Spring is in the air

April might be the cruellest month, but as far as I am concerned, it welcomes the arrival of Spring. The clocks went forward last Friday, giving us an extra hour of sunlight in the evening (but I'm walking the dog at dawn); the temperature has increased by a few degrees, causing me to change to my summer footwear (Crocs Santa Cruz), and all the worries which were shackling my feet for the past month have disappeared.

Spring is in the air!

It's also the time when thoughts turn towards summer holidays: I've tentatively started planning this year's adventure. Our destination will be Dubrovnik, where we will spend about ten days. Dubrovnik offers a wide range of self-catering apartments of various sizes, and these seem to be a cheaper but more conducive environment than hotels. These apartments also seem to be  reserved very quickly which is why I have already booked an apartment in the building whose picture appears on the left. We'll presumably have have half of the top floor.

The next most important factor after accommodation is transport; I spoke with our travel agent yesterday about flights from Tel Aviv to Vienna and thence to Dubrovnik, but she said that in the summer months there are direct flights from Tel Aviv to Dubrovnik. We'll get an update in the next few days.

I have probably written this before: sometimes it seems that I derive more satisfaction from arranging these trips than I do from actually taking them. This time I intend that we have time for evening strolls on the beaches or in the Old Town, a chance to relax and enjoy ourselves instead of a compulsive need to try and see as much as possible whilst utilising every minute to the maximum. I've been setting up a variety of day excursions (including visits to Montenegro and Mostar), although I haven't ordered these yet.

One thing of which we will have to beware is the vast number of day trippers who descend upon Dubrovnik (by staying over a week, we can morally look down on most of the tourists!) from the huge ships which ply the Adriatic. This will mean that most days we will take a trip out of Dubrovnik during the central hours of 10am - 4pm, then spending time in the city in the late afternoon/evening.