August 18
Dubrovnik is a town of about 25,000 on the Adriatic coast of Croatia. The city’s history goes back to the 12th century. It is one the most visited seaports on the Mediterranean coast in spite of suffering significant damage in the 1991 war with Serbia. More about that later. The old town was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979 and is a huge tourist attraction. The port is very active with small to large boats coming and going.
We took a taxi to the Old Town and our way the driver took us on a tour of the city. We stopped for some panoramic views of the port. In the picture below you can see the amount of boat traffic in the port area.
Then he drove us to a little village about 1,000 feet over the city on a very small winding road. We had a curious incident at the top. There was a small parking lot and a bit of a traffic jam. A Croatian taxi driver was yelling and gesturing at a man trying to exit the lot. For whatever reason he was reluctant to move. Soon a woman got out of another car and start yelling back in English. It was a pretty heated argument. Her final words before she got back in the car were, “You suck.” Our cab driver was watching with a bemused smile. Here are some pictures from the top.
C&C above the city. Old Town is on the left. A enlarged view which shows the wall where we walked.
Our taxi driver dropped us off at the gate to Old Town. He was very proud of his city and of his children who were all getting educations and doing well. He told us we had to come back and visit, which we think is not a bad idea.
Old Town was crowded and HOT. But it was very interesting to wander around and see the narrow streets, the squares, and the old buildings.
Building on one of the squares. There were lots of people living in the city. You can see laundry drying
Two of the roughly 100 churches in the Old Town Area.
After a nice pizza lunch, we debated about walking the wall because of the heat and the crowds. The wall had 1.2 million visitors in 2017 and that they run almost 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) around the city. The walls are 4 to 6 metres (13–20 feet) thick on the landward side but are much thinner on the seaward side. The system of turrets and towers were intended to protect the vulnerable city. The walls of Dubrovnik have also been a popular filming location for the fictional city of King's Landing in the HBO television series, Game of Thrones. So, in the end we decided that we really should so we paid the fee and headed up the steps. It was a tough climb to the top with more than 100 steps. Below are some hot-lights (yes, hot-lights) from our walk on the wall. BTW, we did about half of the wall because we were getting very hot.
A view of an old fortress from the wall. The wall with folks walking.
The wall and the interior buildings.
We caught a cab back to the ship and had an interesting conversation with the driver. I asked about the events of the early 1990s. Dubrovnik was being shelled from Montenegro and was put under siege from May 1991 to October 1991. At age 16 he joined the army to fight for his city. At age 17 he had 10 soldiers reporting to him. He told us they used speedboats to get food and ammunition into the city. In the end Croatia won the war of independence. Surprisingly he held no grudge against the Serbian people. Rather he blamed the governments for the war. He also told us we need to return for a longer visit.
A great day in a beautiful city.