Game of Thrones looks certain to bypass Dubrovnik in season seven. The HBO series has already started filming in Northern Ireland and Seville in Spain but Dubrovnik is still off the radar for this year. It would seem that Kings Landing is not needed in the penultimate season of Game of Thrones.

There were already rumours earlier in the year that the writers hadn’t included Dubrovnik in season seven as the plot changed from, Winter is Coming, to Winter is Here, and colder, darker locations were required for filming. “Now that winter has arrived on Game of Thrones, executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss felt that the storylines of the next season would be better served by starting production a little later than usual, when the weather is changing,” HBO programming president Casey Bloys says.

In past seasons Dubrovnik welcomed the cast and crew of Game of Thrones in August or September, but as this year comes to an end there is still no sign of HBO. However Dubrovnik was also not rumoured to be a location at all in season six, but the crews did turn up for a few days to shoot some scenes near the Old City. So although for the time being it looks like the city is indeed to “warm” for winter the possibility of HBO turning up still can’t be written off.

In season six the Spanish city of Girona stood in as Kings Landing in the serial, however HBO have confirmed that they will not be returning to Girona at all in season seven. It has also been confirmed that season seven will be seven episodes in length compared to the normal ten episodes. And it would seem from information that most of the locations for season seven are in Spain, Northern Ireland and Iceland.

Filming locations for the Game of Thrones in Dubrovnik - Dubrovnik Tourist Board 

Swimming in the rain, just swimming in the rain! Yes, swimming in the rain, not singing in the rain, although we were singing as well. “Uncle Marky we are wet anyway so what does it matter if it is raining,” said Millie as she dived into another wave.

The last of the summer guests have just gone home, it’s been yet another busy summer season. My “baby” sister and my niece, my soft spot, Millie were the final chorus in this year’s summer song. And what a way to finish, a crescendo.

How a nine-year old girl can wrap a whole family around her little finger is fascinating. We pretty much did what she wanted when she wanted, although nobody minded, far from it. And yes we went swimming, and yes it was raining. But for Millie the sea was like a bath, a warm bath. She crashed through the waves and had the whole beach to herself.

The culture clash was interesting to observe. Here she was running up and down the beach whilst on the promenade behind us parents had wrapped up their children like it was a polar winter. Swimming suits versus thermal underwear. And at home she ran around barefoot with all the doors open, no fear of any draft from Miss Millie.

Now she is getting “older” she is no longer a little baby. The questions came thick and fast, many of them tricky to answer. She has a very open view of the world, she is the product of a different surrounding. Race, creed, colour and religion, or maybe I should say differences in all of these, are completely normal for Millie. She has even already been to a gay wedding. “Have you got a boyfriend,” asked my wife. “No,” she Millie with a cute smile. To which my sister asked in a flash, “Well maybe she has a girlfriend.” I could see the confused look on my wife’s face. “Yes, Boba, love is blind,” added Millie. “We don’t differentiate between people, it’s what’s inside that is important,” added my sister. I was having flash backs to my childhood and my upbringing. A liberal view on life.

Moments like this were broken up with funnier times, more awkward times. “When will I get fluff on my fufu,” she asked once. Just to fill you in “fufu” is her word for...well...ladies parts. How do you start to answer that? She is getting older. Gone are the days when she was happy watching Mickey Mouse, now we had Nickelodeon on at every possibility.

Brainwashing! I was going mad watching teenage programs featuring all the angst and insecurities of the pimpled part of growing up. But she was happy, letting out a chuckle every minute.

How refreshing it is to be young. I was accused of being nostalgic, and yes I admit it, I was. Although everything seems so much more complicated today, in these instant times there doesn’t seem to be any time. She was two-screening most of the time. Yes, two-screening, watching Nickelodeon with one eye and surfing Youtube on her iPad with the other eye. This was multitasking taken to another level. I soon lost my nostalgia. It seemed like all too much hard work.

“What do you want to eat tonight,” I asked her. “I don’t like Japanese or Chinese or Indian,” she replied. Thank God because we don’t have a great choice of those cuisines, I thought to myself. I was thinking of a pizza. She has a Dubrovnik memory based around food and shopping. As she has been here many times before she has learnt to navigate via ice-cream shops and shops. “Shall we go to the Stradun this morning,” I asked. “Oh yes then I can have an ice-cream in Dolce Vita and have a look in the Christmas shop,” she replied. She hasn’t been for a year but remembers her “important” spots. “Where shall we go for lunch then,” now I was intrigued. “How about the fish restaurant in the harbour,” she answered. “Haha, you are like a mini Tripadvisor,” I replied automatically. “What’s Tripadvisor...is that an app,” she answered. I basically followed her around the city; she seemed to know where she was going. And yes we had an ice-cream, bought a Christmas souvenir and of course had a fish feast in Lokanda.

