Dubrovnik, Croatia- July 28, 2024
July 28, 2024
Last updated on September 2nd, 2024 at 06:43 pm
[This is a rough draft to get started. We’ve done a lot of traveling so far, and are behind in sleep, so we’ll keep this updated as we have a chance. When this isn’t here anymore, you’ll know that we’re finished with the page!]
Dubrovnik is a historic jewel, with its spectacular Adriatic setting, 12th-century medieval streets and incredibly preserved structures. So stunning is its Old Town, the playwright George Bernard Shaw famously called it “paradise on Earth.” It is all spectacularly surrounded by a towering medieval wall. Inside, the ancient city’s Stradun is lined with authentic stone houses. The peaceful 14th-century Franciscan Monastery and Apothecary, housing the world’s oldest working pharmacy and fine collection of Renaissance paintings, provide insight into the ages.
Photos from Dubrovnik
Video from Dubrovnik
Croatia is a new country for us. Our morning began early as we have an 8:30 tour. We ate breakfast in the World Café as usual. Then it was back to the room to get ready for the day. The port was about a 10-15 minute drive from the old city, so the tour buses met us at the pier. The old section of Dubrovnik is a walled city. It is pretty compact with one major long straight street with other smaller streets running parallel to the Main Street. Many of the smaller streets have small shops and restaurants with seating spilling into the street. There are two larger squares, one at each end of the long street, with smaller squares at the junctions of a couple other streets. The city had a moat that is dry now, with a drawbridge.
We began our tour at the large fountain just inside the city wall. The fountain had decorative faces with metal spouts from the mouth with water flowing out of the spout. The fountain is fed by a spring with water from the mountains that was cool and tasted fresh.
While standing in the shade near the fountain, we learned this particular guide’s take on the ‘90’s war. She said the Serbian leader and Yugoslav president, Milosevic, wanted more territory for Serbia and Montenegro joined him. The Yugoslav army fought against Croatia. Dubrovnik was never occupied, but was under siege with damage in the city to walls and roofs from shelling. Our guide said while the war began over territory, in the later stages things devolved with war crimes perpetrated particularly in Bosnia. The ironic thing to her was when the war ended, Serbian territory was smaller, with Kosovo becoming an independent country. The war in Croatia lasted a little over a year.
This part of Croatia is just a long narrow strip of land, with Bosnia Herzegovina just a few kilometers away over the mountain range to the northeast of the city. We were about 70 kilometers from our last stop in Montenegro. Overall, Croatia is another country that is about the size of West Virginia in land mass. Croatia got the lion’s share of the coastline from the former Yugoslavia. And that’s not counting the hundreds of small to larger islands that protect that coastline.
We continued our tour walking down the major street, made of marble stones. It was easy walking, but becomes very slippery when wet. Croatia is largely a Catholic country, so we saw several Catholic Churches and heard a lot about the patron saint of the city, Saint Blaise, who lived in the 4th century AD. In Dubrovnik there are Franciscan, Dominican and Jesuit churches. We then walked into the Dominican Monastery cloister garden. In the center of the garden is a well, dating to the 14th century which still works. During the 1991 war, several hours each morning were spent drawing water from this well. It was estimated to have provided water to 50 percent of the city’s bombarded population. This monastery was established in the 13th century and has been continuously occupied by priests, about 10 currently. Like many other buildings in the area is was rebuilt after the 1667 earth quake. Today, the monastery functions as a museum, where visitors can view religious paintings, relics, jewelry and other items from Dubrovnik’s history.
The walking tour continued from the monastery until we were in front of the St. Blaise’s Church where the tour ended, at the opposite end of the main street from where we began the tour. After walking out the city gate on this side of the city, we came to a smaller boat dock area. It was crowded with people getting on and off small boats. There was a fountain and we refilled our water bottles. We noticed a water closet and realized we didn’t have the required 1.50 euro each to use it. We walked back through the city gate and found a portico with a bit of shade and a place to sit and plan our next move. We discussed walking the city wall and riding a cable car to the top of the mountain, both of which would give us nice views of the area. Alan expressed an interest in doing one of these activities and told Joyce she could choose which one to do. While is was very warm and the cable car might be easier, walking the wall seemed more of an adventure we wouldn’t have a chance to do again. So, Joyce chose walking the wall over the cable car. The place to purchase tickets to walk the wall was near where we were sitting, so we purchased the tickets, making sure to get our change in appropriate coins to be able to use the water closet. The women’s water closet had a dour woman standing outside to take the coins and put them into the machine and motion to the appropriate stall. The men had to put the coins in themselves, and the machine was finicky. Alan put his money in and no door opened. Another gentleman exited and Alan, knowing he had paid his money, went in before the door closed.
