, a few posts ago, I made a mention of Mr Elon Musk in the title.  Ordinarily the view numbers in the days after a post are in the few hundreds, they grow after a bit.  But tonight the number of views is getting towards 11,000.  I can only suggest that people were searching for said 

Mr E Musk and found my little old diary.  

I bet they were disappointed.