Thursday 11 July: Kotor to Dubrovnik
With very limited time in Kotor we decided the best option was to forsake some sleep, and head into the old town early for a wander before the hoards arrived from a cruise ship or buses and ruined some of the charm of what is a dear little old town whose walls extend up the very steep hill behind (which I walked 1/2 way up when I was here on a tour in 2013 and time allowed!j.
The plan was a good one, made even better by stunning weather, which was much appreciated after the torrential rain of the last several days. My pics tell the story largely ..
And a reliable source said....*Kotor, Italian Cattaro, walled town, seaport, and resort at the south end of Kotor Bay, one of four bays of the Gulf of Kotor (Boka Kotorska), on the Adriatic coastline of Montenegro. The town, situated about 30 miles (50 km) south of Nikšić, lies at the foot of the sheer Lovćen massif, which rises to 5,738 feet (1,749 metres). Kotor was founded by the ancient Romans as Acruvium. In the 10th century it was an autonomous city ruled from Byzantium, and from 1186 to 1371 it was a free city of medieval Serbia. It was Venetian and Hungarian for brief periods, an independent republic from 1395 to 1420, and Venetian again until 1797. The town suffered periodic damage from Turkish assaults and from earthquakes. Between 1807 and 1814 it was occupied by France. The French period was followed by Austrian domination until 1918, when Slav sailors in the Austro-Hungarian navy mutinied at Kotor and the town was incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (from 1929 to 2003 Yugoslavia).
After enjoying breakfast we then headed back to the apartment, packed and checked out, then set out for Dubrovnik airport where the hire car was due to be returned (yippee!). Most of the drive was good except for a long wait at the border (it’s been typical to be delayed 20-30 minutes on each side at all borders) and then arriving at the car rental place, and only realising that we were at ‘pick ups’ after unpacking the car!!
So then on to the right drop off point where a bit of what I think was an attempted scam on the part of the rental company. You will recall that we stuffed up the original car hire by arriving a day late, whereupon we secured a new rental quite quickly through car rental.com, the agency we used originally booked with. In addition to the hire cost they were supposed to include insurance so there would be no excess in the case of a claim ... but a few days after picking up the car my credit card record told me it wasn’t paid. I wasn’t too thrilled when I called and they essentially said that they didn’t care, but voiced my concerns and as my travel insurance covers such items I wasn’t worried.
Back to the suspected scam ..... as soon as the guy from the car hire company came to inspect the car (which had quite a few scrapes from before), he honed in on a very minor scrape on the underside of the front bumper (not visible) and accused me of causing the damage. He stuck to his accusations despite my protests and annoyance, and I was asked to provide a written statement (which I was very long winded in) that I had not caused the damage. However when I told him and his manager of the renting agency’s stuff up with the insurance and admission of their error (thus making a claim very complex) they very quickly changed their tune and said they would let me off!
I’m pretty sure that if the insurance had been in place they would have processed an expensive claim for the insurance company to pay - at no cost to me!
With a win to me we carted our luggage to the airport terminal and secured the services of a nice taxi driver for the trip to the hotel... and as a passenger I didn’t care a tad about the busy traffic! Checking in was fine, except that we were on the 3rd floor and no lift! However our big bags were carried up for us so it wasn’t toooo painful! Still, the view is stunning and interesting, with a lot of development since my last visit.
After dropping bags we headed down to the sparkling Adriatic to take in the sunshine, observe holiday makers of all shapes and sizes on sun beds, swimming, walking, eating and drinking among the shoreline. After a bit of a wander we stopped for a snack and a couple of drinks ( and to my delight I discovered that they serve Corona (beer), my (apparently) low gluten beer of choice! Next we moved on to the obligatory ice cream, which was enjoyed while people watching along the promenade.
Following the ice cream taste treat, we set out to walk along the path from the ‘beach’ area (read large pebbles not sand!) that seemed to go around the headland (which is visible from our hotel), which included lots of sea views, seeing stairs to many swimming spots on the rocks, an a drink in a cave bar, which was very unusual. The walk was followed by a buffet dinner and a good nights sleep!
