Europe 2014: Korcula & Dubrovnik (Croatia)

Notes - click on the links to the right in 'blog archive' for our other 20+ blogs. We are writing this for our family & friends and to have a record of our trip but if it helps anyone plan their trip or bring back memories that's great too.

Thursday 10th July 2014 Korcula (3 nights)

We went down early to buy our ferry tickets to Vela Luka (Korcula Island) and park our car in the queue.

Vela Luka boat doubling as a muscle farm

The 3 hour car ferry at 10:15am was fairly smooth with just a bit of rolling swell towards the end. It was a lot like the TT Line ferry to Tassie on a smaller scale and even has escalators from the vehicle deck to the passenger deck.

There are no safety briefings given like in other countries. When we arrived in Vela Luka there were no announcement just people started going down to their cars. Then everyone starts moving from every lane to go through the exit including all the passengers wheeling their luggage and pushing prams and kids etc. what chaos. Then you drive past the queued cars and people trying to make sure they are getting on the return trip and you are on Korcula Island at Vela Luka.

Vela Luka

Vela Luka has a few restaurants lining the large bay/wharf area and we had a good look around and walk plus got some maps etc. from the tourist information office. After an hour or so we headed off on the 45km drive to the other end of the island stopping for several photo opportunities on the way to Korcula town.

We found our AirBnB host at 4pm and our 2br top floor apartment was fantastic with a beautiful balcony overlooking the bay and more importantly a washing machine. AR has been threatening to hand wash for a couple of days now and almost succumbed to paying $A10 to wash/dry in the Laundromat in Split which had tiny washing machines so would have only been a short term fix.

The only drama in the flat is that the internet is so slow during the day. Fortunately our 'working hours' take place around 4am when the net is at its best.

Happy wife with new red laptop

Korcula is a magnificent town. It is a walled pedestrian only town and on a small peninsular with a walkway around the outside with restaurants overlooking the sea and views to the nearby islands one of which has massive mountains. Lots of tiny cobblestone streets and buildings all beautifully preserved. AR has been on the veggies and mineral water for a while trying not to put on weight with so many restaurant meals and was super pleased to find our restaurant for dinner had a vegetarian platter with a sunset view.

We had a parking place with an automatic roller door with our apartment so it was easy to jump in the car for a few excursions without having to find a park on the return.

On one of our trips we offered a lift to two Dutch girls Isabel and Linde as it was very hot and they were walking on the road with their backpacks. Turned out they had been told there was an Auto Kamp (caravan park) not far from Korcula town but it actually was a long way to walk especially with backpacks.

We drove them into the Auto Kamp and they booked a site and we suggested they might like to drive with us to the town of Racisce where we were going to have lunch as it was an easy way for them to see a bit more of the island and we were driving back past the Auto Kamp after lunch.

Fun lunch with Isabel & Linde at Racisce on Korcula Island

We had a fun time with the girls. They are 19 and on holiday between years of engineering at uni in The Netherlands. We swapped lots of stories and tips. Isabel had us giggling a while after a wasp landed in Linde's wine. After a short while, Linde got the now drunk wasp out with a fork and Sandy said, "he's probably gone off for a siesta now" and Isabel added "or maybe he is going to ring his ex-girlfriend" :)

Korcula was very relaxing and we even cooked at home one night. Witlof was 1/4 of the Australian price so we had a great veggie meal.

Sunday 13th July 2014 Dubrovnik (3 nights)

Car ferry from Korcula to Orebic

We decided to aim for the 11am ferry to Orebic. It takes 15 minutes and leaves every hour. We had booked lunch at Bella Vista at Prapratno for 1pm, known for its fresh seafood and magic cliff-top views, although an unexpected storm nearly blew us off the balcony so we retreated to enjoy the view from indoors.

Called in to Ston and Mali Ston after lunch to look at the 5km wall built in 1333. It has 40 towers and 5 forts and the wall was built to protect the towns that were important salt producing towns.

The hire car place in Dubrovnik shuts at noon on Sundays so we investigated the possibility of leaving the car in their carpark and then doing the paperwork in the morning but the public carpark they operate from is $A56 per day and there was no way of getting into the hire company's parking area.

Lunch view from Prapratno (overlooking caravan park) driving to Dubrovnik

We were lucky to get a park 300m from our accommodation for 1 hour and dropped our bags after walking down about 100 steps. Then we dropped the car out to the airport office and caught the 20km shuttle bus back in to town. The bus into town drops off at the Pile gate to the NW. The bus is 35 kuna ($A7) or 60 return.

Our view from our AirBnB apartment is so good we have to force ourselves to leave. We walked the walls of the town and visited the fort and found a great vegetarian restaurant called Nishta.

Dubrovnik is an amazing town. So well preserved albeit for heaps of new tiles on rooftops where the Serbs bombed them for 10 years dropping 2,000 shells.

The wall walk costs 100 kuna ($A20) but it is worth it and includes the fort which it seems many people don't know about. Isabel and Linde put us onto the fact that it is included in the ticket and how to find the path to it. You go to the busy bus/taxi area and then there are some steps that go down behind a restaurant.

The town walls were never breached but Napoleon's army was invited in as friends and then invaded

Planning of going on the 10 minute boat to Lokrum for a swim once we get this blog update finished and then we fly to Gatwick at 11am for 6 weeks in South and South West England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, finishing in Northern England where will fly to Southern Spain from.

note:- Shuttle bus TO the airport goes from the cable car station. Avoid the 100+ stairs and still use the Pile gate then footpath. Times are published the day before at:- Atlas shuttle bus