Wednesday 1st May arrived into the Port of Dubrovnik in Croatia on the Adriatic Coast to the east of Italy, this morning at around 6am I' m up and on the deck like a kid on Christmas morning.
As we enter the port I have already made my way up to the 13th deck to get a birds eye view. The old city is about 15mins from the port town so we will catch the bus in as it is all up hill and after Pompeii my butt mussels are still smarting. Or was that from all the dancing last night!!!!
As we pull into the port town you can't help but notice how new it all looks, clean new lines of buildings all up the hill side unlike all the older towns that we have been through in Italy. This is the port town outside of the mediaeval walled city. The old city is a walled city that has had a hard life through it's history with many earthquakes and take overs after take overs with the most recent being the war in the 1991
It is quiet disconcerting when you see 70% of the roofs with new terracotta on these medieval building, when Sandy was here in 1984 the old city was as it had been since the earthquake of 1667.
The war of 91 has left many scares, bullet and shrapnel holes through out many of the old buildings, a crime in its self!!!!
That aside this is a spectacular walled city with it's little allies and streets paved with limestone and over the centuries with all the foot traffic they have been transformed into beautiful "foot" polished paves.
The main central street running north to south with several squares as meeting places and markets being the only way that carts could have been bought into and moved around the city, today these too are smooth limestone. The 100's of little side allies and the 100000's of stairs running east to west but all contained with in the medieval walls some 6m to 15m thick. After a small local tour of 10 people that we pick up to get our bearing, we head off to explore.
Today no cars are allowed in the old city and with the number of tourist that is a blessing and its just the start of the season.
We find our way to the aquarium away from all the crowds and the fish on display are in the cloister section of one of the wall that must be some 12 m wide. The displays were interesting but with all that local seafood to look at I just wanted to head to the top of the wall for lunch and a cool drop. We find a restaurant with a view over the wall and down on to the teal blue waters below. Our waiter is quick to point out that he has saved the best table for us!!! Tip hunters!!! Sandy has prawns done in the Dubrovnik-style so tomato, capers, garlic,onion and chilly reduction, one of the best we have had and after the aquarium experience I had to have the local fish plate, sorry little fishies!!! So bass, salmon, cuttlefish and prawn flames grilled with zucchini and broccoli just plain with a dash of local olive oil , bellissimo. We had to try the local wine so a bottle of Posip Cara Vrhunsko Vino Suho Vinogorje Korcula, now that a mouth full but if I don't write it down I won't remember it for later on the trip, that is if we come across a Croatian wine on a wine list.
It was like a Pinot Grigio with a hint of orange to finish perfect with seafood.
So when it was time to pay opps they don't take euro so I hunted down an ATM and left Sandy there to entertain the staff!!!!!
Now it's back to the mother ship after a day sight seeing and lunch was a real treat.
The 16 story, 295m long and 93,558 tones of ship guides with silent ease and parallel away from the dock, what a sight to see and as today our deck is facing port side we get to see it all happen.
Good bye to an amazing old walled city
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