As we left Sarajevo and was passing the airport I sensed that a static radar camera flashed at me because I was travelling a little faster than the designated 50kmph speed limit (Surprise #2)
It will be interesting to see if a ticket arrives in the mail at some time in the future and if so what I do about it!
The road was very winding for the majority of the trip and as we came out of a tunnel we (I should say I) was flagged down by two police officers who were manning a radar camera and low and behold they showed me a slip of paper produced by the camera which showed I was doing 55kmph in what they said was a 40 kmph area. (Surprise #3)
The language was a bit of a barrier to good communication but I gathered from what he wrote on a scrap of paper that I was being ticketed for 25 euro.
He asked me to go to his dirty police car and as we sat in the car he had written on another piece of scrap paper 10 euro and indicated that I should put that on the dashboard.
I could have been smart and asked for an official "ticket" but complied with his request and he indicated that we could go - so two Bosnian police officers are 10 euro better off as they retire tonight because as sure as hell the money was not going anywhere else but into their back pockets!
On we went and an hour or two later a car coming the other way flashed his lights warning we assumed that there was a police patrol further ahead so we proceeded with extreme caution closely aligning our speed to the 80 kmph that Mrs GPS was indicating was the speed limit in the area.
Sure enough around a corner we came at 62 kmph and the buggers flagged me down again and this time indicated that we were exceeding the 50 kmph limit (Surprise #4).
Out of the car I got again and this time I played as dumb as I could and just kept repeating that I don't understand. It seemed to work as after about 3 or 4 minutes they gave in and indicated we could move on. If he had asked for more than 10 euro I was going to give him the flip and tell him that was all I had paid the other guys and he could suck for any more!
Never before have I in 250kms of driving upset the police on perhaps 3 occasions - it just wasn't my day!!!
After 5 or so hours of travelling we came to the Bosnia/Croatia border in the Hercegovina region and managed to get through there in around 20 minutes.
The border is in the hills and while in the queue you could see the Adriatic
off into the distance - we were around 10kms from Dubrovnik at this border.
It didn't take long until we arrived at our accommodation having had a glorious view of Dubrovnik Old Town as we drove along the coast road.
Unpacked and went walking and ended at the harbour on the Lapad side - what a glorious view (Surprise #5).
As seen in the photos below there was a cruise ship in the port and the hills sweeping around the harbour were a delight with residences on the slopes
It was at least 35C at the time we were by the harbour so we went back and got our togs and walked to Lapad Beach on the other side of this peninsula.
There were 100s of people on the stony beach and in the water so we joined them.
The water was freezing (Surprise #6) but once one acclimatised to it and took in the view all around it was simply superb - before we leave I hope to get photos of the beach and the view from it.
We have been here for no more than 3 hours but have to say that it is an absolutely glorious place and we haven't even seen the old town which is the talk of the town - that is for tomorrow!
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