Up and down, and around Dubrovnik

Looking up the Strada ( paved with limestone cobbles) towards the town clock

St Orlando's statue

The half column at the Rector's palace shows a physician in his laboratory

At the Marina

View from the walls

We embraced technology during our tour of Dubrovnik today by using an  i-pod tourguide- and it worked pretty well (with a few glitches due to driver error).  It led us through the city to all the public buildings and then took us above the city to walk halfway along the walls, which are six metres thick in places and give brilliant views over the city and the sea.

My only beef is that it's hard to hold an i-pod in your hand while you're taking photos.  But where there's a will there's a way - and next time I will wear something with pockets.

Dubrovnik has been on my bucket list for years and I'm so glad that it and its walls are still standing after the damage inflicted by artillery shelling in 1991 by the JNA (Jugoslavia National Army).  Dubrovnik has had at least one other major brush with disaster in its long history: a devastating earthquake in 1667, which caused massive damage to most of the public buildings and killed 5000 people.

Did you know?
1 Croatia is the birthplace of the necktie.  In fact, the term cravat derives from Croat.  Vaughan bought himself a lovely bow tie.  Well, he had to, really.
2 Croatia is famous for its beautiful Konavle embroidery which is intricately geometric in style.  It used to be applied in silk to women's hems and bodices, but nowadays can be found on table cloths etc.  One table runner I saw was priced at 80E and another, even more intricate, at over 150E. I was very happy with my small framed sample for 30.
3 Rather than rely totally on the city walls for security, the Croats had a policy of buying off potential enemies to leave them alone.  It worked quite well for hundreds of years until Napoleon invaded.  Then, all bets were off.
4 King Richard the Lionheart has a connection to the city.  When he was rescued from a shipwreck nearby, he pledged a sum of money to build a church on a nearby island.  It ended up not being built where he wanted it and it cost rather more than he pledged, but he still gets the credit for financing St Blaise's church.  4a  St Blaise is the patron saint of Dubrovnik,  of throats and choking, and veterinarians too.  Just thought you'd like to know.
5 Croatia has joined the EEC but its currency is still the Kuna.  There are approximately 7 Kuna to the Euro and about 5 to the AUD.  Some shops will take Euros but we still needed to acquire some local currency for small purchases such as postcards and icecreams - you know, the important things.

My favourite part of our day was sitting outside the city walls eating an ice cream while watching the coming and goings at the Marina.  Two other cruise ships were at anchor in the harbour and looking very picturesque.
The best photos of the day were certainly taken from up on the walls.  The views from the Minceta Fort (which looks like a Rook in a chess set ) were breathtaking.  The steps up to the tower were breathtaking the other way.

We were caught in a sunshower while we waited for our transport back to the ship, but it finished quickly and we were able to have a light lunch out on deck in glorious sunshine.  We took it easy in the afternoon because we have another city walk scheduled for our next port  just up the coast in Korcula.

The gate to the town built by the Austrians

View towards the top of the town

Our guide, Andrea

Venetian style architectural feature in Korcula

One of the many shops lining the walls

Venetian style bridge over the street

Ruins of the 'Polo' house

Korcula

We arrived in Korcula (pronounced Kortula) in the late afternoon.  The sun was still high enough for us to enjoy a guided walk around this pocket handkerchief sized walled town.   Our guide,  one of the 300 people who live within the walled town, had a very dry sense of humour and gave us many laugh out loud moments during her tour.

Did you know?
Croatians say 'Everyone has been here,' referring to the number of national influences in their country:  from Illyrian to Roman,  Venetian to Hungarian, and Austrian to French and even British.  Now they are independent - at last.

Korcula's fishbone-like layout, off-set doors and windows and varying roof heights protects the town from winter winds and capitalises on summer breezes.  The town has no natural water source and relied on rain catchment in cisterns below each house until very recently, when water was finally piped in from Bosnia.
It used to have 12 towers in its walls but only 8 survive today.  The Austrians rebuilt part of the walls to allow freer access to the town during their time here and now there is a magnificent sweeping staircase leading up to the highpoint in the centre of  the island.
Korcula was under the control of the Venetians for 400 years and their public buildings and art in the churches reflect this.  There are Venetian like bridges connecting houses across streets and two Tintoretto paintings in the cathedral.
There are three ancient brotherhoods (guilds) in the town, representing stone masonry, sailors and commerce.  Members are assigned to the brotherhood according to their forebears' trade.  Each year there is an hour long religious procession around the island with all the members of the brotherhood wearing special vestments and  carrying massive lit candles.  The largest weighs over 80 kilos.  It is a great honour to be selected to carry that one.

However, Korcula's main claim to fame is being the supposed birthplace of Marco Polo.  Another claim is that Ian Fleming apparently based his James Bond character on a RAF pilot whose wartime actions saved the town from obliteration.  The hero was later permitted to buy a house there against usual Yugoslavian law, and his family still have connections with the town.


We stayed in the town until after dark with some friends and enjoyed the local coffee (much better than what is available onboard, unfortunately), then braved choppy waters in the ship's tender when it took us back to the ship.  Being in choppy seas in a tender in the dark is quite an experience, let me tell you.