Dubrokvnik
Trip Start
Sep 12, 2008
1
13
21
Trip End
Sep 29, 2008
Another early morning as we will only be here in Dubrovnik, Croatia until noon. This was a major tourist resort on the Adriatic Sea until much of the town was destroyed in the 1991 war between Croatia and Serbia. It was founded in the 7th century by the Romans, under protection of Byzantine Empire from 867 to 1205, under Venice till 1358, under Hungary till 1526 and the Ottoman Empire till 1806; Napoleon was here in early 1800s and in 1815 the town was ceded to Austria. It was occupied by Italian and German forces during WWII, but suffered the most damage from the Serbs October 1991 to May 1992. We were bused, first on a road above town so we could get an overview of the town and then to Old Town, completely surrounded by fortification walls and also almost completely restored since the bombing that destroyed so many of the fantastically old buildings. The town originally had distinctive honey-colored clay tile roofs but they were unable to replace with the same color so used red tiles. Almost the entire town is red tile roof, but if you see one that is the honey-grey you know it was one that survived the bombing. We found a Franciscan Monastery that houses a pharmacy that has been operating since 1391! They will diagnose and make up medicine for whatever ails you! We spent time in the Gothic Rector's Palace built in 1441. We tasted candied orange rind, huge red and green grapes, and olive oil with rosemary. We are both just not shoppers so do a lot of looking and laughing and enjoying without any spending! Croatia is also the birthplace of the necktie (cravat). We saw high fashion mens' shoes-had very long pointy toes and looked feminine. Beautiful cobblestone walks and large stone pavers, uneven and shiny from centuries of foot traffic. Our meeting place after free time was at the Onofrio Fountain-1438-just inside Pile Gate. The walls that enclose the Old Town were built between the 13th and 16th centuries and are still intact. They are the finest in the world and Dubrovnik's main claim to fame. They enclose the entire city (the old city) in a curtain of stone over 2km long and up to 25m high, with 2 round towers, 14 square towers, 2 corner fortifications, and a large fortress. We did wander into a very small grocery-similar in size to ¼ of a 7/11 store! Fun to read the names on the products we know here in America - example-Mr. Clean translated to Mr. Proper! Another great maritime museum too. Oh, and the town was full of cats-everywhere. Many languages spoken among the tourists but we were able to convey that we would take a picture for them of them and ask them to do the same for us. Back to the ship before noon and a light lunch - haha! Back to our room, back out on deck to read but too cold. The loud speaker kept calling for two men by name, finally just calling for one. Turned out they were late and we were late to leave port. The last one eventually came roaring up in a taxi, jumped out and onto the ship, people on deck watching for him cheered and we were under way-Carol was watching the pilot boat lead us out of the dock, and at a determined point he pulled close to us and his man, who was on our ship, jumped onto the pilot ship. Before leaving port we heard an announcement for 'Code Mike to the elevator 6th floor'. Don't know any particulars but that is the code for medical emergency. I was down on deck 4 a bit later and saw 2 employees carrying an empty stretcher back onto the ship. At 4:30 we were in the lounge for a disembarkation talk. David, our director is leaving in the morning for Texas to see what they mean by 'substantial hurricane damage' from Hurricane Ike to his house. Cannot believe this is almost over. We decided to eat, not, that is dine, in the Grand dining Room tonight as we will be too busy tomorrow. Excellent again- I think even better than Toscana or Polo Grill - can't tell you what I ate but it was beautifully presented and tasted even better. As Carol got her salad the Indonesian wait guy asked her if she wanted pepper from the pepper mill-She said just a little and with a mischievous grin he gave it a tiny turn giving her only a couple grains of pepper and he, we, and our neighboring tables really got a laugh out of that. Then stopped by the jewelry shop to chat with Mary and Linda and Dale- Mary works there and the other two are gals we met first day on the ship. On to the lounge where the farewell variety show was presented-Lu did 2 dances, David did some magic and some jokes-magic was good, jokes were groaners!, several singers, 4 piece quartet, lots of entertainment. And then---out came the entire staff-all of them, about 250! (We were assured someone was running the ship!) I counted almost 50 in chef's hats, it was just a fantastic end to the trip. Lots of noise, excitement, hugging, confetti and then dancing- everyone-just fun. I sorta danced with the captain and did shake his hand, said goodby to Lu - it was just fun. We danced for at least a half hour. Finally back to the room and will have an early morning as the captain wants us all up to see Venice as we approach it-like 7:30 AM. And we got to bed after midnight!
