Wow! Again!
Sue thinks this was the best day of the trip so far, and that was before she got her phone back!
It was a reasonably early start again today. We left the campsite just before 8 with no breakfast. The #6 arrived pretty quickly, authenticated our Dubrovnik day pass, and dropped us at the Pile gate again.
No mucking about today, as soon as we entered the old town we turned directly left and up the steps to the city walls, then it’s anti-clockwise… it’s a one way system. Today was all about taking our time to walk the walls, as well as making sure we missed the afternoon heat. It might have been nice to buy a drink and sit on the walls to take it all in, but for one reason or another we didn’t fancy the stops, so we kept going.
(These one-way processions, like Plitvice Lakes, do remind me of the trip Arthur and Fenchurch make to see God’s final message… I expect to see “We apologize for the inconvenience”, in fiery letters, when we get to the end of these excursions. )
The walls-walk has to be the best way to appreciate the city. You definitely get the sense of what the walls were doing protecting the city and the wealth that must have been there to have afforded those defences.
Here’s some of the better shots…
And just as soon as we got onto the top of the walls, we spotted a bird feeding monk!
And then we were down again. There were lots more fantastic photos, but you’ve seen enough already by now.
Then it was just time to fill our water bottles at the fountain again… that’s not a backpack I’m wearing, it really is me leaking…
The Dubrovnik Old Town Walls were a highlight of the trip – highly recommended.
We started the walls walk at 8:30 (they open at a 8) and it was already getting busy with tours and general visitors. But it wasn’t crazy busy. We suspected the traffic would get much worse, as would the heat.
After the 90 minute walk of the walls, we needed a drink, or two. On the walk we’d spotted a cafe just outside the east entrance to the old city, so we made a bee line there.
It turned out to be the bistro of the big Revelin night club.
Revelin Bistro
The views of the old port area were fantastic as we refilled our fluid levels (2 coffees, coke and OJ for me, 2 coffees and ice tea for Sue). We also had omelette and croissant.
Very friendly service and not at all expensive, especially considering the view.
We then headed back into the city after Sue tried to demonstrate how big the walls are.
After a refuel we headed back in through the East Gate to the Rector’s Palace and a walk around its museum.
The Rectors Palace was well worth a look. Our Dubrovnik day pass got us into all the museums, included the Walls Walk and got us on any of the buses, all for the price of the Walls Walk alone. So highly recommended if you’re doing a day in the Old Town.
From the Rector’s Palace we were heading back to the bus. But not until we’d had a look at the apothecary. This is the longest practicing pharmacy in Europe (we think) running nonstop for 700 years and still going . You can still buy modern medicines, but the museum has ancient recipe books and artefacts, and the cloisters are stunning…
And then onto the bus. And again we got off early to go to Info Planet, to see how Sues phone was doing.
Well, it wasn’t doing great.
The tech guy seemed to know his stuff and one of the pentalobe screws on the base of the phone wasn’t budging. He didn’t want to try taking the phone apart using more force, without our consent, since he thought he might end up breaking the screen. We told him to go for it and we would come back after we’d been to STUDENAC for some groceries.
And just as we were leaving the grocery store he WhatsApp’ed with some pictures and to our relief, success…
He said there were signs of water damage in the phone (corrosion and the water indicators activated) and it looked like the back had been repaired badly. Neither Sue nor I can remember this phone being repaired, but we let that slide and asked him to fix it.
We then headed back to the campsite and did some chores. Then at about 2:30 we got another text to say the phone was fixed. As suspected it needed a new power button and its associated flexi.
But hooray!!!
Sue’s got her phone back, and it’s working perfectly. Hopefully good enough for the rest of the trip, at least! The Info Planet service was great, they seemed to know their stuff and we thought €60 wasn’t too bad considering how much time they put into it.
We then had another chill for a couple of hours, followed by a dip at the Sunny Hotel pool like last night. It had clouded over by late afternoon, but we were both in need of a dip, so we weren’t going to let some clouds spoil our fun. On the way Sue had some retail therapy and bought a new cosi, and as we were leaving the pool, one of the big cruise ships pulled out of Dubrovnik…
And that’s it for a pretty cool day!
Tomorrow we’re taking a ladder on our European games of snakes and ladders. We’re cheating a bit and taking a ferry from Dubrovnik to Bari on the east coast of Italy. We’ll then head down to Brindisi over theee days and get the ferry from there to Greece. As we’ve said before, we don’t fancy driving through Albania and we were struggling to get van insurance to take any of those overland routes anyway. So these ferry trips, while a bit of a cheat, are the pragmatic way for us to get to Greece in the van.
We’ve packed the bikes onto the van, pulled in the awning and put the tables and chairs away. That should allow for a quick get away tomorrow, and with the forecast for a possible shower over night, it made sense to get all that stuff stowed anyway.
The otherwise deserted Solitudo campsite is actually feeling quite busy this evening. My assumption is that this is people pitching up to take the ferry with us tomorrow. We’ll see if they’re all gone or packing when we get up in the morning.
Harry’s just done the first DA lesson.
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