Today was Dubrovnik whose ‘Old Town’ is famous as being the setting for Game of Thrones. I know it’s still really popular, but we watched the first episode and thought “Nah! Not for us”, and never returned.
After another late breakfast we walked off the ship and out into the more modern part of Dubrovnik. I had one task to complete and that was to buy a Dubrovnik tee shirt. Dubrovnik town is quite a pretty place in its own right. On our walk we found a Catholic(?) church with an old courtyard. Neither of us went in to the church. Across the busy road was a park that had been turned into an art display. All the seats had been painted in bright patterns and it looked like local children had painted posters and pinned them on trees. Next, at the end of the park was an interactive Science Park. All children centred and all interesting. Further along the road, Scamp found a fruit market and a smelly fish market she remembered from one of our first visits to Dubrovnik.
By then we’d reached the end of the road and turned right to keep the water on our right side. We found a park and in it was a naval gunboat the St Blaise. Allegedly “The first battleship of the Croatian Navy task force Dubrovnik. The symbol of resistance during the aggression of Serbia and Montengro on our town.” So say the Croatian Navy Veterans of Dubrovnik. Next an armoured vehicle, the Majsan used for the heroic defence of the City of Dubrovnik and its surrounding area during the homeland war. It’s an impressive lump of camouflaged steel and has what might or might not be the impressions made by enemy artillery on its side. Quite a strange collection of relics from a war that only happened about twenty years ago. It would seem that feelings are still a bit raw here. On a softer note, it seems the rear carrier of the vehicle is now home to a couple of stray cats!
We walked round the marina beside the park, then headed back to a cafe we’d passed earlier and had a beer there. From there it was an easy walk beside the harbour to the ship with the usual collections of catamarans, for-hire cabin cruisers and the now obligatory ‘pirate ship’, but nobody was hiring today. Scamp wanted to photograph some Agapanthus she’d seen earlier. She knew exactly where they were and the photos were taken along with some of Bougainvillea.
After lunch, Scamp went for a swim and I went for a walk down to the port under the high bridge where folk had been bungee jumping the last time we were here back in 2019 when the world was a totally different place. The bungee ropes were still in place and so was the jumping platform, but there were no jumpers today. I found a wee cottage with a lovely garden down by the port. I’m sure Scamp would have approved of the careful pruning of the flowers and bushes. I also found some scary looking cacti with big sharp looking spines, growing wild. I didn’t test their sharpness!
On the way back I stopped at the seamen’s bar (you have to be careful how you spell that!), had a beer and got the password for the wifi on the receipt. Managed to send a few messages back home and the beer was good too.
We found we’d a double booking for restaurants for tomorrow and chose to go with Sindhu, the Indian one. Managed to get the Glasshouse changed to Tuesday. Meant to go to a show, but cancelled and went dancing instead to more rapturous applause.
The PoD was a grab shot of Scamp walking past a chapel. The statue looked like a creepy lurker, I thought.
Another late night. Koper tomorrow.
