Wednesday, October 15, Dubrovnik, Croatia. Cruise day 11

We were told on the ship that Dubrovnik was a busy commercial port like Livorno, and that it was necessary to take a shuttle bus for $5. per person to get from the port to the walled city. This was not correct, as just a short walk from the dock was a city bus that would have taken us there for less than half that amount. However, not knowing what we would encounter, we took the cruise shuttle bus to the walled city, which was spectacular.

The sun was warm, and we climbed the 50+ steps to the top of the wall surrounding the city. Entry fee to the stairs was 50 Kuna (about $8) and we walked for approximately two hours along the 2+ km. wall, enjoying spectacular views of the water on one side, and of the red-roofed city on the other. Wall traffic is one way (counter-clockwise) so that they can keep track of who has paid and who has not. Yes, there is a ticket check-point about half way around.

Walking the wall in its entirety, you will encounter over 650 stairs. Fortunately they are spread out and you don't encounter them all at once. There a couple of places on the first half of the wall where you can buy (not inexpensive) water and sodas. The second half of the wall has no watering holes but it does have the most stairs.

Dubrovnik suffered a crippling earthquake in the 1990s and a revolution around 2000, so the city is continually being rebuilt. After we had explored and taken all the pictures we could, we reluctantly went down into the town and walked around. Although it was warm on the wall, it was quite cool in the shade of the buildings which housed lovely, interesting shops. We spent quite a lot of time exploring everything we could before exiting that unique, historic walled city, visiting a bank to turn our Kuna into € or dollars, and boarding the bus to return through the more modern part of town to get to the ship.