Both: Hey everyone!
Jen: It’s Jen and Greg with an update on our travels.
Greg: This update, we’re going to talk about the day we spent in Old Dubrovnik.
Jen: Yeah! So we chose to go to Dubrovnik because a friend of mine, Corina, and her husband, Brian, were on a Mediterranean cruise, and that was one of their port stops.
Greg: So for those who may not be aware, Dubrovnik is in Croatia, which is right on the Adriatic Sea, just north of Montenegro. And it’s a very popular stop for cruise ships and tourists because the Old Town is remarkably well preserved and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Jen: Yes. So to get there, we hired a car and driver. His name was Dusko. He was a really great guy, really nice. He normally gives boat tours around the Dubrovnik area, but in his “off time”, he does car driving.
So it was really beneficial for us because he kind of took on a tour guide persona, kind of telling us about Montenegro, telling us about Croatia, where he was from. So we got a lot of extra tidbits—
Greg: Yeah. It took us a little less than an hour to get to right outside of Dubrovnik. And when we got close, he actually asked if we wanted to do an impromptu detour.
Jen: The impromptu detour was to the top of Mount Srđ, which is the mountain that overlooks Dubrovnik. It’s about 400 meters above sea level, and it offers these great panoramic views of the rooftops of Dubrovnik, …the sea.
Greg: Yeah. And the views were absolutely fantastic. And he said that on clear days, you can actually see, like, almost 60 kilometers in just about every direction. So it was really, really cool up there. And it turned out to be the right choice because initially we planned to take the cable car that goes up to the top. There was a fort that used to be there. Now it’s like an old museum, military museum kind of thing. But at the end of the day, because of weather and because of timing, we didn’t end up doing that. So this was our only chance, as it turned out, to see that really cool view.
Jen: Yeah, it was awesome.
Greg: From there, Dusko took us right back down and drove the rest of the way into Old Dubrovnik, dropped us off right outside of the Pile Gate.
Jen: Yeah, which is where we were going to meet Brian and Corina. And it started to rain a little bit while we were waiting and we were kind of concerned that it was going to ruin the day, but it really wasn’t that bad.
So they showed up and I have to admit it was kind of like a Hallmark movie reunion scene. Corina and I hugged for the longest time. So it was really good to get that big hug and know that we were going to be able to spend the day exploring. And big shout out to Brian! He agreed to do all of this on his actual birthday.
Greg: Yeah, good sport.
Jen: So Pile Gate is part of the city walls that surround Dubrovnik, and they stretch up to two kilometers long and took centuries to build. They’re about 25 meters high, and in some parts, they’re, like, six meters thick.
Greg: Yeah. So a popular thing to do is ascend those city walls, kind of walk around them above the buildings and…and look out into the sea. And it’s really cool. But we thought we would be able to do that for free. It turned out to be kind of expensive. But more importantly, it was really crowded!
Jen: Yeah, I think a lot of what we planned to do that day was probably affected by the multiple cruise ships that were in port at the time. We just had a limited amount of time to spend that day, and we didn’t want to waste it standing in lines.
Greg: For sure. So the big thing, once you get through the city walls, you see this really big fountain. It’s called Onofrio’s Fountain. Onofrio della Cava was the Italian architect who actually designed and had built this elaborate water supply system to bring fresh water from a spring that was, like, however far away. And the fountain itself served as the main water source for the citizens until the late 19th century.
Jen: The fountain is 16-sided, and each side features, like, this unique carved stone mask where the water flows through the mouth of it, and it was damaged in the earthquake of 1667, which we’ll tell you more about later. It has been restored, but it did lose a lot of its original detailing.
Greg: Yeah, the coolest thing is the water that comes out of it, really clean, perfectly safe to drink, perfect coolness. Everybody goes up and fills their water bottles, which we did too.
Jen: Yeah.
Greg: From Onofrio’s Fountain, we continued to what is the third oldest pharmacy in Europe on record and is actually the oldest continually operating pharmacy in Europe. It’s from a Franciscan monastery, and the pharmacy itself was founded around 1317.
Jen: Yeah, the pharmacy still operates today, and it actually sells skin creams and products that are made according to these ancient recipes used by the Franciscans using local wild herbs. You can visit the museum there, and you can see pharmaceutical tools, containers, and grinders from way back when.
Greg: Yeah. And it was another thing that when we looked for stuff to do, we thought was supposed to be free. But for some reason, they were charging about 15 euro a person. And because it was really crowded, we just decided it was best to skip it.
Jen: Yeah. Sometimes I’ve thought that maybe these things were being charged for because of the cruise ships and they were normally free. We just got the tourist tax.
Greg: Yeah.
