Hit the Ground Running

Saturday, September 03, 2022
Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik-Neretva County, Croatia
So much for easing into things!  Our last couple of days (well day and a half anyway) have been very busy.  Friday morning, we got up bright and early to get down at opening time, 8:00, to "walk the walls" of the Old City of Dubrovnik.  We have been to a lot of places where there were walled "old town" sections, but Dubrovnik is in a whole different league.  And you can do a complete 360 degree circuit, from 1 of at least 3 entrances.  We used the entrance beside the Pile Gate, which is the one straight down the "hundreds" (just over 2 hundred actually, Carol counted) of steps from our apartment.  Needless to say, the views were spectacular!  We did get there before it got very crowded at all, and the weather was good, not as sweltering as it can get in August, though it was a bit cloudy for pics.  And it doesn't take that long, just a couple of hours.
So, we were looking for something to do in the afternoon and decided to take the 10 minute ferry over to Lokrum Island, which sits just opposite the Old Port in town.  The island is a nature preserve that has a botanical gardens, an old monastery that was used for some scenes in Game of Thrones (everything GOT is very big here!), as well as a swimming hole called the "dead sea", which really is a saline pond that gets sporadic infusions from the sea in rough weather.   And of course I thought it appropriate to get a pic of Carol, who hasn't see 1 minute of Game of Thrones, on the Iron Throne! There are also tons of walking trails, a nude "beach" (rocks really), an old fort and other things that we didn't see. But we spent a very pleasant couple of hours on the island.
For dinner, we went to Gradska kavana Arsenal, on the waterfront at the Old Port.  When I asked for a reservation, they told me that they were booked for dinner through September 24th, but we showed up anyway, a little early just after 6 pm, and they gave us a table straight away!  Glad they did--the food was excellent.  I had a wonderful fish stew and Carol had a sea bass.  So far, restaurant prices in Dubrovnik seem comparable to Toronto prices, which isn't bad considering that we are eating in the Old Town in very touristy restaurants and Dubrovnik is supposed to be the most expensive place in Croatia, at least 30% more than anywhere else. 
For Saturday morning, we had booked a private tour to a couple of the Elafiti Islands, Kolocep and Lopud (apologies, but my keyboard won't put the appropriate diacritics above the letters in Croatian).  Our guide, Tony, took us to explore several caves on Kolocep, including the spectacular "Blue Cave", which has an amazing optical property that makes the water incredibly blue, and shimmers even more vividly blue when you touch the surface.  Unfortunately, it doesn't photograph very well.  Then we went over to spend some time on a beautiful sand beach on Lopud.  Along the way we saw a big tuna jumping out of the water, chasing some "bait fish" that were skimming along the top of the water.  Had never seen a tuna jumping before.  We also went around Lokrum Island on the way back and saw some of the things we hadn't seen the day before, like the "nude beach" (rocks) and another neat cave.
When we left Tony, we went for lunch at his brother's place, Castro Pizzeria, which is at the bottom of the steps up to the Jesuit Church and was an amazing place to watch the hoards of "sheeple" from the five cruise ships that were apparently in port (most dock at the "New Port" which is quite a ways up the coast), as they were herded through town.  And the pizza was very good!

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