Day 2

Thanks for the good wishes - not Turkey this time!
Yesterday we landed in Dubrovnik, we have a week of touring Croatia, Bosnia Herzogovnia and Montenegro then a week in an hotel in Montenegro before flying back to Manchester rom Dubrovnik. Not as far into uncharted territory as Munroist, but a taster.
Today we visited the old town of Dubrovnik the main image in the collage shows the clock tower which is quite beautiful. The clock is in digital format and moves in 5 minute increments in what was a tower built in 1447 , it was damaged in the Dubrovnik earthquake of 1667 and rebuilt, it started to lean in the 19th century though and was demolished in 1928, rebuilt again, then damaged in the 1979 Montenegro earthquake and finally rebuilt and restored completed in 1987! It is in the central square of the old town. The bell was cast in 1506.
The harbour view through quatrefoil window is from one of the bridges into the old town. We spent a few hours wandering on our own around the old town. We were there before 9am and by the time we left about 3 hours later the place was very busy. It must be awful in the height of summer. The guide said that they had cut back the number of cruise ship visits per year from several thousand to around 600. Apparently Game of Thrones was set here and many tourists believe that some of the buildings and walls were built especially for that. Not having seen it I can't comment.
From Dubrovnik we drove about two thirds of the way to Split, following the coast, stopping a few times.
One stop was at Stön, where there are salt pans. The area is also famous for shellfish, so we had an oyster each with our lunch in a local cafe. Colin hadn't tasted them before. The Roman fountain is in Stön and I've found it very hard to find any information about it at all. It may actually be Illyrian rather than Roman.
The wall image is taken from there, apparently it's over 7km in length and is almost intact, the second longest wall to that of the Great Wall of China.
We continued to the coast, stopping and tasting some of the local fruit liqueurs varying in strength from 27-45% proof.
Our hotel is in Brela, a small coastal town. We never know in advance the details of our hotels on these trips, but yesterday's was a lovely 4* which we thought it would be hard to beat. We are here for tonight and tomorrow night and it's a very luxurious 5*, a definite bonus.
I went down to the sea for a swim as soon as we arrived, it was cloudy, but the water temperature is around 20° still, so perfectly pleasant. I practised my Duolingo french on a lady swimming nearby, I was pleased with my understanding and ability to communicate, albeit slowly.
The extra has some churchy pictures, it's interesting to be in an eastern European area of non-orthodox churches. The large image is the cloister in the Franciscan Monastery in old Dubrovnik, home of one of the first pharmacies. Dubrovnik is where the term Quarantine originated, visitors to the town by sea had to stay on an off shore island for 40 days before being allowed entry to the walled town - to make sure that they were healthy and the walled town stayed disease free.
The small fresco is over the Rector's Palace. A Rector was similar to mayor, elected, but in order to avoid corruption was only in power for a month. Can you just imagine Mrs Rector on being told she was going to have to up sticks and move at the end of a month! Eric Idle's voice comes into my mind!
The church is the beautiful church of St Blaise in Stön, begun in 1342, the obligatory cat is in Stön and the pennants are of children's paintings of their faces hung around the school entrance.
Tomorrow we drive to Split and back via several other stops on the way.