One thing I love about this trip specifically is that Jenn and I spent a lot more time thinking about how we wanted the days to flow to ensure we got to relax and enjoy these spectacular places. After an 8+ hour wine tour, we knew we’d want to keep it light today.

Over the last five years, Jenn and I have become more and more interested in wine. We’ve done several wine clubs and I tend to bother Jenn with interesting facts about the wines we drink. We also have found going on wine tours in different countries to be some of the best tours we’ve taken.

In 2012 we came to Dubrovnik on a cruise with my family and Game of Thrones had just finished airing its second season, the first it filmed in Dubrovnik. I remember on the tour of the city they had mentioned some of the actors being on location and how big of a deal it was for Dubrovnik.

It’s been a long time since we’ve done a multi-stop trip like this. Waking up this morning a little before 4 AM and dragging our bags and our tired eyes downstairs to checkout wasn’t nearly as fun as I remember it. Luckily after a lengthy wait to find an Uber we got in the back of a Prius and made our way to the Dublin airport where we waited in long lines to eventually make it to our terminal to board our plane early. Unfortunately, as I said “this may be the first on-time flight I’ve been on this year” we were told that there was crowding in the airways over France and Croatia and we had to sit on the runway for 45-minutes. Luckily we had gotten Starbucks before boarding or I would have been even more grumpy.

If I was going to map the normal trajectory of Jenn and my first few days of vacation it would be to start strong and then need a day or two to recover. Today was exactly that. We slept into a little after 9 AM (which is unheard of at home, thanks to Frasier) and I went for a run while Jenn got ready and ordered us breakfast. When we finally left a little after 10 AM we walked out to an absolutely stunning morning in Dublin.

Jenn made it. After a very busy four days of work in Dublin, she made it through and today was time to start our vacation in earnest. We woke up a little after 9 AM Jenn ordered us room service and I went down to the gym to get a run in. We both had eggs, mushrooms, and bacon for breakfast with pastries, orange juice, and coffee. It wasn’t anything to write home about but since it came with the room we enjoyed it before venturing out.