July 7 - Dubrovnik

The old port from Mount Srd

Our Rick Steves tour was over this morning. Ann and I decided to stay for two more days in Dubrovnik to make sure that we have seen everything. The first thing that we did was change hotels. We are now in Hotel Perla which is very close to our old hotel. We spent some time in our new room and then had lunch in its outdoor restaurant. The temperature was still hot, but it eased off slightly. We waited until early afternoon before we went exploring.

We caught the 2:00 #5 bus and rode it to the cable car that took us up Mount Srd. This is the sight of a fortress that Napoleon started to build but never completed. Today it is a tourist destination for scenic views of Dubrovnik and surrounding hills. The ride was very smooth. There was a breeze at the top. That plus a slight haze made it feel cooler. I took lots of photos but the haze dimmed them a little. I was trying to get a classical photo of the old town, but the angle was not good.

We spent a little more time on the mountain by investigating Napolean's fort. It is a museum now with displays of the "Homeland War". There was an entry fee which we decided to forego. We have seen enough and heard enough of the ethnic cleansing to last for a long time. So we got back onto the cable car, rode it to the bottom of the mountain and walked into the old town via the Buza Gate.

Our next adventure was a walk on the scenic 1 1/2 mile town walls. We started near the old harbor and went in a counter clockwise direction. This is the only direction allowed. Apparently the walkway gets pretty crowded when cruise ships are in the harbor and some of the narrow parts of the walk would be dangerous with people jostling each other. We encountered very few people along the way partly because of the heat and partly because there were a lot fewer people in the city than the precious two days.

The walk was spectacular. To our left we could see the entire old town. The new red-tiles roofs reminded us that the city was under siege during the "Homeland War". (At the entry gates there are posters showing where buildings were bombed and burned. Hardly any were spared). To the right, we could see the surrounding hills and the Adriatic. We completed the walk in 1 1/2 hours. The temperature was in the high 80s, but a breeze from the Adriatic cooled us a little.

We immediately headed over to an ice cream shop and cooled off even more. Then we visited a Dominican Monastery that contains many of Dubrovnik's art treasures. Killing time before dinner, we sat on the steps of a church watching the world go by including a couple of weddings.

We the town Bella rang at 6:30, we headed over to an outdoor restaurant called Veritas. We ate there two days ago and liked it. This time Ann had vegetarian spaghetti while I had grilled squid. Yummy!

We caught the #6 bus back to Lapad and walked down to our hotel. Along the way, we stopped and chatted with some of our tour members who were also spending extra time here. Bedtime was a little past 10:00, one of our earliest.