The Main Drag early in the morning...

...and later in the day

The Entrance to Our Apartment

Entrance into Old Town

I believe our luck is such that we happened to hit the very best time of day to see this place for the first time. Still early so not many signs of life yet. The first view of the Stradun (main drag) is utterly stunning in the morning light - everything is gleaming, polished white -- the street (NO TRAFFIC - NO VESPAS!!!), the shops, monuments, everything. It is like no place I have ever been. Just incredibly beautiful.

We made our way down to the square and gratefully settled into seats at a cafe to sip a cappuccino, find our map and get oriented before the inevitable climb (in places like this, you can pretty much guarantee that the great view comes with the long climb price tag.) It was not much fun getting our luggage up to our rooms but we will not have to do it again and anyway we have the exact right bags for this kind of travel - rolling in the streets but backpacks when it is time to climb.

The Accommodations

A very spacious 2 BR apartment in old town - very close to the main square but with an awesome terrace view of the town and the ocean and the city walls and... just incredible. The guide book we finally purchased had a stunning photo of old town and it is almost exactly our view - you can see the corner of our terrace in it.

The apartment is completely vertical - bedrooms on one floor, bathroom on the floor above and kitchen with terrace on the top. The bedrooms are clean and comfy; the bathroom spacious enough for two and with a BATHTUB of all things...the kitchen is fully equipped and ready to be cooked in. But more on the terrace: looking around we are convinced that it is without a doubt the best view in town. Nothing obscures the panoramic view of old town and the ocean. We have yet to do any exploring of our neighborhood but as I enjoy my first morning on the terrace with birds and bells being the only sounds to interrupt my thoughts my initial impression is that this was an extraordinary find - we are paying something like $70/night for all this space and all this view and all this history.

Things do become a bit more clear as the day goes on, however. It is hot here. Hotter than any place we have been yet. After about 10 am this lovely terrace is pretty much useless. Someday there will be full vine coverage providing better shade but in the meantime the little umbrella is extremely inadequate and while Fred will expend considerable time and energy on the problem over the next few days (using his favorite string to tie up the big orange blanket that we definitely don't need on the bed) the fact remains: when there is no breeze, there is no terrace. Once again, our daily activities are dictated by the need to stay cool - stay in the shade and don't move too fast.

The view is so wonderful that we still can't bring ourselves to complain.