Now more than ever do I realize that I will never be content with a sedentary life, that I will always be haunted by thoughts of a elsewhere. - Isabelle Eberhardt
We have had such a fabulous, full day today in Dubrovnik! We walked and walked, along old city walls, admired amazing views, climbed up and down about a million stairs (over 23,000 steps on my Fitbit today), and just had such a great day. 😀
Wed be walking today, and admiring yet another incredible view, and I just had to marvel, youre in Dubrovnik!. Its so incredible to be here and to see the beautiful old city. We started the day with breakfast in a hotel just down the street (Hotel Pletka, a sister property to our Hostel Sol). There were lots to choose from for breakfast. I had an egg, cheese, plain yogurt with some muesli, sauteed eggplant and zucchini, and a slice of bread with nutella (I was looking for jam and noticed the little packet of Nutella, so I thought, what the heck). There was also some fruit, cereals, and meats (sausage and bacon I think). I had a double espresso with hot milk
(from the machine), which wasnt bad. It was a little chilly this morning, but it quickly warmed up and was a lovely sunny day, perfect for all our walking.
We met the group at 8:30 in reception, and walked a short way down the street to get the bus to the Pile Gate, where we started our walking tour of the Dubrovnik city walls. We all have a Dubrovnik card, which includes public transport, and access to some sights and museums. The city walls were built between the 9th and 15th C, to protect the city from sieges and invasions. As I mentioned earlier in the blog, Dubrovnik (originally called Ragusa), was an independent republic, a which maintained its independence by trading with both the Venetian and the Ottoman empires. It was a link between these two powerful empires.
We entered old town at Pile Gate (one of three gates/entrances to the old town), and proceeded to climb up the first of many steep steps, to be rewarded by incredible views of the old town with the terracotta rooftops, and the beautiful blue, shimmering Adriatic. We walked, up and down many many steps, and were just constantly
amazed by the beautiful views. We did the city wall circuit, and climbed up to the various forts that are part of the city walls, well guided by Zigi, for about 2 hours. There werent too many people around when we started, but by the time we finished lots of big groups were clogging up the narrow streets of the old town. We filled up our water bottles at the large Onofrio Fountain (built in 1438 to supply water to the city). This circular fountain was heavily damaged in the 1667 earthquake (which caused a lot of damage in Dubrovnik). It, along with the other fountains, are very handy for filling water bottles! It is nice to be in a country where we can drink the water - the water is very good here.
We had a coffee with Zigi at Cogito Coffee (from Zagreb, best coffee in Dubrovnik Zigi says), and Susan and I then set off on our own to explore further. We toured the Rectors Palace, built in the 15th C for the elected rector who governed Dubrovnik. It contained the rectors office, private chambers, administrative offices, and a dungeon. It was quite interesting to see,
with nicely restored rooms and lots of art. We then wandered around the narrow, picturesque streets of the old town, went into a few churches, popped into Gianni for a gelato (blackberry goat cheese for Susan and lemon ginger sorbet for me), and checked out a few shops (I got a small picture and a Dubrovnik We also had a burek at Holy Burek. Burek is a kind of filled pie, made of thin flaky dough with a variety of fillings. Traditionally a burek here would be filled with meat (mince), but there are other types of fillings too. We got spinach and cheese and it was very delicious. It was long and thin (see the photo), and extremely yummy. Im really glad we tried it.
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