Our Return
This was our second time together in Croatia although Angela is a veteran of this place. We stayed at Hotel Croatia in Cavtat which is her spiritual second home.
The Hotel
During our previous time in Croatia we stayed just north of Dubrovnik city but this time we opted for the little village of Cavtat which is only a few minutes from the airport. For such a small place there are quite a number of hotels here. Some brochures show Hotel Croatia as 5 stars and some as 4, but it has had a slight refurbishment around the huge lobby area to remove a lot of the older dark wood to give a more modern feel to the place.
After rejecting a smoky basement room we ended up with an upper floor room facing out to sea. The hotel is set higher up atop one of the peninsulas and that means a bit of a trek down the steps into the village. After all the food we would endure, it was a welcome way to burn off some calories although doing it in the height of summer would be a nightmare. It was pretty cool most of the day apart from maybe the lunch hours.
Starting off the holiday
After checking in we went down into the village for lunch at the Kabelero, one of the small bars that have a dining area across the road and facing the bay. Having squid on holiday always seems to be the done thing, and we love it as well so it helps.
On the way there we did pop into Salvica's art shop to say hello. She sells various paintings and prints from local artists. She herself has her own paintings on sale and she created one of a sunset over Cavtat especially for us that featured a floating bouy for Angela and an airplane in the sky for me.
The clink of a beer glass over squid officially signals the start of the holiday. We also watched the storm clouds come over Dubrovnik city and head towards us. It got very cold, especially when it started to rain over the covered eating area.
After we warmed ourselves up a bit inside the bar itself we headed back to the hotel to meet our friends that have just flown in.
Food
There are a couple of restaurants in the hotel. One is an a-la-carte place whilst for the rest of us dinner followed the usual format of an international buffet. Before the war it used to be all waiter service but with the loss of people both through war itself and the migration of the younger people, the number of staff has dwindled. This has meant it was easier and cheaper to go with this format, although on one of the evenings it was all silver service if I recall correctly.
There was always a good selection of food on offer every night. I even had a small serving of tripe one evening. If you are greedy, of which we are all guilty of being on holiday, then the night would start off with a bowl of clear soup, a starter plate full of salad, meats and maybe some fish, a main course of meat/s, fish, chips and token veg, and finally a plate of ooh I wont go for a dessert today, ooh yes I will. All very gut busting.
After dinner we would normally head down into the town and to a place called Cafe Michel. It was the only place I could find that served the dark Croatian beer. It also did cocktails. Towards the end of the week they were giving us some free drinks as well. Very nice. We also got to see the England World Cup football game amongst others here.
We did a couple of short walks around the hotel peninsula and one that went around the other peninsula. We still haven't been up to the top where the Mausoleum is.
More food
One night we decide to have dinner in the town for a change. This was at Restaurant Toranj. It was quite wet that night otherwise it would have been nice to sit out in the small courtyard area. I am sure squid and chips was ordered again. I always find it nice to get away from the huge hotel buffets once of twice during the stay.
We got the bus into Dubrovnik one day and did a leisurely stroll around the place. We never were too far away from food where ever we went. After a few minutes we dived into Kamenice for some oysters, squid and a beer!
It is a lovely place to stroll around, in and out of the side streets, grabbing an ice cream and peering into the shops.
Pizza
We met up with the rest of the group as we wanted to show them this pizza place that we found on our last trip. The pizzas are huge as you can see. Excellent value as well.
After the pizza we headed back to Cavtat but this time using the water taxi. Not something Angela enjoyed at all! I only managed to get away with it as I was facing towards land and kept on focussing on the shoreline.
We had hired a mini-bus so one day we went into Mlini and Plat. There really wasn't much going on in Plat and it seemed very run down. Mlini was a bit better. It has a nice stream going through the place. It also had a cafe with some miserable waiters but nice pizzas!
On our penultimate day we went up into the hills to visit the restaurant that specialises in lamb cooked under a bell. We hadn't booked that meal 24 hours before hand so we had to make do with the normal menu. Pigged out on mixed grill and chips all around. That was a very, very sunny afternoon that day. The drive back is fun as the road is very narrow and then you head down a steep zig-zag road.
Getting to really like Croatia. It always seems to feature in the holiday supplements of the weekend newspapers.
Next time, I really do want to stay by Dubrovnik centre seeing as I have tried north and south of the place.
View Gordon and Angela's photos from Croatia (2).
