Dubrovnik!!

So, as they say, all good things must come to an end. After our last breakfast on board, we said farewell to our new-found friends and fellow cyclists with promises to share photos and to keep in touch. We met some great people this week and hopefully we will continue to connect in future. We had determined that we could catch a 10 am bus to Dubrovnik from Split, so we arranged to get a driver from Villa Moretti to take us to Split bus station. We arrived in plenty of time to catch the 10 am bus; unfortunately, it was already full and we had to sit and wait until 11:45 for the next one. This required finding an Internet connection so we could advise Roxana (our current landlady) that we would be arriving later as she was to meet us at the entrance to the Old Town. Finally, after a seemingly endless bus ride (albeit along an gorgeous coastline road) we arrived in Dubrovnik about 5pm. The bus station is not close to the Old Town so we had to take a taxi to the main gate (Pile Gate). Roxana was not there so we walked to the street the apartment is on to be met by her sister as she returned from the market. Our small apartment is in the heart of Old Town Dubrovnik. It has been newly modernized and is very stylish and artsy! It is well equipped with everything we will need in the kitchen for breakfasts and coffee, the bathroom is clean and modern with a steam shower and there is a large bedroom with a computer and desk. The living room is in the same small room as the kitchen and the large windows open on to the street which is a very busy with markets and restaurants. We are lucky to have found this place -- location, location, location! We took a short walk out for something to eat after we arrived as well as a quick stop at the market for some breakfast foods. We are in an absolutely perfect position for exploring Old Town Dubrovnik, but have decided to leave that to begin tomorrow. We are very tired after our very active week and long bus ride so we are taking it easy tonight, updating this blog and resting our 'old tired dogs.' The bus ride was funny in that your ticket stipulates which seat you are supposed to sit in. No one, however, adheres to this and just sits where they want. Apparently the bus oversold seats today, so some people demanded their "actual seats" from the -people sitting in them -- which began a rather amusing domino affect of people having to move seats. We weren't in our assigned seats but no one claimed those we were in, so we remained. Another oddity is the 10km stretch of Bosnia which separates Dubrovnik from the rest of Croatia. The bus was stopped at the border and the Bosnian border agent came aboard to check our passports. When we left Bosnia to re-enter Croatia, the same thing occurred in the reverse. So we can now say we have been to Bosnia (although they do not stamp passports). Stay tuned. Dubrovnik promises to be pretty interesting from what little we saw of it today. Happy to be off the boat and on our own timetable for a week.