Princess Eleganza

 We have a quiet time at the hotel complex, Ross and I go for a walk along a promenade at the front of the hotels looking out over the water. There is no beach just all rocks. Some flat areas have been created by laying concrete in the gaps between the rocks. The area created is enough to lay two to four deck chairs for the hotel guests. Then at a number of places there are stainless steel ladders bolted into the rocks to help get in and out of the water.

We have a drink in the hotel around 1 pm and Ann is relaxed enough to have a gin and tonic. She has been reluctant to drink alcohol up till now because the steep stairs in the apartment required your full attention. We all did well not to have a stumble. Around 2.30 pm the group starts to arrive. Our tour director Tomas is handing out hearing devices for the tour. All our group have arrived and we are off for the Dubrovnik tour. We get the all clear to ditch the tour and do our thing with the stipulation to be at the pickup point by no later than 5 pm.

Everyone is back on time and we board the bus for our trip to Ploce. It is a beautiful drive along the Adriatic coast. There are islands practically the whole way on one side and then mountains on the other. The road is a single lane and it is quite curvy as we hug the coast. Croatia has a small piece of land on the coast that was given to the Ottoman Empire in a strategic move at the time. That piece of land is now part of Bosnia Herzegovina. This now requires passport/border control. For Croatia to join the EEU they must be able to control all borders with free entry for all other EEU members. To get around the Bosnia problem, they built the Adriatic highway around the coast and then built a 2.4 km bridge across the inlet of Bosnia Herzegovina. Initially it was to be 30 metres high above the waterline, but BH claimed they had intentions to develop a cargo port so it was increased to 90 metres. It was built by a Chinese company on time and on budget, started in July 2018 and opened in July 2022! 

We arrive at the ship at 6.45 pm. The room is spacious and comfortable and has doors! There is plenty of storage and hanging space.

We have dinner at 7.30 and the food is great. A two piece band, guitar player and piano accordion player. They are fantastic and soon have our table singing along and having a great time. The other guests are either envious they are not on our table and making notes to avoid us. The tables are set for eight so we will two foreigners join us each meal. It was a great night and start to the next part of our journey.