Tuesday April 12: Dubrovnik, Croatia
Bob: Since we had already visited Dubrovnik once during Wanderung 19, we again had the luxury of taking a very relaxed walkabout. One critical difference to our previous visit was that we were tendered directly onto the town wharf from the Atlantica by the ship's tenders, rather than having to dock at the more modern cruise-ship port further along the coast and then have a half an hour bus ride to get to the city gates. |
Monika: Last day of the cruise gave us another nice port, Dubrovnik, Croatia. When we were last there during Wanderung 19 in 2009, we had docked up the coast a ways and were driven to the old city by bus. This time we anchored off the harbor of the old town and were tendered directly to the pier that led into the city. Of course, we kept watching and taking pictures while we were sailing to our anchor spot. |
Bob: City gates is, in this instance, a literal description of the approach to the old town center of Dubrovnik, because the old section still has an intact city wall complete with fortified gates. In fact, you can take a walk along the entire length of that wall somewhat similar to the city wall around Rothenberg, Germany (see Wanderung 15). We, however, preferred wandering the maze of small alleyways that branched off the one main thoroughfare from the main city gate down to the wharf at the town harbor. Our previous visit had been a Sunday, as Monika recalled, and there had been far fewer shops open. Having more shops open suited us just fine because on this visit we really wanted to wander at a slow pace and window shop. Monika found two more ceramic spoon rests, so now we should have plenty, and a "Dubrovnik" thimble. I also found a uniquely-shaped ceramic mug with a harbor scene from Dubrovnik on it. I wasn't sure if it was smart to purchase all these ceramic goods when we still had quite a bit of traveling ahead of us, but we are both suckers when we find unique things that we would really like to have. |
Monika: After breakfast we picked our tender number. But again, there were at least 5 tenders, before ours would be called. Since the announcements could be easily heard on our balcony, we sat out there enjoyed the view, reading while waiting for our tender number to be called--another advantage of a room with balcony! Once in town we started to wander through the streets and look into the churches. Our last visit was on a Sunday and only a few stores were open. So we really had not noticed, just how many stores there were on the main street. We kept walking and looking into stores and taking pictures of this pretty old town. |
Bob: Back near the main city gate we visited what appeared to be Dubrovnik's main church. This church allowed non-flash photography, so I was able to document our visit, but I was just astonished by the number of visitors who completely ignored that restriction and were flashing away. That's just rude and inconsiderate of the local folks who are using that church for worship! It also probably leads the church fathers to ultimately ban all photography as was true for the church down by the city wharf. It was just as well I couldn't take pictures in that one as it had the embalmed, dead body of somebody in a glass sided coffin. Ugh! So I just up and left even though the church itself was quite pretty. |
Monika: Dubrovnik has two main churches. One near the harbor and the other near the upper city gate. Both were fascinating. The one near the harbor did not allow any photography, but the one by the city gate only prohibited flash photography which unfortunately was being ignored by some tourist. But Bob did manage to get some nice, non-flash pictures |
Bob: Taking some time out for a "gelato" or ice cream cone, we wandered outside the city walls and then around to the site of an old artillery battery on one edge of the harbor. We had seen an old cannon sitting in a corner of the stone platform on our previous visit in 2009 (Wanderung 19), and sure enough, it was still there, and still pointed out in the harbor to where the cruise ships anchored. This time, of course, it was pointed straight at the Costa Atlantica! |
Monika: We finally worked our way over to the city entrance gate at the top of the hill, where we had entered the city last time, and took some pictures of the outside of the wall. Of course, there were many people who had payed the 7 Euro to walk along the walls of the city. |
Bob: Circling around the harbor, we took some pictures of our ship at anchor and noticed that they had stationed a couple of the lifeboats between the harbor and the ship. Presumably those lifeboats were acting as guard boats since they certainly were not involved in the shuttling of passengers from ship to shore. Indulging a one last flurry of shopping, we bought some patches with "Dubrovnik" on them for Annalise to sew on her Girl Scout sash and then took the next tender back to the ship for a late lunch. |
