Croatia Day 3 - Hiking Dubrovnik

                We woke up not too early and not too late and headed out for breakfast. We were looking for a bakery to just grab coffee and pastries, and we ended up at a small restaurant that advertised itself as a “patisserie.” Now, my French is not great, but that implies to me that they might have pastries. We sat down and ordered coffee and looked at the menu. No real pastries, just muffins and cake. And several items we asked were sold out. We ended up settling for splitting the chocolate muffin, which came out with frosting and sprinkles, essentially turning it into a cupcake. I also tried some sausage, which was very tasty.

                Our plan for the day was to head up to walk the city walls and play the rest of the day by ear. The city of Dubrovnik, former seat of the Ragusan Empire, is surround by stout, imposing walls that are in excellent repair and serve as a major tourist attraction now. We grabbed some water in advance, because what we had read was that it’s hot and tiring up there. Even on a fairly mild October day, that was excellent advice. If you are going in the summer, treat this like a serious hike and prepare accordingly. There is very little shade and only a few small refreshment stands.

We made our way to the entrance recommended by Rick Steves in his guidebook (this book was really an excellent resource and we would have had a much less well-planned vacation without it). We passed it once or twice, but bought our tickets and made our way up to the entrance and began the hike. In some ways, it reminded me of hiking the Great Wall. There, too, it’s an ancient wall, often with a lot of steps, and crowded by tourists. We had a large group of French tourists arrive right when we did, which made for slow-going at first. One observation I had of European tourists, be they French, German, or Swiss, the average age of a tour group is probably 65. It’s probably because of the time of year. I am sure younger groups tend to come in the summer when school is out, but it was really remarkable to me how uniformly gray these groups were. They also seem very fit and to be enjoying retirement in a great way, so good for them!

                The wall is one direction, counter clockwise. The real attraction here is the view. Everywhere you look is beauty. The main view is of the ancient city, with its red roofs, contrasting with the gleaming turquoise Adriatic that surrounds the city on all sides. Mount Srd looms up behind you. We started on the north side of the wall. The first tower we came to, the Minceta tower, was another GoT filming location. We went to the top there and managed an even more spectacular view. As we kept walking, an amazing view of Fort St. Lawrence opened in front of us. We decided then that we needed to get there, too, and would do that later in the day.

Some of the many amazing and difficult to capture views from the wall:

                The wall was hot, tiring, and amazing. We made our way around and at one point came across a juice bar with tables with a view out to Lokrum island off the coast. We were sort of suckered into a drink, as no price is posted and we didn’t think to ask. They were fresh fruit, though – squeezed right in front of us. It was very tasty, but then we got the check and realized that we had just spent about $15 on these.  Oops. The drink was delicious, though, and it was nice to sit and relax for a minute. 

Lokrum Island just off the shore

Happy smile - until we saw the check!

Just past the drink spot, we realized that we were right near an exit that would put us near our apartment, so we decided to exit the walls and move on to other things. Back at the apartment, we snacked on some stuff, including sharing a beer we had bought the night before and bag of what I thought were pretzels but turned out to take it one step further – peanut butter filled pretzels! Perfect with the beer, and a snack food that we really should adopt here.

The beach

The chairs were available to rent

                Ben was very keen on swimming, so we got swim and beach stuff together (the apartment had beach towels for us to use) and headed just outside the city to a small beach area located near a club/restaurant called East West. We had read in advance to know that although the club is in front of the beach and has some reserved seating, it’s a public area. Again, it was pebbles, which hurt my feet a bit – I had wished that I had brought water shoes or anything other than flip flops. It was quite comfortable to sit on, though! Ben did go in the freezing water, which he was very glad to do, but he didn’t stay in it long. It was so crystal clear and clean, I regretted not wearing my suit.

Fort St. Lawrence - and filming site of Joffrey's Name Day celebration in season 1 or 2

                We did not stay long at the beach, though. We had too much to do and had to get to some things before they closed. Next on the agenda was Fort St. Lawrence. This was a part of ancient Dubrovnik’s defenses, and is very visible just outside the walls on jut of land rising high above the sea. Oh, and of course, it was a GoT filming site! We made our way over there, which was little confusing, but once there faced a mountain of steps. At the top, we paid the small admission fee to get into the fort. It was pretty bare bones, the stone architecture and – here we go again!! – the view were spectacular. 

View over the water. My camera sucks.

View of the city walls and Lokrum from Ft. St. Lawrence

The battlement and replica cannon on the Fort

After exploring St. Lawrence for awhile, we headed back towards town, where we decided to take the cable car to the top of Mount Srd. We read about it and the option of climbing it, and decided that it was a bit too late in the day and a bit too much hiking after a day with a lot of hiking already. It was about 120 Kuna for the two of us to go up, and they accepted credit cards. Roundtrip is about 200 Kuna for two people, but we decided that we’d walk down.

Up and away in the cable car

                The cable car seems fairly new and very modern in contrast with all of the ancient buildings around it. They pack you in a bit but zip you right up to the top. Fear of heights would definitely make this a fairly unpleasant experience. Once at the top, there is an enormous observation deck hanging right off the side of the mountain. Of course, the pictures and view are amazing. It’s also quite a bit chillier up there, so be prepared for that. There are a couple of items of interest up there including a war memorial and museum. We skipped the museum, and just walked around and soaked it all in. Lots of pictures, lots of oohing and ahing. Yes, just writing it brings me back to how redundant it was – but that did not take away for our feelings of awe. We were mocking ourselves by this point, but couldn’t help it because we’ve never seen anything like it.

              

Selfie at the top of Mount Srd

  It took a few tries, and passing through an area that said “pass at your risk”, before we found the path down the mountain. Well, going down was only marginally easier than going up, I’d guess. The path was made out of very sharp crunched gravel – painful even through sneakers. Maybe thickly soled hiking boots would have been different, but our feet were killing us by the end. We joked at walking on regular dirt felt like walking on pillows. The path was pretty much empty – we passed a few people on their way up, and one couple passed us on their way down. It was a long walk back to town, but exhausted and sore though we were, it felt good. All in all, that ended up being our most active day – over 27,000 steps – approximately 11 miles – as recorded by my fitbit!

                Even though we were sweaty and gross, we stopped for dinner before even going back to our place because we were so hungry. We tried a small pizza and pasta place that had excellent trip advisor reviews – and was recommended by our host. I had spaghetti with fig and bacon, which was amazing! As an appetizer, I had bruschetta with mozzarella and (more) bacon. My husband had pizza – cheese and veggies. It definitely lived up to its recommendations, especially being so hungry. The prices were reasonable – we both enjoyed a beer with it. I would definitely go back here and now that I write this, I wish I were eating there right this minute.

                After dinner, we rested and showered and contemplated just going to bed. I got a second wind, however, and convinced Ben that we should head out on the town again. We walked all around, ending up back in the main square. We got gelatos at one of the ubiquitous spots, then sat down at a café where Ben ordered (another) dessert and I had fig liqueur. There was live entertainment, it was a warm night, and we were just as relaxed as can be.