…..has absolutely been the highlight thus far and the weather hasn’t even been that hot, thank God. We’ve stayed here for three nights in an apartment in old town where you can escape from all traffic. In fact we had to park our car in an underground parkade which was a fifteen minute walk from where we were staying. Today we hiked straight up to Mt. Srd which took
about an hour and a half, the first twenty minutes of which were straight up steps. From there we took a winding path that had our hearts pounding but in the end it was worth every beat and I took this picture of where we were staying in Old Town……too bad it’s not clearer but I’m not hiking up there again. Dubrovnik, population of around 30,000, has a very interesting history and I know that if you don’t know it already you can google it so I won’t repeat it here. Not only does it stand out because of its sense of awe and beauty, but also because it is here that you hear a fair bit about the war in Croatia, called the homeland war here. Dubrovnik became a UNESCO world heritage site in the late 1970’s and because of this statu many thought it would be protected from bombing during the 1990’s war but this was not to be the case. Shells struck 68% of the 824 buildings leaving holes in two out of every three roofs. Nine historic palaces were completely gutted by fire and many other important buildings were badly damaged. Reconstruction was estimated at $10million US and was done using traditional techniques, hence it’s regained most of its original beauty. Our landlord, Marc, is a very chatty Englishmen who talked a lot about the war and would have talked more if we had offered him a drink. Interesting fellow, actually, and his father was born in Montreal. He’s been in Dubrovnik for over forty years but left in the early nineties with his family and went back to England and returned after the war. His place in which we are staying remained fairly in tact so he and his family returned there. Today the old town of Dubrovnik is jaw dropping the moment you walk inside the walls and very difficult to capture the beauty with an iPad………I do my best, but with google you can find better.