14,743 steps, 24 floors, 10.1 km
Friday 12 July: Dubrovnik
After a slow start and breakfast provided by the hotel, with a stunning view of the bay, we caught the very, very packed bus (fortunately the hotel is only the second stop) to the famous Dubrovnik old town. It’s an amazing and beautifully preserved / old European city, of course made more famous by its use in the the Game of Thrones series, but not many people realise how heavily it was bombed and parts destroyed in 1991 and 1992.
Part of our visit was to a museum set up to commemorate those who died during this homeland war - ie the breakup of Yugoslavia.
Photos of all those killed cover 3 sides of the room and the photos of the destruction are very sobering.
Our day included the obligatory fortress wall walk, with incredible views to sea, down the fortress walls and interesting views into a living, working town including washing on lines, nice gardens, courtyards, basketball courts, churches, bells tolling out the hour, narrow streets, an archeological dig and of course repairs/maintenance work.
And the history is interesting... skip this bit if you aren’t interested....sorry, but I do.
‘The main history of Dubrovnik usually concentrates on a small settlement on the site of Dubrovnik in pre-historic times; this settlement, in fact, was on an island called Laus which was, at that time, separated from the mainland by a marsh. There was also a larger Greek settlement nearby in what was called Epidauros (present-day Cavtat).
An invasion by Slavs in the 7th century destroyed Epidauros and other communities in the area, causing inhabitants to flee to Laus. Laus eventually changed to Raus which in turn became Ragusa – which is the historic name for Dubrovnik. Around this time, Dubrovnik itself was founded by Croats (the name stemming from dub which means oak and dubrava which means wood – unsurprisingly, the settlement was by an oak forest).
Another theory about Dubrovnik’s history which is gaining weight is that there was in fact a large Greek settlement where Dubrovnik is situated today and that the city in fact has Greek origins.
Dubrovnik expanded considerably from the 9th century onwards and as part of the Byzantine Empire, so by the 12th century it was even considered as somewhat of a threat to Venice and its Republic. It came under attack from Venice, and from 1205 to 1358 fell under its rule.
The old town was completed in the 13th century and remains virtually unchanged to the present day. Tall ramparts surround it and there are only two entrances to the old town which lead to Stradun, the city’s promenade.In 1358 the Treaty of Zadar saw Dubrovnik cease being under Venice’s rule and instead become Croat-Hungarian, although it had a great deal of independence.
From the 13th century onwards, Dubrovnik experienced a number of important developments which increased its prominence. The Statutes of 1272 laid the groundwork for political and legal life in the city. From the 14th century trade with the local region flourished and the city also prospered industrially and culturally. Dubrovnik had a number of advanced establishments for that time – a pharmacy was opened in 1317 and an orphanage in 1432.
Dubrovnik was hit by an earthquake on 6 April 1667, which killed about 5,000 inhabitants and destroyed much of the city, although the city walls remained standing. The city was much weakened, and when in 1806 Napoleon entered Dubrovnik there was little resistance. The Republic of Ragusa was officially dissolved in 1808 but, after Napolean’s fall, Dubrovnik became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1815.
After World War I, Dubrovnik became part of Croatia which itself was part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes which became Yugoslavia after World War II.Dubrovnik was subjected to considerable shelling by Serbs during the war in 1991/2 in a siege that lasted seven months. The Old Town suffered considered damage, but was quickly restored to its former beauty.’
With the views enjoyed an the memorial museum visited, we headed to the town’s harbour area to enjoy lunch of whitebait (popular here) and took the leftovers to distribute to some local cats, along with the leftovers of my lovey, but big, tuna steak, from dinner later in the evening.
