After a leisurely breakfast at Hotel Plecka this morning, we left Dubrovnik at 9:30 for our journey to Korcula, located off the northern end of the Peljesac Peninsula. It was a warmer morning than yesterday, and another bright and sunny day. We drove north from Dubrovnik along the spectacular coastline, winding and twisting along the coast with views of the Elaphiti Islands. These island are protected so are mainly undeveloped. The steep hillsides were covered with lots of olive trees, various fruit trees, and pine trees. We crossed to the Peljesac Peninsula, which is known for its wineries, and we passed lots of vineyards. The grapes grow very low to the ground in this area, and often in terraced areas because of the steep hills.
After about an hour and a half of driving, we stopped at the town of Ston, located on the southern end of the peninsula. It is an extremely cute town with lots of old stone buildings, and amazing stone walls extending high up into the the hills surrounding the town. These defensive walls and towers were built in the 14th C, and originally included
40 towers and 5 forts (20 towers and 5.5 km of the walls are still standing). We stopped into a konoba (a simple restaurant usually serving local traditional food) for oysters, which are in this area (there are many oyster farms along the coastline). I dont eat oysters but Susan said they were excellent. They also included bread, so I had a slice with olive oil and salt (very tasty). We walked around the town a little bit, then rejoined our van to continue our journey.
Our next stop was for a wine tasting at Musej Vina (wine museum) in Putnikovic. There was a history of wine production display on the top floor, above the wine tasting room, which was interesting. Wine production first started in Dalmatia in the 4th C BCE. The area is known for a type of red wine made with the plavacmali grape (which means little blue). We tasted three wines, one white (Marastina) and two reds (both made with the plavacmali grape). I quite liked the white, and though Im not much of a red wine drinker I didn‘t mind the reds either. We always enjoy wine tastings so we were very
happy to try some Croatian wines. The village is called Putnikovic, and the wines we tasted were from the Putnikovic winery.
We continued up the peninsula to Orebic, where we were dropped off at the pier to catch our boat to Korcula. Orebic is a very pretty little coastal town. We hauled our bags onto the boat for our 15 minute ride across to Korcula town, located on the eastern end of Korcula Island. It was an enjoyable boat ride, with beautiful views of Korcula town as we arrived. Korcula is a very beautiful little town, with defensive towers and walls and is full of beautiful old buildings and tiny streets. Renaissance and Gothic architecture abounds.
We were met by a local rep who walked us a short distance to join the hosts of the apartments where we would be staying for the next two nights. Susan and I are at Jacobus Apartments, located right in the old town, just a few minutes away from everything. We have a very cute room, including a little kitchen, and bathroom, and even a little terrace with a nice view. The building is in one of the very narrow little streets
in Korcula, and some of our windows are on this street side, overlooking the Marco Polo restaurant also run by the apartment owners. It was quite noisy earlier, with the diners at tables just down from our windows, but has quieted down very nicely now. The restaurant is highly and we plan on eating there tomorrow night.
After we all settled into our apartments (we are at several different places), we met Zigi for a short orientation to the town, then we set off for St. Mark‘s Cathedral, which is a highlight of the town and which I wanted to see. But first, since we were really hungry at this point, not having had lunch and not having any snacks with us, we popped into a bakery and shared a spinach borek, to tide us over until dinner.
