Dubrovnik

We were told the weather forecast included quite strong winds and rain in the afternoon. As far as the wind was concerned the forecast was correct, though the sea was not as disturbed as we had been warned might be the case. We managed to find a good place on the sun deck sheltered from the wind.

The ship arrived in Dubrovnik just after lunch. The modern harbour is a half hour walk from the walled city. We opted to take the bus rather than the walk. We were in the city by about 2pm just as it started to rain, it continued until about 5pm. We were booked on a walking tour for 4pm, in the interval we explored the city on our own.

The walking tour was interesting, and started with some information about the impact of the shelling and bombing caused during the 1990s “Homeland War”. About 70% of the buildings in the historic centre were damaged. Everything has been restored although scars in the stonework can be seen here and there.

The city is all built of white limestone, and the streets are highly polished by the effect of people walking on them over the years.There was one large cruise liner in town, another had arrived by the following morning, apparently in the high season there can be several liners in at the same time and the town becomes very crowded. Even in this relatively quiet season the town was busy enough. There are now only about 1,000 people living permanently within the city walls.

There is one relatively wide street crossing the walled city, with many alleys and side streets running parallel to the Main Street, one of alleys is in the photgraph. The city gates used to be closed at 6pm and nobody was allowed in or out until the morning.

We had a light dinner in the walled city in an alley only slightly wider than the one above, after which we took a bus back to the ship. As we left the city we noticed the main gate was guarded by "soldiers" in medieval costume.