6th - 8th May 2019
Left: The entry to the old walled city at the eastern end of town..
Having said that it took quite a long time, even with the aid of GPS, to find my little hotel, the Roko, hidden away in a backstreet. There are lots of small hotels/guest houses and they only advertise their presence by tiny little plaques above or beside the door (very tasteful but not particularly helpful). Right: I think it's the door on the left, but so many look the same! It is a jolly decent little place with a very helpful manageress. So far all the people running and working in the hotels and restaurants I have visited speak excellent English.
Left: Most of the streets were lined with bars and restaurants. There were hundreds of them, and not cheap. The Croatian currency is the Kuna (even though they are in the EU) and there are about 8 Kunas to the £. Most of the main courses cost bewtween 150/200 Kunas and, in my limited experience, the food was not great. I remember going for a 'cheap' spag bol at 120 Kunas, and it was a very small unappetising watery micro-waved version.
Right:......and the inevitable 'Oirish Bear'. There was at least one in Split also. It would be interesting, and easier, to note all the cities in the world (excluding the Arab lands) which don't have one.
Left: Another crowded little alleyway.
Right: A visiting potentate drawing money from his Swiss bank account. There is no shortage of ATMs.
Left: It's not all flat. Some alleyways have steep steps.
Right: A view of Fort Lovrijenac from the top of the wall.
Right: There were several of these old boats offering tours.
Left:....and pit-stops en-route
Left: Outside the eastern gate on the harbour terrace was a nice little restaurant with this 5 piece band. They played traditional jazz type music and were excellent. I spent a happy hour listening to them. I take sound videos of these things but have yet to find a way of inserting them here. It must be possible somehow.
Right: For advice to anyone contemplating a trip here I show the advert for the Dubrovnik Card, sold at the tourist info offices, which offers discounts. It is worth getting.
The rest of this town/city was pleasant enough and boasts several beaches, restaurants, smart hotels and other tourist spots outside the 'picturesque' old walled city, but I only travelled briefly through it. The Old City is definitely worth visiting and I enjoyed my brief stay, but suspect it becomes over-touristed in the peak summer season and unpleasantly crowded.
Dubrovnik? Well do they? It is on the Adriatic coast at the southern end of Croatia. I took quite a large speedy comfortable twin-hulled craft from Split, The Eclipse, which called in at four of the many islands which line the coast (can't remember their names) on the way south and it took about 5 hours arriving at 12.50pm. I decided to walk from Dubrovnik port to the Old City (Grad) at the eastern end of town in which I was to stay a couple of nights. It didn't look too far on my little map. In fact it was about 2 miles and a lot of uphill to begin with and it started to rain halfway there. I suppose the exercise did me good. I discovered later that there is a regular cheap bus service (#3 )from the port which I suggest you use if you follow in my footsteps. The city took a bit of a pasting during the civil war in the early 90s and many of the buildings were badly bomb damaged. They have been restored magnificently but with shrapnel and bullet holes still visible in parts. They make for good stories by tour guides.
Left: The entry to the old walled city at the eastern end of town..
There seemed to be a constant queue of tourists entering (right), and this is not even the busy season. Like Split, I dread to think of the crowds during the 'high season'. Again, as per Split, many of these tourists were on day release from the visiting mega-sized cruise ships.
Inside the walls there were scores of little streets and alleyways with one main one, Placa, running down the centre. It is a bit of a maze, but fortunately they were arranged in (almost) a grid pattern and most of them had rather quaint street signs carved into the wall, so navigation was not too difficult. It does not cover a big area, probably only 500 x 500m.
Having said that it took quite a long time, even with the aid of GPS, to find my little hotel, the Roko, hidden away in a backstreet. There are lots of small hotels/guest houses and they only advertise their presence by tiny little plaques above or beside the door (very tasteful but not particularly helpful). Right: I think it's the door on the left, but so many look the same! It is a jolly decent little place with a very helpful manageress. So far all the people running and working in the hotels and restaurants I have visited speak excellent English.
