Day 3: Dubrovnik fort

We were NOT as exhausted and consequently did NOT sleep as well. Jetlag is always worse the second night. We did manage to wake up earlier, so we were down having breakfast around 8. The weird part was seeing some of the same people at breakfast as we had the day before at 10. Mayb they are trying to get un jetlagged too. :-)

We set off for the fort whose originas are in the 11th c as protection against the Venetians. It supposedly opened at 9, but at 9:30 it was all locked up. That's quite a climb to turn around and climb back down, but there are great views from up there.

View looking west from a delightfully placed bench just below the last push up to the door of the fort.

View from the base of the fort looking east to the old city where we walked on the walls yesterday. 

Having failed to get into the fort, we wound our way through narrow streets back to the main road. We followed it west along the coast looking for a park that turned out to be farther than expected so we turned back, but got some great views of the sea along the way. The other side of the narrow, but very busy road is lined with 18th and 19th c mansions. Some of them are crying out for TLC. Too bad I don't have the money, or the know-how, or the money, or the language skills. Did I mention the money?

When we got back the sun had actually come out. Sort of. Steve decided to have coffee rather than climb back up, but you know me.

Completely empty inside, but still pretty cool.

And then there was the panoramic view from the top.

We rested a bit in the early afternoon. By the time we were stirring, it was raining. Streets nearly empty. Also pretty slippery. We did the Ethnographic Museum, the Maritime Museum, Marin Drzic's house, and the Cathedral of St. Basil. The Cathedral was pretty dark, but lots of gold up front. The stained glass windows are very modern art. Obviously replacements since the Homeland War. The receptionist at the hotel had told us about how after the war, they went around to local villages offering to replace people's rooves if they would give them their old tiles, so this is the only building in the old city with old roof tiles. Marin Drzic was a 16th c playwright whom the locals compare to Shakespeare, Moliere, etc. It was more an contemporary art museum with a lot of portraits, but we weren't sure what we were looking at. The Mritime Museum included a lot of paintings of ships at sea. Many of them showed storms and had the Madonna and Child watching from the corner like a blessing. Boats looked REALLY frail for open sea. My sympathies with St. Paul and others who were shipwrecked.

Wandering home in the rain, we ran across this bookstore, with an exhibition of photos of the destruction of the same house during the Serbian bombardment.

After dinner in our hotel where I had the local dish of cuddlefish risotto and Steve had a steak, we went for a walk. We wandered in a new direction and ended up by the music school. There were a lot of people standing around. Are they waiting for a concert? Steve wondered. Sure enough, there was a recital in the upstairs hall of an old fortress. A bunch of kids from the music school, accompanied by the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra. A couple might have been university, but most looked like high schoolers. One didn't look more than junior high. They weren't flawless, but they weren't bad. Some were quite good. Can you imagine the experience as a teenager? The girls wore cocktail dresses; the boys concert black. The conductor said a few words to each as they came up, no doubt to put them at ease. After they played, they shook the hand of the conductor, shook the hand of the concert master, bowed, and walked back up the center aisle to our applause. Several were called back for a second bow. At the end there were roses for all. Delightful way to spend the evening.