Weddingbee Blog

The next stop on our honeymoon was to a place that we would never have considered if it wasn’t part of the cruise itinerary. We had never heard anything about Dubrovnik, Croatia until booking our trip, and after booking, we kept hearing how beautiful it was. “Beautiful” ended up being quite the understatement.

We arrived in Dubrovnik and added some sunrise pictures to our collection before setting off on our Croatian safari.

Our tour group for the day was only about 10 people, which was a nice change from the large tours we’d taken up to this point. On the way to our first destination, we stopped to admire the view of Old Town from above.

We took a bus to a hotel where our tour guide was waiting for us. The guide didn’t even check our licenses before giving us the keys to our little Toyota truck. (And to say my husband was a little bit excited about the brand of trucks we were taking would be the second largest understatement of our visit to Croatia.)

The safari began with a bit of a roadblock—cows crossing the street!

When all the cows had crossed, we made our way up the mountains and arrived at the overlook of Sivi Soko.

We hung out with the goats for a bit while learning about the history of Dubrovnik.

From the overlook we could see the town of Cavtat, which is apparently a popular celebrity destination. Our guide informed us that Beyonce and Jay-Z had just been there a few weeks before us.

We hopped back in our trucks and drove through a few (large!) puddles in the valley to get to our next stop.

We stopped along the coast to admire the beautiful view. It was so amazing how on the right we could have a gorgeous view of the cliffs and the sea…

and on the left, breathtaking mountain views!

Next, we drove back through the valley and snapped some pictures of the clouds that were coming over the mountains.

We came across a herd of sheep on our way.

We stopped at a stream and took in yet another gorgeous view…

and proceeded to drive THROUGH the stream while praying that it wouldn’t be too deep.

We made it across and drove through the countryside vineyards.

Then we stopped for lunch at an olive oil mill that was built in the 1300s. The mill has been passed down through the family since it was created. Currently, six brothers and their families tend to the mill, and they’ve opened it up as a restaurant in the off season.

We learned how the olives are pressed to make the oil before eating lunch.

Then we enjoyed the most memorable (and most delicious) meal of our entire honeymoon. Everything that was served was grown and made right there at the mill, from the homemade brandy and dried figs we received as a “welcome drink”, to the delicious red and white wines and the chicken soup.

The veal and chicken and the deliciously seasoned potatoes…

The cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes for the salad, and the olive oil used to flavor it (it is an olive oil mill, after all!).

We were then served the most colorful fruit spread I had ever seen for dessert, complete with figs, huge grapes, watermelon, and pomegranates. MMM pomegranates. They have been my obsession ever since.

After a delicious meal and purchasing a giant bottle of olive oil to bring home, it was time to head back to the boat. We said goodbye to the mountains and coastal views…

and promised ourselves that we’d be back to visit the most beautiful place on earth again in the future!

Then we came to the final stop on our Mediterranean journey. After a wonderful time in Croatia, we had an “At Sea” day that ended with a fantastic dinner, went to sleep and awoke to Venice! Mimosas were served out on the deck that morning as we drove past the lovely buildings and bridges throughout the city.

We could see the Piazza San Marco and the crowds starting to form as we drove by.

When the boat docked, we took a shuttle to St. Mark’s Square with some of our fellow honeymooners.

There were pigeons everywhere! I felt like I was in the movie The Birds.

There was a very large puddle (understatement of the year) that kept us from entering the basilica. Our friends whipped off their shoes and proceeded to walk through it. I, on the other hand, was worried about what kind of diseases I would get. I did not want to walk through that water. But our friends were jumping off the cliff, so we did too. And I was dying in my mind the entire time.

Relief! We made it. The inside was just as beautiful as the rest of the historic cathedrals we’d toured on our trip.

We climbed to the balcony to catch the view of the square from above.

We had lost our friends by this point, so after a while we decided to walk through the rest of Venice. There were lots of shops with colorful Venetian glass items to peruse.

We wanted to eat lunch at this restaurant that our travel book recommended, so we did our best to follow the map to get there. This was quite a task…have you seen how crazy the streets are in Venice? They wind, they turn, they come to dead ends. Everyone on the boat kept telling us “You WILL get lost in Venice. It’s okay, it’s not that big. Just keep walking. You’ll find your way back to St. Mark’s eventually.” So we took that to heart and just kept walking, enjoying the beautiful scenery.

It wouldn’t be Venice without gondolas! We were saving our cash for a sunset ride.

We crossed the Rialto bridge.

We admired the view of the Grand Canal.

We stopped at every church we could find on the map that was even remotely along on route. There are a lot of churches in Venice!

Somehow, we finally found the restaurant from our guide. Trattoria da Fiore.

We went inside to find out that they hadn’t opened the restaurant side yet. They still served food in the bar. Of course, none of the menu was in English and we didn’t even recognize any of the words. I asked if they had any pasta without meat. “Vegetables?” the lady asked. I said yes, with vegetables. And ended up with a plate full of clams. Have I mentioned that I hate shellfish? After walking for hours to find this place, lunch was a huge failure.

We decided that we didn’t want our last meal in Italy to be a bad one, so we had a second lunch at a better restaurant. And it didn’t involve any shellfish.

Mmmm ravioli and gnocchi. Super delicious!

After lunch #2, which turned out to be more like an early dinner, we left the restaurant and realized the sun was going to set soon. It was time for our gondola ride! We bartered with the gondolier and got ourselves a private boat.

We quickly found out that gondola rides are a little overly romanticized. Small wobbly boat driven by a slightly creepy man holding a paddle and singing out of tune? Check. Faux fur seats in 95 degree weather? Check. Massive amounts of green sludge to look at? Definitely check. I won’t even begin to describe the terrible smell of dead fish and sewage. Oops… I just did. I’ll put it this way: I almost lost lunch #1 and #2 during our 50 minute gondola ride. Now isn’t that romantic?

Furry seats and sludge aside, the views were all worth it. Plus, how often can one say they’ve taken a gondola ride through the Grand Canal on their honeymoon?

After the gondola ride, it was about time to head back to the boat.  We enjoyed the some gelato for the last time before grabbing a shuttle boat back.

Venice said goodbye with a gorgeous last bit of sunset.

And with that, our Mediterranean honeymoon was over!