Dubrovnik – October 30th

Our first stop was this small, old port city in Croatia.  Had you asked either of us beforehand, Dubrovnik wouldn’t have been on the list of sites we wanted or expected to see on this cruise.  Fortunately, the ship provided “Port of Call” sheets for each port so we could read about each stop in advance.

A little background…Dubrovnik (known as Ragusa in earlier times) has a long history, and has often been under the control of other countries/city states.  Its glory days were from the mid-15^th to the

A section of the city wall with one of its forts in the distance.

mid-17^th centuries when it was a wealthy city state and a great mercantile power with a fleet of around 200 ships.  In its more recent history, Croatia declared its independence from the then Yugoslavia in June 1991; we are all much too aware of the horrific war that followed.  Dubrovnik was itself was targeted a number of times, and the picturesque, walled Old City received a 12-hour long bombardment by land, sea, and air. As a result 63% of the buildings in the Old City were hit and pretty much destroyed.  Surprisingly, the Old City has been almost completely restored and is once again worthy of its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Armed with this information we were off to explore Dubrovnik.

A view of the "new" city from the Old City wall.

The weather was great – sunny and about 68 degrees.  We elected to explore Dubrovnik on our own rather than join a tour.  We spent the majority of our time in the Old City, a small old walled city that had at one time been allied with Venice.  It was hard to imagine that it had been pretty much destroyed; its restoration was incredible and not really obvious.  No small feat as we saw in the “before” pictures!  We strolled through some of the narrow streets, and then went up on the wall for the 2-mile circuit of the town and its gorgeous setting on the Adriatic.  The views from the wall were spectacular in every direction!  The wall’s original

A view of the harbor from the Old City wall.

purpose was obvious as we passed St. Ivan’s Fortress and the 15^th century Minceta Fortress, both part of the wall.

Our lunch café and David with glass in hand.

After our hike, we enjoyed a leisurely lunch at a nice café on the waterfront, sampling some of the local wine.  Anna purchased some beautiful needlework items being made by a local woman seated on a wall near one of the city gates.  It had been a very pleasant, interesting day, and we were glad the stop was included in the cruise.