Dubrovnik was awesome. The entire old town is a UNESCO world heritage site. I found the history of this city to be the most fascinating of all the places I had seen on this trip. A local expert came on board the ship and presented a lecture to us about its history. While Dubrovnik has been around since at least the 7th century, it flourished as an independent state (known then as Ragusa) beginning in the 13th and 14th centuries. Because Ragusa did not have any significant defense forces, it relied on its extremely skilled diplomacy to remain independent for hundreds of years until finally succumbing to Napoleon in the 19th century.
Our group leader for our trip is from Dubrovnik. He grew up and lived the first 26 years of his life in the old town. He continues to live in Dubrovnik today, but not in the old town. His family moved out briefly in his 7th grade year in the 1990s when Dubrovnik was under fire in the war in the Balkans.
Our group had been fortunate enough to not have it rain during any of our outings, although we had our rain gear with us several times for possible rain. Our luck ran out on Saturday, the day we were in the old town of Dubrovnik for almost 7 hours. It was rainy and windy. I had really wanted to walk the city walls, but that is not a good idea with rain and wind. The cable car to the top of the mountain overlooking the city was also not running due to the high winds. We had a guided tour for about an hour and a half. We were then on our own until our 5pm bus back to the ship (a ten-minute ride). We were each provided with a museum pass that got us into 8 different places. When the rain got bad, I would duck into a museum. I suppose the one good thing about exploring the town in the rain is that the weather kept the crowds down.
Back on the ship, we had a farewell captain’s dinner. After dinner, a spectacular local three-person band (guitar, accordion, and tambura) entertained us with some Croation folk songs (our group leader was at my table and was singing along to the songs—fun!), supplemented with some familiar English language songs tailored to our age group (think Neil Diamond, Frank Sinatra etc.). After breakfast Sunday morning, we departed the ship for good. Our first stop on the bus was the old town for a few more hours. The weather on Sunday was perfect. About half our group walked the city walls. The city wall walk was the highlight of my trip. The walls are four or five centuries old and are in great shape. The walls surround the entire old town. The views were amazing. After the walls, I was thirsty, so a few of us stopped at a craft beer pub I had discovered the day before and had a local beer. At 11:30am we were back on the bus headed to Montenegro.
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