The Pearl of the Adriatic

Dubrovnik, the "Pearl of the Adriatic" was my first foreign holiday destination after I started gainful employment (many moons ago!), so I was keen to introduce this fantastic city to my husband who had never visited.

Our lunch stop en-route from the airport to our ship gave us our first view of the walled city, and it did not disappoint! The bright blue skies and crystal clear waters certainly didn't detract from the view either :)

Once we were settled in to our home from home

it was time to get out and do a bit of wandering in that beautiful walled city.

Many of the roofs have been replaced since the Croatian War of Independence (1991 - 1995) during which Dubrovnik was under siege for a time, so the tiles are often a uniform colour rather than the mottled shades of the original roofs. As you can see above the alleys running off the main thoroughfares are narrow and steep, I definitely felt sorry for the poor tourists lugging their heavy cases up those in the heat!

Up close the stonework on churches was amazing.

Although it is a magnet for tourists, and apparently becomes very crowded in July and August, the city is still home to many Croatians, so washing has to be hung out somewhere!

I couldn't resist taking a photo of this lady's washing line :)

Recently the city has also been used as a location for the TV series Game of Thrones, so if you are a fan this part of the city might be better known to you as the harbour of Kings Landing! Sadly we didn't have time to take a Game of Thrones walking tour of the city, so will have to leave that until our next visit.

If you ever get the chance to visit Dubrovnik is definitely worth seeing!

New places, new pattern

Welcome to this month's New to Me link party.

The party where we celebrate and commiserate the highs and lows of attempting new things. Success or failure are all the same here, so if you have tried out something for the first time this month, link up and share your experiences with your fellow bloggers.

My own New to Me experiences this month are very different.

First up a whole New to Me coastline.

http://www.croatiaemb.net/main.html

We recently sailed up the Croatian coastline from Dubrovnik to Zadar, it was a wonderful trip which I will share with you as soon as I have sorted out my photos. At the minute I am struggling to work out which building is which!

Here's a taster :)

This is Omis, which is just south of Split on the above map. Isn't that an amazing backdrop?

We took a boat trip up the River Cetina from here and the scenery was stunning! 

My sewing mojo seems to have deserted me this month so there has been very little in the way of sewing going on, although I did manage to do a little embroidery on our cruise (in between sightseeing and cocktails!).

A friend's daughter has just had a baby boy, so I thought that I could make good use of some of the lovely knit fabric that I splurged on when the gorgeous grandson was born. I knew that I had my Brindille and Twig patterns to use for an outfit, but wanted to make a baby beanie hat to finish it off. So, I searched the internet and found this baby hat pattern and tutorial by Zaaberry.

My New to Me pattern came together really easily, so I can definitely recommend it. The pattern comes with two other variations, so I think I will be revisiting this next time someone I know has a baby.

Unfortunately, the pattern only comes in 0-3 months size, so the gorgeous grandson will not be receiving one for his cute little head :( Fortunately, my mum is an excellent knitter and has kept him supplied with a stream of knitted hats during the winter.

So, that's my New to Me's, now it is your turn. As always the link party will remain open until 23.59 GMT on June 30th, so if you are thinking of trying something new this month but haven't yet here is the nudge that you need. Grab the link party button and take the plunge! Check out the linkers and give them some blogger support for their endeavours too.

An InLinkz Link-up