The week flew by, and then Millie flew home. After taking them to the airport I slumped down into the couch, hit the remote control and was greeted by SpongeBob on Nickelodeon.

Three members of the Dubrovnik Sharks American football club have been selected to represent the Croatian National Team. Lujo Domaćin, Otton Roca and Marko Miletić will all play for the Croatian team in this flag, or non-contact, version of this all-American sport.

After more than ten years of active work in this sport in Croatia, the first national team has been formed and it will consist of players from each team participating in the annual competition – the Croatia Flag Football League. Players from Zapresic Saints, Osijek Cannons, Bjelovar Greenhorns and Zagreb Thunder, amongst others have all been chosen in the national team.

And the newly formed Croatian team will have their first outing on the 29th and 30th of October when they will play against in Serbia in this year's Balkan Bowl II tournament.

This tournament has been held for the second time and aims to strengthen cooperation between the Balkan and neighbouring countries, establishing and helping the popularization of American football in the region.

Well done to our Dubrovnik Sharks and we wish them well at this tournament.

Otton Roca, Lujo Domaćin and Marko Miletić heading off to represent national team 

Dubrovnik is the champion of Croatian tourism in 2016 and the best City Break destination – it was declared during the Days of Croatian tourism in Bol, Brac. 

Dubrovnik hotels demonstrated their high quality by winning numerous awards, especially Villa Dubrovnik, which was declared the 'Hotel of the year'.

Vlaho Margaretic, head of the Office for entrepreneurship, tourism and the sea received the recognition in the name of City of Dubrovnik. This is the second time this year that Dubrovnik was declared the champion of the tourism, since it already got that title from the newspapers Vecernji list. Well done!

On Sunday the 30th of October the island of Lokrum will be free for everyone. The Lokrum Reserve have announced that this Sunday the island will open its doors to all visitors for free, which means that not only is entrance into the nature reserve free but also so are the ferries from the Old City harbour.

The weather forecast for this weekend predicts sunshine and temperatures in the mid twenties, in other words an ideal opportunity to visit Lokrum.

Catch a ferry from the Old City harbour 

One of the most well-known and iconic hotels in Dubrovnik, the Hotel Excelsior, is on the verge of a major refurbishment. According to a statement the Hotel Excelsior will close its doors to the public on Monday the 31st of October when the reconstruction of the interior will begin.

Hotel Excelsior, which is part of the Adriatic Luxury Hotel group, will remain closed over the winter months whilst the works are carried out.

The last time work was done on the hotel was back in 2008 and this time, as is clear from the photos, it will be a significant investment. The redesigned hotel will be up and running for the 2017 summer season.

Check out the photo gallery of how the new Hotel Excelsior will look.

There are still no signs of the summer ending in Dubrovnik this year. Even though we are on the verge of November, with only 58 days left until Christmas, the sunshine just won’t stop.

The historic Old City of Dubrovnik reassembled the middle of summer today with hundreds of tourists in shorts and T-shirts as temperatures pushed up to 24 degrees. There were even a few “brave” swimmers in the Adriatic.

The forecast until the beginning of next week is for more warm sunshine and temperatures stuck in the low twenties. Is there a better time of the year to visit Dubrovnik?

The Small Onofrio's fountain, one of the iconic symbols of the historic Old City of Dubrovnik was damaged five days ago when one of the heavy stone slabs from the outer rim crashed on the ground. Of course, it had to be repaired as soon (and as good) as possible and the Friends of Dubrovnik Antiquities reacted really fast. Today, the fountain got its missing piece back!

Just a reminder, it seems that the accident was caused by a tourist that leaned on the edge of the fountain. Thankfully the weighty stone didn’t injure anyone as it smashed into pieces of the ground.

The Small Onofrio Fountain, located at the end of the Stradun, is a magnet for tourists and in the warmer summer months is a source of much needed refreshment, and quite often small children climb on this edge to reach one of the fountains. The fountain was designed by the Italian architect Onofrio Della Cava and was constructed between 1440 and 1442.

                 This is how the fountain looked like after the accident - Photo by: Ahmet Kalajdzic