Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik deserves its nickname, “Pearl of the Adriatic.” It’s gorgeous and dripping in Croatian culture and history. The delightful, traffic-free Old Town is jam packed with cafes and winding streets. We spent our two days in Dubrovnik walking the city’s walls, kayaking the waters near the city and riding the cable car to the top of Mt. Srd.

City Walls

The most popular activity in Dubrovnik is to walk the city walls. A 1.25 mile stroll along the walls offers stunning views of Fort St. Lawrence, the Adriatic and the Old Port. It’s a must do in Dubrovnik. We started at Pile Gate, paid our entry fee and climbed the steep steps. Pile Gate is the main entrance into the Old Town and deserves a quick visit before ascending the walls. Notice the statue of St. Blaise, above the gate, holding the city in his hand. Blaise became the city’s patron saint after a dream he had warned the city of an attack from the Venetians.

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As you walk counterclockwise around the walls you’ll get a bird’s eye look at Stadun and peek into the backyards of some of the city’s residents. There is even evidence of damage yet to be repaired from the 1667 earthquake that flattened the city. As we continued along the wall, we stopped for views of the Old Port and a look at a cannon. A reminder that in the 16th century the wall’s purpose was defense, not tourism.

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All along the wall walk we noticed the varying colors of red-roof tile. Rooftops sustained much damaged from bombings during the 1991-1992 Yugoslav siege on the city. The wall walk also offers a look at the backside of the Sponza Palace Bell Tower and the bell ringers Maro and Baro.

Stradun

We climbed down off the walls to next stroll the Stradun. Dubrovnik’s main street is the place to sip a cool beverage at a cafe or cool down with a gelato. The street is home to St. Blaise’s Church with its ornate interior and shady mid-afternoon steps. At opposite ends of Stardun are Sponza’s Palace and Onofrio’s Big Fountain in St. Savior Square. We found the details on the Bell Tower especially interesting. The wavy hands in the middle tell the time as does a digital, Roman numeral display. In between, a golden circle displays the phases of the moon. The time is rung out at the top of each hour by bronze bell ringers, Maro and Baro.

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At the opposite end of Stardun in St. Savior Square, we filled our water bottles and dunk our heads in Onofrio’s Big Fountain. It was SO hot while we were in Dubrovnik, nearly 95 degrees. The fountain’s water is supplied by an aqueduct system from mountains nearly seven miles away.

Just down from the fountain outside the Franciscan Church is a small, gargoyle statue that stands about shin high. The story goes that if you can balance for three-seconds on it’s slippery head, all your wishes will come true. The boys were each successful in balancing there for several seconds.

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Mount Srd

As the end of our first day in Dubrovnik approached, we decided to ride the cable car to Mount Srd. This is a very popular activity near sunset. We arrived prior to the sunset crowds as we intended to be back down the mountain to eat pizza while the crowds were chasing the sun’s last rays.

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Since there were no crowds to battle, we were able to walk right up to the ticket booth, buy our tickets and board the waiting cable car. At the top we wandered around, taking pictures of the walled city below and the sparkling sea.

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Kayaking

We spent our final day in Dubrovnik on the water, sea kayaking with X-Adventure Sea Kayaking. Our four hour adventure took us around Lokrum Island and into a sea cave before a lunch and snorkel stop at a nearby cove. The trip was a ton of paddling but seeing the city and the walls from the water were so worth it. The swim stop on this adventure was the highlight for the boys. They got to snorkel for a bit and saw several fish.

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Where to Stay

• We loved staying just steps from the Stradun in an apartment hosted by Iva. All the sites and cafes were so close, yet the apartment was quiet. We were even able to walk to Banje Beach from our location for a late afternoon swim.
• Parking in Dubrovnik is madness but Iva and her sister Nikolina made having a car while staying in the Old Town super easy. Nikolina met us at the nearest Old Town gate, helped us find street parking and then gave us a ride on her scooter to the apartment.
• We booked on AirBnB with Iva. Highly recommend!

Where and What to Eat

• We had fabulous pizza at Pizzeria Tabasco. We ordered the salami and the spicy pinky. Bonus was that the pizzeria was just below the cable car and convenient to our last activity of the day.
• We really liked the pasta at Spaghetteria Toni.
• There are several gelato stands in Dubrovnik. We tried several but our favorite was Dolce Vita.

Our Western Balkan adventure took us to Lake Bled-Slovenia, Plitvice Lakes National Park, Split, Kotor and Mostar. Click the links above for more details on those trips.

Happy Adventuring, Rochelle