Dubrovnik

We caught an early bus from Korcula to get to Dubrovnik. Unfortunately, we could only afford to spend one night in Dubrovnik. I guess we could have stayed longer but ferry schedules would have meant another couple of days at least. We loved Croatia but there's a lot more to see before our flight out of Germany in early October.

We did get a good look at Dubrovnik in the 26 or so hours we were there. It's not a very big city. The biggest we'd seen in Croatia but tiny really. The population is about 50,000 but the old town is considerably smaller. What's amazing about Dubrovnik is the size of the walls. They really are incredible. It's possible to see how Dubrovnik has remained "free" for so long. They have a city slogan of "liberty" and are very proud of having defended themselves against many different aggressors over the centuries.

Apparently, 68% of the buildings in the old town were damaged to some extent during the war in the early 90's. Most have been repaired. There are quite a few ruins but it's hard to tell if they have been like that for 10 years or 100.

We stayed in a nice place just outside the city walls. The owner goes out to Sydney quite regularly and works in a Balkan restaurant that her family owns. Mel and I will have to check this out when we get there! I wonder if we can get a discount.

All in all we had a great time wandering the streets and the city walls. The main street is the place for people to strut their stuff. Although it's generally closed to traffic we did see a wedding couple being driven up and down the street in a vintage car. Very cool.

There were a couple of cruise ships moored just out to sea. Whilst we were walking the walls they put to sea. Quite a site. The walls are approximately 4-5 stories high and the biggest of the cruise ship was easily visible above these as it moved at great pace towards the open sea. Amazing. We've seen some impressive cruise ships on our holiday. Including one with a curling water slide that you'd expect to see at a water park. It's unbelievable how big some of these boats are.

We were happy that we'd seen enough of Dubrovnik to give us a good feel for the place. Could have spent longer but we were happy with what we had done. From there it was the day ferry back to Italy (Bari specifically).