Dubrovnik And Montenegro
May 28, 2023
We left Mostar this morning to return to Croatia. We decided to take the inland route through Trebinje, since we’ll be taking the coastal route north in a few days. After a half hour, the Muslim influence dissipated, and road signs began to use the Cyrillic alphabet. We thought we had ventured into Serbia, as there were lots of Serbian flags, but apparently we were in the “Republika Srpska”, part of Bosnia.
We entered Croatia just south of Dubrovnik and we drove a bit farther south to the coastal town of Cavtat. There we had a seaside lunch, looked at several old churches and visited the home and museum of one of Croatia’s most favored artists, painter Vlaho Bukovac. Below is a view of Cavtat.
Then we drove a half hour to Dubrovnik and checked in to a seaside hotel, with a beautiful view of the old city. We took a short walk through the Ploče Gate to the old town to get a feel for the place, and got to know a good path to our dinner restaurant.
Here are two photos showing the wonderful views from our hotel which was about 10 minutes walk south of the old City.
May 29, 2023
We walked into the old town early to try to beat the crowd and walk on the city walls. We were lucky there were no large cruise ships today. We got to an entry point just beyond the Ploče Gate shortly after 8 am. The walls were uncrowded for about a half hour until we got the Pile entrance. We climbed up to the highest point, the tower of Minčeta, with its spectacular views. The whole walk around the town on the walls took about one hour, 15 minutes and offered stupendous views of the mountains, sea, old harbor and old city. Our guide book encouraged us to note the different colors of roof tiles, indicating which were destroyed and reconstructed after the 1990’s Croatian War of Independence. That war was actually the longest of the seven separate but related conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, lasting over 4 and a half years.
Here are some photos of and from the walls. The one top right shows the walls are not crowded early.
Here are two more photos showing Onorfio’s Fountain and the main street, Stradum, not terribly crowded when there are no cruise ships docked at Dubrovnik.
After climbing down from the walls, we walked to the cable car station for Mount Srd above the town. It was a clear day and the views were spectacular. Here’s a photo.
Here’s a cable car.
After that, we walked around the old town and Onofrio’s Large fountain, and from there we went to the nearby Franciscan Monastery and museum which boasts a nice cloister and old pharmacy. Next, we visited the Rupe (ethnographic) Museum, which showed exhibitions about local life going back centuries. From there we went to an ornately decorated Serbian Orthodox Church. The last place we visited before lunch was the old synagogue with its original decorations. It is one of the oldest functioning synagogues in Europe (founded in the 14th century). The interior, right, is original.
After lunch, we went back to our hotel to cool off and rest our feet. We returned to town in the mid-afternoon and visited the Rector’s Palace and the Maritime Museum. The Rector’s Palace had some nice historical exhibits and a small display of photos from the 1991 battles in Dubrovnik. The maritime museum had lots of historical information about how important Dubrovnik has been for shipping. There were many interesting archeological finds from shipwrecks in the area.
Artifacts in the Maritime Museum, left. Right is the popular
beach we strolled by on or way to or from the old city.
We then spent time cooling down on the hotel’s terrace before returning to the old city for dinner! We walked about 24,000 steps today, about 9 miles! Here’s a photo of the Rector’s Palace when we returned in the evening.
May 30, 2023
We left Dubrovnik after an early breakfast and drove about 45 minutes to Croatia’s border with Montenegro. After exiting Croatia (part of the Schengen zone) and entering Montenegro, we drove along the shores of the Kotor Bay. The mountains became increasingly dramatic as we drove along. Our first stop was the small town of Perast. There we took a boat to visit Our Lady of the Rocks, a small artificial island with a 17th C. monastery in the Bay. The boat has a view of the neighboring Monastery of St. George, but that is not open for visitors.
Coast of the Bay of Kotor and the town of Perast from the boat.
Below, Our Lady of the Rocks.
We then drove father along the Bay of Kotor, the most southerly fjord in Europe, until we reached the town of Kotor. It is another town with a well preserved wall and fortress perched on the hill above. We walked around the old city, but had enough climbing of city walls in other places, so today we decided to not climb up this one. We looked at several churches including a small Orthodox chapel from the 1100’s. We left the City of Kotor and drove about a half hour up into the mountains (lots of switchbacks on a one lane road!) for spectacular views of the entire fjord.
Kotor and its walls above. The old church to the right. And we saw many cats during our travels, including this one having a snooze while we ate lunch.
And here’s the spectacular fjord view.
We returned to Dubrovnik via a slightly different route, taking a short car ferry across the bay to save driving time.
We walked into the old city to have another ice cream, and got this photo of the old port. We did not take one of the tours on the Game of Thrones themed ships.
Here’s a map of the places we visited while in Dubrovnik as well as those we will visit over the next few days.
We enjoyed Dubrovnik immensely, despite its reputation of being overrun by tourists and some of the tacky tours we saw offered there. It is unique and quite a beautiful city. Tomorrow we head north to explore more Dalmatian Coast locales, but here is one last Dubrovnik photo.
