Dubrovnik

We are in Dubrovnik and it's very pretty. If you had a good imagination you could just see the characters out of Game of Thrones tearing around the old city up and down the beautiful tiny streets images of Cersei Lannister starting her walk of shame down the Jesuit steps... but you'd have to think hard because actually in reality -

it's crazy busy, it's crowded, the town welcomes around about 5,000 people per day from cruise ships, which makes it incredibly touristy and does rather take the edge off the beautiful buildings and the stone walls surrounding the Old Town.

Way of course a part of the problem as we are picking up a cruise ship that Dr Fred is working on from here on Friday.  I can't imagine how they manage to empty the town to film Game of Thrones but rumor has a lot of money exchanged hands paying off kayak hire people so they could use the kayak landing space for King's Landing.

But the weather is amazing and it is nice to wander we were going to do the old Walls the cost of 80 euros for both of us for a walk that takes approximately an hour and a half and that's if you walk slow... we decided it probably wasn't worth it and we'd rather spend it on a nice meal and beer. I am surprised how expensive Dubrovnik is I don't know why I had it pegged in with those eastern European affordable towns but in fact it's in line with places like Iceland and Norway...

We've rented a room which is absolutely miniscule but it serves the purpose. It's clean, has a comfy if ( creaky) bed and a wonderful balcony with the most amazing sea view across the islands and the Old Town. The view more than makes up for the shortcomings of the room. I would liked to have been forewarned it was on the third floor requiring to climb 50 steps.... after you've climbed the 200 Steps from the town🤣🤣 we will be fit....

We walked around the old town and as they afternoon wore on it got emptier but we had been up at 4.00am for a flight so we were tired and we went back to the room for some food and then down to the local bar - okay but not particularly friendly - and then back to the room for an early night.  

In the morning we had a slow start and set off back through the Old Town which was absolutely mad with tours. It was almost impossible to walk down the main street without getting caught up in a tour and actually took any pleasure out of the place altogether.

We quickly walked through to the Pile Gate heading into the (new) town looking for this quiet beach we've been told about down the other side of the fortress. It's so up and down - so many steps but eventually we found the 'Dance Beach'. There's no sand just a lot of really lovely limestone rock which of course Dr Fred is absolutely thrilled about. He went off exploring the rock and I sat in the glorious sumshine away from crowds enjoying the birdsong and the incredibly calm sea.

I could further bore you with beers and bars but I'll just add photos in.