Cruising The Elaphiti Islands!
This morning we woke up as we were docking in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Six years ago when we were here we went into town and walked atop the ancient city walls. So this time we wanted to try something different. And wow did we make a GREAT choice! We opted to cruise the Elaphiti Islands which is a collection of thirteen islands off the coast, where only a few are populated, and we stopped for a bit at two of them as part of our marathon, SEVEN HOUR adventure. The scenery - WOW. And the temps in the low 60's (cooler when on the boat cruising!) was great. But first, let's talk about Kentucky Derby Weekend - one of THE most unique I've ever experienced! I've been at Churchill Downs for Kentucky Oaks & Kentucky Derby Days....I've been at the local track to play the races.....and I've played online from home. But THIS YEAR I played the Friday Kentucky Oaks Day card while we were sailing in Greece and the Saturday Kentucky Derby Day card while we were sailing in Montenegro. Now THAT's unique!
I had a great two days - and the connection was great so I got to watch all of the races live or the replays without issue. The only "issue" was we were SIX hours ahead of Churchill Downs local time, so by the time we got to about Race 10 it was approaching midnight here and I just couldn't stay up, so I watched the replays the next morning. For the two days I won 9-of-23 bets (32.1%) - including five of the big stakes races (including the Kentucky Oaks) - but because Churchill Downs was having a "Bet Back" Promotion where you got your money back if you ran 2nd or 3rd, I actually "cashed" 15 tickets (65.2%)! Flat bet profit with a Return-On-Investment of $2.35 for every $2 bet (the experts "say" if you can have an ROI of $1.91 or higher you're doing better than 93% of the bettors at the races!).
So we left the ship this morning about 8:30am and met our guide on the pier. Now our guide.....interesting because WHEN she was guiding us she was pretty good. But there was a LOT of dead air time where we just walked or had free time. But I must be honest, because those of you who follow our adventures know that often I say I wish they would NOT give us free time or at least let us have the option to have more "excursion time" than have the free time. But today was all about relaxing and just enjoying the amazing weather and scenery. So the 45 minute plus sailing to the first island without narration was great. And the 45 minutes of free time on the first island after a brief walking tour was actually quite enjoyable as we sat in a cafe on the pier and had coffee (Kim) and ice coffee (Mark).
Back on board where were served a lunch on the boat, and then off to the second island where we had a brief walking tour. And this was "interesting" because truly there was next to nothing to see, BUT it WAS interesting in that it was a real look at what life is like on these islands. And then the trip back with the very cool breeze and crystal blue water was just stunning. ANOTHER great day! Tomorrow we are in Zadar, Croatia and tomorrow I am going to film a "rehearsal" for my next episode on Viking TV, a tour of a Viking Ocean ship!
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