Strong northerly winds in Dubrovnik have meant that the Dubrovnik Bridge has been closed to all categories of vehicles from 6.42 this morning. The strong winds blowing down over the mountains have also brought the temperatures down, with highs today expected to reach 9 degrees.

Not only is the Dubrovnik Bridge closed but also the first flight from Dubrovnik Airport at 6.45 this morning was forced to stay on the runway and didn’t take off to Zagreb.

The forecast for the beginning of next week is for more northerly winds and lower temperatures but by Wednesday the wind will have abated and temperatures will start to rise again.

Following news that Dubrovnik will be connected to Amsterdam and Vienna by low cost airlines for 2016 comes the news that Venice will also have its own budget link. The Spanish airline Volotea will connect Dubrovnik with Venice throughout the summer season of 2016 with twice-weekly flights starting on the 28th of May.

Volotea is one of the Europe’s youngest airlines and was founded in 2012 in Barcelona and currently connects around 50 European destinations. Volotea will offer competitive rates to Venice with prices starting at around 80 Euros for a return flight. Venice, which is a twin city of Dubrovnik, is already connected by the Croatian national airline, Croatia Airlines. Volotea will connect Dubrovnik to Venice twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays and plan to operate the line until the 3rd of September 2016. The Spanish airline also flies directly from Dubrovnik to Bordeaux.

Enter a competition through Facebook with the Croatian National Tourist Board and you'll have the chance to spend a holiday in Croatia. The tourist board is giving away a holiday for two in Croatia this summer, with two nights in Zagreb, one night in the famous Plitvice Lakes, two nights in Zadar and two nights in Split.

All you need to do to have a chance of winning this superb Croatia prize is to visit the Croatian National Tourist Board’s Facebook here and answer a few simple questions.

Try the Croatia quiz and spend this summer in the warmth of the Mediterranean sunshine.

His Royal Highness Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, accompanied by his wife Camilla, The Duchess of Cornwall will undertake official visits to Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia in March 2016.

According to the official website of the Prince of Wales the royal couple will visit four countries in the region in March this year. Prince Charles has visited this region of Europe eight times before but this will be the Duchess of Cornwall’s first official visit to Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia.

The last time the Prince of Wales visited Croatia on an official visit was in 1996, however he visited Bosnia and Herzegovina in March 2007, the last time that he was in the region on an official visit.

The last time that Prince Charles was in Dubrovnik was in February 1996 when he visited both Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Before that the Prince Charles visited Dubrovnik in 1978. The official website of the Prince of Wales does not indicate which cities in Croatia Charles and Camilla will visit.

                                                 Prince Charles in Dubrovnik in 1978 - Photo Press Association

After paving stones were lifted in the centre of the Old City of Dubrovnik a new world was discovered. The excavations in the Gundulic Square in Dubrovnik opened up secrets from the past after the archaeologists decided to dig down another metre. Remains of houses, streets and canals dating back to before the great earthquake in Dubrovnik in 1667 were uncovered.

The young archaeologist Mira Andric and his team photographed the fruits of their labours after unearthing buildings, coins and rubble from times gone by. The “hole in the ground” has captured the attention of many local people.

After the excavations are recorded the stone slabs will be replaced and this small piece of history will, once again, be under the footsteps of thousands of tourists this summer.

Croatia celebrates the 24th anniversary of international recognition today, remembering January 15, 1992 when the countries of the then European Community (EC) jointly recognised it as an independent state. And Germany, which played a key role in that process together with the Holy See, established diplomatic relations with Croatia.

The first country to recognize Croatia was Iceland on the 19th of December 1991 while Germany recognized it the very same day. The European Economic Community finally granted Croatia diplomatic recognition on 15 January 1992. Two more countries decided to recognize Croatia before the EEC – scheduled date: the Holy See and San Marino. By the end of January Croatia was recognized by seven more countries.

Apartments in Dubrovnik, Opatija and Split were among the most expensive apartments on offer in Croatia in 2015 according to information from the specialised website Crozilla.com.

The highest average advertised price for an apartment in Croatia last year was in Dubrovnik where, according to Crozilla, the average price for a square metre was 3,149 Euros. Dubrovnik was followed by Opatija with 2,951 Euros and Split with 2,186 Euros.

