lapad - summer in spring

Lapad - Tuesday 30th of April

Oh this week in Croatia was soooo much of a holiday!

And to think that we even planned to rebook our holiday a few days before departure due to the bad weather forecasts in our weather apps. Fortunately, we have not allowed ourselves to be fooled by the modern means of our time. Nevertheless we just went to Dubrovnik according to plan, because let's face it, in the past you didn't know in advance what the weather would be like and it changes day by day. We said to each other 20 times this week; Imagine if we had canceled this!

We had a more than fantastic week, our stay in the suburb of Lapad was a perfect choice. The Croatian coast surprised us with its natural beauty. And Dubrovnik is incredibly beautiful, no wonder it is often crowded because everyone wants to visit this ancient UNESCO World Heritage Site.

On the last day we flew back to Rotterdam only in the evening, so we still had a whole day to enjoy the sun, the sea and that nice summer feeling together.

Coffee at the Tenis Klub and another afternoon in Lapad bay. Henk made a daily drawing of my tennis court photo for our holiday book. We made another work of art from stones, things we found on the beach (little waste, the coast is remarkably clean here) and dried pine twigs. We seriously considered to bring the lovable face of our Lapad Figure home with us. Wouldn't look out of place on a table at home, hahaha...

lapad by day - dubrovnik by night

Lapad Dubrovnik - Saturday 27th of April

At 6am I woke up to the sound of birdsong and went to the balcony to watch the sunrise and moonset. Needless to say, thereafter I went back to sleep.

After the second awakening, we went out for breakfast on the terrace. The breakfasts in our hotel are excellent, plenty of choice and just the fact that you can have breakfast outside in the sun... this is v a c a t i o n.

Today seriously beach weather for the first time and so we bought 2 small (marine themed) beach mattresses for the pebble beach in the small supermarket on the bay.

We almost had the beach to ourselves and even went for a swim, the sea water was 16 degrees, so it was totally doable.

Together we made another creative beach creature out of stones. After a wonderfully relaxing day at Sunset bay, we spend some time on a luxurious bed under the parasol by the pool. Before freshening up for dinner in Dubrovnik, we made a homemade starter on our balcony with bread, anchovies, ajvar and sardines. It looked like a pizza but tasted very different and was surprisingly tasty.

By bus to Dubrovnik (takes no more than fifteen minutes) and strolled around the atmospheric marble streets of the old town. In the evening this city is even more magical and during the magic hour the party is complete!

For dinner the choice fell on Restaurant Gradska Kavana Arsenal, and we were lucky because there was exactly one table for two available at the best place first rank. With live jazz-lounge music by trumpeter and pianist. Sometimes you have days when everything is just right. Bring on the prosecco!

We had oysters from Ston (where we visited yesterday), squid salad, black risotto, homemade focaccia, prosecco Astoria Cord and the super nice waitress treated us to chocolate cake on the house.

When we walked around after dinner the city was so quiet and peaceful. What a beautiful place this is! I understand why so many people visit Dubrovnik and we are also very pleased that we have arrived at a off-season period when there are less visitors.