The amazing thing about this cruise was the amount of history I learned, plus the countries that I visited that I had no idea where they were even located until this trip. Our first stop was Dubrovnik which is an old city in the south of Croatia. Where is Croatia, you might say? It is across the Adriatic Sea from Italy and was formerly part of Yugoslavia until the Croatians declared their independence in 1991. This brought about four years of war, with Croatia being heavily shelled with attacks. There is still evidence there of these attacks, but it has been preserved and restored a great deal.
Coming into Dubrovnik, it was fascinating to see the new modern bridge along side the quaint village.
Memories of Dubrovnic include:
Going into the Old Town which is surrounded by a double wall, a moat, a draw bridge, you name it. It was built between the 8th and 16th Century. It has done an amazing job of keeping the Old Town very well preserved.
This is an amazing feat since the "enemy" just has to go to the top of the hill and fire down on the city, which just recently happened for seven months in 1991.
George on the draw bridge.
Inside, the Old Town was spotless and so quaint. Everywhere you walked, the street was paved with large, perfectly placed stones. (Notice the building on the right, which is the Rector's Palace.)
George watched as a worker fixed some of the broken stones so that it was perfectly flat.
The Rector's Palace is more or less a museum now which has very interesting artifacts and history.
Joyce and I loved the "handrail"!
This is the drinking fountain for the city. Notice the street vendor in official Croatian dress selling souvenirs.
Visiting St. Blaise's Church.
Exploring where all the stairs led! There were stairs everywhere in this city--wide ones, as well as narrow ones . . .
Visiting the market inside the city.
And forever being entertained by George . . .
Playing with a Croatian cat. (I think he was missing Mia, right, Cassie?)
And talking to a Croatian woman. Are his eyes really getting this bad?
Visiting the Old Harbor.
And when it was time to leave Dubrovnik, we had certainly enjoyed our stay in a city that we had barely even heard of before.
To view many more pictures and learn much more about the city itself, visit my sister's blog at:
1 comment:
I loved doing a bit of reading about Croatia because I've been reading the account of Napoleon's life. I learned that he was born in Corsica to parents of noble Genoese ancestry, and trained as an artillery officer in mainland France. So much history to the wonderful places you are seeing. Great report and photos from this part of your cruise.
Post a Comment