Travels with Louise-Korcula
By LOUISE HUGHES

Yesterday was one to remember forever so we went to "Old Town" today within the walls. Comfortable shoes are a must on all the stone stairs and plaza itself. This time I left Ginny sitting by one of the Rampart Towers and hoped I could walk the entire walls of Dubrovnik. What a great inspiring experience. When I wanted a break there was always a rock to sit on! Finally I reached the beginning and there was Ginny who said "I hope you got that out of your system"! Yes, once was quite a feat.

We visited many of the attractive shops and bought shoes, souvenirs and made a stop at the bakery-there are always street musicians to entertain you. Everyone is happy and having fun.

We collected the car and headed up the coast passing by beautiful Ston. My roses are still blooming! We drove by salt flats and came to the tiny town where we took the ferry to the lovely town surrounded by fortresses. Oh my, more shops-I bought a nice silver ring, t-shirts for my sons and we both got beautiful sketches and post cards.

This is a popular resort and had several five star hotels. It is a stop on all of the island boat trips. These must be a lot of fun. A thought for the future. We had another terrific pizza at a cafe and walked the rest of downtown. Also visited Marco Polo's home where he was born. Totally a great island.

After another ferry trip we got the car and I saw a nice paved street along the water and drove on it. I did not like people looking at us oddly, but was too busy staying on the narrow road to pay attention when I came to a dead end. My, my geeze Louise. There is no space to turn at all. So providing entertainment for the smiling townies, I backed up at great peril- no barrier, this is just a nice walkway so Ginny was hanging out the window yelling-two

feet-be careful! Oh, turn a little, you are too close and more instructions while I stuck out my door and attempted a straight line for the three or four blocks I had to go. Finally, I saw the end and backed onto the street accompanied by some applause and laughter. I waved good-bye and removed my red face from their view. Free fun for the locals and I told Ginny to quit laughing-I can't swim. She is such a good sport, no smart reparte!

After amusing the locals there we started on our way to the highway and were peacefully zipping along when out of nowhere appeared a policeman standing on the roadside waving us down. By now I was quite a way beyond but he was frantically waving so I once again exhibited my prowess at backing up. He was young and cute, but still a cop. I dug out my papers and said, " do bar-dan", my best word! My turn to laugh as he said, "American"? Yes-can you believe all he stopped us for

was to practice his English of which he was quite proud! We had fun but my few words in Croat were useless and luckily my Serbo-Croat phrase book was on the car seat. He said he was bored having to stand out there on duty! I saw no police car but never understood just why he was there. He asked if we liked his country, the people etc. Quite charming interval. I said we loved everything and he was happy and we went on our way. Forgot to take his picture.

We were really hungry after all of these times, consuming distractions so decided to return to the "Old City" the closest place with restaurants and though they are inside the walls it is only a few steps down. By now I had scoped out a parking spot that was usually available. This was close to restaurant row and very attractive as each place used a different color scheme but my goodness, how could we choose? Every waiter would try to entice us int his place but we tried to tead menus and decide.

They all looked great and we finally sat down and had a fine four course dinner. We thought we could try every place if only we could stay here longer. You can see down the steps to the plaza with all the people.

By this time we were ready to go home and collapse which we did. Before doing that we had to tell Goran about our day. I asked him about Goran Evanisovich my favorite tennis player from Split and he was very familiar with him. Just as we were talking there was a scream and a crowd gathered at the huge staircase where a lady had fallen all the way! How awful. Ginny and I used the elevators as those smooth mablel steps looked dangerous. The help was swift and very efficient- they rushed her to the hospital but the next day she was sent back to America lying in three seta with broken back.

This was upsetting and we sat on Ginny's terrace with our nice wine and reviewed this amazing day.