I’m not absolutely certain, but I think I saw the film 101 Dalmatians in a cinema many years ago, and of course in recent decades it’s often been screened on television.

I knew very little about the breed of dog or its history until last week.

We had two wonderful tour guides and on a day trip in Croatia from Makaraska to Dubrovnik, he explained everything to us.

He told us of the ancient coastal region of Dalmatia - a long ‘strip’ of land with the sea at one side and mountains at the other. From here originated the famous white dog with the characteristic black or brown spots.

If right was right, and Yugoslavia as we knew it hadn’t undergone such profound change in recent decades, I’d probably be very familiar with the area. It’s rugged but stunningly beautiful - that’s why we had planned our honeymoon here in May, 1981.

Was it the great William Shakespeare who once wrote, ‘What’s past is prologue’? In other words, what’s gone before is but a preview of the future. Forty-five years ago, just the two of us had planned the trip to Dubrovnik. Now, in 2026, a group of over 40 came for this break to Croatia.

War, upheaval, and destruction beset the area near the Adriatic Coast as recently as the 1990s.

Because of television, we saw at first hand the savagery and bloodshed that tore the region apart in relatively recent times. It’s truly amazing, isn’t it, the power of human beings and ethnic groups to bring such horrors on themselves? Equally stunning also is the way recovery and healing can grow.

We were based in the Park Hotel in Makaraska for seven days - it was delightful. Sometimes, brochures and ads can be deceiving. You’d see ‘Hotel by the Beach’ and sure it could be quarter of a mile away. We were literally ten yards across the street from a beautiful, sandy, sheltered beach.

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