2025-05-23 Sumartin, Dubrovnik
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When we left our hotel in Postira, the receptionist asked where we
were going next. “Dubrovnik,” we said. “Oh, you will love it,” she
said. “And,” she added, “the price for walking on the old city walls
is insane but it’s still worth it.” She was right. It costs 40€ per
person, but it’s the kind of thing you just do once in a lifetime, as
a tourist.

We started in Postira on the island of Brač, right across Split, but
we had decided to take a different ferry and drove all the way to
Sumartin and took the ferry to Makarska, then drove to Dubrovnik. Once
at the hotel at Lapad Bay we put on our jogging shoes and jogged to
the old town, paid the price and walked around the old town. After
that, the sun started sinking and we did a quick tour on foot and
jogged back.

Yet another marina, yet another church.

Usually, the working vessels are in different harbours or out at sea
but here's where we saw some of them up close. All these crates. It
makes me want to eat less seafood.

We didn't want to stay in the car so we went to the upper deck. It was
cold and windy. We ended up staying in the car after about half an
hour.

As we drove along the coast, the landscape changed.

We took a break, had some coffee, croissant and a kind of pistachio
cake.

Finally in Dubrovnik after a long drive, with our running shoes or
sandals, running towards the old town. There are plenty of hotels
built into the rock face, but sometimes you can find angles were it
all looks wild and green.

We paid the outrageous price and climbed those walls.

This is May. This is off-season. This is why it's so empty. But
practically everybody you see is a tourist and practically every shop
you see is a restaurant or a souvenir shop. It's like a stage.

This is the entrance into the city. A mass of fortifications and
rings.

Still the entrance, with a bridge over the former ditch. And people
and cars. Happily, no cars inside the old town.

This cove is protected by another fort, disconnected from the main
walls.

The soldiers used to be smaller, I guess.

Inside the walls, there are still ruins.

Outside the walls, the rock face.

There's a hill behind the old town and a cable car that goes up there.

You can see the wall with people on it on the left, and you can see
that sometimes the ruins meld into patios and terraces and there are
still people living there.

Claudia looking into the evening sun.

Looking back at that little cove protected by that separate fort.

Looking back inside into courtyards and houses interspersed with
crumbling walls.

Somebody built a tunnel through the city wall and now there's a coffee
house on the outside, on the rock face between city walls and the sea.

Claudia is taking pictures of gardens and orchards within the city
walls. There were some cats down there as well and I think at least
half the tourists were meowing from the walls, trying to get some sort
of reaction out of the cats.

Looking across an orchard into an alley.

Sometimes the interesting plants grow on inaccessible roofs. And in
the back is a school, I guess, because there's one of these
multi-functional sport courts visible. Notice how all of this is
invisible from the alleys.

More ruins. And a guy chilling in the back, looking at his phone.

I guess the 40€ per person go towards wall maintenance. There was a
part along the walls where new constructions were happening.

After having circled around half the old town, there's a bigger
harbour, also protected by extra forts.

Looking at the rooftop landscape makes me think of books and games
where thieves run around on these roofs, jumping across alleys.
Never!!

The old moat is a road and sometimes there are parking lots.

The sun began to set. Notice another basketball court in the lower
right corner.

Stairs.

#Croatia #Pictures