Dubrovnik

We left Medjugorje in the early afternoon and had a fairly short but scenic drive to Dubrovnik.

 

Many of the narrow bays and channels as we approached Dubrovnik had extensive aquaculture developments, like this part of Ston Bay.  The lines of floats seen in the foreground support ropes on which mussels are grown and harvested.  We saw many similar aquaculture sites in the protected waters around Dubrovnik and in Montenegro a few days later.  We had made a reservation for a sea-view room at a traditional hotel on the outskirts of Dubrovnik, and were very happy we had done so, since the view was well worth the extra cost.  We arrived as the sun was setting, so spent about an hour on the patio of our room just watching Mother Nature's spectacular show.

 The next morning was cloudy and cold but the view from the room was still worth a few more photos.

This is Gruz harbor, a couple kilometers from the old walled city.  It is Dubrovnik's main commercial harbor with ferries to outlying islands coming and going as well as smaller cruise ships that would dock at night.  Most of the cruise ships that we saw were probably in the 150 to 300 passenger range; we did not see any of the huge cruise ships that carry thousands of passengers.  After a hearty breakfast at Hotel Adria we took their shuttle to the walled city for a day of exploring.  It is basically impossible to take a bad photo in Dubrovnik, so I'm just going to pick a bunch from the hundreds we took and try to offer a little explanation as we go.

Approaching the city and crossing the bridge over the old moat (now a playground and garden) to one of the gates to the walled city.

Some street scenes within the walled city.  The last photo shows the Church of St. Blaise, who is the patron saint of Dubrovnik.  One of the city's biggest celebrations of the year is on St. Blaise's holy day, which we missed by a few days.  But much of the city was still decorated with big garlands of what looked like bay leaves and large flags and banners depicting St. Blaise. We wandered around the streets of the city for a few hours, checking out the local Croatian arts & crafts stores and coffee shops, then decided to do the walking tour around the city walls.

 Annette ascending the stairs to the top of the wall.  The trip around was nearly 2 kilometers and someone told me it had 744 steps.

The Revelin Fortress across the cove was built in the 15th century to help protect Dubrovnik from potential threats from the Venetians.  It is now used as a museum and for archeological exhibits.  The history of Dubrovnik to too extensive to summarize here, except to say that it is long and complex and almost every power on this side of the globe controlled Dubrovnik at one time or another.  From the 14th to the early 19th century Dubrovnik was an independent republic, reaching the pinnacle of its prominence in the first two centuries of that period. 

I suspect there were many more cannons on the top of the wall in the past.

I tried to lock her up but she got away!

  Lokrum Island is in the distance.  It is a popular destination for visitors, being a nature preserve with trails and swimming beaches, and can be reached by boat in about 15 minutes.  Due to the cool weather we passed on a visit.

This is the other harbor in Dubrovnik, located adjacent to the walled city.  This one seems to have only small boats, no docks for larger ships.

Even living in a UNESCO World Heritage site you still have to deal with dirty laundry.

In 1991 Dubrovnik was shelled by Montenegrin forces loyal to Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.  The siege lasted 7 months and more than 100 civilians were killed, even though the walled city had no military importance.  Over half of the structures in Dubrovnik were destroyed or damaged.  The photo above shows a comparison of the old undamaged roofs and the brighter-colored repaired tile roofs.

After our tour of the wall we felt like this little resident of Dubrovnik, so returned to our hotel for a nap.  A few hours later we returned to the walled city for a nice (but quite expensive) dinner and we attended a performance of the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra in a small theater.  It was a fun show of various opera arias and the orchestra members were all dressed in costumes to celebrate the pre-Lent "Karneval".

It was a long but fun day in a very beautiful city!  We highly recommend a visit to Dubrovnik - it should be on everyone's bucket list.