Wall Walking

The last few days in Croatia were spent in Korcula and Dubrovnik. We arrived in Korcula, a small island between Hvar and Dubrovnik, in the early evening. We were staying in a small apartment rental that was on a side street just off the large walkway that surrounded the old town area. We didn't have much time in Korcula, just the night in fact, so we quickly dropped our things, and headed out to explore and find a restaurant for dinner. We strolled the main boardwalk that was lined with restaurants on one side, and had a low stone wall with the water beyond on the other side.  We decided rather quickly on a restaurant that had outdoor seating that overlook the water with the large moon shining down on us.  The food was delicious, the wine was spectacular, and the views were breathtaking. It was probably one of our most romantic dinners ever.

After dinner, we roamed through the old town, down narrow cobblestone passageways, exploring the small town.  We had to get up early the next day so we sadly called it a night and headed back to our apartment.  The next morning, we had a few sunny moments overlooking the water again, and gathering some last views of Korcula. We hopped on a boat that took us to the mainland, where we got on a bus and drove a couple hours to Dubrovnik.

The bus we were on dropped us right at our hotel, Hotel Dubrovnik Palace, located on the north west corner of the peninsula of Dubrovnik and a short bus ride from the popular old town area. The hotel was built on a cliff overlooking the ocean, and we luckily had a great view of the ocean and pool beneath our room. We immediately went out to the pool to get some rest and sun for a couple hours before hopping on the city bus to head into old town.

Arriving in old town, I have never seen so many people trying to cram themselves into a walled-in city than in Dubrovnik.  We had counted at least three cruise ships docked in the harbor, and a fourth one on its way in, so there were thousands of people in town all wanting to do the same things at the same time.  We pushed through the crowd and luckily found a few smaller side streets with a few less people, finally deciding to sit at a pizza restaurant to get an afternoon snack and hope the crowds died down some.

After our snack, we began walking through the town, up and down stone stairways and alleyways, finding our way through the maze of walls that make up the city.

We then decided to get a different perspective of the city, so we headed up the stairs that led to the walkway on top of the wall, getting amazing panoramic views of the city below and the ocean on the other side.

The walk was much longer than we expected, but filled with views around every corner and well worth it, but were pretty exhausted afterwards so we headed to an Irish pub we had passed by earlier in search of some drinks to cool us down and to watch a popular football (soccer) match that was playing that evening.  We settled into a corner booth, ordered a beer, a glass of wine and a couple burgers, and watched the match and the people that had filled the bar up.

The next day, we spent several hours at the hotel pool, resting our legs and feet from all the walking we had done the day before, enjoying hearing the waves crash on the cliffs below us.

After getting some proper rest, we headed back into old town to explore some more. We strolled down the center of town, stopping at a cafe in the sun to get some people watching in. Then we walked down towards the harbor and out to the nearby beach area, and somehow found our way on the outside of the wall, enjoying some fabulous views of the city from yet another perspective than the previous day.

That evening, we found a great wine bar called Dvino where we grabbed two seats at the bar and were treated to some delicious wines, chosen by one of the owners, and complimented with a large cheese and meat platter. We didn't need dinner after that, so we strolled back through the town, stopping once at a cafe that had a couple live musicians playing outside then eventually grabbing some ice cream on our way back to the hotel.

The next morning we only had half a day before having to head to the airport, so we lounged at the pool some more, and ate a delicious lunch at one of the hotel's restaurants (as a side story, the previous day, a maid had let some stranger into our room accidentally, thinking it was his room. Thankfully we were in the room to stop him from coming all the way in, but we were quite alarmed that some stranger was just allowed access into our room! So we notified the hotel and the general manager, very concerned, spoke with us about it, reassured us that the maid had been reprimanded, and asked if he could treat us to a meal in one of his restaurants. So we took him up on it!).  We finished our meal and took in some final views of the beautiful Adriatic, then headed to the airport to end our epic 10 day holiday in Croatia!