Beautiful Dubrovnik

Arrival at our apartment for four nights. This view!

After our long and curvy trip from Bol, DH was ready to park the car and settle in for the night. We all were feeling a little travel weary. The parking spot at our new apartment even has a good view.

The very kind owners showed us around our two bedroom apartment. But the real attraction is the patio. Oh my goodness! I could never tire of this view.

The owners left us a yummy plate with prosciutto, cheese, bread, and a bottle of local wine. Perfect! We were starving by this point and this hit the spot. We spent some time unpacking groceries and all our things before deciding on dinner.

Our apartment is a 15-20 minute walk to the old town of Dubrovnik. We ate at Pizzeria Tabasco just outside of the city walls. There were definitely tourists around but it did not feel overwhelmingly busy as we had heard it can be. If you come to Europe, please don't be like the American tourists eating next to us and ask for ranch to dip your pizza into. They loudly explained that any sauce for dipping pizza would do. They also requested more ice, a straw, and to be moved to a different table. So embarrassing! Again, DD#2 was enamored with the local pizza cat.

It was around 9pm by the time we finished so getting home to bed sounded pretty nice.

Day Five - Exploring Dubrovnik!

I started off the day in search of the nearby beaches. I like to go on these scouting missions to find the great places before dragging the family through the heat. I went up and down tons of stairs before finding the beautiful St. Jacob's Beach. The perfect place for a morning swim.

We ate a nice breakfast on our patio before exploring old town for the first time. There are so many narrow lanes, stairways, old buildings. and churches. It was hard to stop taking pictures!

We found a Bosnian "fast food" place for lunch where we finally tried cevapi. There are little minced meat sausages. Very yummy! Fast food in Croatia still seems to involve a server, real plates and silverware and even a beer. Why not? DD#2 had a crepe.

We continued wandering aimlessly popping into churches, shops, and watching people. People really dress up in Dubrovnik. I spotted so many cute dresses and sandals! We found ice cream and finally walked back to our apartment to regroup and and cool off. It's not a bad place to just sit and watch the boats and the birds.

We took our tired bodies and walked about 15 minutes to the beach I found that morning. Unfortunately, it was no longer shady and empty. We still enjoyed a nice swim to cool off. I'm so glad we hauled the orange floaty tube that we bought in Greece two years ago!

We cleaned up once again and headed back to the old city for a simple dinner. We found another "fast food" place. This one was known for seafood. DH and I shared an octopus burger with calamari and the kids opted for a shrimp burger. Crazy! The grey/brown bun looked a little weird but tasted good. After more ice cream and wandering around, we headed back.

Little did we know that today was the start of the famous Dubrovnik summer music festival. There were even more well-dressed people headed to concert venues. There were even police escorts for some dignitaries. I still wonder who they might have been. The people watching was better than ever as the town prepared for an evening celebration.

We were wiped out so we headed back to our apartment for the evening. A couple of hours later, the booming sounds began. Fireworks! Unbelievable. We had an amazing view of a very impressive firework display from our patio! Boats had crowded into the sea below to watch the show. When the show ended, the boats all honked their horns and there was lots of applause and hollering in appreciation. What a nice treat to end our first day in Dubrovnik.

Day Six - Climbing the City Walls

We attempted to get up early to avoid the heat and crowds of Dubrovnik's number one attraction: hiking the city walls. The walls encircle the city and are around one mile long. We paid the hefty admittance fee and climbed more stairs than I could count. I took more pictures than I could count as well! Every turn was gorgeous and seeing the rooftops of Dubrovnik gave an amazing perspective on the city from above. Now for some of those pictures:

After an hour and half of oohing and ahhing over the views (and sweating profusely), we came down to ground level to buy a couple baked goods and cold drinks. I finally tried burek - a popular flaky pastry usually filled with cheese, spinach, or meat. There might be sweet versions too. I opted for the cheese one. We also shared a piece of pizza and found more ice cream.

We found a shady spot to sit and enjoy the people watching and views. We were all impressed by the birds in Dubrovnik. The swifts were remarkable in the way they could maneuver quickly around the buildings at top speeds. The pigeons were more annoying. We also hiked up Fort Lovrjenac for more impressive views.

When little sister photo-bombs.

We took our sweaty and tired bodies back to the apartment to cool off. DD#2 and I headed down to the rocky beach just below our apartment. It was perfect! We dove off the rocks and enjoyed the gentle waves and clear water.

Tonight we decided to take advantage of traveling with teenagers and leave them home while we went out for a nice dinner! We made reservations at Konoba Dubrava - a restaurant high above Dubrovnik. We even pre-ordered our special dinner - Octopus baked under the iron bell. I've never eaten so much octopus in one sitting in my life. The real adventure of our dinner was the 45 minute walk up hundreds of stairs to a special spot far above the city. It was fun to combine dinner with a hike!

Day Seven - More swimming, day-trip to Mt. Srd, Cavtat, and an amazing hotel cemetery

We attempted to wake up early for a morning swim. By 9:30 or so, we managed to walk down the 200+ stairs to the fabulous rocky beach below our apartment. It was so refreshing to jump into the water and enjoy a shady swim.

After a quick wardrobe change, some chores (laundry and dishes), DH skillfully drove the car to the tippy top of Mt. Srd. The one-lane road was curvy and downright scary with cliffs off the side. The view at the top was worth it!

We continued south about 20 minutes to the small seaside town of Cavtat. We heard it was a nice place to wander and escape the crowds of Dubrovnik. On that note, we heard a tour operator saying Dubrovnik was around 10% capacity due to covid. I can't imagine how busy it would be during a normal high season. Cavtat was very pretty. We had a snack, more ice cream, and had a look at some incredible yachts. This part of the world truly reminds me of that old show "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous".

I wandered up a ton of stairs to a famous mausoleum that was built from stone from Brac Island. The cemetery had amazing views and was so peaceful.

We drove north for about 10 minutes to a spot that I heard about from a podcast - Kupari. Kupari is home to five abandoned and enormous hotels. The Grand Hotel was built in the 1920s and was by far the most charming. At least it was back in the day. The other hotels were built in the 1960s-1980s and had more of an industrial communist style. The hotels are on a beautiful beach that was frequented by the Croatian military. This also made it a huge target during the war in the '90s. In 1991, the hotels were bombed and destroyed. Since then, anything of value has been removed. All that is left is some impressive tile, columns, and lots of broken glass. It was fascinating and sad to look around these old hotels. Eventually, they will be removed and replaced with new real estate. It is just taking a lot of time.

This would have been a fancy spiral staircase and the grand lobby.

Remnants of some lovely tile.

What an interesting place that I hope will become something beautiful in the future. The beach here is phenomenal!

We made a happy detour to Dubrovnik Beer Company on the way back to our apartment. The best IPA I've had since leaving the US! This brewery was located in a different part of town where the cruise ships dock.

Once back at the apartment, DD#2 and I took another swim and then we headed into the old town for the last time. We returned to the simple Bosnian/Croatian grill where we had lunch our first day. Easy but delicious. After a few last pictures, we returned for some much-needed sleep. Thank you Dubrovnik for an unforgettable four nights!

We are off to Kotor, Montenegro next. To be continued....