Another day – the last in fact – another place and another country! Having crossed the border we are now in Croatia and heading for Dubrovnik – another UNESCO World Heritage site. Still mountains in evidence but now the sea as well. This was once an important maritime city but now trade has been replaced with expensive yachts and cruise ships! Luckily only one small one lurking in the bay today.
Having arrived we are quickly met by our guide who was local and clearly passionate about his city. It is soon apparent the link between Venetian architecture and that of this city and less obvious that some has been restored following the Siege of Dubrovnik in 1991/92. This is the largest medieval town that we have had the pleasure of walking around and it hasn’t lost any character for the increase in size – still a mix of high walls, narrow streets, palatial buildings with balconies and of course cats! Croatia is the only member of the EU and the fact that it is mainly Roman Catholic does give a different flavour to the monasteries and churches.
Having finished our tour and said goodbye to our excellent guide we also had to say good bye to Michel our tour guide who had to meet another group – it turns out his replacement was who we should have originally had – what a pity, she was much more sensitive to the needs of the group in just the few hours of being with us!
So much more to explore – I had decided that walking the city walls was a must – not sure I had anticipated how expensive it would be – 32 euros. The walls added another 2 km or so to my distance covered today, although that doesn’t take into account all the steps up and down in towers etc! – quite a good workout. The view over the red tiled roofs was wonderful, with glimpses out to sea and up to mountains behind. These are double walls and were developed over several centuries – probably quite a costly upkeep! They did include a free toilet – having paid 1 euro earlier in the day!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walls_of_Dubrovnik
One of the iconic scenes from Game of Thrones was filmed around an inlet and small fortress which was visible from the walls. My walk walking companion Steve, it was the second one we had done together did dive off later to get to the actual spot!
The museum and gallery near the end of the wall was an extra charge, so I didn’t go in- I should have bought the one day card instead of just paying for the walls!
Before long it was time to set off for our final destination Cavtat, about half an hour from the city but often used as somewhere to stay away from the bustle but with easy bus access. After a quick depositing of luggage it was time for the last walk of the holiday. Down a very steeple hill to the sea front and a large bay. First an exploration to the right, they don’t have many actual beaches in this area but lots of ladders to climb down into the water. Again interesting churches and views around each corner and much more tranquility. Whilst we left one of our small group of explorers to continue Jackie and I doubled back to explore the other side of the bay and also to hopefully see Dubrovnik across the water. We were also specking it out for one of our group who was staying for an extra couple of days.
So after a good walk it was back up the top for a quick change and then down again to eat. It wasn’t quite the last walk of the trip as the next morning it was down again to a bakery for lunch and then back up to go to the airport!
So 13 km on the Tuesday and although these have not been conventional walks in my defence I did walk around quite a lot!
Next blogs will be somewhere different again as I continue with my spring travelling!
Marion's 50 Walk Challenge 