Dubrovnik

Posted by , 30 May 2015

Dubrovnik – some parts are old, some parts are modern, all of it is fascinating.

Why did we pick Dubrovnik To be honest, I knew very little about Dubrovnik apart from iconic view from above that was on a postcard from Mum. But with direct flights from Geneva, it was a pretty good destination for a short break.

Lapad

One of the constant decisions when you visit a new city is where to stay. Merely looking at a map doesn’t always help – you can see the distances from your planned accommodation, but what is like on the ground? Is there public transport? Could you walk it at a pinch?

For Dubrovnik, the decision was pretty much taken out of our hands – we were late in deciding to travel, and as a result the hotels in the old part of Dubrovnik were fully booked. We had seem some pretty luxurious hotels online – with prices to suit – before setting for a hotel on the harbour in Lapad. It had a pool, and was next to the water.

It turns out that Lapad is a pretty good place to stay. There are good restaurants within walking distance, there are regular buses into Dubrovnik from right outside the front of the hotel and it’s away from the noise and crowds closer in to the tourist sites.

Lapad itself is like a self-contained peninsula, so it’s possible to completely walk around it. We started off on the shoreline north of our hotel, where you pass along a couple of decent beaches with cafes, sun-lounges and water features. After passing some noisy construction works, we then hit the northern shore with views towards more islands along the coastline. On the north-western tips is where all of the luxury hotels are. As they effectively privatise the beaches, you can only walk along the access roads which lead to a small bay on the western side. This bay has another good beach surrounded by smaller boutique hotels. From there, we climbed up the slop to the forest and walk some more along the cliffs before finally cutting back through the middle of Lapad and back to the hotel.

Probably the only downside of staying in Lapad was waking up to a view of 2-3 cruise ships pulled up opposite us. Although the ships changed each day, each morning there was the site of these massive ships just sitting there.

Dubrovnik’s Old Town

The bus from Lapad delivers you to a traffic intersection right outside the Old Town walls. There’s a lot of tourists milling around, people spruiking tours and activities and souvenir shops.

Once we entered the Old Town, it feels like the most complete walled city we’ve ever been in. Yes, the walls are continuous, punctuated with separate forts and towers. A central square and old churches, with lots of narrow lanes running from the central square just begging to be explored.

One of the first things we did was get a boat tour from the old port – which is also well fortified – to get a view of the walls from the sea. After that, we just explored. It’s amazing to just be able to walk the entire length of the walls which give you a changing perspective of the town depending on whether you were on the side facing the sea or the land. This always feels amazing to me, because in so many of our own historic sites climbing on and over them is forbidden for either safety or heritage reasons. The other amazing thing is that the town and its walls survived a war with modern artillery that it was never designed to withstand.

Inside the walls, the Old Town feels fresh and clean – possibly a reflection of the rebuilding and restoration work after the damage it suffered during the war – although there are a few areas where buldings are in a state of ruin.

There are loads of eating places within the walls to choose from. We’ve now learned to ignore the main pedestrian areas and head down the back streets to find somewhere to eat.

Mount Srd

About the only thing I knew about Dubrovnik was the view from the mountain behind the city looking down onto the Old City, and only that from a postcard from Mum. Of course, I knew that I just had to see that view.

The cable car to the top of Mount Srdj leaves from just outside the walls of the Old City. The cable car itself is modern (Swiss built?) and quick; we opted for a one-way ticket, planning to walk down again. The first view from the top is a balcony above the cable car station, but the view is hampered by one of the pylons for the cable immediately below. It’s much better to head out of the station and a short distance along the edge, past the restaurant, to a memorial cross. From here, you can also see further along the coast to Lapad and beyond.

Clearly, the summit of the mountain suffered during the recent war. Inside the cable car station are photos of the damage it suffered. There are lots of photos of the damaged cable car station, as well as a damaged fort. After taking lots of photos, we set off down the hill. The path back to the city is well laid out, with the “stations of the cross” indicated along the way in both old and new signs. In some places, the path itself becomes a bit rough – where water has washed away the path exposing the rocky base – and we walked on the smoother edging stones instead. It was pretty warm, and we didn’t envy the people walking up – much better to allow gravity to do the hard work. There a views are good at the top, but towards the bottom you enter the scrub where there’s no view before suddenly hitting a main road at the bottom.

The view is so great that we went up again later in the day to watch the sun set over the sea and see the Old Town at night.


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