Day 8 (July 19, 2017): A city wall like no other

I have developed a reputation for being a "one night per town" guy.  I have even been described as someone who tries to "see" a country in one day.  OK OK, those are highly exaggerated claims!  haha  I'd like the record to show that I actually arranged to stay in Dubrovnik for TWO days!  (Maybe I'm getting travel-soft in my old age.)

Today, we decided to spend the morning at the hotel's beach and R E L A X.  Too many early mornings made it quite necessary.  The blue sky pics below show that it was a great day, and the temperatures are definitely on the rise in these parts:  it hit 32C today, making it easy to slip into the Adriatic Sea without too much chill pain.

We took the 3PM boat taxi to Old Town specifically with the plan to do the city walls. We had read that no visit to Dubrovnik would be complete without a walk around the spectacular city walls, the finest in the world and the city’s main claim to fame. From the top, the view over Old Town and the shimmering Adriatic is sublime. You can easily get a good handle on the extent of the shelling damage in the 1990s by gazing over the rooftops: those sporting bright new terracotta suffered damage and had to be replaced. 

The walk is generally an hour in length, but due to the blazing heat today, we stopped a bit more than one would normally stop. We conquered it in 70 minutes, and it was definitely an amazing experience.

Gelato stops peppered the day, as they have been doing most days of this summer vacation for us!  Then it was off to the Dubrovnik Cable-Car to ascend to the top of the mountain overlooking the city to take in the views.

We bussed it back to Srebreno and had a dinner of Dalmatian food at a small restaurant in the middle of town.  

It's been a great two days in Dubrovnik.  It's definitely one of those cities one should add to a bucket list of 25 places to visit in one's lifetime.  Next stop: the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro. 

The beach in front of our hotel in Srebreno, just outside Dubrovnik.  Pebble beaches are the norm here.  What is amazing is that people sunbathe lying on towels on any bit of sidewalk or concrete they can find!  As long as a beach is in view, they're good to go.

To get from our hotel to Old Town Dubrovnik, each day we took a 25-minute boat shuttle from our hotel.  Enroute, the coastal scenery is quite spectacular.

Yet anther example of a hotel that was burned out during the war.  It looks like it could be operating.  but a closer look shows that the windows are all missing and its interior has been gutted.  It seems like the Serbs deliberately torched as many hotels as they could in an effort to bring the area down.

The Old Town harbour entry

At the start of our city wall tour:  1 hour, 10 minutes, in blazing heat.  But definitely a highlight of the trip.

Part of the city's fortifications

Franciscan Monastery, which still houses a cloister of monks.  The monastery served as an apothecary for the city as a way of sustaining itself.

This city wall walk was definitely a vacation highlight

The main street in Old Dubrovnik is called The Placa or The Stradun. It runs from from Pile Gate in the west to the Dubrovnik Bell Tower.  Here it is, as seen from the city walls.

The view of Fort Lovrijena from the city walls.

This shows how the wall follows the contour of the ragged south coast of Old Town

The Dubrovnik Cable-Car provides sweeping views of the entire region.