As another sweltering day broke, Team Sebo were up bright and early to purchase water taxi tickets from Reception, walk Harley and get ourselves ready for our day of discovery in Dubrovnik. Harley was pretty relieved when he realised he wasn’t going to be dragged around yet another city in the blazing heat and gladly made for his bed, with a few treats, as we bade him farewell. We ambled down to Mlini in plenty of time for the noon boat and sat sipping cappuccino’s on the shaded terrace whilst waiting for the boat to arrive. Arrive it did, bang on time, and we had a pleasant half an hour on the water, enjoying the coastal scenery, and the sad sight of a resort of several hotels completely derelict, some showing clear signs of bomb damage, before getting our first glimpse of the famed Walls of Dubrovnik. Wow, what a sight! Even more stunning than we ever thought possible!

Needless to say, the first thing we did on arrival was to splash-out the 150kn (€19.50) each on the “Walk The Walls” tickets. Well worth the expenditure! The views from the walls are spectacular! Apparently, 2/3s of the city’s red terracotta roofs sustained shell damage during the sustained bombing and had to be replaced – they can be clearly seen from the walls. It really drove home to us just how badly the city was damaged when we looked down and saw just how many roofs had been replaced! And for what? For nothing, as it turned-out! “Lest They Forget” Plaques at various points around the city show exactly how many direct hits they’d had and where, how many buildings had been totally destroyed and those which had sustained damage of a structural nature. The miracle lies in the fact that they managed to pretty much restore everything to it’s former glory, using age-old construction methods for just US€10 million in just 4 years!

Once again, photos can never really do the place justice and if you haven’t yet experienced the delight that Dubrovnik actually IS, you absolutely SHOULD…..stick it on your Bucket List pronto! We took a grand total of 146 photos of the place – here’s just a few to whet your appetites….

Having walked the walls, we treated ourselves to lunch and a carafe of rose wine- not the cheapest lunch we’ve ever had but, since Dubrovnik has the reputation of being THE most expensive city in Croatia, we weren’t shocked when the bill came to €50. After lunch, we meandered around the streets, avoiding the cruise liner brigades with their guides and most definitely avoiding the expensive designer boutiques lining the main thoroughfare, opting to marvel at the architecture, exquisite stone carvings and, well, just the overall beauty of this ancient city instead. By the time we hopped back onto our water taxi, we were both exhausted and glad of the sea breeze to cool us down. Back at Sebo, Harley was delighted to see us back- mainly, I suspect, because it was slightly past his dinnertime, so he was even more delighted when I produced the pizza crusts from Roy’s lunch from my handbag and added them to his dinner!

We’re going to stay here for at least another day – there’s a 3km walking trail to Plat, just down the coast, which we intend to avail of tomorrow and then we’ll try suss some kind of plan to get up to another National Park, Plitvice Lakes before we head back into Italy in early June. Venice beckons before I head over to Dublin mid-June. Team Sebo really are becoming “culture vultures”…..scary thought, heh?