Jen: (laughs)
Greg: I mean, it could be.
After the pharmacy, we walked along what they call the Stradun. It’s the main street that goes through Old Dubrovnik. It’s about 300 meters long from the Pile Gate to Luža Square. It’s, like, a limestone tile paved thoroughfare right in the heart of Old Town. It’s where all the restaurants are, cafes and shops. The big thing, though, when you walk along the Stradun, you can hear the tour guides who were there talk about the earthquake of 1667.
Jen: Yeah, so on April 6th, 1667, at about 8:45 in the morning, a devastating earthquake struck Dubrovnik. It lasted between 8 to 15 seconds, and it was felt from 500 kilometers away.
Greg: Yeah, so all of those buildings along the Stradun were completely destroyed. Rubble blocked up the whole thing entirely. Something like 3,000 to 5,000 people happened to die, including the noble class and the city’s rector.
Jen: And huge stones rolled down from Mount Srđ. The ground was cracked open. The water sources dried up. The dust was so thick, it darkened the sky.
Greg: There was also a subsequent tsunami that came right through the harbor and destroyed almost all of the ships.
Jen: Fires from the toppled fireplaces and bakeries caused that rubble to burn for almost 20 days.
Greg: So the whole city was basically demolished, except for Sponza Palace and the Rector’s Palace.
Jen: Yeah, and the entire city had to be rebuilt, and the government chose to rebuild it in the Baroque style, which happened to be very popular at that time.
Greg: Yeah, so that’s why when you look at Old Dubrovnik, all of the architecture throughout is so uniform to the same style. It’s because almost everything that you see is all from the reconstruction following the earthquake.
Jen: Also, this disaster is noted as being the beginning of Dubrovnik’s decline as a major maritime power.
Greg: Right. So at the eastern end of the Stradun, it opens up into the Luža Square, which is like the historic heart of Old Dubrovnik. That’s where the Sponza Palace is, the Rector’s Palace, the Church of St. Blaise, and there’s also a structure kind of in the middle called Orlando’s Column.
Jen: So Orlando’s Column is right in the center of the square, and it’s about a four-meter-tall pillar that features an armored medieval knight….Orlando!
Greg: Yeah,
Jen: (laughs)
Greg: Yeah they erected it in, like, the 1400s. It’s just like a symbol of the city’s independence.
Jen: Yeah, but a fun fact of this statue is that Orlando’s right forearm measures about 51 centimeters. And that was actually the official measurement unit in Dubrovnik, which was called the lokat, kind of like a cubit. Merchants would use this exact length to measure and sell their material.
Greg: Yeah. And apparently at the base, you can still see, like, markings of measurements, which is kind of neat.
We left Luža Square and we went towards Dubrovnik Cathedral, which their claim to fame, as it were, people like to joke is because they have the diapers for baby Jesus.
Jen: One of their relics is supposed to be the swaddling clothes of the baby Jesus. And they’re stored there in this very ornate silver reliquary from the 16th century.
Greg: Yeah, so apparently it’s just a thing in the translation. Swaddling clothes and diapers, not really the same thing, but when they try to translate it to English, they just use diapers. Or maybe because they know that’s going to get people to come and check ‘em out. I don’t know.
But, uh, they have, like, over 120 relics in there, including body parts from St. Blaise, and they claim to have a piece of the true cross. We did not go through their quote-unquote treasure room because, again, very crowded and we were limited on time.
Jen: So we left Dubrovnik Cathedral and walked to yet another church, the Church of St. Ignatius.
Greg: Yeah, so the Church of St. Ignatius is their big Baroque church. One of the appealing aspects to it, though, is right outside something called the Jesuit Stairs.
Jen: Yeah, so it’s this grand staircase that connects the square to the church itself, and they’re modeled after the famous Spanish Steps in Rome.
Greg: Yeah, the stairs really were cool, but also the church itself inside was really beautiful, and because it’s bigger, it could accommodate the crowd much better. So it was much more comfortable to kind of appreciate the things inside, whether it was paintings and artwork or if it was the decorations on the altar. We took our time in there. It was cool.
Jen: Yeah. After the church, we headed to our lunch reservation at a Michelin-recommended restaurant called the Taj Mahal, which, funny enough, did not serve Indian food.
Greg: No, it’s Bosnian food, which may also sound random, but it’s not really because Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, it’s all that shared culture, centuries of shared history. So the cuisine really does kind of blend together. It’s all like Balkan, Mediterranean, Turkish influence kind of thing.
Jen: Right. So it’s famous for a lot of traditional dishes, one being ćevapi, which is small grilled beef sausages served in, like, a flatbread with onions and a kajmak cream and a pepper relish, which was really good.