After a wander around the (getting very crowded) streets we headed out of the old town to the bus stop, where it was a short wait till we shoved our way onto the bus and were soon back at the hotel. The afternoon was then for relaxing - blog writing, a swim and shower before enjoying dinner locally sitting in the extremely pleasant evening air, with some thought for those at home in the winter temperatures.
12,347 steps, 34 floors (the old town and a hotel with no lift), 9km.
Saturday 13 July: Dubrovnik - onto boat. Cruise day 1.
After the hussle and bustle of the last few weeks today was mainly at a slow pace, ending up on board the ‘Peregrine Dalmatia’, home for the next week, cruising the southern Croatian islands. After a hotel breakfast and pretty much packing ‘the stuff’, we set out on a walk to the top of the headland on the hotel side of the bay.
The walk started following the road that took us past other hotels (including where I have stayed twice before - the Hotel Vis’) and when the road ran out at the top hotel, up stairs and a path up the hill to some viewing points looking over sheer cliffs across the Adriatic. The path was pretty rough as it climbed steeply through largely pine trees (and very green shrubby undergrowth) and then started to drop as a well made, wide path.
Surprisingly there were quite a few people out walking too and a highlight was spotting a small turtle on a slow plod next to the path, who was stopping frequently to nibble some greenery. I hoped he was a native and not an abandoned import!
Soon we arrived at the path endpoint and walked down a steep street (ie ‘street’ meaning the pathway of stairs between houses, not a vehicular type of street), and headed back to the hotel to shore, finish packing, check out and take bags to the boat in anticipation of the tour’s official start at 5pm.
After not being sure exactly where in the large commercial port - Gruz - to find our boat, I resorted to my original online peregrine trip booking, and low and behold found the detail of the actual address and location (under the landmark Dubrovnik Franjo Tudman Bridge).
Expecting to see our boat tied up to the deck on arrival, it was a tad confusing to find rows of boats tied up in parallel - about 12 boats in a 3 x 4 square!
Fortunately the taxi driver spotted the Dalmatia - 3rd out in a row of 4, and then we spotted a Peregrine Dalmatia banner next to the first boat’s gang plank! All good. After a bit of exploration we found one of our tour leaders - Ziggy (short for a longer Polish name) who helped bring our bags onboard and stored them ... noting we could return at 4 and have access to our cabin.
So to fill in the time we walked along the busy harbour and observed the port’s various comings and goings, stopped at one restaurant to enjoy lunch of chevapcici (chevapi in Serbia) and iced coffee, before wandering further and finding a bar that served ice cream (first for the day) and beer!
Then it was time to head back to the boat, take bags to the cabin (with the help of our other tour leader Nate) and begin the seemingly impossible of unpacking heaps of stuff into a very small cabin.
However, with many unusually shaped nooks and crannies, drawers and cupboards, space for bags under the bed (but not impeding access to life jackets stored there) and lots of space to spread out in the bathroom, it wasn’t difficult.
That done, it was time to head to the upper deck to meet some fellow travellers - though with 31 passengers on board I am not sure that I will remember all the names ... still I made a start and having sat at a table of 6 for dinner, I have made a start! If only I could remember which ones I have forgotten!
At 5.30 (actually a bit later) we were herded into the dining area and our pre-tour briefing began, first with crew introductions, tour leader introductions, procedures, rules, plans for the week and importantly, how the bar (with a tab) is managed! Dinner followed the briefing and was very yummy - I had a special gluten free starter, then we all enjoyed fish and vegetables, and I had fruit for dessert. Wines were good too (having started the inevitable bar tab!) and the company very interesting.
After dinner a few of us headed up to the next level for a night cap as storm clouds came over, lighting lit up the skies and eventually torrential rain sent us scurrying below and eventually to bed! Slept well as usual!
12,750 steps, 23 floors, 8.4km
Sally
2019-07-14
Great to see a pic of you! Dubrovnic is looking beautiful, and sounds like the cruise will be fun :) x
Chrissy
2019-07-15
Love imagining your trip Jenny. Your words brining it to life. Thank you for sharing it with us all xx