Left: Most of the streets were lined with bars and restaurants. There were hundreds of them, and not cheap. The Croatian currency is the Kuna (even though they are in the EU) and there are about 8 Kunas to the £. Most of the main courses cost bewtween 150/200 Kunas and, in my limited experience, the food was not great. I remember going for a 'cheap' spag bol at 120 Kunas, and it was a very small unappetising watery micro-waved version.
Right: The central square, cathedral and 'treasury'. Fortunately the rain had cleared and it stayed sunny for the time I was in town.
Left: The market in Gundulic Square. There is also a small supermarket here which proved useful.
Right:......and the inevitable 'Oirish Bear'. There was at least one in Split also. It would be interesting, and easier, to note all the cities in the world (excluding the Arab lands) which don't have one.
Left: Another crowded little alleyway.
Right: A visiting potentate drawing money from his Swiss bank account. There is no shortage of ATMs.
Left: It's not all flat. Some alleyways have steep steps.
Right: An example of another of these attractive, clean and shiny paved streets which are lethally slippery when wet.
Left: A 'human statue'. Yes, there were some of these standing, begging hopefully, at the entrance end.
Right: A shop front in the Old City. This was hard to credit. I really wasn't expecting to be reminded of Christmas quite so early. Even UK stores resist being 'festive' until at least September!
Left: The 'thing' to do here is to take a walk around the top of the city walls. It costs 200 Kuna (£25) for the privilege and includes entry to Fort Lovrijenac overlooking the main entrance (far right in pic). The narrow walkway around the perimeter took me over an hour to complete involving several sets of steps and some quite precarious sections with only a low wall separating you from a long drop into the Adriatic.
Right: A view of Fort Lovrijenac from the top of the wall.
Left: A view over the top of the Old City to the east towards the Island of Lokrum which, I think, has a castle on it and is otherwise uninhabited. I may be wrong.
There were several escorted 'Game of Thrones" tours advertised. I have never watched this TV series but assume that some filming was done here. I couldn't be less interested.
There were several escorted 'Game of Thrones" tours advertised. I have never watched this TV series but assume that some filming was done here. I couldn't be less interested.
Right: There were several of these old boats offering tours.
Left:....and pit-stops en-route
Right: A view through the wall over the eastern harbour. This was merely to humour my photographic artistry.
Left: The eastern harbour from which several boats of varying size were offering short cruises and 'glass bottomed' views of local fish etc. I expect the fish were professional models.
Right: Including a submarine (well, semi-submarine) trip. I wanted to try this but was told they had no other customers at the time and it required a minimum of 3 passengers to set sail, or whatever submarines do. I spent several minutes wandering around looking for likely takers and accosting them, to no avail.
Left: Outside the eastern gate on the harbour terrace was a nice little restaurant with this 5 piece band. They played traditional jazz type music and were excellent. I spent a happy hour listening to them. I take sound videos of these things but have yet to find a way of inserting them here. It must be possible somehow.
To get my 200 Kunas worth I paid a visit up and into Lovrijenac Fort. Nothing very special inside but some decent views from the top. Right: Over the Old City. Walking the wall of the city, along the right side shown here, was not good for those suffering from vertigo; a low wall separated you from a long plunge.
Left: The canoe harbour. For some reason 'canoeing' seemed to be popular. There were several little flotillas of them paddling around the coast.
Right: For advice to anyone contemplating a trip here I show the advert for the Dubrovnik Card, sold at the tourist info offices, which offers discounts. It is worth getting.
On the second evening I went to an advertised performance by a classical guitarist in one of the many churches in the city (the small Domino's Church) close to my hotel. There are several churches; many more than you would think a place this size deserves. Anyway, the guitarist, Tomislov Zerovnik, was absolutely brilliant! He came in, never said a word, and just played for over an hour. Such enormous skill and talent. There were only about 30 of us in the audience but his performance deserved many more. I suspect that there is a lot of possibly unrecognised musical talent in this part of the world.
The rest of this town/city was pleasant enough and boasts several beaches, restaurants, smart hotels and other tourist spots outside the 'picturesque' old walled city, but I only travelled briefly through it. The Old City is definitely worth visiting and I enjoyed my brief stay, but suspect it becomes over-touristed in the peak summer season and unpleasantly crowded.
OK! On next further south into Montenegro........
No comments:
Post a Comment