23rd June Dragons in Dubrovnik

There is just one word to describe the old town of Dubrovnik from high up on its fortified walls and that is stunning. Whether it was a combination of the early morning sun (28 degrees at 8am) or the light headedness climbing up some of the steep sections but I just hadn’t expected it to look so beautiful. It was up there with the cliff side views of Oia on Santorini.

With the various shades of terracotta tiled rooftops, soaring towers and huge domes looking quite magnificent. No wonder the whole area has been designated a UNESCO world heritage site and the producers of Game of Thrones used it as its fictional King’s Landing, thus attracting a whole new group of tourists.

And of course being off the ship and onto the short shuttle bus ride by 8.10am we got there before the crowds. TOM has been here before and so knew the best place to start on our circumnavigation of the 2.5km long walls that rose and fell in equal measure before our eyes, almost like the crests of a sleeping dragon.

Following along the elevated walkway we could spot the trail of other early birds winding their way on different sections across the terracotta skyline. Despite the early start it was still necessary to dive into any area of shade we could find to escape the heat that seemed to bounce back from stone floor. Again TOM did remarkably well given the amount of steps and steep downhill sections.

Thankfully the latter section of our chosen route, it was one way although some people didn’t appear to be able to read, ran alongside the sea which offered a cooling breeze. Understandably TOM had had enough and so just a little short of completing the whole route we descended from on high to discover that King’s Landing has been stormed by the Barbarian hordes.

TOM made his way back to the ship, whilst I wandered round for another 40 mins or so, searching out the famous Cersy Lannister staircase (for GOT fans), the harbour and just meandered my way along the back streets and alleys. But by midday I too had reaching my critical melting point and retreated back to the shade of the ship myself.

The afternoon disappeared, as have most afternoons in the ‘Land of Nod’, rising in time for a lovely sail away from Dubrovnik just after 5.30pm.

Then it was a trip back in time, not because we had to change our watches to adjust to a different time zone, but because the Playhouse theatre was transported back to the 1970’s for an evening of sing-a-long nostalgia. Well that’s if I am not being told to ‘stop singing so loudly’ by TOM. It was great fun as one after another guaranteed floor fillers filled the air.

We retired to bed exhausted unsure whether to blame in on the walls of Dubrovnik, the sunshine but certainly not the boogie!!!