Most of the Croatian cities away from the Adriatic coastline had an average advertised price for apartments of less than 1,000 Euros per square metre in 2015. The few exceptions were Zagreb with a price of 1,589 Euros and Varazdin where the price reached 1,101 Euro per square metre.
Among the less expensive cities included in the Crozilla.com study from last year were Vukovar with an average price of only 579 Euros and Sisak with the price of 783 Euros.

Compared to the prices of 2010, which is the base for the websites analysis, last year's housing prices on average were lower by 5.7 percent. The average property prices in Dubrovnik fell by 6.4 percent in 2015 compared to 2010.

“Kleine Leckerbissen,” read my mother-in-law slowly from a packet of dog biscuits. “What the hell are you talking about,” I answered, wondering if she had taken up German lessons. “Kleine Leckerbissen,” she spelled out letter by letter, adding “Mit Rind,” as if I understood. “Kleinere brocken…never mind it is important that they are kleine!” she added as if understanding everything she was reading.

Sub City has brought up a whole new set of challenges for my mother-in-law, well for me as well. With the major shops inside the centre coming from Germany, DM, Müller and New Yorker are all German companies; the language barrier has been raised. A trip to “Das Sub City,” or should it be Die or Der Sub City, means we either have to take a microscope or a Croatian – German dictionary.

“Oh look at this Aerial…it has 100 wäschen!” exclaimed my mother-in-law with delight. With the majority of products in Müller coming directly from the fatherland they are, of course, covered with combinations of ä, ö and ü (and even ß). Of course, and in line with the law, they have a Croatian translation on a small white sticker on the back of the product. However as both my mother-in-law and myself has the eyesight of a short-sighted mole these miniature descriptions need an electronic microscope borrowed from CSI to understand.

“Can you read this,” she was holding a 2 kg bag of dog biscuits a few millimeters from her nose. “I can see the white sticker but the words might as well be written in Swahili,” came my answer. That’s how we ended up buying the wrong bag of dog biscuits in the first place. And as nobody in the immediate family has been a “gastarbajter” we don’t even have pigeon German. When one of our family members tried to explain to a German friend that his father, and namesake, had died a few years ago this is what the man heard, “Ich bin kleine Božo, und grosse Božo ist kaput!” As I said German is not our strong subject.

The confusion doesn’t stop there. I have been a regular guest at the dentist recently and as a show of solidarity my wife bought me an electric toothbrush in Das Sub City. Of course all of the instructions were in German; I had managed to throw away the Croatian instructions with the rest of the packaging. Now this was no ordinary toothbrush it looked like a vibrator and a Christmas tree molded into one. “Which end goes in my mouth,” was the first question. This thing had more settings and functions than my television. It took me ten minutes before I had the thing started…humming away in my hand. “Do you understand any of those instructions,” I shouted to my wife. “I was born in Dubrovnik not Dusseldorf,” came the answer. Toothpaste was flying around the bathroom and before long I had more toothpaste on the mirror in front of me than in my mouth. Everything was Weiß! I ended up going online to try and find English instructions…danke.

Many of the products you already know, or have a good idea of what they are for by the illustration on the packet. It is a little like pantomime shopping, and you never really know what you will get, a little like Christmas. But when you need to get a little more complicated, or more specific, then the mystery begins. Maybe this a tactic from Müller to sell more products, if it is then it is certainly working in the Thomas house. We have all sorts of different dog foods, washing powder, cleaning products, anti-insect sprays…the list goes on.

“Kleine Leckerbissen,” repeated my mother-in-law again. This was confusing. We knew that “kleine” meant small but there was a huge wolf-like dog on the front of the bag. Our pantomime shopping was not going to work here; it was a contradictory bag of dog biscuits. We both peered like newborn babies at the sticker on the back of the bag. “If they had printed this any smaller it would be invisible,” I added. With our German failing, the wolf photo confusing us and minuscule Croatian we were left with the last resort…touch. I felt through the bag to try and judge the size of the biscuits, believe me our small dog will immediately reject the wrong sized biscuits. “I reckon they will be OK,” I answered holding one biscuit between my thumb and forefinger. Next time we will but dog biscuits in another supermarket…maybe Lidl…oh blimey!

Mark Thomas