CROATIA, MONTENEGRO + BOSNIA HERCEGOVINA

After a short 1.5 hour flight from Athens to Rome, we arrived back in Italy and to the familiar-sounding language again.  After being told we couldn't borrow a wheelchair, we managed to find a pair of crutches so Dalton could walk around a bit easier.  We caught a train into Rome Ostiense and immediately went to Eataly - a large food department store which we loved last time.  We had a browse around and then got some picnic things which we took and ate by the Colosseum.  We had originally planned to walk around Rome, but now decided on taxis which are reasonable for the four of us anyway.  After me and Josh went inside the Colosseum, we went to Vatican City, then the Pantheon.  From here we slowly walked to the Trevi Fountain and Dalton had had enough walking by then so we got a taxi to Termini station and then caught the bus back to the airport getting there about 10pm.

It was then time to 'sleep' until our flight at 5.15am flight to Dubrovnik!  Well we found a darkish area to lie down but the hard tiled floor made sleeping almost impossible and it was a looong night!  We finally boarded our plane to find it was less than half full so at least we got a row each to stretch out on!  The flight was 45mins and we landed to the sun rising and wearily caught our shuttle to our accommodation near the old town.

We spent two nights in Dubrovnik - below are some of the photos we got.

On Saturday morning we got a rental car and firstly headed up a lookout over the old town of Dubrovnik.  From here we headed South to Montenegro.

We made a short ferry crossing to cross the Bay of Kotor instead of driving all the way around, we then stopped for a coffee in the town of Tivat.

Sveti Stefan

We have a lovely lunch halfway up the mountain road

Cetinje was the next stop - an old town that used to be Montenegro's capital.

The view from Mt Lovcen - 1749m above sea level

The Bay of Kotor

We stayed a night near Kotor at the below apartment with views out over the Bay.

The next morning we were off again heading North, across the border into Bosnia and to our destination of Mostar.

We stopped at this lovely place called Blagaj.  We had lunch sitting beside the river.  This is the source of the river - the spring flows straight out from the cliff face.

Mostar was where we stayed this night.  It is a city in Bosnia and had much fighting here duing the Yugoslav Wars in the 1990s.  There is still a lot of evidence of bullet holes in buildings all over the place.

Stari Most - the old bridge

Dalton somehow found these waterfalls - Kravice Falls near the border with Croatia.  Me and Mum braved the freezing cold water, apparently it's 8 degrees!  It was a lovely setting and not many people there either.

We then got on Croatia's motorways and sped our way to Split.  The speed limit is 130 and you soon fly along!  It is a lovely road to drive on and although a toll road is very reasonable.

We arrived in Split and had a nice lunch meal overlooking the sea before checking into our accommodation which is right near the old town and Diocletian's Palace.  We headed out again early evening and there was a large thunderstorm which lasted a few hours with torrential rain, loud thunder and frequent forks of lightning.  We got some things from the supermarket and had dinner back at the apartment.