Tag Archives: boat

For All the Amélie Fans Out There

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , , , , ,

Can you guess what we visited?

That’s right – the Canal Saint-Martin. This is another of my favorite spots in Paris. We’ve been really good at hitting up the free sights this week, but it’s kind of hard not to when we have beautiful (albeit crisp) weather.

As we were walking across this bridge and wondering if the canal was still in use, we noticed a boat headed our way. Well, that certainly answered our question. We were psyched to see the locks in action.

out goes the water

down goes the boat

Jared got so excited to see the bridge open that his hair stood on end!

here it goes!

Happy Friday, folks! We are very excited because our friend Andrea is visiting from Switzerland this weekend, and tonight we’re meeting up with some friends of friends to hang out in Montmartre (and they have a cat!). It’s shaping up to be a great weekend.

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Last Call for Lokrum

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , ,

We’d been meaning to head out to Lokrum Island even before our little jaunt to the Elafiti, and since we didn’t really have any plans for the weekend and the weather was supposed to be pretty nice, this past weekend seemed like the time to check it off our list.  We went out Friday night so we were feeling a little…lazy on Saturday and we pushed the trip back to Sunday.  We got down to the dock around 12:30 and had time for a coffee before the 1:00 boat.  The last boat back would be at 3:30, giving us plenty of time to explore the small island.

pre-boarding coffee

awwwww

the view from the bow as we pulled out

The postponement until Sunday had left us with even better weather than we’d had the day before, so we were pleased with ourselves.  It was a short little trip out to the island, and since we didn’t have too much ground to cover we decided to take our chances wandering on the trail and hitting all the “sights” in a loop.

crushed, Jared quietly slipped his pipe back into his pocket.

they are very serious about their nude beaches here.

We took the long way around the south end and finally found the “Dead Sea,” a small salt-water lake on the southwestern tip of the island. We kept thinking we were lost because the trail was kind of crappy and poorly marked.

Mrtvo More

I bet that rope swing is SO FUN in the summer

Once we made it over to the lake, the rest of the attractions were pretty close together.  From there we checked out the ruined monastery and the adjacent botanical gardens.  One unexpected and fun thing about the island was that there are peacocks EVERYWHERE.  There was one at the dock when we got off the boat, and the monastery seemed to be where they congregated.

stacks of roof tiles

monastery ruins

this is the closest I got to a peacock

Though the botanical garden was a bit lackluster this time of the year, there were still some really interesting specimens.  And of course, we made due with what we had.

I love the shape of these guys

and the texture of these

Jared pets the cactus

"feed me, Seymour"

We still had a good hour or so before the last boat, so we decided to make the trek up the hill to Fort Royal.  The walk ended up being much more of an incline than we expected, but the view was worth it.  Plus, when we got to the top, there were some bunnies hopping around!  Cute creatures abound in Croatia!

the never-ending hill

BUNNIES!!

an awesome view of Dubrovnik

and some equally great views of the coast and sea

Even after our hike we still had some time before the boat came, so we sat down at the cafe near the dock to have some champagne.  We learned from the waiter that we were their last customers of the season, and it was the last day the island would be open until next summer!  Talk about cutting it close.  Somehow that seemed just so us (and was in line with the luck of this trip so far), and it made the whole day better to know that we got in just under the wire.  Plus, it meant that our boat back would also be the last one of the season, which was pretty cool.

a toast to the end of summer

the last boat of the year

On the ride back, Jared got a little…caught up in the moment.

he may have insisted I take this picture while he quoted Titanic...

I managed to contain myself

Most of the passengers on the way back were employees of the island, and when we disembarked the captain honked the horn and everyone clapped for the end of the season.  The moment had a quiet, bittersweet vibe to it – especially since the air has been steadily gaining that unmistakeable Fall chill.

Farewell, summer.

I’m On a Boat!

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Hi there!  Sorry for the delay in updates – I’ve been fighting off a wee cold since Monday. It’s been torture because I have so many great pictures to share from our weekend!

