Dubrovnik, Croatia

Today we arrived in Dubrovnik, Croatia.  I have been looking forward to Croatia as I have been told it is a beautiful country and I was not disappointed as we sailed into harbour.  It has a beautiful harbour with the mountains seeming to just rise out of the water and the houses (which all look new) scattered up the mountain.

We disembarked and hopped on the bus to the old city.  Wow, the old city is surrounded by a 20ft thick wall and the height is 80ft and the length 6,350ft (or about 2.5kms).The wall is in perfect condition having been continuously repaired since the 12^th century.

The old city is still lived in today.  Our guide Lydia was born and raised there are only moved out when she married.  The city is set out in a grid pattern so easy to get around except for the steps – these people are part mountain goat.  When the city was built, it was built with running water to the houses and sewerage.  The bottom floor is a shop or business, on the second floor there are 2 bedrooms, 3^rd floor is living space and kitchen and under the roofline there is a little attic window which is the toilet.  It was always built in the roof as the highest point so that the smell would blow away in the wind.  During the war the majority of the town was bombed but it has all been restored to its original condition.

We toured thru the Dominician Monastery, Town Hall, the Rector’s Palace and just wandered up and down the streets.  Alan wanted to walk the wall but we ran out of time.

From here we traveled to a small seaside town of Cavtat, where we walked along the beautiful seafront promenade.  This small town is becoming on of the places the rich and famous bring their yachts and apparently Brangelina and tribe holidayed there last year.

Next we went up the mountains to the Konavle region where we went to a Glavic House (local farm house) where we were greeted with brandy (blow your head off home made stuff) dried figs and then trooped into the olive oil making room where we ate home made ham, cheese, chicken and potatoes with more wine (truly coudn’t drink it but Alan did).  It was very interesting being in a home and farm that has been occupied by the same family for over 600 years.  It is now heritage listed but the old grinding stones are still used to make the oil.

It was a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky, the scenery was stunning and our guide was delightful as a result we thoroughly enjoyed Dubrovnik and would happily return and spend more time here.

Todays trivia:  we are the worst trivia players on the ship – we could take out the booby prize every day