Destination! Destination! Destination!

In this day and age, the globetrotting is no trotting and the old adage: «The Word is my Oyster» gets a new dimension. Even the rich are happy to share the global travel hotspots with mere mortals ( pun intended ). Apparently Bill Gates' favorite café is situated in a hole of Dubrovnik Old Town city walls. A few tables and chairs scattered around but a view to die for. Just a reminder peeps that Dubrovnik is one of the last preserved jewels of architecture be it renaissance or baroque your soul is searching for. To stroll down its streets is a step back to history and to sip a coffee in one of the side cafés is a cadre from a movie where you feel the time has stopped for a while, the very same movie where you also feel charged up, appreciating the stillness of the moment.
Enough of me blabbing on:
Senior travel cruisers, a few tips when you hit Dubrovnik:
City Wall Tour is a must, make sure that you have plenty of water with you Alternatively, book a panoramic shore excursion that will take you to Srdj Hill. Make sure that your driver is fluent in English as anything else simply would not do. Meander the streets of the Old Town, you will get to know a real taste of Mediterranean living. As for the latter, pay a visit to a restaurant, preferably the fish one.
Last but not the least; try to take a part of Dubrovnik with you, because it is for certain that you will come back at some point.

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Mares swimming in Montenegro!?

There is something romantic in hearing a legend. Although they appear to be rather silly in one way, in the other, they acted as a tool for encouraging masses, especially at times of conflicts.

At the entrance to Montenegro's Herceg Novi Bay there is a spot called «Mare».
The story goes that during Turkish or shall I say Ottoman rule, a beautiful woman was snatched at the bazaars. Her fiancé put up the struggle but was executed mercilessly. The girl came back to her village some nine months after the event, heavily pregnant. The villagers blamed her for the loss of her fiancé and like an evolving Greek tragedy, she died at the birth of a baby boy. He, for his part, hated the Turks and was often seen looting with his gang the entourages of women belonging to Turkish rulers. He would often transport looted goods from one end of the bay entrance to the other. He taught his mares to swim and to come to a designated spot when hearing him whistling. Eventually, he was caught and hang and the villagers were saying that mares kept coming to that spot but to no avail.

When In Rome...

I have to express a slight dosage of disappointment, having recently read a comment, posted by a tourist whose exploration of Dubrovnik was exhausted after a mere day. Apparently, he «got fed up» with a cascade of various shadows of «red» that is including crimson and terracotta, which are donning the roofs of the Old Town's houses.

Dubrovnik is a destination for a culture-vulture meets nature type of a person. Moreover, a lot of modern day values are continuation of the past events' lessons that some of us have even learnt in recent times. My point, well Dubrovnik was the first town in Europe which had a pharmacy and during the reign of Dubrovnik Republic, it was amongst the first world stage states to have recognized the American Independence.

It is that adage «Forget your own private matters and turn to the State affairs» which the Town's ruling class was reminded each time they were entering the so called «boardroom» of power sharing.

By now, you are probably asking, what is this chap on about? Well, I do support the idea that sport on holiday is a good thing as long as you are organized in advance ( the chap you was not impressed by shades of red on the Old Town's was saved by waterspouts ) but I would stress that old chestnut of «When you are in Rome, behave like Romans do».
It helps a lot....