Day 16 – May 1 Sunday

A long sleep-in as it’s a late 9am start on May Day, a public holiday here.  It’s raining in Dubrovnik so it’s on with the raincoats & out with the brollies for our walk around the old walled city.  Our local guide today, Rosa, is a remarkable likeness to our good friend Magdalene, she could pass easily as a twin sister.  The old city of Dubrovnik is extraordinary, a massive thick wall surrounds the old city & looks impressive.   Nearby on another headland is a smaller fortress that held a garrison of 400 men.  We entered the old city through the main gate, over the drawbridge & through the double wall.  On the seaward side the walls are 12m thick (metre not feet).  The paving & building blocks are again all limestone, with the old city full of medieval, Venetian & later buildings.  There is evidence of buildings on the site from around 700 AD.  We walked the full length of the main street & out the sea gate to view the port, all the time listening to the interesting commentary from Rosa.  There is a very interesting clock on the large bell tower, it also shows phases of the moon using a sphere embedded in the tower.

After Rosa finished her tour we headed to the walls & walked the 2km length of the wall around the city, up & down all 650 wet & slippery limestone steps.  The view over the rooftops of the old & new city is excellent & you get a great perspective of the layout.  Amongst all the buildings there is a few ruined buildings & some gardens that you really only see from above, from street level it is all hidden.  It took us about an hour plus to walk the walls, taking photos in the rain, at least it wasn’t hot.  Back to the bus for a 1pm trip to the hotel.

A change into dry clothes & we caught up on some email, our blog & had a nice long chat on Skype to James. Unfortunately we missed out on catching up with Monica & family, the 8 hour difference in time & our busy schedule makes it hard. We were so looking forward to the sunset dinner cruise but unfortunately it was cancelled due to the rain.  We went on a nice long walk along the waterfront then along the promenade towards town, it was a lovely walk & on the way back we stopped at a seaside seafood restaurant for lunch/dinner overlooking the bay.  We were joined at our table by Danica, one from our tour group who was born in Dubrovnik & we had a lovely chat about her life, her time at the convent school in Dubrovnik & how things had changed so much over the years.   We had a very good day despite the weather. Back to the hotel, a long hot bath & bed.