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Half the road is dual carriageway, then you follow the\ncoastline on a hillside single lane road. \nThe route took us through mountains and pine forests, through flat green\nplains full of fruit and olive trees, and through several small villages. We also had to cross the border into Bosnia\nand Herzegovina, show our passports, and drive for 15kms before showing\npassports again to return into Croatia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The route approaches the City from the north, it crosses\nover a river and goes behind Gruz Harbour where the original old docks berth\nthe new modern cruise ships. Cruise passengers\nare then ferried by coach the few miles into the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04827-1-1024x773.jpg\")
<\/a>Bosnia border crossing<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04839-1-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Gruz harbour Wednesday<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/20190614_100715-1024x526.jpg\")
<\/a>Gruz harbour Friday!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04845-1-1024x911.jpg\")
<\/a>Disappointing entrance to the City<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n Dubrovnik is a walled city with three gates, surrounded by several other fortresses and towers on all sides with an external harbour. The wall is 1.5 miles long, and can be up to 6m wide in some places. From a distance it is stunning! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/20190612_134827-1024x500.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/20190612_134856-1024x432.jpg\")
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<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nViews of Dubrovnik walls and City<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04936-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>An image of the City in 12th Century<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04848-1-1024x830.jpg\")
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<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nFirst impressions are, its clean, smart, tidy and perfect. Lots of marble stone pavements and drains, tall uniform buildings and perfectly restored walls and d\u00e9cor. No signposts, no street markings, no advertising boards for businesses and hotels or restaurants. Then you realise\u2026.something is not right, it\u2019s too clean and perfect. And we soon established why. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/20190613_205026-603x1024.jpg\")
The only advertising in the City<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Interior scenes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04887-1024x764.jpg\")
<\/a>Stradum (Main Street) in the day<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04931-1024x744.jpg\")
<\/a>Stradum at night<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04925-1024x936.jpg\")
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<\/a>Replica Galleon in the Port<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04892-1024x784.jpg\")
<\/a>Original water fountain<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04888-1024x813.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04880-770x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>One of the entrance gates<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04874-1024x583.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04872-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Aquarium is in the Tower in the background<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04858-1-746x1024.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04868-1024x669.jpg\")
<\/a>The old Arsenal is now a restaurant<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/20190612_195424-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/a>Where we had dinner one evening<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/20190612_204838-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/a>Watching the sun set<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/20190612_213032-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/a>Watching the Galleon return<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_1266-e1560808058561-768x1024.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nIn 1986 the city suffered an earthquake which rocked the\nfoundations, then in the Civil War of 1990- 1995 over half of the city was\nbombed by the Serbs and others fighting for the territory. At the end of the\nwar, the Government asked for money from the EU and the USA, and was given it,\nto rebuild the city as it is now. Handmade\nterracotta roof tiles were made to replace the damaged ones, local stone was\nbrought in to rebuild the walls and stone window lintels and cobbled stone\nstreets were replaced with marble. The narrow steep streets do look charming with\nthe old style lamps and polished streets, and you can imagine that it looked\nlike that 100 or 200 years ago but it comes at a cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To claw back some of the monies owed, they charged and still\ndo charge extortionate amounts of money to tourists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The local council have cracked \u201ctourism\u201d but not fully. All the old buildings are still called castles, Palaces and forts or Arsenals or military buildings, but are in fact hotels, restaurants, cafes or designer shops. The Rector\u2019s Palace is an art gallery. The Arsenal is a restaurant and the old fort is now a maritime museum while the old port buildings house an Aquarium. No information boards anywhere, no prices in shops and tourist operators trying to sell you boat trips or coach trips simply call themselves Tourist Offices and dish out a street map, a very unclear one! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
No street signposts or prices on anything do not add to the attraction but do encourage the Koreans, Japanese and Chinese inside where they will splash cash. We were told that in the past 10 years, tourism has increased by 70% from those 3 countries alone, followed by Americans. Personally, we thought we were being ripped off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To walk the City walls, all 1.5 miles, would cost \u20ac30 PER\nPERSON. To do a guided walking historical\ntour of the city would set you back \u20ac25, if it involved Game of Thrones sites,\nit would be more. A 1 hour 20 minute\nboat ride to look at two offshore islands was \u20ac35 and a 2 hour boatride into\nthe sunset with a small finger buffet was \u20ac55. \nA pint of lager was \u20ac7 but a glass of wine was the same. A bottle of house wine (supposedly their\ncheapest) in a burger bar would have set us back \u20ac35, so we asked for 2 glasses\nof wine instead. The home made burgers\nwere \u20ac14 each, nothing special! They know how to con tourists here. The main street through the Old Town was heaving\nwith fast food outlets aimed at time limited visitors, \u201cBurger Tiger\u201d, \u201cPasta\nLab\u201d, \u201cThe Irish Pub The Gaffe\u201d and others\u2026..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally to cap it all, we wanted to take the funicular ride to the top of the mountain behind, it was closed. Two tourist offices claim it was a technical issue, and no opening date was known but when we left we actually walked past the entrance to the funicular where there was a sign saying something along the lines of: \u201cDear Visitor to Dubrovnik, we are sorry we are not able to offer you a ride in our panoramic cable car, but it would appear that the company who owns it have not complied with a petty financial and legal regulation laid out by the council, who have decided to close this facility indefinitely.\u201d We think this says it all\u2026\u2026\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The few things that we did visit were surprisingly empty, I guess when you are on a time limited day trip from the cruise ship, wandering around a monastery is not top of your list of things to do, so we made the most of it. We visited two monasteries, a Dominican and Franciscan monastery, each very different, but so peaceful and calm and cool. The Franciscan Monastery contains an old Pharmacy that has been dispensing concoctions since 1391, it\u2019s the 3rd<\/sup> oldest Pharmacy in Europe whilst the other monastery houses an old originally penned Bible, in Latin and in colour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04782-1-1024x684.jpg\")
<\/a>A monastery chapel<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04788-1-920x1024.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04786-1-1024x819.jpg\")
<\/a>Polyptych from 15th century<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04850-1-768x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>One of the chapels<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04945-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Old hand drawn Bible<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04941-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Peace and tranquility<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04939-781x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>Original bullet holes<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04938-1024x727.jpg\")
<\/a>Image of the old Pharmacy, still operational today<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04934-1024x814.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04901-1024x796.jpg\")
<\/a>A Saint’s crypt in one of the churches<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04897-1024x755.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04854-1-1024x788.jpg\")
<\/a>Finally, a cliff top bar! <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n And finally, the cats of Dubrovnik……<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04922-1024x839.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/DSC04890-1024x756.jpg\")
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<\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We have never watched Game of Thrones, which was filmed here and in Split, so let\u2019s get that over and done with! We drove from Split down to Dubrovnik as it turns out that the only car ferries departs at 7am but not in the summer, and there are no trains from Split! The train […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,127,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-churches","category-europe","category-history","post-preview"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/20190612_134827.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2321"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2464,"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2321\/revisions\/2464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samsonandsuzi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}