And there’s a soup that we didn’t try, but it seemed to be pretty popular called bey soup, which is a rich, creamy chicken and okra stew.
Greg: Yeah. And of course, they also have, like, baklava and some other kind of sweets that are more Eastern European. But besides that, it had this overall kind of authentic feel. I mean, we don’t really know what authentic —
Jen: (laughs)
Greg: — Bosnian is, I guess, but seemed genuine to us.
Jen: And the food was great and everybody was really nice. So it was a really cool experience to be able to kind of have our birthday lunch there.
Greg: Yeah. Still don’t know why they call it the Taj Mahal.
Jen: Nope.
Greg: So originally we had planned for after eating to do the cable car up to the top of Mount Srđ to see that old fort military museum and stuff. But like we said, because of the weather and we were running short on time, we had to just skip it. So turned out to be a really good thing that Dusko thought, hey let me take you on this detour.
Jen: Yeah. So instead of the cable car, we spent a little more time exploring, like, the side streets of the city and going in some of the shops. And we stumbled upon this tasty little gelato store.
Greg: It was really good gelato.
Jen: It was very good gelato!
Greg: Yeah. So from there, we just kind of made our way back to the Pile Gate, walked out through the city walls. And as it turned out, their cruise ship bus was already there.
Jen: Yeah, and we said goodbye, told Brian happy birthday. Felt like another scene from a Hallmark movie where I sadly watched them get on the bus and waved as they drove off. (laughs)
Greg: Yeah, but it was a good day! For Jennifer and I, it was still earlier than our original plan for when Dusko would pick us back up at Old Town Dubrovnik. We thought about walking around a bit more, but with the rain and everything, it just wasn’t going to work. So she messaged him if he could pick us up earlier than we expected. And that’s when we realized this was going to be a problem…
Jen: Yeah. He told us that it would probably be about an hour and a half. And then when we looked around, we realized because it’s so full of traffic.
Greg: Yeah. I mean, everything was complete gridlock. And as it turns out, it’s a road higher up that does a little bit of switchback curve to get down to where Old Town is. And all of it is just bumper to bumper and none of it’s moving.
Jen: Yeah. So he sent us a pin of where we needed to meet him. And it turns out that pin was about a mile and a half…uphill. (laughs)
Greg: Yeah. Well, to be fair, it was not nearly as grueling as the Czech Republic “easy walk”.
Jen: (groans) Ugh, nothing is as grueling as that! (laughs)
Greg: Yeah. But we did have to stop a couple times, and remember, it’s raining.
Jen: Yeah, so we get up to the main road, where we’re supposed to meet, and we’re getting closer to the pin, when all of a sudden the car pulls over to the side of the road, and it’s actually Dusko.
Greg: Yeah. And once we got in the car, it was easy enough to drive back to Montenegro and the hotel. But the cool thing was during the ride, he kind of went back into that tour guide mode, told us all about the natural park island. I think it’s called Lokrum Island.
Jen: Mmhmm.
Greg: He also told us about some of the neighborhoods that we could see because the road really does overlook the water. And it’s really beautiful while you drive along that path.
Jen: Yeah, and he told us apparently a lot of Americans and Canadians are buying property there.
Greg: Yeah, which we 100% understood because Croatia was so beautiful, at least the part that we saw. And if we were in that point of retirement mode with enough money to just buy a house somewhere, why not? Because it was really great.
Jen: Yeah, so we got back to the hotel and we’re telling the staff about our day and they kind of laughed at us…
Greg: Yeah, well, because apparently in this region, they get 260 or more days of sunshine a year. And there’s really only about two or three days a year that it rains. It just happened to be one of the days we went to Dubrovnik.
Jen: Of course…
Greg: Yeah. Overall, Dubrovnik was a really great place to visit. It’s called the “Pearl of the Adriatic”. And we absolutely understand that.
Jen: Oh, for sure. I wish we could have spent more time there.
Greg: Yeah, me too. More than one day would have been much better.
Jen: Agreed.
Greg: So the next update is going to be after we left Montenegro, we flew into — Zurich, Switzerland.
Jen: Yeah, we spent some time in Zurich. We stayed on Lake Zurich, which was a beautiful area, toured a little bit of the city, and one of our favorite stops, the Lindt Chocolate Headquarters.
Greg: Yeah. And generally speaking, all of the updates from here on are going to be Switzerland and then Italy for a while. And then after that, Egypt. So we’re really starting to get to places that people constantly ask us about.
Jen: Yeah. And we like talking about ‘em!
Greg: Oh, yeah.
Jen: (laughs)
Greg: They were great. They were so great.
So thanks for checking in!
Jen: And we’ll see you at the next stop!
