The Wall

We spent 12 hours today visiting and walking around Old Town Dubrovnik...and man am I tired!  We got up and headed to the bus stop at 10:15am to find a huge line of tourists all trying to get from Lapad to Dubrovnik...this is in stark contrast to what we've experienced to date. Dubrovnik is certainly a hot spot for visitors...including cruise lines.

entrance ticket

We arrived at the Pile Gate by 11:15am amongst the throngs of people and finally found our way to the entrance to the City Wall. This UNESCO World Heritage Site was built between the 13th and 16th centuries and the walls surrounding the entire city acted as protection during times of war. 

UNESCO symbol

The views of the town and sea are sublime and today was an absolutely beautiful day for a visit....I think it went from late fall to early summer over night!  

our initial view from the wall

The walk around the wall is approximately 2km in length, with many stairs and walkways to take you to different heights and vantage points. 

follow the path

look who I see!

Does anyone know where we are??

Along the way you have a view of the entire town...in fact right into people's backyards!  I love the look of all the old and "new" within the town...during the Homeland War of Independence in 1991, Dubrovnick was shelled over 2000 times and suffered considerable damage, all of which has now been painstakingly restored. 

the homes

old and new

the town

Throughout your walk along the wall there are little stopping points where you can rest and get a drink or snack. At about 1:00pm we stopped for a little something to drink...well actually I roped Lisa into buying a highly over priced drink so we could sit and enjoy our surroundings. For the super special price of 48 kuna ($9.50) we were presented with the Koktel Salvatore...a mixture of fresh orange, pear, apple, grapefruit and carrot...at least it was healthy!

Koktel Slvatore anyone???

After enjoying every last drop of our delicious drink, we headed off to explore more of this beautiful area. At this point in the wall there were lots of views of the steep cliffs...people were actually swimming below...the marina, churches and many forts...very magnificent!

swim anyone??

one of the many churches

the marina

the side wall

We even managed to take our daily selfie...

look where we are!

The final leg of our walk took us to Fort Minceta where you were able to go up the tower to have an even better view of the surrounding area. 

here we come

almost there

the tower

the view from the tower

back at the start

After 3 hours of touring the City Walls in the full sun, we headed down to take a look at Old Town itself. To be honest, the large number of people really bothered me...and this isn't even high tourist season yet...but we forged on and found some little spots hidden away. It was so sunny it was hard to take good pictures of the outstanding architecture...it seems everywhere you looked along the Placa (Stradun), the main pedestrian promenade, there were new and awe inspiring things to see.  We got some shots of Rectar's Palace, St. Blaise Church, the Cathedral - Treasury and the Bell Tower that is situated right at the end of the promenade.

Placa

Rectar's Palace

St. Blaise Church

the Cathedral

Cathedral by night

the clock tower

We decided since this was our last destination we needed to do some shopping...and there is no shortage in Old Town!  In fact it is very expensive here...in part due to all the short term tourists visiting from cruise ships...so it's not where you want to be looking for any great deals. We found a few things...including some delicious grapefruit grappa (Grejpusa). We had a great chat with the producer of the grappa...so much so we had to take his photo...another great story teller. 

Who wants grappa???

We also came across an Irish Pub along our travels through the alleys...and as expected it was packed, with great live music. You never know what you'll find in Croatia!

time for some fun

It was close to dinner and all we had today for lunch was our super special drink, so we decided to eat early, finish our shopping and head out to see the sun set and take a few night shots. 

dinner anyone??

The view of Old Town all lit up is quite beautiful...and by this time, most of the tourists had left for the day, so we were back to our comfort zone exploring without being bumped into or photo bombed by passerbyers unaware you are trying to take a shot. 

Old Town by night

While waiting for it to get dark we also found an octopus swimming right by the waters edge...very cool, but hard to snap any good pictures. 

at dusk

at night

I see the moon

We arrived back at our apartment by 10:00pm...this time we had the nicest local bus driver...met the new tenants next to us and decided to sample some grappa as we settled in for the evening and caught up on the blog and laundry. 

Another busy day ahead tomorrow with museums, the cable car, more shopping and of course picture taking and possibly another round of ice cream eating...can't wait!

Until tomorrow ...

L & L