An Historical Marvel

Our first full day in Dubrovnik. We would like to say we were up and at it very early but we did sleep in a bit and had a pretty lazy morning. There was laundry to do (thankfully our little apartment has a washing machine!) and we hung it up on the line between the buildings above the first floor just like the Europeans! We have always took photos of washing hanging out on the sides of old buildings, so now we have one of our own! We then went out to explore the main square and get our bearings of the Old Town. The place was just buzzing with people as the cruise ships were in as well as other tour buses. The main street (or stradum) was absolutely full of people so it made wandering a bit sketchy and hard to take photos of the amazing architecture without people in the way. We decided to wander up above the main square and old harbour for the day and tomorrow we will walk the wall of the Old Town and possibly take in an historical tour. There is also a gondola which takes you up the to the top of the hills and provides a fantastic view of Dubrovnik and the surrounding seaside. So we plan to take that in as well. Our initial impressions of Dubrovnik are that it is of enormous historical significance. The buildings and cathedrals around the main square are simply spectacular. The columns, arches and carvings .... hope our photos do them justice. There is a cultural museum and a museum dedicated to the Defenders of Dubrovnik during the war. We will tour both of these before we leave. Our apartment in Old Town is so cute .... we just love it here. We are so close to everything in Old Town. When we first entered the foyer of the building it did not seem like much. It is pretty run down and a bit grungy but the apartment was a pleasant surprise. So modern in design, clean and spacious. The shower is the bathroom is the "mother of all showers." It has a regular wand and when you turn a knob you either get a beautiful rainfall shower or, turning in the other direction gives you 8 jets shooting out at you. It also has two lights you can turn on, a button to push to listen to music and also has blue tooth for the phone (if you can believe that!). After showering on the boat in a cracker box bathroom with a nozzle from the sink this is pretty impressive! As we were walking about tonight before supper we came upon our Aussie friends, Paul and Jennifer, who were on the bike-boat trip with us! They had just arrived in Dubrovnik after a short trip to Mostar which they found very interesting. We were very pleased to see them again and may see them again tomorrow as we both plan to walk the wall. We had a great salad tonight for supper at a restaurant just around the corner from the apartment. It may be a repeat for tomorrow as we are so stuffed with meat and potatoes from the boat that we really want to eat fresh veggies and fruit for a while. We are trying to upload our photos to Picasa as the Blog uploader does not seem to want to work for us here. It is pretty frustrating but we hope to get something up soon so there will be photos to go along with the daily stories. Patience!