Lori and Troy do Europe 2025

We were not looking forward to breakfast based on last nights accommodations. I will say that the bathroom was nice though. Lori still felt ripped off and it is not something that she deals with well. Breakfast was in another building on the 3rd floor with a pretty nice view and actually was surprisingly ok.

We headed back to the room at 10am and found out that checkout was also at 10am. We packed up quickly and checked out. The receptionist was the same girl as last night. She tried to charge Lori $93 Euro which Lori had already paid for through her credit card points. The two debated for a few minutes with Lori pointing out that we actually paid for a room with a view as well. Apparently the girl had us in the wrong room under the wrong name. The couple that arrived after us last night may have benefited from that error. That same couple checked out before us this morning and I think they may have got a free night stay. They had puzzled smiles on their faces as they left which didn’t make sense until we drove away. Lori won that dispute as she should have.

We drove down to Old Town in Zadar. All of these castles and walled cities have their own characteristics. This one had a lot of Roman influence which was partially destroyed in WWII from bombing. Most of it has been restored. It is pretty nice now. There is a lot of Roman artifacts and remnants of structures in the center of Old Town. There was a Pillar of Shame where they punished people by hanging them by their wrists on the pillar. This was a public place of punishment and humiliation for wrongdoers. People were chained to it and mocked by the crowds, sometimes for hours, before being whipped or having to pay a fine for the privilege of being released. There was also a Sea Organ that was at the farthest end of Old Town. It played sounds while the waves crashed in along the shore. I thought that I took a video of it but cannot find it. Bummer!

We only had parking for a few hours and decided to travel a little farther South to a city called Sibenik. It is another 1.5 hrs drive and will put us there at about 3pm. We decided to be a little smarter today and reserve a room early.

Lori totally redeemed herself with this place! She reserved for this place for 2 nights. It is in a 300 year old house right in Old Town. More alley ways and lots of steps! It was not a very appealing walk up the many steps. Fortunately the owner met us at the street and helped carry Lori’s luggage. The second the door opens we are impressed. It has a hot tub, sauna and separate shower right when you walk in on the first level. The homes are all built on rock and they integrated that into the spa room. The second level is the living room, bedroom, kitchen and bath. It is probably the nicest place that we have ever stayed!!! I will say that we were a little worried walking up to the apartment. Some of these alleys are very old and in poor repair. They can look sketchy from the outside but when you go inside you find a remodeled modern apartment. I was amazed at how they got the building materials and hot tub up the many steps and tight alley ways.

We walked around old town and explored a little bit. This town is really going to put our walking to the test tomorrow but I think it will be worth it. They did some filming of Game of Thrones here so I want to see that. We went to a restaurant (Peperoncino) for dinner that was recommended by the owner. Lori had Swordfish and I had Grilled Octopus. It was delicious! We watched the sunset with a glass of wine and an Old Fashioned.

We headed back to the Spa and heated up the Sauna. It was a nice way to finish off a 6 mile, 22 flight day.