As of today, there are more than 700 subscribers that tune in each morning to view my daily posts. Of those, there are bird fans, orangutan fans, landscape fans. But today, it’s not about feathers vs. fur because today, after 48 years, I’m getting married. Today, it’s all about Karen. So please allow me this one indulgence to post a photo of the woman who will be by my side for all that comes next. We’re off to Greece Monday morning, followed by a safari in Botswana. Stay tuned for new photos upon our return in three weeks.

Here’s another look at the walled city of Dubrovnik in Croatia. This time from a rocky hillside just outside the city, pre sunrise.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 30mm) ISO 200, f/20 at five shutters speeds merged into an HDR image

The Stradun is the main street through the center of old town Dubrovnik. I took this shot at about 5 AM when there was no one around. By noon each day — after all the cruise ships drop off the thousands of tourists that join forces with all those that stay at the hotels just beyond the city walls — The Stradun gets packed with people. I, of course, much prefer it when like this.

This view of Dubrovnik is from the opposite side of the city from last week’s post. I decided to get up very early one morning and get as many photos as I could before the cruise ships dropped off all the tourists. It was still about 45 minutes to sunrise when I took this one.

The island of Hvar is best known these days as Croatia’s most stylish destination to dock your yacht. A little further from the restaurants and shops that line the harbor, however, can be found fields of lavender. In fact, Hvar is often referred to as the “island of lavender” and the annual lavender festival just so happened to coincide with the weekend of our visit.

Here’s a closer look at Dubrovnik — one of the best preserved, walled medieval cities in the world. This photo was obviously taken just outside of those walls. During the war in 1991, the city was under constant bombardment for seven months. It received significant damage from the shelling and most of the old rooftops have since been replaced. The locals, however, aided by the giant walls, were able to hold “Old Town” and keep the Serb-Montenegrin forces out. One of Dubrovnik’s most popular tourist attractions is to walk the circumference of the city on top of the wall.

We just got back from our Croatia trip today so still going through the photos. This was my first out-of-the-country non animal trip in a while so there won’t be as many posts here on the blog. That being said, Croatia really is a beautiful country and I took plenty of photos of the Adriatic and the towns that seem to spill into it. This was shot from the balcony of our hotel in Dubrovnik. You can see the Old Town off in the distance to the left of the sun (we were actually a lot closer than it appears here in this wide angle photo). The water couldn’t be more ideal for swimming, and we made sure to take advantage of that fact on a daily basis. More from Croatia later this week, but now time for some sleep.