Bill's Blog

Dubrovnik

It has been quite some time since my last entry. I almost forgot how to set up the pictures. But it is slowly coming back to me. I hope this entry will be enoyable.

We flew to Dubrovnik on Condor. The one-way tickets were under $500 each. Condor, a subsidary of Lufthansa, brought us to Frankfort on a fairly uncomfortable flight. Uncomfortable because the seat are way too close together. I think they were as bad as our national flights on Spirit Airlines. My only saving grace was that the seats behind us were unfilled, so I figured out how to lie on them. And I acutally got some sleep. The second leg was on the Croatian Airlines, which, although being an hour late, was a very nice flight with great snacks (olives and cheese) and a glass of wine. We had arrived at the airport in Minneapolis around 5:00 pm on Labor Day and arrived some 18 hours later around 7:00 pm at our room in Dubrovnik.

Accommodations in Dubrovnik are quite dear. There are no couchsurfing hosts. Our room was quite small and in a house where we shared a bath with another couple. Because we booked in the US the cost was over $70 per day. Had we been able to book directly with the owner, the cost would have been $50 per night. Needless to say accommodations are quite expensive here as is everything else, save beer and wine.

We could not get to sleep until almost midnight. Remember when it's midnght here, it's 5:00 pm in the middle of the USA. Needless to say our internal time clocks have been messed up for the last five days.

There must be millions that come to the old city every year. Even with the tourist season winding down, thousands filled the streets and alleys everyday. One reason it has become even more popular in recent years has to do with the TV show "The Game of Thrones." Many of the scenes from the show were filmed in Dubrovnik. It is a very old city with a well preserved medieval appearance. The old city has only one street that a car or small truck can get into for deliveries in the early morning. How they get in and out is a mystery to me, but I saw delivery trucks before 9:00 am one morning.

We did not do all the regular tourist things in Dubrovnik. We did not walk atop the city walls. We found little nooks to sit and enjoy the surroundings. For example, we found area just outside the city wall by the Lovrijenac Fortress to be very peaceful. And we liked the old port on the south side of the old city. The weather was good most of the time with just one morning with mist and light rain.

The third day after arriving, on our last evening we went out to for dinner. Lady Pi-Pi Restaurant was very good and not overly expensive. We both ordered the goulash, which Americans would call beef stew. It was excellent. After dinner we attended a classical guitar concert in the Rector's Palace Atrium. The music was delightful. In some of the pieces the guitar trio was accompanied by a mezzo-soprano.

On Friday, the 9th we got on a bus to Korcula, the name of both a town and an island. We will stay here until at least Monday and maybe beyond.

View of the Dubrovnik's Old City

Posted by bill at September 10, 2016 11:53 AM