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Published: September 18th 2022
“
Now more than ever do I realize that I will never be content with a sedentary life, that I will always be haunted by thoughts of a sun-drenched elsewhere.” - Isabelle Eberhardt
We have had such a fabulous, full day today in Dubrovnik! We walked and walked, along old city walls, admired amazing views, climbed up and down about a million stairs (over 23,000 steps on my Fitbit today), and just had such a great day. 😀
We’d be walking today, and admiring yet another incredible view, and I just had to marvel, “you’re in Dubrovnik!”. It’s so incredible to be here and to see the beautiful old city. We started the day with breakfast in a hotel just down the street (Hotel Pletka, a sister property to our Hostel Sol). There were lots to choose from for breakfast. I had an egg, cheese, plain yogurt with some muesli, sauteed eggplant and zucchini, and a slice of bread with nutella (I was looking for jam and noticed the little packet of Nutella, so I thought, what the heck). There was also some fruit, cereals, and meats (sausage and bacon I think). I had a double espresso with hot milk
Me and Susan on the city walls
Fort Lawrence in the background (from the machine), which wasn’t bad. It was a little chilly this morning, but it quickly warmed up and was a lovely sunny day, perfect for all our walking.
We met the group at 8:30 in reception, and walked a short way down the street to get the bus to the Pile Gate, where we started our walking tour of the Dubrovnik city walls. We all have a ”Dubrovnik card”, which includes public transport, and access to some sights and museums. The city walls were built between the 9th and 15th C, to protect the city from sieges and invasions. As I mentioned earlier in the blog, Dubrovnik (originally called Ragusa), was an independent republic, a city-state, which maintained its independence by trading with both the Venetian and the Ottoman empires. It was a link between these two powerful empires.
We entered old town at Pile Gate (one of three gates/entrances to the old town), and proceeded to climb up the first of many steep steps, to be rewarded by incredible views of the old town with the terracotta rooftops, and the beautiful blue, shimmering Adriatic. We walked, up and down many many steps, and were just constantly
amazed by the beautiful views. We did the city wall circuit, and climbed up to the various forts that are part of the city walls, well guided by Zigi, for about 2 hours. There weren’t too many people around when we started, but by the time we finished lots of big groups were clogging up the narrow streets of the old town. We filled up our water bottles at the large Onofrio Fountain (built in 1438 to supply water to the city). This circular fountain was heavily damaged in the 1667 earthquake (which caused a lot of damage in Dubrovnik). It, along with the other fountains, are very handy for filling water bottles! It is nice to be in a country where we can drink the water - the water is very good here.
We had a coffee with Zigi at Cogito Coffee (from Zagreb, best coffee in Dubrovnik Zigi says), and Susan and I then set off on our own to explore further. We toured the Rector’s Palace, built in the 15th C for the elected rector who governed Dubrovnik. It contained the rector’s office, private chambers, administrative offices, and a dungeon. It was quite interesting to see,
with nicely restored rooms and lots of art. We then wandered around the narrow, picturesque streets of the old town, went into a few churches, popped into Gianni for a gelato (blackberry goat cheese for Susan and lemon ginger sorbet for me), and checked out a few shops (I got a small picture and a Dubrovnik t-shirt). We also had a burek at Holy Burek. Burek is a kind of filled pie, made of thin flaky dough with a variety of fillings. Traditionally a burek here would be filled with meat (“mince”), but there are other types of fillings too. We got spinach and cheese and it was very delicious. It was long and thin (see the photo), and extremely yummy. I’m really glad we tried it.
We then decided to leave the old town and walk to the cable car, for a ride up to Srd Hill to see the fabulous views from this vantage point. We climbed yet more stairs to where the cable car left, waited around 10 minutes to get on the cable car, then had a fun, short ride up the hill. There is an old fort at the top, and a viewing platform
and a restaurant. There is an interesting museum in the old fort called “Dubrovnik During the Homeland War”, which described the attacks on Dubrovnik during that war, and the city’s attempts to defend itself. Dubrovnik was quite heavily damaged during the war, and suffered a great deal of shelling from the Yugoslav army. In fact most of the terracotta roofs in the old town were so damaged they had to be replaced (you’ll see some of the old original terracotta tiles, but most are a much brighter orange colour, which are the ones that were replaced). I never really thought of Dubrovnik as being damaged during the war, I remember hearing so much more about Sarajevo and Bosnia, but not Dubrovnik or Croatia. The museum really illustrates the suffering that the people of Dubrovnik went through during that time.
We took lots of photos from the various vantage points, then thought we’d have a beer at the restaurant, but the wait for a table was too long, so we took the cable car back down, and had a beer at a little place on the way back to the old town. We had a mug of Croatian lager, which
Me and Dubrovnik kitty
There were lots of cats about was just what we needed after all that walking in what turned out to be quite a hot day. After enjoying the beer we walked back to the old town and did some more wandering, then found our way to the Pile Gate where we left the enclosed city walls section to see Fort Lawrence, which is just outside the walls. This free standing fortress was built to protect the city from invasion from the west, and has very thick walls. There wasn’t too much to see inside, but the views from the battlements at the top of the fort were well worth the hike up. Susan didn’t think she’d make it up to the fort, yet alone up yet more stairs to the top of the fort, but she did!
We then walked back to the bus stop and took the bus back to our hotel, for a brief break before heading back to the Pile Gate where we met some of the group for dinner at Orhan restaurant, in the old town but just outside the walls. We had a table on the terrace with a beautiful view (it is very close to Fort Lawrence). I had
a tuna salad and Susan had grilled tuna steak. We all shared a carafe of house white wine, and we finished with a flan (similar to creme caramel, yumm), and a coffee. Then back on the bus for our short return ride back to our hotel, where we got our stuff ready for leaving tomorrow, and I’ve been working on the blog.
We don’t have to leave until 9:30 tomorrow, so we don’t have to get up too early, and can have a leisurely breakfast before we go. Tomorrow we will be driving (and taking a ferry) to Korcula, where we’ll be spending two nights. Zigi says we will be stopping at a winery, yay! The Peljesac peninsula, where we’ll be, is known for its wine.
See you in Korcula!
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Jo
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Great photos!
Thank you for the fabulous photos — I've always wanted to see that walled city!