Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik
Hotel -  Grand Hotel Park
Weather - sunny and hot

Dubrovnik is a tourist’s mecca and it was already heaving with tourists when we arrived at 9.30am.  There were several cruise ships in port and tour leaders were weaving the groups around the many alleys and sights of interest.
Our local guide lead us to the main street which was wide and paved with an ancient slippery stone.

Showing the recently restored Big Onofrio’s fountain, the monastery, St Saviour Church, and the Franciscan Monastery and Museum.

Inside the cloisters showing the church bell.

Dubrovnik sustained significant damage during the 1990’s war and the 16th century church and Franciscan monastery were not spared despite bearing the Red Cross symbol.  Missile holes could be seen in the walls and a variety of  artillery taken from the monastery were on display.  The nearby cloisters were beautiful and surrounded an internal green garden.

The Bell Tower looms large at the end of the Placa (main street) and overlooks the 600 year old Orlando’s Column which is currently being restored.  

The street or Placa. 

The Old Port was picture perfect with many boats coming and going on the beautiful blue water. 

The very busy old port.

The group took photos of the stairs made famous in The Game of Thrones known as The Walk of Shame. There are quite a few souvenir shops with GoT and Star Wars souvenir shops as they were filmed in Dubrovnik. We succumbed with some GoT t-shirts for the fans in our family. We wandered around to the Italian Baroque church of the Virgin Mary Of the Assumption of the Sky and then onto the Orlando Column Square to end our tour.  

Although the day had become very hot we bought tickets to climb up to the fortified wall to walk around the walled city.  The views of the Dubrovnik and the sea were stunning and we stopped frequently to take photos.

 

Views from the fortified wall surrounding Dubrovnik. 

After climbing down in the cool of the town we sat for a while with a wine and a beer and then made our way to the souvenir shop where you can sit on the GoT throne if buy merchandise.  We must have bought well as the shop owner took our phots and we were given two free magnets. 

Classic tourist shot...if you buy! 

Look who David ran into.... Tyrion Lannister! 

After a few hours rest and a swim for David we were on our way to a hilltop village for a traditional evening of music and local fare.  The family went to a lot of trouble to entertain us including their eighteen year old son in traditional attire playing a piano accordion.  After toasting home cured ham on basil sticks on open small fires and sipping grappa (similar to raki) we moved into an underground room with a long table.  It was a very special evening which was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.  

Tomorrow we are heading into Montenegro for the day.