Double-Taking Dubrovnik

---

After a lazy sea day it was a bit difficult to rise this morning, but we made it up to the Lido anyway as we approached the ancient walled city of Dubrovnik in Croatia. I got myself a bowl of Irish Oatmeal and a banana, and two of their tiny demitasse cups of Swiss muesli each crowned with one raspberry. Sharon waited in line to get her scrambled eggs, potatoes and white toast.



The Nieuw Amsterdam is definitely fuller on this leg of the cruise. We’ve been meeting many people at meals that are also on a Collector’s cruise, as we are, who embarked in Venice when we did some two weeks ago. There are still some on board who came before us who lived thru ‘the incident’. We came to dock in direct view of the modern looking expansion bridge we’d seen on our last visit. Back then, we recall the hopes of our guide of Croatia hoping to join EU. Well, that has come to pass; but, the country still only recognizes the Kroner. By law, merchants are only permitted to accept the national currency. Practical law however means that most merchants accept any currency, and can make change in US$ or Euros. Trying to get change for larger bills can be a problem though. Credit cards are accepted practically anywhere. When we were here in 2010 for our honeymoon the old cable car was still damaged after the war in the 1990’s; but, was operational shortly after. Today we will take the ride to the local peak overlooking the sea, bay, walled city & cruise ships. One other in port with us to start so shouldn’t be too bad crowd-wise. Somedays up to 9 and place is zoo.



We met in showroom for tour assembly. Today we are wearing White-15 HAL stickers. Today we are traveling light with just the camera and case… no backpack, no water, no other amenities. We’ve both been good about putting on sun screen, and for once, we haven’t yet been burned which seems to be the hallmark of our previous cruises. Again we are using whisperers to hear the tour guide. Our soft spoken guide even uses them on the bus, and it is probably a good thing that she did this. Unlike our previous tours, these have not been preset to the right channel, and many in our group needed her help to get them set to the right channel. I detected a slight distain in her for the inability of some of these seniors to follow her instructions to scroll to channel 15, I suppose because she’s yet to deal with arthritis or failing eye sight, or the reluctance by some to deal with gadgets. These whisperers were even smaller than previous models that we have used on previous tours on this cruise. It was a short drive through town around the wall of the old town. The cable car already had bus ahead of us from the other cruise ship. It was about a 40 minute wait. One car held most of our tour group which had to go up on two cars. One big car up and one big car down… just a few minutes. There was ample window room for viewing… I was in the middle as was Sharon, last to board car. I held on with a roof strap. The cable car, and the walk atop the city wall are only places guide said that does not take anything but kroner… almost everywhere also takes credit cards. Our guide had said, “Weather, not so good today”. We could see some clouds, and I suppose the weather could change that fast… our daily briefing promised sunny skies so we’d brought no protection. I couldn’t help but notice that she had a rain slicker and an umbrella… hmmm!



We had just 25 minutes of “free time” atop the local mountain instead of one hour due to delay at station. The view of city below was impressive. We walked to the cross for best view, to keep the cables out of the picture (but sometimes that just can’t be helped). We scanned the panorama of the protected harbor and the old walled city below us. Those who had lived directly under cable had expressed concern when there was talk of reopening the cable car about having things fall on them; however, once they were paid off by the government their concerns vanished. There are many new buildings in residential areas above the walled city… You can spot the new structures by their roofs which have bright uniformly red-orange terra cotta color. The older roofs are also the same reddish tile, but aged by years of weather and appear more of a patchwork of colors including faded and streaked whites, blacks, and browns probably where individual tiles have been replaced. Looking away from the sea there are even larger surrounding mountain. Here Dubrovnik on thin sliver Croatia. Nearby is Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia, all parts of the former Yugoslavia. These are fiercely independent people… the motto of the town means “Liberty”. And this after a long history of domination so they know what it means to lose their liberties. After 400 years suppression of those liberties by Venetians (who were pretty much hated); and then the Ottomans loomed to the east; and briefly the French under Napoleon. When Venetian domination waned they began paying an annual tribute to the Venetians to ‘stay away’. Ottomans never actually occupied the area; but because they were paid a tribute to ‘stay away’ as well those in Dubrovnik enjoyed a sense of autonomy. And they were careful not to flaunt the wealth that they were realizing by their lucrative facilitation of the transfer of good; lest the annual tariffs they paid be increased. The merchants of the town did a thriving seaport business, shipping raw materials from Bosnia. Croatia also had massive reserves of salt; back in the day more valuable than gold! At the end of the spice road to china, natural resources, more convenient than Venice in location and access to rest of Mediterranean. When Napoleon’s army came through requested permission to pass the region on the way to fight in Greece. It was given; but, instead Napoleon chose to overrun Dubrovnik. Even today, when those of Dubrovnik get the feeling that something bad is happening they say “I feel the French may come today.”



