Ploce, Croatia
1.00 EUR = 7.5 Kuna (HRK)
We travelled 213 sea miles from Durres to Ploce arriving at 7am. The first tours started at 7:30am. We decided to go on the Mostar bus tour but were too late as it was fully booked. We had to have our passports checked and stamped by the Port Authorities then went by free shuttle bus into the Ploce town centre.

Ploce is a small industrial port on the Dalmatian coast which appears to be mainly bauxite processing and shipping, ferries to Trpanj and Peljesac and Marina for small to medium sized fishing boats. It also runs trains to Mostar and Sarajevo and is a summer destination for locals.

We walked along the esplanade to the church and bell tower. The buildings seem quite new or under construction or being further developed. It was clean and tidy with no graffiti. We continued up into the outskirts of the city through the outdoor sporting venues, suburbs and supermarkets.

We followed the road out of the harbour toward Salina along the footpath past Birina and its beautiful blue Birina lake. In Trajekt we took steps down into the fertile valley known as the 'Mandarin Valley' or 'Croatian California'. Each house had plots of land. We could see Mandarin, Olive and Fig trees, Kiwi, Tomato and Egg plants. Everyone we met greeted us warmly and with smiles. We walked back up the hill to the San Antonio Catholic Church, also new, probably 2016 as this was the date on the Virgin Mary statue. The church was closed but the toilets were open!

We couldn't walk down the steps into Stablina as there was a locked gate so back along the footpath to Ploce. We stopped at the bakery but they didn't want Euro so we continued our walk along the River Neretva esplanade past the high rise Apartments and church to the fishing Marina. Some of the fishing boats were tiny indicating the calmness of these waters. We walked as far as the path went until we reached the cliffs then it was time to go back and get the last shuttle bus, 12 noon, back to our ship. The Neretva River is 218km long making it the longest river in Croatian Adriatic.

We departed Ploce at 1pm.