Incredible Walls & Pigeon Swarm

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Dubrovnik, Croatia
19 degrees Celsius, cloudy, rained late in the afternoon
October 19, 2004

From our stateroom verandah Dubrovnik looked beautiful. Mountains surround the port and are covered with red roofed stone houses. Up the mountain a new suspension bridge crosses a gorge.

Our plan is to visit the ancient walled city of Dubrovnik, established in the 7th Century AD, and declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Although, we are told, there have been people living on the Dalmation coast of the Adriatic Sea since Neolithic times, which is a long time ago, I guess.

Dubrovnik has a mild climate year round because the mountains protect it from the bitter winter cold of the mainland and the sea warms it.

The walls of Dubrovnik were stated in the 12th century and construction continued for 500 years. They were built so well, you can still walk the entire circumference today. The walls are 6,350 feet long, 80 feet high and some of the ramparts are 20 feet thick.

The streets of the ancient city are limestone and the main street is very wide and has swales cut into the limestone along the edge of both sides. (See photo)

To thank the people of Dubrovnik for providing sanctuary from a storm in 1192, during the crusades, King Richard, the Lion heart, provided an endowment to build a church. It was later destroyed in an earthquake but rebuilt by the residents. The Cathedral is beautiful, as is the gothic rectors palace.

When we visited the market square where farmers were selling their produce we stopped for a mushroom pizza lunch and a pop. The people were friendly and the crispy, thin-crusted pizza had a simple tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and canned mushrooms. We were surprised the mushrooms were canned but the pizza tasted fine.

When I got up to leave, pigeons in the square swarmed me when they all tried to fly at once. It was both scary and beautiful at the same time. After I took a couple of photos I tripped over an umbrella stand trying to get out of their way. Yeah, yeah, I’m all right.

Jan walked up the 106 steps to the street above the main street, twice, as part of her shopping. She was still only two-thirds of the way to the top of the wall.

We enjoyed our visit to Dubrovnik, but decided to leave because the clouds were threatening and it looked like a real downpour was fast approaching. Later, at dinner our table companions told us how they got drenched.