Walking the Walls of Dubrovnik

Looking down on Onofrio's Fountain.
By the way, the water coming out of the fountain via a 600-year-old aqueduct was delicious.

Today was the only full day in Dubrovnik. And what's the best thing to do in Dubrovnik when you've got a free full day? Walk the walls.

But before ascending the steep stone stairs to the walls, let's reflect upon the Lovrijenac, the historic fortress.

The same ticket to gain entry to the wall-walking also would give you admission to the fortress. If your legs were still working afterwards. Ours weren't.

It is a steep climb up stone stairs that most decidedly are not ADA compliant.

But the views from atop the walls are worth breaking ADA law to see.

Getting mighty crowded up on the walls:

Not "Great Wall of China" crowded, although there were a lot of Chinese tourists. But packed in tightly in spots.

Here is the view of Lovrijenac, the fortress which shall remain unmolested by these American tourists:

These walls won't walk themselves, so it's time to focus on our wall-walking:

But we can stop occasionally to look through a window in a turret.

Or even to go inside a turret.

More Lovrijenac:

Why so much Lovrijenac? It is the most prominent feature off to the west when you are walking the western segment of the walls.

And here are people kayaking from the kayak rental station somewhere between Dubrovnik's Pile Gate and the Lovrijenac.

The walls go on and on and on and on.

So pause for a photo.

Or pause for a pause.

A this point, we are looking down on Dubrovnik, which means we are about halfway through the wall walk,

At the point you reach the harbor, the walls are not as high. There's got to be a reason. But if I included one here, I would be making it up.

More harbor:

More wall. This time with the bell tower from the east end of the Stradun in the background.

And here's the bell tower without any people in the picture to detract and distract from its awesomeness.

We are getting close the summit, close to the pinnacle of the wall.

The northwest corner of the wall is the high point of the fortification. It comes at the end because your legs will be screaming from climbing all of the stone stairs necessary to get there.

And here we are at the giant Croatian flag at the summit of the wall. This kind of looks like an album cover shot, doesn't it? Anyway, after our calf muscles recover, we will continue with our day of Dubrovnik tourism.

Montenegro Day

Bay of Kotor

You call it Montenegro. We call it Crna Gora.

Actually, we call it Montenegro, too, us Turistas Americanas, although "Crna Gora" is the translation of Montenegro, "Black Mountain" into Serbo-Croatian from Italian (I'm guessing those wily Venetians had a little something to do with a Slavic country having an Italian name).

The main tourist sight to see in Montenegro/Crna Gora is the Bay of Kotor.

So we saw it.  Here we are, bayside, at a popular local photo point.

Also popular with cruise ship tourists, too.

The first "all tourists must do" thing that we did was to take a speedboat out to the Our Lady of the Rocks from the docks in the bayside town of Perast.

Popular with tourists of all ages!

And away we go.

The boat ride is very brief.

And soon we are on the island on which the orthodox church sits.

An on which yachts are docked.  This is the church.

Exterior, of course, but you probably figured that out.

Artsy framed shot of a sailboat docked on the church island.

And this, and I'm guessing you would figure this out also without prompting, is a shot of the church interior.

Ceiling:

Votive candles. A bargain at one-half of a euro a piece.

Montenegro uses the euro for its currency for some reason.  I guess they really don't need a reason. But whether you call it Montenegro, or Crna Gora, or Mountain of Black, it is not an E.U. member state.  It might be at some point in the near future.

But it's not now. Above is the art photography contest entrant, with the blue of the kayak, the blue of the Bay of Kotor, and the blue of the Our Lady domes, all together in a single frame.

Well, all good things come to an end. The speedboat operator gave us 30 minutes on the Our Lady of the Rocks Island and we got 35. Time to head to the exits and motor back to town.

In the foreground is Saint George Island, which houses a Catholic Church. Or once did. I'm not sure, it's not open to the public as is the orthodox island.

Next stop: the City of Kotor. And the cruise ships are in town.

But this is not peak season, so that one mega-ship is all alone.

The old city walls can be seen in this picture. It is a long steep hike up the walls to the top of the hill. Which is not black at all. It's more Monte-beige than Montenegro, if you want my opinion.

And what's for lunch?  For me, it was cevapcici! I love cevapcici.

Refueled, it now was time to enter the city walls.

First stop was the Katedrala Svetog Tripuna, or Cathedral of Saint Tryphon, the Catholic Cathedral in orthodox Kotor City.

Interior. Simple.

This is the view of the square from the second floor balcony.

Time's a-wastin'. Another church. Did not go in.

And then it was time to exit the walls for the drive back to Dubrovnik. Nice juxtaposition of the ancient city walls and big ol' palm trees.

Twenty-nine countries now visited with Montenegro becoming the latest.

And then we were back in Dubrovnik for the night.

Laku noć, Little Onofrio's Fountain. Laku noć.

Dubrovnik After Dark

Strolling the Stradun, Dubrovnik's main boulevard

I have arrived in Dubrovnik, as has everyone else with whom I am traveling this travel: the Sister, the Brother-in-Law, the Cousin, the Cousin's Husband, and the family friend from Bavarian Germany. They shall not be named since at least one of the above fears that if the internets learn that they are traveling in places on the other side of the globe, they will targeted by every cat burglar in the Keystone State. Which would be unfortunate, given that they are dog people.

It was a long day of flying to get here,  It took awhile, sitting in airplane seats that seemed designed specifically to maximize discomfort, but soon we were outside the Pile Gate, the western entrance in the walled city of Old Dubrovnik.

This is the former draw bridge that formerly went over the moat the encircled the city's walls.

Now it's just a dry ditch.  But it's nice to have the bridge still working, so you don't have to roll your bag into the ditch and then up out of the ditch. What did Dubrovnik tourists in ancient days, like 35 years ago, before the invention of wheeled luggage?  They suffered, that's what they did.

Time to stroll the Stradun on the way to supper. Street musicians were out busking in force.

As was the nearly full moon, shining over the Stradun.

We went looking for this one restaurant recommended by the apartment building we're staying in. (Three small apartments. Stacked on top of each other. Very "atmospheric," with "character," as the real estate people would say. Actually, we each have one of the three apartments and it's a great place to stay in the old city.)

Here's the Cousin by the Harbor.

And here is the Harbor by the Cousin:

The Harbor by the Cousin under the nearly-full moon.

Here is a picture of children after dark, climbing on statuary. After dark.

Then, giving up on the restaurant we were looking for, primarily because forgot it's name and it's very difficult to find a restaurant you've never been to before when you don't know it's name. So we dined at the nice, but priced-for-tourists Bistro Tavulin.

I of course had the octopus salad. Like the Baby Jesus in "Silent Night," the octopus was tender and mild. As was the medium rare pork.

Yes. Medium rare pork. I live life on the edge.

The hour was getting late. We all slept about as much as one can sleep in uncomfortable airplane sears. So it was time to return to the apartments for a good night's sleep.

Laku noć.