Wednesday, July 13th, Ston to Dubrovnik
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| Village of Ston, Ancient fortress wall |
After cappuccinos and breakfast in ancient Ston and admiring Ston’s hillside castle wall from afar, we drive the final leg of the coast road toward Dubrovnik. The views from the road are breathtaking and we stop several times to take photos of the dramatic Adriatic Sea coastline.
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| Bridge into Dubrovnik |
We cross a modern suspension bridge and enter the outskirts of Dubrovnik’s new city. We pull into old Dubrovnik shortly after 11:00 A.M. and as Art predicted, traffic is heavy and parking is challenging and expensive. The first place that I inquire about accommodations is full and we circle down into town in the heavy stream of bumper-to-bumper traffic. I spot an “Apartman” sign (private rooms for rent) and Art pulls over and I hop out of the car to ask about accommodations. An elderly, portly and grim-faced woman with a large wart in the middle of her forehead comes to the door and I try to communicate our need for a room for three people for one night. She surveys me suspiciously and grumbling and with great physical difficulty, she shows me the upstairs room. She hauls her body up one flight of stairs and then opens a door to a garret stairway and points for me to climb the sagging stairs up another flight. The dark carpets are stained and the wallpaper is peeling and should another guest rent her second room we will all share a vintage bathroom. The garret room is hot and a struggling fan stirs the air minimally but there is a double bed and a single bed with clean but tired sheets and this room is just steps away from one of the entrances to the old city. The 50 euro price for the room also includes a coveted parking space.
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| Garret room with view of Dubrovnik city walls |
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| Worn carpet to garret room |
The room is a flash back to my backpacking days, but before committing I return downstairs and ask Art to turn off the car’s engine and come take a look at the room. The troll-like woman points again to the stairs and Art and I hurry up the two flights and quickly decide that we can handle this for one night considering the location, the price and the parking space. While I sit on the front porch with the woman in awkward miscommunication, Art maneuvers into the tight adjoining parking space. She repeatedly asks me if I speak German, and I repeatedly tell her I speak English and a little French but when I pull out a 50 euro note, she grins broadly and begins clumsily punching her phone. She manages to communicate that her son speaks English and she passes me the phone and I tell him that I have just paid his mother 50 euros for the garret room for the night and that we plan to spend the entire day in Dubrovnik and will leave the following morning. He is articulate and reassuring and tells me he will explain our plans to his mother. When John enters with our bags, she appraises him quickly, smiles broadly, and proudly tells me that she has two sons. We make a hasty retreat to the attic, stow our luggage and within minutes are walking through the Dubrovnik Castle Gates.
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| Entrance to the old city of Dubrovnik |
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| Outside Dubrovnik city walls |
We enter at the top of the old city and descend seemingly hundreds of stone steps down to a city plaza and promenade. On the descent, I pop into a tiny tour office to ask for a map and a young woman, slightly younger than John offers me a free map but is insistent that I sit while she marks places of interest. Always wary about being pressured into buying a tour of some sort, I hesitate, but she is so innocently charming and enthusiastic that I sit and we ultimately buy our city museum passes from her.
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| Dubrovnik Old City |
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| Dubrovnik Old City |
With our usual dysfunctionality we struggle to choose a café that will please us all. We enjoy cool drinks while John strategizes our Dubrovnik plan, starting with the Dubrovnik museum.
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| John planning our Dubrovnik itinerary |
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| View from the Dubrovnik museum |
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| Hot and tired museum cat |
After the world class museums of Florence and Rome, this one is not memorable but I am intrigued by the sedan chairs, brightly painted in a Venetian Rococo styIe. I try to imagine a procession where dignitaries, kings and queens might be carried through this medieval city in the tiny enclosed and claustrophobic chairs. The weather is sweltering but I surmise that the labyrinth of narrow streets, thick stone walls and polished marble plazas provides some relief to the heat.
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| The Game of Thrones, ‘Walk of Shame ‘Staircase in Dubrovnik |
Episodes of the Game of Thrones were filmed in Dubrovnik and John navigates us to an open square where a wide and elegant marble stairway ascends to an upper plaza. This stone stairway was featured in the “Walk of Atonement” episode and I am excited to see the actual location. I imagine Queen Cersei Lannister, stripped naked and making her walk of penance down the staircase past the jeering crowds. Dubrovnik is a bewitching city, the very essence of a medieval Mediterranean fantasy and the perfect setting for filming The Game of Thrones.
“A sinner comes before you, Cersei of House Lannister. Mother to His Grace, King Tommen, widow of His Grace, King Robert. She has committed the acts of falsehood and fornication. She has confessed her sins, and begged for forgiveness. To demonstrate her repentance, she will cast aside all pride, all artifice, and present herself as the gods made her… to you, the good people of this city. She comes before you with a solemn heart, shorn of secrets, naked before the eyes of gods and men, to make her walk of atonement.”
―The High Sparrow to the people of King’s Landing[src]
I return my thoughts to the present and Queen Cersei fades from my thoughts and the jeering crowds turn into photo snapping tourists, myself one of them. I dutifully take photos and plan to come back early tomorrow morning when I can take photos without throngs of tourists.
We enjoy a pasta lunch at an outdoor terrace café where there is a welcoming breeze and then navigate our way to the Maritime Museum. The walled city of Dubrovnik sits at the edge of the Adriatic Sea and on our way to the museum, we pass a small harbor and cross the square to the edge of the city walls. Many young people are jumping from the adjacent rocks and John takes several dives, cooling off in the crystal waters below the city walls.
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| Swimming along the Dubrovnik City walls |
The Maritime Museum interests both Art and John but is not of particular interest to me, but it is cool inside with views of the Adriatic beyond. We continue to the beautiful 13th century Franciscan Monastery famous for its ancient pharmacy featuring a collection of pharmacology literature and equipment dating to the 15th century.
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| Apothecary |
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| Franciscan Monastery Apothecary |
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| Franciscan Monastery Cloister |
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| Franciscan Monastery Cloister |
The highlight of Dubrovnik for all of us is our late afternoon walk along the top of the city walls. Circumnavigating the wall takes us nearly two hours but with each turn the view changes. The afternoon light is golden and we inhale stunning vistas of the Adriatic coast and roof top views of the ancient city below.
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| John and Art atop the city wall, Dubrovnik |
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| Rooftops, Dubrovnik old city |
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| Art and Marty, Dubrovnik |
Our appetites are primed after completing the city wall walk and we drop down into the old town and search for a restaurant. After much indecision and minor disagreements we settle on one. Dinner is not memorable. Exhausted, we walk back to our garrett room, grateful that it is just steps away from the old town of Dubrovnik.
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| Nighttime Dubrovnik |
