Dubrovnik - Beyond The Wall

In the little marina the boats are all on moorings so the boat owners need to take their tiny dinghy to their bigger dingy and/or to their bigger boat.  This man was paddling with a stick in a boat he only just fit in. I didn't see which boat he went to, but if it was one of those first ones, I would be very disappointed!

Today's adventure was taking us to The Wall.  The old town, as you may or may not know has a massive wall built around it.  The building started back in the 12th century and the city has been through a fair bit since then.  You've got your traditional fires that destroyed everything, then you have all sorts of people through the past 700 years coming in and taking over doing a bit of destroying etc.... then in the war 20 odd years ago she was devastatingly bombed by their neighbours.  A lot of buildings were damaged, but they've stuck in there, worked together and with a bit of help from their friends, built her right back up again.  And let me tell you - she is fabulous! 

Probably not too fabulous if you like fancy schmancy shiny brand new stuff, but I love old stuff, as you may have realised, so to me, this is architectural heaven.

A lot of the rooves had to be replaced with new ones so you can see lots of different types of tiles

One interesting little tidbit that we learned was that when they made these tiles they were moulded around the thigh of the tile maker, which is why they are not uniform.  If your tile maker was a rugby full backer, your tiles were obviously going to be a little wider!

Even though the town is old! old! old! they still have fairly modern structures like this basketball court.  If they'd been playing basketball since the 12th century, that would explain why Croatia are so good at the sport..... and perhaps why they're so tall?

There is still a working monastery inside the walls and they work hard to keep their veggie garden - giving the stone city a bit of greenery and life.

The city had been planned in the shape of an oyster shell with the middle of the town being the lowest part and the streets went up hill from there, giving it a bowl effect.  This is the main street through the old town which is now FULL of tourist souvenir shops and ice creameries which I'm sure must be original.

At the end of the street is a beautiful old fountain - the Cesma Fountain, that was used by the Islamic people to wash before they went to their mosque.  There were other fountains around town, that other religions used, but none as big as this one.  The water comes from the fresh water lake inland and is refreshingly freezing once it gets to the fountain and a welcomed cooling place for peops who are here in summer!

Nothing is sacred here on the walls..... nobody has a dryer in Croatia, the weather is generally too good not to hang your bits and pieces outside for the world to see.

Here is a good picture of out hotel.  A case of the old and the ugly joining together to make quite a nice hotel - The Excelsior. The staff were so helpful and friendly and really.... that's what you want as well as a comfy bed and a view and Jenny likes tissues in the bathroom and quality mini shampoos and shower gels etc.... We don't want much.

Let me tell you people, it was hot on those walls today - damn hot! But we managed to do it in 2 hours.  The key is to go early - as early as you can and take lots of water.  I think we went through a litre each.  But even hot and sweaty - Jenny still looks good!

This was a sense of absolute relief coming down those stairs into the shade and onto flat, no stair ground.  Jakov simply stopped asking us if we wanted to climb the towers.... it took him a while, but he learned.

Back down with the street walkers we wandered through the main square and down the side streets lined with restaurants and more ice-creameries.... I mean, how much ice cream can people eat?

Looking back up to the walls, the people of the city must have felt quite safe surrounded by that massive thing!  And just look how many steps it was to get up there!

This chap was playing the traditional Croatian musical instrument, the gusle...

Bless his heart though, it was bloody hot and dressed in his long socks and what not, he needed to have a few breaks to cool down in the fountain.

Game of Thrones challenge.... can you guess which scene was filmed right here?

You may have heard some people say, "Seen one church, you've seen them all."  Well, we really have see them all.  We have been to EVERY SINGLE CHURCH IN CROATIA! and there had to come a time where a line had to be drawn and Jenny sitting on the sidelines with her hat on was that line!  They were very interesting and some were very beautiful and others were extremely old, but enough is probably enough.

Having said that..... here's another church we went into.  I thought this gated off area dedicated to Mary was lovely with all the flowers.

This was inside of St Ignatius' Jesuit Church

Which is at the top of these replica Spanish Steps which aren't in Spain at all, but in Rome!

And inside, at the main alter and on the two side alters is the best carpet I have ever seen..... it is reminiscent of the carpet that my Uncle and Aunty used to have in their rumpus room..... 

(is it close SB & BEB?)

NOTE:  I love that our guide, Jakov read our blog and made some critical information change suggestions so that it was actually factual and true!  

Changes have now been made.