Blogs from Dubrovnik, Dalmatia, Croatia, Europe - page 6

Day 3 - We started our day arriving to our apartment at 1:30AM due to a delayed flight. But walking inside the walls of Old Town Dubrovnik with no one there was really cool. Luckily we didn't have to meet our guide Damien until 10 AM. He showed us around the city starting with a cable car ride to the top of a mountain with amazing views. Old Town Dubrovnik is a walled city built in the 1300s (we think), and it is built like a fortress. We are staying inside the walled city, which is awesome until one realizes how many stairs are involved. Everywhere you go, there are stairs. Kirsten was immediately trying to figure out how residents got their furniture into their homes. We climbed almost 80 flights of stairs today and walked ... read more

I arrived in Dubrovnik Tuesday, May 22nd, but after a long flight from San Diego via Frankfurt I was too tired to do a blog entry - and jet lagged. Croatia is 9 hours ahead of California. Dubrovnik, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is a city on the Adriatic Coast, also called the Dalmation Coast, with a long, interesting history. First a quick history of Croatia: First settlers - Illyrians believed to be ancestors of Albanians. Romans moved in around 229 B.C., Rome fell in 5th century & Slavs moved in. 925 A.D. Tomislav united north & south Croatia. Croatia entered into alliance with Hungarians in 1102, Venetians controlled coast; by 15th century Ottomans controlled inland & challenged Venetians for control of coast (& lost). 17th century Habsburgs forced Ottomans out inland Croatia, then Venice & ... read more

Looking forward to our seven-night cruise aboard the MV Adriatic Queen exploring the wonderful Dalmatian islands, scattered along Croatia’s coast. We will stop at Mljet,Korcula, Hvar, Split, Omis, Markarska, Trstenik & finally Dubrovnik. We had an early start to Gatwick Airport. Our Titan driver made good time & we were at the check in area nice and early. Benita had been collected from Torquay yesterday and her Titan driver had a short journey this morning from the Gatwick Hotel to the terminal.Initially we were advised that there would be a delay of an hour & half due late arrival of aircraft. Not sure whose strings were pulled but we actually hook off just 10 minutes behind schedule.Good flight, quick turnaround at Dubrovnik airport and we were soon on our way to join our home for the ... read more

I was so excited to finally be visiting the fortified walled city of Dubrovnik. I knew that it would be popular, but nothing could have prepared me for the overwhelming crowds. I explored for a bit before retreating to a restaurant up a quiet side street to wait to climb the city walls later in the afternoon. This turned out to be the best thing we could have done as, although still busy and hot, there was some reprieve as cruise ships and other day trippers departed and spots of shade were cast. Walking the city walls was awe-inspiring and an essential part of the experience for any visitors to the town in my opinion. We spent the best part of two hours exploring the amazingly well-preserved walls and admiring the views. Then we headed for ... read more

Docking in Dubrovnik for only twelve hours Ron seemed to be on a mission to see how much we could fit in to the day. He had hatched a plan to take a local bus to Cavtat, all seemed to be well as the bus depot was next to where the ship had docked. The information desk at the bus depot told us a number 10 bus to Cavat would be by in around a few minutes, half an hour later we asked again, we were told it might be here soon. We then saw the number 10 bus zipping past without stopping, when we enquired again at the information desk as to when the next bus might come we were told "no idea". We moved onto Plan B a taxi ride to Cavtat, we tried ... read more