Dubrovnik: Lokrum

Saturday morning we got up early (at 5am!) to see the sunrise.  Unfortunately, even though the guy working the front desk at the hotel said that we could see the sunrise from our balcony if we looked left at 5, he was wrong.  We never would have been able to see the sun, and even though dawn was at 5, the sun didn't even rise until almost 6!  But the sky was still pretty anyway.

After a quick early morning nap, we ate a good breakfast and walked down through the old city to the port.  We hopped on a boat to the island of Lokrum, a green island with lots of trees and paths, no cars, a monastery and a fortress.

This boat ride was much quicker than the ride to Cavtat, and in 15 minutes we were roaming the island.  The first thing we heard was a bunch of squaking- the island was filled with peacocks!

Feeding a peacock

After feeding the peacocks and taking lots of pictures, we stopped at the "Dead Sea," a cute little "lake" in the middle of the island with cool sea water.

Then it was on to the rocky coast for some climbing and awesome views of Dubrovnik.

We walked through the botanical garden and saw the monastery.

Before heading back to the "beach" for lunch, we climbed a giant hill up to the fortress for the best views of Dubrovnik and the Croatian coast.

Looking down the hill

We were exhausted after trekking around the island, and after lunch it was nice to relax on the boat ride back to the city.

Almost back to the city!

At the hotel, the weather was nice and toasty, so I decided to take a swim.  It was FREEZING!! but refreshing... in a really cold kind of way...

We headed back to the city for our last roam around Dubrovnik and found dinner at the Taj Mahal, which unlike the name suggests, was actually a pretty authentic Croatian restaurant.  We had "bureks," a traditional pastry filled with meat, spinach, potatoes or cheese (we got some of each).  Our evening wouldn't have been complete without ice cream and some photos of the seaside at night.

Taj Mahal

The port and coast

It was a great last day in Dubrovnik.

Dubrovnik: A Boat ride to Cavtat

Friday after walking the wall we hopped on a boat for a trip to Cavtat, a coastal town about 15km from Dubrovnik.

The boat ride was a nice change on a hot day with the breeze from the sea.  It took about an hour to get there, but it was worth it.

Cavtat from the boat

Cavtat is a tiny little town with lots of restaurants and souvenir shops.  It's on a peninsula, and from the town, you can walk around the peninsula to see beautiful views of the Agean see from all directions.

The walking path

Cavtat also had a bunch of beautiful rocky beaches to walk on.

 When we got back to Dubrovnik, we walked around a bit before heading back to the hotel for an afternoon nap.  We saw a lot of cats getting ready for an afternoon nap (or snack) as well.

Even though we were tired from a big morning, we decided that on the way back we'd climb up the fortress to see the city from another angle.

The fortress

The city from the top

It was worth the climb, but after a day of walking we certainly needed a break!

After a shower and a nap we were ready to head back down for some evening sight-seeing and an italian dinner at Pizzeria Toni, which was delicious.

Sunset on the way down to the old city 

Awesome building lit up at twilight

Cute street at night

Spagetteria Toni

Dubrovnik: Walking the Wall

Friday morning we got up to beautiful weather and a gorgeous view off our balcony.

We ate a buffet breakfast at the hotel

And tried to get to the wall early, before all the tourist groups.

On the way we saw a dude playing a guitar thing and a foot clappy thing and some parrots.

We walked all along the wall around the city, which is about 1.5 miles (with lots of stairs!).

The entrance square from the start of the wall walk

A view along one edge of the wall

The fortress from the wall

me

another cat

the Croatian coast, Lokrum and a cruise ship through a hole in the wall

a fancy church

The harbor

The city from the top corner of the wall

Dubrovnik: Day 1

I really wanted to post more from Dubrovnik, but the computers in the lobby were SO SLOW, and it was hard to type with the silly Croatian keyboard, so I'll share our vacation now instead.  WITH PICTURES! (as promised).

We arrived in Dubrovnik, which, like I said, was stunningly beautiful.

We checked into our über fancy hotel, which had its own awesome little beach.

looking up at our hotel from the beach

the beach (look how BLUE the water is!!)

 We were advised to take the cable car the day we arrived, as the hotel concierge thought the weather might not be as nice the rest of our trip.  

To get to the cable car, we had to climb these stairs:

and some more stairs, but we finally made it!

looking up at where the cable car goes from the base

From the top, we could see the Agean Sea, the small walled city of Dubrovnik (center) with its red-roofed buildings, and the island of Lokrum.

Once we returned to the bottom, we decided to explore the city a bit and find some dinner.  To get into the city we had to climb down these stairs:

There are a lot of stairs in Dubrovnik... 

As we were walking around exploring and keeping our eyes out for an awesome restaurant, we noticed this adorable cat just hanging out in the middle of a busy square.

As it turns out, there are TONS of cats living inside the city walls of Dubrovnik.  They hang around the restaurants and in the alleys eating left-overs.  They were all very friendly and looked well cared for.  I really liked them, and may have taken quite a few cat pictures... 

We found a restaurant to eat at right on the main street.  We enjoyed people-watching while we ate, and then walked back to the hotel to enjoy the view and call it a night (it had been an early morning and a long day of travel!!)

The beautiful main street (the streets are MARBLE!)