Day 11: Dubrovnik, Croatia

Our breakfast was late again that morning. It came while Rob was still sleeping, but I was up showering. Normally we used it as our wake-up call, although we didn't always abide by it as you read over the past few days! But we got right up and out this morning, for once.

The beautiful first-look views of Dubrovnik, from our balcony

Because it was early, and there was a tender to shore, we needed to go to the Queen's Lounge to get tickets to ride. They were free, but we had to wait our turn. In the interim, we played trivia with the rest of the loungers.

The tender ride to shore was a long one this time, and ours had a leak at the front that splashed  tons of water all over the passengers in the first rows. Good thing they all had a sense of humor about it, and we all laughed.  Here was our view of the "new town," as we pulled up on the tender.

 
The modern buildings overlooking the marina


But once again, we were headed to the old city, which was also walled-in, like so many we had seen up to this point. We took a taxi ride of 10 Euros  to the old town, which was about the same as the shuttle we could have purchased tickets for from the ship. Why not take the faster route?


The view of the wall as we went through from Old to New


It was early in the morning, but  the crowds were already enormous. Dubrovnik is a popular vacation spot for  Croatians and others in the Northern Adriatic Sea.


Remembering the little pink nymph who performed for Rob in Rome at the Trevi Fountain, we decided to see what would happen when we bought this performer's 1-Euro souvenir. In a word: nothing. It was just a photo op. Oh, well. That little souvie is still floating around this house somewhere. It's a gold heart on a gold string, and the girls love it.


It was very hot, so we tried to stay in the shade as we made our way down the long main street. There were lots of interesting little shops - more than just the standard souvenirs here although we did stop right away and get some -  and places to exchange dollars and  Euros for kunas, the Croatian currency.


Soon, on our left,  we spotted the 'stepped streets' we'd been reading about for a few days!


Here's a better view, as we went in further to investigate. You may be able to read the sign advertising an internet café, on the right. There were many such cafés in the old city of Dubrovnik; it was kind of surprising. I was even able to get online for a minute with my Palm, just to see.


A lot of them weren't open yet, but we found one that was and stopped to have - guess?  That's right, a Coke and a Sprite.


The Sprite was normal enough, but  this time the Coke bottle was all in Croatian. Interesting.


Some Croatian money, the kuna. It was about 5 kuna per USD.


It's not every day you see octopus salad on the menu. Would you eat that? I also like "schrimps."


In the stepped streets, the cafes and sidewalks were very narrow and, this time, that meant they were too narrow even for the tiny European cars. But of course, no cars were allowed in the old city at all, so it didn't matter.

 
We kept browsing around after downing our drinks. We found this embroidery shop and almost bought something, since Croatia is well known for both being the origin of the cravat and its embroidery. We didn't though, because ... it's just not our thing.



A tiny little church tucked in the side of one of the stepped streets



A shop for "natural products" that we would have loved to take home, but we were afraid of being stopped by Customs.  There was fragrant lavender  all over, and it smelled wonderful!


Another church in one of the main squares, as we approached the water front


We decided to take a ride on a glass-bottomed boat that would take us all over Dubrovnik, old and new.  While we waited for them to gain more passengers for the trip, we stopped and had ourselves another drink at an open-air café.

Fishies through the bottom of the boat

  Leaving the  old , walled-in city on the boat



The view out of the boat to the newer buildings in the city



More of the wall; you can see the four teenaged Italian girls we shared the boat with (along with their parents). They were snotty and uninterested. Sound familiar?


 
An island we circled, out in the Adriatic


Can you see the tiny swimmers here? This was a "beach"!


Me on the boat; Rob was standing on the tippy edge of the stern


The  new city of Dubrovnik


The coast was very rocky and irregular


In the distance, a ship approached. It looked to me like a pirate ship!


Another cool, many-masted ship



A grotto where there was a sea kayaking excursion, possibly from our ship. We were supposed to go on that, but we had to cancel it.

