feldmanlarry

With some help from Keith, I had a list of the minimum activities I had to do over the two full days in Dubrovnik. I did the first one on the list below over and over, whenever I had a few minutes. I showed some pictures on yesterday’s blog (April 20). It’s stunning, maybe the single most beautiful location I’ve been to during this entire month.

• Walk around the Old Town’s shimmering pavement filled with bars and restaurants
• Take the cable car to the overlook at the top of the mountain
• Walk all the way around the city walls (Kings Landing from the Game of Thrones)
• Take the ferry to Lokrum Island
• Walk to the RIT branch where Keith went
• Walk to the Beach

There is so much to show about the city walls that I’m going to break this day into two parts. Notice that the word “walk” appeared many times in the above list. I have an app called “Moves” that is always recording where I go, by what means of movement, and the number of steps. This day broke my all time record at 12,737 steps, which according to the app is 5.9 miles (9.5 KM), 2 hours and 48 minutes, and 583 calories. The app works really well and is free but you have to remember to keep it on in the background all the time and carry your phone with you at all times, which I do anyway.

The walled Old Town of Dubrovnik is where they filmed Kings Landing in the TV series Game of Thrones. You feel that you are in the middle ages. It’s beyond words how perfect the place is. Probably twenty times this day, I was shocked to see something totally unexpected, particulary on the walk on top of the castle walls.

My day started in an ugly way. I have had a great deal of trouble getting 3G data on my cell phone throughout this trip. I have bought SIMM cards in Amsterdam, Venice, and Dubrovnik and its been a hassle each time. A guide I had here got so angry when I just mentioned the word T-Mobile. I won’t talk about it more here, maybe later.

Here are views of King’s Landing from the cable car and from the top of the mountain.

There was a museum on the top about the terrible attacks on Dubrovnik during the crazy breakup of Yugoslavia. They actually shelled the walls of the old town. The first two paragraphs below are fascinating. Keith had walked up here rather than taking the cable car and was told not to deviate from the trail since there may be some shells remaining.

There were many steep steps down to the entrance to Old Town and many more steep steps down to the main street.

On the way there was a Jewish museum. Here’s a sign ordering the confiscation of Jewish property and a list of Jews who died here during the Holocaust.

Here’s the bell tower, which is just a few feet from my apartment and goes off 4 times an hour all night. It’s beautiful but I’m glad I’m a sound sleeper.

By far the highlight of the day was the walk around the walls of the city. This were a total of 4,343 steps according to a web site, with towers every so often to climb. I stopped every couple of minutes to marvel the quirkiness and beauty.

I appreciated the contrast in this picture between the ancient walls going off on the right and the definitely not medieval basketball court.

This is the tower that’s the highest point.

Here’s a view out a turret.

Steep stairs.

Halfway around the walls is the Pile Gate, the main entrance to the Old Town and the amazing main street called the Stradun. My apartment is near the bell tower, which is at the end of the street.

These two pictures are looking out the wall on the Adriatic Sea side.

I got caught going the wrong way on the walls and had to do a time out.

This experience reminded me of when I was at the Christ statue way up high in Rio de Janeiro. It just can’t be shown well with my camera and my limited photographic abilities. Even if you’re not a Game of Thrones fan, if you ever get a chance, you really should go to Dubrovnik.