Day 48 (Friday) Dubrovnik

Big driving day today - but it all workrd out really well. Andreja packed us a fantastic breakfast hamper (muesli, yoghurt, milk, ham,cheese and tomato rolls, fruitjuice etc) and took us around to the car park at 6.00 this morning - thought we were crazy as the weather forecast wasn't good and the road was quite wet. However, we set out with cloudy sky but no rain and headed for Dubrovnik - only 200km away but a windy coastal road.

Stopped after about an hour for the most spectacular breakfast spot we've ever experienced - looking south along the huge coastal cliffs with the sun coming up over the mountains and reflecting on the clouds - magnificent.

Got to Dubrovnik about 10.30, parked the car in the car-park and joined the crowds - which were not too bad actually. Took the "audiotour" option and set off for the magnificnet walk around the walls (about 2 km) which takes about 3 hours. It is an incredible place - established in circa 1271 and the original town/city planning rules have applied all that time. The 14th century sewerage system still operates. Massive walls have protected the city from most invasions but Napoleon occupied it in 1803 and of course the Bosnian/Serb army attacked it in 1991-2, even though it was already declared a world heritage site. 70% of the buildings inside the walls were damaged with many ancient treasures in the public museums, palaces etc destroyed. UNESCO has been rebuilding it ever since - including 480 000 new roof tiles.

Interesting going down to Dubrovnik- for about 2-3 km you enter Bosnia so there is a passport check as you enter Bosnia (very gruff) and another a you re-enter Croatia - same on the way back! Also had a little fun with the Dubrovnik car-park. Arrived back to leave and found there is only auto machines to pay the parking fee. OK. problem was that it will accept only 10, 20 or 50 Kuna notes. That may not sound too bad but 1 Kuna is worth about 20c and our parking bill was 60 kuna - only had 100 or 200 kuna notes. Within about 10 seconds there was a whole crowd of us around the machine, all with the same problem. ATM nearby would issue anything less than 100 kuna notes so we were sort of stuck. Had to find a shop, buy an icecream and hand the poor lady 200kuna to get the change. Crazy,

Now don't worry if there is no blog for a couple of days - tomorrow we head for the Plitvik Lakes and my current info is that there is no reception there - we are there for two nights so our next message might be from Milan!!  Cheers all

Trivia: You can see the old French fort on the hills just to the South of the city from where the Bosnia/ Serb army launched their rocket and mortar fire onto Dubrovnik in 91/2. 150 inhabitants of the city were killed but most of the population actually hid in the large towers which are part of the wall structure.

Pictures:
*School sign, Croatian style - Is that a teacher chasing a child????
*Our fabulous breakfast spot
*Us and Dubrovnik - it really is a beautiful place