Coming back to the old city now


This mansion with the turquoise domed roof really caught our eyes


Another small rocky 'beach'


That  'pirate ship' turned out to be just another  fun ride around  the sea


Another small church, with three bells in the steeple, peeks out over the wall


And a very large one, in in the main  square. Again we were left to wonder who the figures around the roof could be.


More cafés, this time on the wider streets, line the opposite side of the old city than we had come down originally


We asked for water and received these tall glass bottles, at the pizzeria where we stopped in the old city


I ordered a pinapple pizza; I guess the green olive in the center was complimentary


Check out this kooky knife!


On our way back to the taxi stand, we spotted these candy-colored condominiums.



We paid another 10 Euros for a taxi ride back to the tender station. That driver was crazy! He ranted and raved and flung his hands around at the other drivers as he sped through the streets. We waited forEVER in the heat for our turn on the full tenders. Finally we were far enough ahead in line to get those wonderful cold washcloths and lemonade.


Our tender approaches, hurray!

Back on the ship, we changed and went swimming. Ahhh, it was so refreshing this time. We relaxed back in our room for a while before changing and returning to the Queen's Lounge for the lightning art auction. I had missed the first one, and I'd never been to an auction before, so I really wanted to go. We had no plans to buy any more art, although there were plenty by Rembrandt, Joan Mirò and Peter Max that we would have liked to take home. We bid on nothing and won no prizes, but it was a lot of fun. Juliette was an excellent auctioneer, and she ran a really fun show. She was a very giggly girl back in the gallery, but at auction, her bountiful knowledge about art just came streaming out. I was impressed.



It was the last Formal Night - and, sadly, our last night on the ship - so we returned to our stateroom and dressed for dinner. Rob ate escargot for an appetizer, the first time he'd ever had snails. I'd had them on a previous cruise and felt no need to try them again.


My appetizer, the shrimp cocktail


I ate this strawberry bisque; Rob  had chicken and wild rice soup


We both ate the lobster tail entrée, which was delicious. Best lobster I can remember eating in a long time.



Sweets that arrived with Rob's after-dinner coffee



My dessert: raspberry mousse in a meringue crust



Rob ate the peach melba sundae

After dinner, we went down to the Vista Lounge for the last time to watch the show. Oro, a Filipeno bar server who had sung in their show a few nights earlier, talked and joked around with us for a while. He gave me a gift, he said for ordering his first drink of the night: a shell necklace from the Philippines. Of course, my kids have since broken it, and it's long since gone into the trash. Oh well, easy come, easy go.


The show that night was once again the Zuiderdam singers and dancers, and they were great for a third time.  Here are the lead singers. Rob liked the prop car!


I remembered not to use my flash this time!


After the show, we stopped back at the art gallery to admire the masters some more and  talk with Jody and Juliette.   I was thisclose to a Rembrandt!!


Juliette.  She and Jody, who also works in the gallery and auctions,  both want children, and they were asking all about ours. Finally, I burst into tears and ran off before I could sob in earnest. I missed my babies!

We went back to our room and  packed and shoved and  pushed and pulled and packed some more.

For the late-night show, we went to the Queen's Lounge where the Battle of the Sexes was to be chosen. Surprise! Jason, the Cruise Director,  chose me for the girls' team, and I went up on the stage. It was  a little  scary, since I knew nothing  about the game, but it ended up being a lot of fun, and we had tons of laughs. I kept putting down silly answers, and the guys' team came over and wanted to know "who the funny one was"!   We lost, though. 

Then we dropped off our cruise surveys to the Front Desk and got more cash for spending in Venice the next day. We went up to the Lido deck and had a late-night snack of Croatian food,  the names of none of which I can remember, but it was pretty good.

Tomorrow: Stay tuned  for Venice!

Fin.

Comments

[Sarri]

I am LOVING reading about all of this!! What an amazing time!

[Nadine]

I love the stairs, and rooftops, and the "beach." So cool!!!