We tried to keep up with our guide for a rapid walk into the big city, down steps across street to one of three entrances to the walled city (the old city). The pace was much too fast for our group. One pair included an elderly man having trouble keeping up. Several women struggled down some steep uneven steps. Some were still walking when guide was ready to move on after talking for five minutes in front of the gate into the walled city… she’d not waited for anyone, walked very fast, and quite a few had difficulty negotiating steep marble stairs, awkward footing, few hand rails (only near the bottom of some). She seemed not to notice that her group had dwindled by 30%, some still not caught up, she was going to move on. Told her others were coming… seemed somewhat annoyed. The older man was clearly in distress at the extensive (less than casual) walking. Fortunately it was downhill. The guide seemed really irritated that he chose to come on this trip. We’d talked with him in line at the cable car. The first tour that they’d booked would have been perfect for him, going to the beach… Nobody else signed up for that so it was cancelled. The second tour would have been okay too… also cancelled. This seemed next best… but that rating of 3-walkers in the travel tour guide was probably at the high end of that rating. She said follow her, she would show him where he could leave us to catch a shuttle back to the bus. It was quite a walk yet that he had to endure.



We arrived at a square that was very clean, and featured one of three water fountain still operational within the walled city. The water is still crystal clear and every bit potable enough to fill bottles with and drink after centuries! Beyond the bridge entrance was a large tall clock tower, very unique in its unique design. In addition to the traditional hour-hand/minute-hand round clock there was beneath that an ancient mechanical digital clock peering out of stone face of the tower hours in roman numerals and the minutes appearing in five minute increments as Arabic numerals.



Next we visited the largest square. She called it “the big old dirty rotten square”… later explaining that that was the name that the Venetians had given the square, not wanting to say anything nice about Dubrovnik, and what she said in English was proper translation. Long rows of buildings, had many cafes below. For residents, their ‘mute’ button for the din coming in from the street would be to put out their laundry to dry, strung from their high windows above, to drip down on those below who could move, or take shelter under the many table umbrellas.



It was 11:30 and we came to the produce square. Already pigeons began to line the rooftops. Noon each day they bring out the birdseed and toss it around and the birds descend for a feast. The greens venders pack up and they clear the square and bring out the café tables for the afternoon. The birds eat and run (or fly I guess would be more appropriate). After the “bird incident” in Valparaiso, Sharon wasn’t interested in staying around to see the show.



Our guide routed us down many alleyways, past many café’s and a pizzeria or two. We stopped by the Pella Gate, the drawbridge gate into the city. Just outside would be the busses where we’d meet in one hour’s time. Right by a geletaria which suited Sharon: Sharon got coffee & chocolate two-scoop cup for 3 Euro. I was going to go back and get pizza… then decided on a coconut & chocolate cone. The chocolate was not as good as what we’d had in Venice. I had considered cinnamon and that might have been better choice. Sharon noticed a pizza place down a narrow alley. It was a combination Mexican Cantina and Italian Pizzeria. I’ve heard of Tex-Mex before, but never Pizza-Mex! Maybe not this time. I may have to stick to pizza on the ship. I know… loser! I should go out and experience the local cuisine.



