Losinj, Croatia- the Last Day of our Cruise

Time to board the ship
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  Our last stop before Venice is the island of Losinj (pronounced Lo-sheen), Croatia. We caught the first tender ashore in the quaint harbor of Mali Losinj and had a walking tour along the waterfront promenade and up the hill to the 18th century church of St. Mary. After that we walked to an amazing aromatic herb garden that has all of the herbs that are grown on the island in one spot. I bought some more lavender oil there.

At this point we walked past Mali Losinj and down a beautiful path through the pine forest to the other side of the island (it's not very wide) and to the small town of Veli Losinj. It was a very scenic 3 km hike though I got a blister on my little toe and it was quite painful.

... difficult to say goodbye...

In the Gardens
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The walk was worth it as we passed the gorgeous clear blue-green of  the Adriatic Sea and came to the even more quaint harbor of Veli Losinj.

The few of us that were left from the yellow and blue groups ( nine of us) and Laura and Marty (our great tour leaders) stopped for lunch at an outdoor cafe on the water. Scampi Spaghetti, Tomato Salad and Fanta are what I ordered for lunch though I forgot that I would have to peel the scampi to eat. Anyway, it was delicious.

After lunch, the eleven of us caught two taxis back to the port of Mali, Losinj to catch the tender back to the ship.

Mali Losinj
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We set sail at 5p.m. and at 6:30 National Geographic held a farewell party for us on the Fan Tail (top deck at the stern). Marty got all of us posed and Otto (the "Hotel Manager" of the Royal Clipper) took a picture of our group and gave a little farewell speech. Stephanie and Andrea read a poem that they had written about our voyage, the wonderful ship, great people, etc. It was very nice-- wish I had a copy!

Our farewell dinner was at 7:30 and we sat with the Spains and the Sutherlands. It will be difficult to say goodbye to our great travel mates from the past twelve days.

Dolphin fountain in Mali Losinj. There are lots of dolphins in the area, and we saw some frolicking from the ship
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Marty and Laura passed out a list to all of us tonight with emails and addresses so we could exchange picture web sites, etc. Marty said this is the first trip which she has managed in which 100% of the people involved gave emails to be exchanged.

We packed most everything tonight as they have asked us to have our large luggage in the hall by 4 a.m. ---

Tomorrow we will be in Venice!