Dusk falls on Venice

Taken by JR.

After our night in the motorway stop, we headed, after an hour or two of driving, through Slovenia to Italy. On the way our van clocked 100,000 miles( altogether not just this journey). Once in Italy we arrived in a campsite not far from Venice where we planned to spend two nights. Although it was late(ish), we took the bus from the stop just outside the campsite into Venice for our first taste of Italy on this trip. Once arriving in the lagoon we chose a route taking us towards the Rialto Bridge, Venice’s most famous bridge where nearby, we had dinner. Nilay And I chose a delicious 4 cheese pizza to share while Mama and Papa had various pasta dishes (finally, eating Italian in Italy!) The way back to the bus stop was a race. Unless we caught the 9:28pm bus back to the campsite we’d have to wait another 40 or so minutes till the next bus. Luckily we made it, although Nilay tripped on the stairs of one of the bridges near the bus stop (fortunately he was OK). After a long day of driving and walking we finally got a good nights sleep, Papa tried sleeping up top for once swapping places with me.

Milan

October 23rd was our last day in Dubrovnik.
In the previous days we had looked at the old town from different angles – from the sea by kayaking around the old town, above from Mount Srd, and within by walking around the streets of the old town with a local guide as well as on our own.
We had not yet seen the town by walking on the famous wall which surrounds the old town. This wall walk is such an attraction, that one has to pay to access the wall walk. As my guide book was praising this wall walk as one of Dubrovnik’s most important attractions, the boys and I decided that we really wanted to do this walk before we departed from Dubrovnik.
We were not disappointed, the 2 km walk on the town wall was fantastic. The views on one side onto the roofs of the old town which have nearly all been repaired since the destructions suffered in the 1991 /1992 attacks, and the endless blue of the Adriatic Sea on the other side were just beautiful.
As it was a very hot day, we were longing for a dip in the cool sea when we got back to our apartment just before lunchtime. So we walked to the nearby beach to enjoy a quick refreshing swim (probably our last swim in the mediterranean sea for a while). We then had to think about packing up the van and start our journey back north.
We spent the afternoon and evening driving with a stop for dinner in a really nice restaurant near Krka National Park. We decided to spend the night in the campervan on a motorway stop in northern Croatia.

Maria