We headed directly to the Lido and I got a pizza and Coca-Cola. Sharon didn’t check for roast turkey… I noticed they had it but couldn’t find her. Back to room we went. The pizzas that I’ve eaten upstairs have turned out better. The walk back to the room seems to give the tips of the very thin crust pizza a chance to get a little soggy (may be due to the olive oil they drizzle on afterwards on the arugula). The last one, and by far the best one, was super crisp thru and thru… but eaten on the Lido deck where the hole in the wall New York Pizza can be gotten on the rear outside deck.



Sharon took brief nap to recover from all of the walking we did today. We went up around 4:15 to Crow’s Nest to find a spot to play trivia; but, first we did our Sudoku challenge. This was good for me, not so good for Sharon. She headed off for 5PM mass. I had no teammates today. I was flying solo. Dave asked where my team was, and offered to find me some teammates, but I declined. I had a 50-50 chance with guessing which arm holds the hammer in the Arms & Hammer logo. I surmised right. And something clicked when asked what a lepidopterist collects. I think it was the collects that did it for me because I knew it wasn’t coins or stamps. What else besides butterflies could it be? I thought, OMG a Latin question: “What six letter suffix denotes the surgical removal of something?” I was clueless, but if you think of operations such as an appendectomy or a tonsillectomy, the answer pretty much presents itself. What Jewish Festival begins with the Satyr Dinner? I was pretty sure Passover was right. I had no idea what country owns the island of Ibiza, (though to be honest, I thought he spelled Abiza). The correct spelling might have given it to me if I thought about the word “Iberia”. It was of course Spain. I missed two of the first fifteen solo, which isn’t bad. And in the bonus, I think everyone knew what a player must do who rolls doubles three times in a row. I needed Sharon for the music question: “How many symphonies did Beethoven compose?” She says that she didn’t know. The answer is nine. I was only off by 122%! Then came, What You-Tube video has the most views? Then Dave asked, “Do any of you watch You-Tube?” and someone asked him if that was the fourth bonus question. Somebody actually knew ‘Gangnam Style’ which evidently is some sort of dance that went viral a couple years back. And a question that we’ve had before, which I couldn’t answer then, and did no better this time, “Name the first names of each of the original members of The Jackson Five.” I got one right. The others are Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Jackie.



I beat Sharon back to the room. She said there were many at the mass, but didn’t notice if two of our teammates were among them.



For dinner I had the seared ahi, which came shaved thinner than a sheet of paper. It was very good and there was a bit of spicy season that had been added to the mix. Sharon ordered me some grilled marinated greens with goat cheese. The asparagus spears and onion were very good as was the tomato. I also ordered Oysters Rockefeller with spinach, and enjoyed them, despite not usually ordering oysters. Sharon thought her chicken noodle soup was very good. I had the spicy Asian noodles again, a vegetarian dish, and asked for a little extra spice. The chef rose to my request and my taste buds tingled for thirty minutes afterwards. Sharon had expertly prepared English beef with Yorkshire pudding. We both had the double chocolate cake; but, I had mine with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.



A local group did songs and dances of the region at an early ShowTime of 7:30PM. The had a band of six to seven musicians playing a variety of stringed instruments, from the bass down to some very petite pieces. The tunes largely sounded similar to my tin ear offering a gay, almost polka like rhythm. The performers were very good, featuring instrumental, vocal and local dancing. One instrumental featured a unique stringed and bowed instrument which gave its version of the basic melody that we’d been hearing up to that point. They did an interesting dance with four pairs of dancers and two additional men who would cut in every time the music would pause. They did it with great humor and expression of shock by those being deprived of their partner; but, only until the next break in the music. They received a rousing applause for their efforts. The ship departed shortly after that show ended, and the late show tonight was the 11 PM Indonesian Show.

---