The following day we had plans to see as much of Dubrovnik as possible, so our first port of call was the cable car, it’s located just outside the city walls it costs £9 one way and £15 return, we opted for one way as we fancied hiking back down. After travelling up and above the old city we had climbed around 412 metres to the top of mount srd and the views were actually incredible, it was a beautiful sunny morning with hazy scenery in the distance.
We loved it up there and spent a good amount of time looking out over the Adriatic and spotting little islands in the distance. The views behind us over misty mountains was really cool too, showing you the contrasting geography of this part of the world.
There’s a huge cross up there, which you can see from the old town, it was destroyed in the 90s war but has since been rebuilt, it is also home to fort imperijal, built in the 1800s during the Napoleonic wars, it now houses a museum dedicated to the siege of Dubrovnik, a dark part of Croatia’s history during their war of independence when Serbian/Montenegro forces invaded and attempted to annex southern Croatia. It wouldn’t be our last history lesson on the 90s balkan wars.
We walked around the fort and found the small track leading back down, it’s a nice walk and it was still cool early in the morning rather than blazing sun. With butterflies fluttering around us and a lizard scuttling about it was nature at it’s best. The path zig zags all the way down eventually descending into a wooded area before you emerge on the ourskirts of the old city. On the way down there were 12 plinths mounted at the end of each zig and zag. Though we weren’t sure about their significance other than religious depictions on them.
Outside of the walls of Dubrovnik was just as quaint as inside with a proper Mediterranean feel to the place. I’ve always wanted to come to Dubrovnik since I was a teenager and it wasn’t letting me down so far!
We thought as long as we continue downhill we would hit the coast and we were right! We came out into a little cove with a jetty and the clearest water I have ever seen, far cleaner and clearer than SE Asia. It was full of fish too so we sat and dangled our legs over the end of the jetty and watched all the different fish go about their business, even a few crabs were doing a bit of seaweed farming.
One reason Dubrovnik has gained in popularity is Game of Thrones, the hit Tv show has filmed a lot of scenes here over the years and you can even do a guided tour! As luck would have it we found out that our little cove was one of the places a scene had been shot!
You could see why, and another filming location was above us Lovrijenac fortress is situated on a rocky outcrop and was used for shots of the red keep.
We walked up to the keep and paid to go inside, you can get a multi ticket for Dubrovnik walls and the keep for around £17, or if you’re there for longer they do a Dubrovnik tour card. Dubrovnik Card.
The keep itself doesn’t have much in it but it’s white walls and little nooks and crannies are great for exploring. We climbed to the top of the fortress for more views of Dubrovnik and it’s walls and out to sea.
It’s definitely worth the short walk over especially with the bonus of the little cove. We left the keep and retraced our steps this time heading back behind the walls and into the city. Using our ticket we climbed up onto the ramparts and began the full circle of the walls of Dubrovnik.
We could see back over to the cove and keep and over the whole of the red tiled roofs.
It’s super pretty and luckily wasn’t too busy, I can imagine the whole place is a nightmare at the height of summer.
There was some great scenery to look at as we took a leisurely pace around. Stopping for pistachio ice cream and a rest halfway along.
We were pretty high at times and could see schools of fish glittering in the early afternoon sun. With little fishing boats moored up right beneath the walls.
You can really see just how clear the water is here.
We made it all the way round the walls and decided to grab some lunch. We just got some bread, cheese, and meat with some soft drinks. The cheese was delicious while we planned our next move, we decided to do a boat trip but to save money we jumped on one of the many glass bottom boat trips advertised by the marina.
We got one and set off leaving the pier behind us the boat followed the walls around, giving us a different perspective of Dubrovnik.
We then looped round and some how got in a race with another boat towards the big island just off the coast. Lokrum island is a popular day trip and you can take a ferry over from Dubrovnik.
We could see flashes of marine life as we went in and out of deeper and shallower water.
The boat then went along the side of Lokrum island, investigating caves and little inlets along the way. Once round the island we went along the coast back towards Dubrovnik, going past more fortifications and some nice looking beaches that we took note of for later.
The whole trip was around 45 minutes and cost 10Euro. Definitely worth it especially as we were only here for the day.
From the Marina we decided to head to one of the nearby beaches, so exiting the city once again we took a quick 5 minute stroll to the pebbly beach just south of the walls.
We took a dip in the sea which was still pretty cold but a nice cold refreshment after trekking about for hours. Then Sarah did some pebble and shell collecting as I lazed and read a book on kindle app. It started to cool down as evening began so we packed up our stuff and went back to the city. It was nice to have another couple of hours on the beach as we would be heading inland to Bosnia the next day.
We took a long walk round to the hotel passing some random statues and buildings along the way before settling down for half an hour to decide where to eat. I used foursquare and it recommended a place called Barba.
It’s a trendy little place on the east side of the city just up from the main thoroughfare. We ordered an octopus burger and a shrimp salad to share. The salad was good and tasted fresh but the burger was to die for! Really meaty with a slight seaside taste to it, I think we could have both eaten one each.
The cool thing about the place is the pens with which you can design a wooden fork to go on the wall there. This was my Wales/home town inspired masterpiece.
While we were messing about with these the waitress brought us over a complementary oyster each! I think it was the nicest oyster I’ve had, though I still think they just taste of the sea.
We had a couple more beers in a nearby irish pub that seemed to be the only place really open, but they were pretty pricey. After that we found a little place doing crepes! So we got dessert and demolished them before we got to the hotel. Once tucked up in bed we made our plans for the next day….our only obligation was a bus at 4pm for Mostar in Bosnia.
