Dubrovnik was another port where we had to take a bus from the port to the city. And it was another port where we didn't have any tours planned and would just be checking out the city on our own. The main thing to do in Dubrovnik is to walk along the city walls. There are a few gates to the walls throughout the city, so we followed Tracy to the one that was supposed to be a little less crowded and had a majority of the climbing at the beginning. We entered the city and headed down the main drag to the gate we were looking for. Inside the city walls, it's only pedestrian streets and they were loaded with pedestrians even fairly early in the morning when we got there.
We made a bee-line to the gate and climbed up onto the wall. We were immediately rewarded with spectacular views of the sea and the city.
Before we left on our trip, we learned a little bit about the places we would be visiting. One of the interesting things we learned about Dubrovnik was that it was heavily bombed during the Yugoslavian war in the 1990s. Much of the city was destroyed. But, after the war, they rebuilt the city using the same materials and in the same style. You can tell which roofs are old and which are new by their color, as in the photograph below. It was very interesting to walk along and see just how many of the roofs had been rebuilt.
We immediately began climbing more as we walked along (we did indeed pick the right gate - most of the climbing was right at the beginning) and were glad we were walking that section of the wall in the morning. As we walked along and climbed higher, the views got more spectacular.
Stella wanted to be carried and pretty much only by me, so I got to do the walk carrying an extra 25 lbs of weight. She got fussier and fussier as the day wore on.
The walk probably took us two to three hours. By the time we finished, I was pretty tired. If Stella hadn't been having such a rough day, I think it would've been a lot easier. But, we still had a good time and Dubrovnik really is a beautiful city.
Sometime near the end of the walk, Stella fell asleep for a little while. We carried her along and then she woke up when we finished. We could tell the poor little girl was exhausted. We decided we better get some lunch, so our group split and we found a little restaurant where we had lunch with my parents and Julie & Terrell. We sat down for lunch and Stella immediately fell asleep on Mr. Frisby's lap.
While we waited for our food, I snapped a picture of this cool backstreet just up from where we were sitting.
As we finished lunch, Stella woke up and we realized she was running a fever. No wonder the poor girl was having such a rough day - she felt terrible! After lunch we wanted to drive up the mountain behind Dubrovnik to get a bird's eye view of the city. We found some taxis and away we went. The views were spectacular and we even had to take a little detour since part of the road up the mountain was being used as a movie set.
After our jaunt up the mountain, we headed back to the city where we did some shopping. We looked around for awhile and bought a few things and little Stella was such a trooper. After awhile, though, enough was enough and she had had it. We headed back to the ship so she could sleep.
After her nap, she seemed a little better but was still running a fever. We went to the dining room for dinner and after we got seated and ordered our food, I had Mr. Frisby go to the infirmary to buy some Tylenol for her. He came back and we proceeded to give her a dose. In the midst of taking it, the poor little thing threw up all over. We immediately headed back up to our room to take care of her. Our awesome waiter had our dinner sent up for us so we had our dinner and then got Stella in bed. She seemed to feel immediately better after she threw up and by the next morning, she seemed like nothing had ever happened. This was great news. It's worrisome enough when your kid is sick, but when they're sick and you're thousands of miles away from their doctor and accessible health care, it's way worse. So, I was quite worried that night and quite relieved when she was as good as new the next day.
In spite of Stella not feeling well, Dubrovnik was great and we enjoyed our day there. Whew - are we tired yet? We're only halfway done!
3 comments:
Those pictures are beautiful and breath taking. I'll bet they don't do the actual place justice. What a bummer to have that scare with Stella getting sick. It was great to keep reading and find out that she was right as rain the next day (or after barfing!). All these posts about your cruise vacation makes me really, REALLY want to do it too!
Thanks for your posts. They are helping me keep things straight.
Since we split up for lunch, I thought you should know that John and I, with Gaylene were seated at a little restaurant for lunch. When Gaylene started feeling dripping water on her head, we looked up to see...the most magnificent laundry hanging out to dry! Must've just been washed. I got a great shot of it too. We also relocated for lunch.
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