We got up early so we could walk the wall around the old town without having to deal with rain and crowds. We decided not to run, since we didn’t have a route in mind, and old town Dubrovnik is pretty small and hilly. Lucky us – it was questionable weather but not rainy, and there was hardly anyone on the wall at 8. We did the wall clockwise, even though the suggested direction is counterclockwise (this was a Rick Steves suggestion). This way involved a bunch of stairs at the start (augh, more stairs!), but then it was pretty much downhill. The other people who started at the same time as us went in the other direction, so we pretty much had the wall to ourselves for most of the time.
The wall provides beautiful views of Dubrownik and the Adriatic. It was interesting to see all of the roof tiles that had been replaced due to the war in the early 90s. Also hard to understand how anyone could bomb such a beautiful city.
There are some towers along the wall. It’s amazing that it’s so old and is still sturdy – in fact, it once again protected the city against outside invaders during the last war. The people of Dubrovink actually held off the invaders for three months. They survived using water from the old aqueduct system, which flows out of fountains around the city.
The wall is around 2k around, and it took us about an hour and a half to go all the way around – we stopped a lot to take photos and just take in the views. Once we finished, we went and had breakfast at Cafe Dubrova, right at the end of our street. Good timing, because it started to rain.
After breakfast we walked around the city and shopped a bit. We bought local olive oil. It’s such a neat city, but there were a lot of tourists. It reminded me a lot of Korcula but with a lot more people. I didn’t especially like the crowds.
We had lunch at Cafe Festival (we each had pannini – tuna, chicken). It rained some more, and we stopped for gelato. So good, although I think it was better in Orebic.
We decided to head out earlier than planned because it was still raining. We had trouble finding our way out of the city. There’s one bridge in and out, and there was tons of traffic. We finally wound our way through narrow residential backroads, with tons of switchbacks. We just kept making our way uphill to the main road, but not before we made a wrong turn and ended up on a road that narrowed to the point that it was no longer passable. It took almost an hour to get out to the bridge.
We decided to our way to Zadar, which is also on the coast. It was getting late but we wanted to be in Bled, Slovenia the next night. Larry did some research on Zadar and other cities that sounded interesting along the way. He read about Trogir, which is just north of Split. Trogir is described as one of the best destinations along the Croatian coast. It sounded wonderful, but I didn’t think it was far north enough for us. It would mean more driving the next day.
As we passed through Split, we came to a Y in the road – go right to Zadar, left to Trogir. At the last minute, I steered the car to the left and we headed for Trogir. Talk about winging it!
Along the way, we passed through the Kastellas, where origins of Zin grape were found. We also passed the Split airport, which seemed surprisingly tiny. We pulled in to Trogir around 7pm and immediately found the hotel we wanted to stay at. Unfortunately, they were full, but they offered to help us find a sobe. We waited, and they arranged for the owner of the sobe to meet us at the hotel. The sobe was only about a quarter mile away. The woman who met us is the owner’s daughter – the owner doesn’t speak English. The daughter told us that they’ve had a lot of Americans staying with them lately.
The sobe was large – like a small apartment, with a dining area, refrigerator, and bathroom. The house seemed pretty new. The daughter was very friendly and invited us down for a glass of wine. We declined, but stopped in on our way out to dinner and met Patrick and Anne from St. Louis, who were also staying at the sobe.
The old town is quite charming. The area we stayed in is actually on an island, across a channel. The old town is on the mainland. The old town is also a walled, stone city, similar to Korcula and Dubrovnik, and is also pedestrian-only. We walked around and explored for a while, then had dinner at a pizza place (Pizzeria Jambas), which was quite good.
After dinner, we went back to the sobe and went to bed. It was kind of a long day.
