OK, our trip went really smoothly from Toronto to Dubrovnik.  The Air Transat flight was on time leaving and arrived in Zagreb 30 minutes early, and it was not at all full, lots of room to spread out, which I didn't even really take advantage of, since the person in front of me was elsewhere for most of the flight and there was actually lots of legroom (way different from what Transat used to be like, but maybe it was because we were in the 2-by seats at the back of the plane).

Smooth transfer in Zagreb to our Croatia Airlines flight to Dubrovnik and were picked up by our driver and whisked to our apartment at Casa Toni Dubrovnik, right above the the walls to the Old Town.  Working on about 30 minutes of sleep on the plane the night before (can't sleep on planes no matter how much room there is), we headed out at about 6 pm for a brief exploration of a bit of the the Old Town.  Turns out one of the best views of the Old Town walls is from just across the street from the lane that our apartment is on.

We walked down the hundreds(?) of steps to the Pile gate through the walls and wandered the some of the narrow streets in town, picking up some spinach & cheese pastries, at a great little bakery, for breakfast the next day along the way. Then we stopped in for dinner at a very nice restaurant, Dubravka 1836, just outside gate.  We had a nice pizza and a feta salad and enjoyed the amazing view.  It's hard to avoid getting an amazing view here, from what we have seen so far.  We then walked back up the hundreds(?) of stairs and managed to stay up until almost 9pm!

Next day, Thursday, we slept in a little bit, then got ourselves a bit organised and unpacked and went out and picked up a few essentials (and some food, too) at a market up the street.  Then we went for some semi-serious exploring of the Old Town, this time walking down the road to the Buze gate, which is kind of a "side door" into the town.

We did manage to end up in 3 bars (surprise!), only one of which, Konoba Jezuite (beside the Jesuit church), was actually inside the walls.  One other one, Buza Bar, was through a small hole in the wall and kind of hanging off of the wall over the sea--and people were jumping off the cliffs into the sea.

And the other, Port 22, was well outside the wall, past the old port where we had stopped to book an excursion for Saturday, near Banje Beach.  The weather deteriorated during the day and lightning and thunder set in by the time we had finished our light lunch at Port 22, but the rain eased up and we managed to get back up the hill, along the main road, to our apartment, with umbrellas without getting too soaked.  Since the weather is still bad, we are staying in tonight and sorting pics and resting up for our walk of the Old Town Walls first thing tomorrow.