August 18 – Dubrovnik City Tour

We had a morning walking tour of Dubrovnik.  It is humid and a bit warm so we were all wilting by mid-morning. 

Dubrovnik is Magic.  Known as the Pearl of the Adriatic, it is just Magic.  The area was originally founded by the Greeks but the massive fortifications and the town inside were established by the Croats and construction of the walls was done between the 12th and 17th centuries.  They are in incredible shape

The place was pretty packed and they even have directional signs (way in and way out) to get into the city to avoid a massive jam.

The walls are almost 6360 feet long.  After our city tour Paul decided to climb the stairs up to the top of the wall and walk the entire length, in the sun, heat and humidity...and came back soaked.  (Google said over 1000 stairsteps from ground, all the way around the wall, and back to ground.)  Glad he made the trek because he got really good shots.  The rest of us stuck street level.  

Much of the city within the walls was massively bombed during their war of independence from Yugoslavia (1991-92) and 86% of the buildings within the walls were destroyed.  What an amazing  restoration project.  

The absolutely most impressive feature of Dubrovnik is the massive city walls that date from the 12^th to the 17^th century. 

We started at a plaza near the West Harbor.  There were lots of tourists in the plaza listening to tour guides.  Overlooking the harbor was Lovrijenac Castle, a small, secondary castle.

There were lots of kayakers in the harbor, getting ready to head out of the harbor.  The brightly light kayaks were a big contrast to the stone walls of the city.

Inside we had a great city walk through about half of the city.  There is a main, wide street that runs from the city gate to the eastern harbor gates.  All the streets heading inland had lots of stairs going up the side of the mountain to the walls.  The side streets heading to the water were all pretty flat and that is where the tour focused. 

No vehicles are allowed in the city but even if they were they would only be able to drive from one gate to the other.  All the side streets were very narrow and could handle only pedestrians and a few hand carts.  There were lots of small shops, cafés and ice cream shops in the town.  

We even found a rubber duckie shop so bought one for our little grandson. 

We stopped by the Dubrovnik Cathedral but didn’t go in. 

We eventually ended up at the east gate where the tour ended.  There was also a big harbor there with lots of boats and what looked to be ferries.

We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the harbor.  Then Mary, Phyllis, and Jim headed back to the hotel and Paul decided to walk the city walls…in the sun.  And the heat.  And the humidity.  The walk was 1.2 miles and Google said over 1000 stairsteps from ground, all the way around the wall, and back to ground.  

The views of the city were great…looking over the vast expanse of orange tile roofs.

And there were also good sea views.

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More Dubrovnik
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Paul came back absolutely soaked from the sun and the heat.

After resting up a bit we all decided we were still too tired to head back into town…so we all decided to have dinner at the hotel.  Food was pretty good, lovely terrace eating but it was right on the main road so there was a lot of traffic noise.  The chocolate dessert was pretty awesome.