Dubrovnik -- WOW! (Marina's Post)

 


Gates of Pila - 1537

  

We held at anchor (as I said we would!) even with 20+ knot gusts for much of the night. The next morning we waited until the marina cleared out a bit and we called on the VHF arrange for a berth. Matt has become very proficient at “med mooring” – going into a tight slip backwards where they hand you a line to take to your bow and tie off to a forward submerged anchor (usually a very huge block of concrete). So your stern is 2 feet off the dock, boats snuggled in beside you like sardines, very efficient. My turn will come – we meant to practice at Kremik but didn’t get around to it so we’ll find a place so I can get proficient too. Good to have 2 people who can do things…just in case.

 

The Big Onofrio's Fountain



 One thing remarkable about this ACI Marina was cats…I’ll let Jessie tell you about those!



Another thing…a tennis court that for 80 kuna (about $15) we could play for an hour. And Matt and I played twice over the two days we were there. There was a small soccer court as well, with turf, but they wanted 250 kuna for 1 hour which didn’t make sense to us so we didn’t pay for that one.

  



Sponza Palace - Early 16th Century



Church of St. Vlaho

We of course had to see Dubrovnik so we took the bus (about a 15 minute ride at 10 kuna each) and went exploring. It was a beautiful city with so much history, yet again. Beautiful old churches, a treasury building, fountains, walking “streets” and quaint alleys barely wide enough for two and of course, the huge defensive wall system. It started out Greek, then Roman, then devastated at the dawn of the Middle Ages by the Avar-Slav invasion. In the 12th and 13th centuries it was ruled by Venice, then became part of the Hungro-Croatian kingdom although Dubrovnik was a very autonomous city and became its own Republic. Napoleon marched in and abolished the Republic in 1808, it changed hands a few more times and is now of course, a part of Croatia.



The old city had to be rebuilt a few times – particularly after it was devastated in a major earthquake in 1667 and then again after the war with the Serbs in 1991-1992. We saw an image of where every bomb had hit in the old city of Dubrovnik and I wish I’d taken a picture of it…what a tragedy. However, it is rebuilt and much of the old still remains.