A GREAT Day At Zaton Bay!!!!

We had SUCH a great day!!! I actually feel overwhelmed with excitement and gratitude, finding it impossible to 'capture' the sheer magnitude of the beauty and serenity here, at Zaton Bay!!

This morning, we savoured a 'sleep in' and a slow morning of 'soaking up' the peaceful, exquisite beauty that greeted us, as we opened our front door! 

We absolutely enjoyed our alfresco breakfast on the deck and then,  we read our books, watched birds soar & glide onto the water; listened as the fish jumped and the boats putted along, with their solo occupants enjoying some leisurely fishing! Moving closer to the water, to read, and while the sun blessed us with its gentle rays, Lawrence enjoyed some Croatian snacks and beer (I enjoyed the chips as well, but beer is not my thing!)

Although it was hard to break away from this glorious spot, we decided to explore, on foot, the west side of the bay. After our delicious alfresco lunch.....

.....we spent the next 4 hours absorbing the INCREDIBLE beauty of only one small corner of this AMAZING area!!! Before I try to describe what we saw and experienced, here is a little description and map of where we are.....

Zaton, which is where our seaside apartment is located, is a 2 km long bay, about 10 km from the city of Dubrovnik. There are three village communities scattered along the irregular shoreline of the bay: Veliki (big) Zaton, Mali (small) Zaton and Stikovica. We are on Mali Zaton, near the base of the bay on the right hand side, as you look at this map view.

Today, we walked along the shoreline path, encountering tranquil, pebbly beaches, rocky crags, open shores of crystal clear water, shady 'tunnels' under old pine trees, small, cozy, picturesque restaurants, families playing together and people fishing on shore as well as the view of boats, out on the water!!!! We hiked up a steep and narrow trail to the top of a cliff, around the farthest point, on the west side of the bay and were literally enthralled by the view, from our elevated viewing spot, of the picture 'on the other side!!!! Literally every 10 steps, either one of us would exclaim our awe and amazement at what we were seeing!!!! It sounded something like this, "OMG....can you believe this!!!"; "Ohhhhh WOW!!!"; "this is sooooo beautiful!!!"; "Incredible!!!"; "Ohhhhh my!!!!!" "OMG!!!!"   

It is actually indescribable and although I am posting pictures, (I think I took about 200, today!!), they do not do it an iota of justice!! All pictures have been taken with my iPhone, which is the only 'camera' I brought, for convenience and because of luggage/baggage issues! I truly regret not having my good camera here!!! Oh well.......this is better than nothing and it is good to capture it as best as I can! 

So......here is a large selection of pictures, shown in the order of our walk along the shores of Zaton Bay, on this beautiful Sunday in Croatia.....

We stopped for coffee and a DELICIOUS cherry-apple strudel at this incredibly beautiful restaurant that was originally, an old stone boathouse.....It has indoor and oitdoor seating. We enjoyed sitting at an outdoor table.....

 This cat really enjoyed the ambiance at this place, as well.....

From here, we took a more rugged trail up, up, up, through the trees, following the shoreline until we were waaaayyyy up, on a cliff line overlooking the ocean and islands, on the other side of the West Point.....The views along this path, were spectacular!!!!!

We found an old rock ruin....

 And a church on a cliff, with a cemetery.....

We had a smooth decent, almong a paved path, where we met a 59 yr old lady who told us an incredible story about her family and their history of escaping this country during war torn years! She has lived in Canada and California but returned here, to her home country, after the Croatian War of Independence, in the '90's.  She could write a book and it would be a fascinating, compelling novel of courage and determination!!!

As we made our way home, we met many shoreline fishermen...hoping to stage their catch for dinner! One fellow humorously and wisely stated that he had "...no fish, but also no stress!" 

Others explained that they were fishing for octopus (which people, in all these European countries, LOVE!!) This involves spearing them! 

Upon returning to our serene home, Lawrence jumped in, to enjoy his first swim in the Adriatic Sea, as night drew itself toward us.... He said it was "wonderful!!"

We enjoyed cooking supper for ourselves and eating it alfresco, on our deck, as the lights, from across the bay, shimmered on the water.

 It has been a glorious day, for which we are truly grateful!