So we had a Kimmie-approved breakfast at the hotel and went directly to the beach below our room.
I can attest that the Adriatic is every bit as cold as the Mediterranean.
But I took a swim none the less! Refreshing...
Spending the morning on the beach, we set out for our touring of the old in the early afternoon. We were ready for our daily intake of ice cream, but this character creeped Kim out enough that we had to find a different gelato shop. Yikes :-o
Ice cream in hand, we started our tour of the city walls. A couple of miles in circumference, we spent several leisurely hours covering every meter of the perimeter. The walls are incredibly tall, thick and imposing.
They offer unmatched views into the heart of the city, and around the surrounding land-, sea-, and city-scapes.
We walked counter clockwise, starting near the drawbridge and the main city gate.
It seems strange sometimes to see daily life still taking place in this historical city. Like Split, homes and apartments have simply evolved into the ancient walls. This laundry is strung between two stone walls nearly 1,000 years old.
It's really quite exposed on the top of the wall, with very little in the way of shade. Or rain cover. Of course, we didn't bring raincoats or umbrellas this time, but lo and behold, it rained. A lot.
We dipped into a little cafe where I had a couple of beers and Kim had a tea. We waited out the storm from inside there.
Although the hard wind and rain had past, there was still a pretty steady drizzle. Near the halfway point of the walk around the city walls, there is an entrance/exit with access to the city. We stepped down off of the wall for a bit and had lunch. Once again, wine, cheese, olives, oil, vinegar, and bread. It was delightful.
After lunch, the sun came out and we climbed back up the wall to finish our walk. The sheltered harbor on the back side is beautiful, and serene.
We're much happier when the weather cooperates. Now we can hit our stride :-)
There were a few places where roofs of some buildings rested on top of the city walls. I enjoyed getting a close look at the simple mechanics of the clay tiles. I'm still a bit baffled by how expensive such tile roofing is back home. It looks so simple...
We really enjoyed the various perspectives of the city, mountains, coast, and sea presented by the walk around the wall. Having spent a few hours and completed the walk, we made our way back down into the old town itself.
Kimmie being the crafty crocheter, she enjoyed flipping through some of the handmade table linens for sale. She picked up a souvenir that should look nice on our dining room table.
When booking accommodations for Dubrovnik, I tried to book the Hilton, as it's quite centrally located. It was unfortunately totally booked. We were nearby though, so we dipped in for a quick look. This hotel was quite famously bombed and burned during the last war, as the city of Dubrovnik was under siege by the Serbian and Montenegrin aggressors.
We both remarked at how much the hotel looked like it belonged in New Orleans :-)
From the top of the city walls, we spotted two different cafes, outside and below the wall, precipitously perched on some rocks overlooking the sea. We spent quite some time wandering on the interior of the walls themselves, trying to find the magic portal out to either one of these two cafes. We accidentally walked through several private courtyards and gardens, reaching dead-ends and tiny cul-de-sacs. I even went back through the pictures on my camera, to make absolutely sure that we had in fact saw the two cafes, and had not just imagined them.
Alas, we found them eventually, and had a wonderful evening, watching the sun go down.
As we sat there for a couple of hours, we watched with great interest as a film crew setup on the city wall and filmed 3 or 4 scenes. We could see a guy with a gun walk up to the wall, and pretend to jump. After several takes of that, a second guy runs to the edge of the wall to look down. Finally, to finish the evening, a stunt man slung at least 4 sacks of sand over the wall, presumably to film the splash. It was really quite amazing!
We figured we were watching a made-for-TV Croatian, Hungarian, or Turkish film. But upon returning home and doing a bit of research, we're pretty sure this was the film crew for Ashley Judd's new TV series, Missing, which sounds like a gender-inverted take on Liam Neeson's Taken.
We watched until the film crew tore down their equipment, which was just as the daylight left us too. What a gorgeous evening :-)
We left the seaside cafe and headed back to our hotel on the bay, outside of the old town, where there's actually a quiet walk with a number of nice restaurants. We had a relaxed evening in that part of town, and another delicious dinner.
Dubrovnik! What a romantic place. We had a great time, and would go back in a heartbeat. And we're really looking forward to see the Missing TV series, and trying to spot the scene we saw filmed here!
:-Dustin
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