Dubrovnik

Our second port, Dubrovnik, clings to hills overlooking the Adriatic. With no ship’s tour lined up, we cabbed into the Old City (the equivalent of $14 each way), which sits within massive walls surmounted by a walkway offering glorious views. Our guidebook suggested avoiding the crowds at the principle entrance to the walls (the Pila Gate) by taking the main street (the Stradun) to its end at the Ploce Gate. Nice in theory but impossible to execute.

 

We saw no signs for the Ploce Gate, so we asked several people for directions. “20 meters left.” “Go 50 meters and turn right.” “About 30 meters that way.” Quite literally, we kept running into brick walls. Conceding defeat, we went back to the Pila Gate, stood on a long line for tickets (100 Kunas for adults, 30 for children under 18, with one US dollar being around 4.5 Kuna), and were informed that, because of a summit of European leaders (including Angela Merkel, who was greeted like a rock star), we would only be permitted to walk around half of the wall.

 

So we did. After puffing up the stone steps to the walkway, we spent an hour taking in one lovely view after another – cliffside forts, dramatic hills, the sparkling Adriatic, and the flowers and grape arbors (and laundry) of people who live in the old city.

 

Cautionary notes: First, many places (including the public toilets) only accept Kunas. There are ATMS near the old city, but they had long lines. Second, the old city and the walkway were crowded, even though ours was the only ship in the harbor. I can’t imagine how mobbed it must get when there are four or five ships in town, as often is the case.