Dubrovnik

 I visited Dubrovnik in 1989 when it was still in Yugoslavia.  Then the war came and Dubrovnik was the scene of much destruction.  We are happy to report that the famous walled old town has been repaired and restored to it's former glory. 

To get to Dubrovnik from Ponza one first takes the ferry back to Formia, retrieves their car and then drives across Italy to the port city of Bari.   There one takes the ferry to Dubrovnik.  It should be noted though that scheduling the departure for the same time that Italy is playing for the World Cup title should be avoided if possible.  We were sitting in the ferry terminal when the game started and then at some point we got in line to get on the ferry.  I'm not sure why except that possibly we got caught up in the Italian habit of getting in line as soon as it is apparent that a line will be formed.  Anyway, we stood in line getting acquainted with those around us.  The lady behind us turned out to be a teacher at one of the high schools in St. Paul so she and Gail had a good time playing "do you know".  Eventually the soccer game came to half time so we were rushed on board the ferry.  There we sat until the game ended as there were no Italian dock workers to be seen-they were all in this little hut watching the game.  As soon as it ended they came out and cast us off.  As we sailed through the harbor we watched the fireworks show light up the sky over Bari (as I'm sure was happening in every town and village in Italy since Italy won).

A quick overnight trip brought us to Dubrovnik.  The directions to our room said to go through a certain gate in the old wall and "down the steps".  It did not say down the 89 steps which wasn't too bad but getting our suitcase back up those steps a few days later was definitely a struggle.

 The first of many steps.

One of the advantages of taking the overnight ferry was that we got an early start on the day.  After dropping our bags off at the place we were staying, we went on down some more steps to the center of the old town and saw the streets almost empty, the only time in our visit when we could say that. 

  This is a very old fountain which was one of two sources of water to the people who were under siege in Dubrovnik during the recent war.

We were the first people this morning to climb the steps to the top of the old wall.  Once on top we did a leisurely stroll completely around the town.  The following pictures were taken on that stroll.

      Our first stop for a lemonade and a souvenir.  This shop shows one of the differences between my visits, there are a lot more small shops working to catch the tourist Euro now than there were then, or at least it seems that way to me.

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