Last week we went down to the Old Port with the hopes of finding out if there were still boats going to Lokrum Island (since Ol’ Rick says that the boats stop in October).  We stopped at the first kiosk we came to and they started to tell us about their package…not to Lokrum but to the Elafiti.  We had kind of written off day excursions as too touristy, but the description of the day sounded really nice, very affordable (a full day for less than $50 per person, including lunch) and the thought of getting away for the day was very tempting.  We also found out that it’s only 50 kuna per person (less than $10) to get out to Lokrum (the boats are still running as long as the weather is nice) so we’ll probably hop over there in the next week or so.

We were going to head down and do the cruise the next day (Friday) but Jared had too much work to be gone the whole day (a good thing!), so instead we went to the beach just outside the Ploce Gate for a few hours.  We have had a stretch of nice weather here and we know it’s not going to last forever, so we just couldn’t waste a beautiful day.  It was probably around 70 degrees but it felt like 80 since there was no wind.

my Facebook friends will recognize this one

it was warm enough for a dip!

trying to figure out the self-timer...

better!

Jared built a cairn on my hip

The next day was also supposed to be beautiful so we got up and headed straight for the Old Port.  The boat was set to leave at 10:45 which gave us enough time to enjoy a nice coffee before setting out.

yum!

Jared in front of our boat

just outside the walls

It was great to get yet another perspective of Dubrovnik, and for me it was wonderful to be back on the water again.  For those of you who don’t know, I grew up on a sailboat, so I felt like I was back in the Puget Sound on vacation as a kid.  I parked myself up on the bow and didn’t give up that spot all day (to be fair, everyone stayed in their spots once we got going).

As soon as we got underway, our captain came around and offered everyone beverages (included in the ticket price!)…including grappa. It was a little early for us to partake, but it confirmed our inklings that we liked this crew.

11 am is a little early for grappa...

Our first stop was Kolocep Island, where we had 30 minutes to explore.  There wasn’t a ton to see, but it was a pretty cute little island – and as we pulled up to the dock a sweet kitteh trotted up to greet the boat.

"oh, hello there!"

the maidenhead of our boat - check out that clear water!

happy tourists

At this point, as you can see, we were feeling pretty good about our little cruise – touristy or not.  Our next stop was an even cuter island called Sipan, where we spent 40 minutes and then returned to the boat for a delicious lunch of grilled fish (or “fish picnic” as they adorably referred to it).

Sipan Island

we found Yosh's Croatian twin!

Sipan's quaint port town

lunch!

I have to say, we were not expecting much from lunch but it was DELICIOUS.  And it came with as much wine as we could drink – win!

cheers!

The itinerary allotted time for a leisurely lunch, so as we ate and listened to some dulcet traditional Croatian music, we noticed a few friends gathering on the dock…

these cats know where it's at

Happily, our fellow passengers were almost bigger pushovers than we are when it comes to cats, so these guys came away well fed once everyone had finished eating.  As we left port for our final destination, our captain fed the remaining fish leftovers to some incredibly lucky seagulls, to the extreme delight of everyone else.  Dad, I hope you’re appropriately horrified by this picture (as a former boat owner, I have learned to hate seagulls and the mess they make).

so...many...seagulls.

At this point in the day, we were officially CHARMED.  The cruise was totally laid back and it was a gorgeous day to be out on the water.  Little did we know that our final stop on Lopud Island would be our favorite.  It was past tourist season so most everything was closed up, but the natural charm of the island came through as we wandered around the port, a public garden and the Franciscan monastery.  It was seriously so gorgeous that we fantasized about buying a summer home there (with fantasy money).

my new favorite picture

as you know, Jared can't resist a playground

we took a wee dip before leaving

The sun was beginning to set as we pulled away from Lopud and headed back to Dubrovnik.  At this point, the day went from “charming” to “magical.”

the monastery at sunset

sunset over Lopud

sundown on the Adriatic

moons over my hammy...er, my Jared

It was pretty chilly once the sun went down, but a worthwhile trade for the beautiful evening views of Dubrovnik as we pulled into port.

Port Gruz at night

We returned to port at nearly 6pm so we really got a full day for our money, especially since we were supposed to get back at 5pm.  It was great to venture out from the city, and we agree that it was the best day we’ve had on the trip so far.  I’d highly recommend the Regina Maris (specifically this company, we really liked their vibe) to anyone visiting Dubrovnik.  Simply enchanting.