The entrance to walk the city wall was back at the other end of the main street so we walked back. There was a daunting stairway up to get to the level needed. Did I mention it was HOT? Walking completely around the city on the wall was a little less then 2 kilometers. There was one way to walk around and you could exit at the other end at approximately halfway. We made it up and were treated to beautiful views of red tiled roofs of the city inside the walls, the city outside the walls and the blue waters of the Adriatic Sea and the bay with many boats and swimmers. The various heights of the sections of the wall meant climbing up and down many flights of stone steps. About a quarter of the way around was a restaurant with a shaded area and a short wall where we stopped to drink some water a rest a bit. At the other end, halfway around an attendant asked to see our tickets as we had the option to exit the wall. We decided to continue, stopping for rest and shade in a small maritime museum. The heat, steps and lack of shade were contributing factors to making walking the wall difficult. After the maritime museum, we continued walking the remainder of the wall back to the starting point. There has been towers along the way that we had not climbed. We came to what appeared to be the last one, so Alan decided to climb up to it and Joyce continued walking. We make it all the way around! Joyce tested her knees – the operated one doing splendidly and the unoperated one survived! Alan’s phone recorded 24 storied climbed.
Joyce made it off the wall a few minutes before Alan. She refilled her water bottle in the large fountain at the city gate and rested on the steps of the fountain in some shade. After Alan made it down and rested a bit, we realized we had about 45 minutes before the shuttle was due, so decided to do some shopping. We walked partway down the main street and then branched off on a smaller street to a smaller square with artisan booths. We found one selling olive oil soap and stopped to smell some of the offerings. We really liked the soap scented with cinnamon and chocolate and purchased it. We also purchased a Christmas ornament.
By now we are close enough to the time the Viking shuttle was scheduled to leave that Joyce was nervous we might miss it. We walked the back streets to the city gate to avoid the crowds and exited the city gate. Outside the city gate there was a plaza crowded with shops, cafes and people. Alan spotted a bus and walked ahead to see if it was the Viking shuttle. It was our bus, so we boarded, very grateful for the shade, air-conditioning and padded bus seats.
We both were pretty hot and tired when we returned to the ship. We ate lunch, again drinking more water and iced tea than we ate food. On our way back to our stateroom, we checked the laundry room and found one of the washers near the completion of it’s cycle. The laundry room is across the hallway and a room down from our stateroom, so it is easy to check it. We decided it would be good to do laundry as we have just two more days on the ship. Laundry facilities will be much harder to locate in Venice or Rome. We gathered up our dirty clothes and sorted them into piles on the bed. Joyce kept an eye on the washer and the gentleman using it came promptly to put his clothes in the the dryer, freeing the washer for Joyce. She continued with laundry as the washers came available and Alan worked on pictures. We watched the port talk on Zadar on our stateroom TV, and Joyce watched the ship depart Dubrovnik. We decided to go to dinner a little later than we usually go in order to finish the last of the laundry. It was good to get it finished so we would just have a few item to laundry on the last day of our cruise.
We hoped going to dinner later would give us more opportunity for a table for the 2 of us. There were quite a few people waiting for tables when we arrived at The Restaurant. We requested a table in Tarfik’s area, but were told there weren’t any available. As the host was showing us to another table, Joyce noticed a table in Tarfik’s area was being cleaned. As we were about to be seated, the hostess caught up with us and said a table in Tarfik’s area had opened up. We were happy to be seated and have the pleasure of Tarfik’s waiting on us again. Dinner was excellent as usual.
The entertainment this evening by the Viking Singers was Southern Sounds – a tribute to country music. Neither Joyce or Alan like country music, so we decided to watch the show from our stateroom. Any entertainment or lectures given in the Star Theater were livestreamed so this gave us the opportunity to see what we wanted to see and not interrupt the show if we decided to leave. Watching on our stateroom TV was a good decision as the show really didn’t hold our interest.
Final note: Water bottles – We’re being handed them all the time, for sure every time we left the ship. Alan just learned that the caps are designed to not come all the way off. It’s apparently an EU requirement to cut down on pollution from stray caps everywhere. It has been a bit of a challenge to learn to drink for the bottle with this cap in the way, but we managed. 🙂
Viking video about Croatian words
Viking video about Croatian olive oil
