Friday 9th September - Dubrovnik, Croatia

When we were doing our outline planning for our trip back in England, we had originally hoped to go down the Croatian coast to Dubrovnik with the caravan.  Unfortunately, we found it impossible to get full  insurance cover for the twelve mile wide strip of land that enters Bosnia and Herzegovina before reverting back to Croatian land.  The insurers made a point of saying “if you go into this area and get into difficulties, you’re on your own”.  Being risk averse, we decided to take a day trip to Dubrovnik from our base near Split and let “Adriatic Tours 4 U” have the hassle.  We were collected from the campsite at 07.30am for the three hour journey.
There isn’t much to say about the terrain in Croatia.  In our experience it varies little, consisting of high rocky mountains with green scrub going three quarters the way up and little evidence of habitation.  But on the trip to Dubrovnik we entered the only area in Croatia where the water is used for agriculture rather than for industry or electricity generation (according to Mario, our driver).  This area is the Neretvan valley, close to where the Neretva River merges with the Neretvan channel of the Adriatic sea.  The river delta allows channels to be easily created to irrigate the land. It’s also known as the “valley of tangerines” as every year about 60,000 tonnes of tangerines are harvested here.  There are roadside stalls all along this stretch of the road; another departure from the norm in Croatia.

         

                                                                      The Neretvan Valley

                           On the bridge entering Dubrovnik

We have visited many historic cities and old towns on our trip but Dubrovnik is entirely different.  Not only does it have historic significance but it also has a much more recent history of the war to tell. 
Of course, it’s also making the most of it’s significance as a Game of Thrones filming location (Kings Landing) and is offering Game of Throne  tours too – you can’t say they aren’t trying.  Apparently they are now in negotiations with the Bond film makers. 
Mario said that the rest of Croatia had a lot to learn from Dubrovnik.  Whilst most of Croatia relies entirely on it’s beaches and therefore only has a six month season, Dubrovnik puts some of the income it earns from tourism back into creating events and experiences to attract year-round tourism.  And what an income that must be.  I’ve never seen such a crush of people.

         
Crowds of tourists as we entered the old city             View out to sea and yet another cruise ship

One of the must see/dos is to walk the city walls.  We deliberated for some moments on whether to pay the €24 to walk the 2km city walls or find a nice spot to have cold beer on a very humid day. A clue to the answer – we didn’t walk the walls.

        
Angela in the main square wondering whether to walk the walls or have a beer

                     City walls and Minceta Fortress

         
                                                   Views out to sea and Lovrijenac Fortress

                               The Rector’s Palace

View from from the town to Fort Imperial atop Srd Hill

Orlando (Roland) the legendary protector of the city but more pragmatically used as a standard measure (Ragusan cubit) by the length of his forearm.

                   Orlando’s column

Roland offered to do the walk of shame a la Game of thrones without a body double but he says he couldn’t get permission from the Church.

         

                     Roland on Jesuit Steps                                   Jesuit Church of St. Ignatius

Our tour guide said that over 80% of the buildings in Dubrovnik were either destroyed or badly damaged during the recent war.  Buildings that survived have roofs that have weathered to a yellowy colour over the years; the orange/red roofs will denote buildings that have been repaired or rebuilt.  Luckily, being a UNESCO heritage site, plenty of money was available for the reparations.

                         One old roof in foreground