Monika: But we decided, we enjoyed walking in the city more. We even found the little park, where we had eaten lunch the last time we were here. We walked back to the entrance of the harbor watching some fisherman check their nets. After some more shopping, it was unfortunately time to take one of the last tenders back to the ship. |
Bob: I spent the next hour or two packing, which was complicated by the need to find room for all the arts and crafts projects we had made on the Atlantica during our journey. The plastic ornaments we had decorated were not heavy but they were bulky and ended up taking up the lowest 3 inch layer of my suitcase. The remaining plates, pitchers, and pill boxes we had made on board ship as well as the mugs and spoon rests we had purchased were all ceramic, and I had to try to carefully intersperse them with the less-breakable plastic things or cushion them with clothes. Since we had been right at 37-38 pounds at the start of our journey, I also wondered whether the extra weight of the ceramics would put us over the 20 kilogram limit for European flights. When we weighed in at the airport the next day, our luggage weighed a total of 37-38 kilograms so we were in fact close to the limit. When it was Monika's turn to pack, I started to catch up on writing the journal, and I ultimately took that activity out onto our balcony. The Altantica was steaming along at a very relaxed pace and the sun was warming our balcony, so sitting out on it and watching the coastal islands slide by was a very pleasant way to spend the rest of the afternoon. I was engaged in my writing, but suddenly I heard a "Bob! Bob!" in what sounded like Monika's voice coming from somewhere out to sea. At first I thought it was an auditory hallucination or something, kind of like having God take time out from his busy schedule to talk directly to you, but when the voice said "Look down here!" I glanced down between the lifeboats and what did I behold but my spouse! She apparently had gone out of the cabin and forgotten to take her key card, but when she knocked to get back in I was out on the balcony with the door shut and the Ionian Sea swishing by, so I couldn't hear it! |
Monika: But this time we had to be back on the ship by lunch time, since we sailed at 1:00 PM. So we took one of the last tenders and went up to the buffet to have lunch while watching Dubrovnik and the coast of Croatia slowly glide past us. After that was the sad task of packing. Bob started out and packed most of the breakable stuff in the bottom of his suitcase. So when it was time for show and tell of our arts and crafts, we had only a few items left. However, we could not find anyone --- it turned out that I had not read the times carefully enough, it was now 3:15 and show and tell did not start until 3:30. When I came back around 4:30, Jimena, Sandy, and Debbie were there and wanted to know where we were. Well by this time, Bob was packed and was taking a nap and I had also packed the rest of our arts and crafts. But I did say "Good-Bye" to Jimena. |
Bob: By the time Monika had also completed her packing, it was time for our last dinner with our table mates. We related tales about our respective experiences in Dubrovnik and our travel plans after the cruise. We also joined together one last time for the final night's evening show, which was kind of a variety show format where each of the headliner performers did one brief act, be it singing, dancing, or, in the case of the person I called "tiger lady", acrobatic cum contortionist routines. Back in our cabin we double-checked we had everything packed in the correct places and put our bags out for a nighttime collection by ship's porters. During the night, however, the ship encountered a brief but rather powerful storm and was listing rather noticeably when I got up to go to the bathroom. It wasn't enough to roll me out of bed, however, and that's probably the only thing that would have kept me awake after the long day in Dubrovnik. But the next day Monika overheard passengers saying that water had come into some of the cabins on the lower decks. Now that would absolutely disturb me, but it certainly did not happen up in cabin 5187 and so we had a good, if somewhat short, night's sleep. |
Monika: During our last dinner with the gang we decided to meet again for the evening crew show to cheer on Jimena. The show had short performances by most of the artists and even the dancers and then a "Good-Bye" in all languages by the cruise director's staff - or as they are called on the Costa ships: the "Animators". After that was a tearful good bye from our tablemates with promises to stay in contact via E-mail and facebook. |
| Index |
| Prolog | Map of Transatlantic Cruise | Map of Drive in Ireland | Epilog |
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