Our friendly Athens tour driver Dimitris picked us up about 8.30 for our drive back to the airport enroute to Dubrovnik via Split. Sounds odd but it was way way cheaper to fly from Athens to Split then hire a private driver to take us to Dubrovnik than it was to fly direct from Athens to Dubrovnik!!

Our plane was a little tiny thing with propellers, not even jet engines .....I didn't think they still used propeller powered planes commercially!!!!!

We were met by Tomas as the owner driver Mate had the flu. Tomas was a former Croatian basketballer who in conversion on the last day of driving us mentioned his visit to Russia, he was there as part of the Croatian basketball team!!!

We had a lovely drive down the Croatian coast crossing the border into Bosnia & Herzegovina (at Neum Corrido) which maintains control of approximately 20km strip of land between Split & Dubrovnik. The border crossing didn’t take long, lucky we had a local transport company that are used to it.

Trivia note: Dubrovnik does not share a border with any other Croatian 'state’. It is bordered only by other countries & the sea.

After a quick stop just over the border for lunch we continued on to our meeting point with a local guide to give us a site seeing tour Dubrovnik & its surrounds .

First stop was Mount Srdj that gives a perfect view over all of Dubrovnik as well as Bosnia & Herzegovina rugged mountainous terrain, which is really beautiful. This is where the cable car runs to from Dubrovnik & is a popular place with tourists & locals alike.

The view are breathtaking, especially over old town Dubrovnik & it showcases the many islands off the mainland.

Next we visited Cavtat (pronounced Tsavtat), a gorgeous fishing village that has become a tourist attraction because of its tree lined harbour side & unpolluted sea side. It has a mix of old & new architecture & many lovely bars & restaurants.

We visited the small but beautiful Baroque church of St Nikola then followed the promenade back past the bars to the van as it was time to head to Dubrovnik old town for our walking tour.

Our guide Lana was very knowledgeable & passionate about Croatia & her home town of Dubrovnik . She, like many other younger people we met were affected by the war in 1991 to 1995. Lana’s family fled & were placed in a refugee camp in France, where she remained for 10 years before returning to Croatia. The evidence of the bombings & ravages of war were very evident although we were struck by how the Croats have just got on with life & realised the benefits of tourism for their economy. They have spent a lot of money on restoring the old town buildings & infrastructure such as major highways & bridges into the major towns, however when traveling further afield fro the tourist lines you see many homes & farms that were destroyed & there is no money to help the locals rebuild.

Our walking tour was a highlight for me, I was really looking forward to Croatia, but especially Dubrovnik. I was not disappointed, it is steeped in history & walking the city’s cobbled streets with no vehicular traffic it feels like you could have turned back time to the medieval ages.

But a note to all, Dubrovnik has well & truly adapted to the tourist dollar. Everything is very expensive, eating out in the old town almost requires a second mortgage.......