Actually, this is the travel story that I wrote for one of the military recreation and travel magazines. I guess getting paid for it made it worth writing. I’ll add photos in the next few days.
The term “travel hot spot” might not spring to mind when you think of Croatia, but the city of Dubrovnik in southern Croatia has become just that. Set against a coastline of beautifully stark mountains and quaint fishing villages, Dubrovnik is the jewel in the Croatian crown.
Originally named Ragusa, this city was the chief rival to Venice in the 15th and 16th centuries. The thick walls and heavy fortifications of the Old Town stand as a reminder of how important this port was as a gateway to the southern Adriatic. Today it still stands as a gateway through which the discerning traveler can get a glimpse of, as the Croatian tourism promotion puts it, the Mediterranean as it once was.
That glimpse begins the moment you walk through one of the walled Old Town’s gates. The Old Town is strictly pedestrian – no cars and very few bicycles. Most houses line narrow alleyways of stairs leading up from the main street called Stradun. The building styles and materials of everything you see are the same as centuries ago. Even the doorways have the unique “na koljeno” shape. The combined door and counter helped shopkeepers handing goods over the window sill while keeping the door closed.
The fountains for washing yourself before you enter the town still work and the Franciscan monastery continues to run a pharmacy dating from the 14th century (where you can buy their own brand of scented hand cream or children’s honey flavored cough drops shaped like a sugar cubes). Old is mixed with the new so fluidly you can get money from an ATM so you can sip cappuccinos while watching the fishermen bring their boats into the port just like they did centuries ago.
The Old Town is small, so it won’t take long to see the major sites within the walls, but the walls themselves are considered to be one of the most interesting and best parts of Dubrovnik. At two or three places along the wall, you can buy a ticket to walk on the top of the wall itself (keep your ticket handy to show that you paid at these different booths). This complex structure, one of the most beautiful and strongest fortifications in the Europe, gives visitors an expansive view of the surrounding area as well as the red rooftops of the town’s buildings. For those who like art, history and religious relics, there are tours of the monasteries and churches in town as well as the Rector’s and Sponza palaces. Enterprising visitors can find a tour guide to take them to most of these places and explain their significance.
It’s easy to find good places to eat after sightseeing, but as in most tourist locations you pay a premium to eat in the Old Town. Sometimes it’s better to eat outside the walled city. Those interested in a traditional seafood meal should visit the seafood restaurant next to the harbor outside the old town gate to the right of the Rector’s Palace. Inside this quaint restaurant you can eat some of the best simple seafood dishes served in traditional pots, and prices are downright cheap.
There are many other things to do outside of the city walls. Southeast of the Old Town is a tourist zone called Ploce, which features hotels and beaches. To the west is Lapad, with its sports facilities, hotels, beaches and walking trails. To the northwest is the Gruz port and Gruz.
Some of the most visited places are the beautiful islands that can be seen from almost anywhere along the Croatian coastline. The one closest to Dubrovnik is called Lokrum where you can walk through a ruined fort or overgrown botanical gardens that have lush tropical plants, swim in the small lake or just enjoy the beauty of it all.
There are many ways to get to Dubrovnik. Croatia is a popular destination for German tourists, so getting a flight straight to Dubrovnik from Germany isn’t a problem. Check out this site
http://www.croatiatraveller.com/southern_dalmatia/Dubrovnik/GettingtoDubrovnik.htm for more information. This site also has information on getting there by bus or ferry. Unfortunately, there is no direct train connection to Dubrovnik, but if you’re willing to take a bus or ferry for a few hours from another city, you should be able to get there most of the way by train. My family and I took a ferry from Italy to Split and I thought it was a very nice way to see some of the Croatian coastline while driving the rest of the way to Dubrovnik.
For more information on Dubrovnik visit these sites: http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/14474.html — yes, it’s a weather site, but if click on Meet Locals you will find hundreds of tips from people who have actually been there, not just the tourist agencies; http://web.tzdubrovnik.hr/ — a good place to find out events happening there; and http://www.travelersdigest.com/dubrovnik.htm – a site that can link you to other Dubrovnik sites.
I’m finally getting around to telling the rest of the story.
The villages were quaint and many times beautiful. Most of them had a least a few brightly colored boats bobbing in the water. I’m sure it would be even nicer in the summer.
They really looked like mounds of rocks. Almost as if it was the gravel pit of some very large giant. It wasn’t until you got close that you actually saw that there was dirt between the very large rocks, since from far away (and this being the end of winter) sometimes you could hardly see anything on them but some occasional scrubs. And many times the rocks weren’t smooth looking like what I was used to, but kind of angular and sticking far out of the hill — as if someone had just cut them out and thrown them there. Even the hills that were covered with green, were covered with low bushes and not tall tree like you see here in Germany. It was just very different.
I can’t, of course, forget the little part of Bosnia we had to go through on the way there. Since it is the only part of Bosnia on the coast, it was packed with houses, hotels and stores, just like any resort town would be.
So, on this winding road, we finally reached Dubrovnik. It took us a little while to find out where we were staying, but once we did it was wonderful. Since this was a business trip for J., we were staying in the Hilton, right next to the Old Town which was quite picturesque. The room wasn’t bad either.
The room had a sitting area and they had put a rolling bed in for A. which didn’t block the flow of the room. Both of the beds had wonderfully soft feather comforters and pillows. We had three floor to ceiling windows that all lead out to a balcony with a wonderful view. It was much more luxurious than we had hoped for.
As we left Germany (which was pretty quickly) and headed through Austria, at first the snow was even more prevalent (as seen in this photo with the snow on the logs), but as we crossed into Italy and the mountains turned into hills, we left the snow behind and headed toward warmer weather and ancient castles.
Here’s a picture out of our cabin window in the morning. Since there were a lot of islands right off the coast of Spilt (Croatia), where we docked, we were going pretty slow before we got there.
As it turned out, there had been quite a few trucks parked behind our car and it took a while for us to even see our car out of the door to the car deck. To the left is a photo of us getting into our car to get it off the boat. On the right, below, is a photo of the outside of the boat with some cars waiting to get on.