Dubrovnik Croatia
In late May, Kate, Kayla, Becca and I spent just over a week vacationing in Dubrovnik Croatia. This is a photograph of the old city from the terrace of our hotel room. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Dubrovnik, it was the locale for shooting Kings Landing in Game of Thrones. These days, the entire old town is a fabulous, vehicle free, walking town focused on tourism, full of shops, cafes, restaurants, museums, etc.
This is our family’s second trip to Dubrovnik. Last year, Kate and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. We decided that we would like to celebrate it with a family vacation with our daughters. It had been a long time since the four of us had travelled together given the pandemic, differing school schedules, and the ease of spending time at our place on Cape Cod. Reading through various NY Times travel articles, we settled on Dubrovnik. Our trip last year was so much fun, we decided to do it again this year. Fortunately, our daughters’ schedules managed to cooperate, so here we were, back again.
We spent our time in Dubrovnik truly relaxing. It was perhaps a quarter mile walk along the water to get into the old city from our hotel. Exploring the maze of old streets was a common pastime followed by stopping at a cafe for a meal or coffee or gelato.
One advantage of visiting in late May is that the crowds are limited while the weather is still wonderful. Wondering the city early in the day and especially off the beaten path was very peaceful. Speaking with locals, in the heart of the summer, the city is simply packed all of the time. On both of our May visits here, we have found the ocean very refreshing, a bit brisk when we first get in, but wonderful after a minute or two.
The old city is surrounded on all sides by a massive outer wall. Walking the wall is something that should not be missed. However, it is best to walk the wall either when it opens in the morning or late in the afternoon since there is no shade.
This was taken from the wall looking over the city towards Lokrum Island.
Just inland from the old town is Srd, a low mountain ridge about 1350’ above sea level. Most mornings, I would arise early and hike up the mountain with my camera to photograph birds. I will make another post of bird photos from my trip in the next couple of days. The top of the mountain offered some beautiful views. Here is Lokrum Island photographed from the ridge above the city.
This is a photo looking south along the ridge.
One morning I went up when the weather was threatening. It made for a very moody sunrise.
This photo was taken a few minutes later looking west over the ocean. As I recall, I was rained on as I made my way back down to the hotel.
This might look like a sunset, but actually it is a photo of the full moon setting slightly before sunrise. This is about the time I would generally start my hike up the mountain each day.
To wrap up this post, here is a nighttime photo of the old town I took as we wondered back to our hotel from dinner.