Thanksgiving weekend

Kenny took a couple of days off last week since Germany doesn't exactly celebrate Thanksgiving and we flew to Dubrovnik, Croatia.  I've been wanting to go to Croatia for awhile now and it didn't disappoint.  I like to travel in the off season to avoid crowds and the town was really buttoned up for the winter.  I'm sure it's gorgeous in the summer, but I wouldn't want to deal with the 15,000 people from cruise ships that overrun the old town every day.  The weather was a little cold and rainy so I'd bet shoulder season would be perfect

We rented a car and one day drove to Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina and another day drove to Kotor, Montenegro.  Both were beautiful and very different.  Every night I'd come back to the apartment we'd rented to read and reread Rick Steves' chapter on "Understanding the former Yugoslavia."  The fighting in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina ended back in the 90's and both have worked to maintain their peace and move toward becoming viable countries on their own.  Montenegro never had saw any fighting, but only became an independent country from Serbia as recently as 2006.  Another thing I learned that was a big surprise to me was that Bosnia-Herzegovina has a big Muslim population (Bosniaks).  I just didn't expect to see mosques and minarets there.  The geography of all three countries was stunning with mountains, water, islands, beaches, and fjords.

As usual the boys were good little travelers as we drug them around looking at things that are of no interest to a 4 and 5-year-old.  They did like walking the walls surrounding old town Dubrovnik, but nothing compared to the cat we named "Maxine" that adopted us.  All day, every day they'd talk about her and ask when we could head back to the apartment to see if she was still there and she always was.  I'm not sure why she came back after all the abuse they gave her, but I'd venture to guess it had lots to do with the milk and sausage they fed her.  She kept them so entertained and busy that even I, a decidedly non-cat person, for one brief second considered getting a cat.