Today we explored Dubrovnik in detail. The old town within the walls is quite small so we attempted to avoid any crowds by going early. This was not to happen, we realized, as soon as we awoke. As we looked out our windows down to the water and the town below we noticed something different today.

Two gigantimongous cruise ships were parked in the water outside the harbor and were disgorging passengers at an alarming rate with seven shuttle boats running continuously. Since each of these ships holds the inhabitants of a small city we were about to be out touristed by the tourists. Yep, when we got to the town it was packed like a sardine can since the walled part of Dubrovnik is so tiny. To add to this insanity Saturday is market day in Dubrovnik. Since there is no reason for a tourist to go outside the walls, EVERYONE was within the walls of the old town.

We walked through the entire old town and at lunchtime bought two sandwiches, two Coke Lights and a small bag of chips to go. We realized that the view from our terrace beats any restaurant so why not eat at the apartment. We ate on our terrace and had a fantastic lunch.

We played hooky from tourist-ing in the afternoon. At 5:00 pm we could see that the shuttles to the cruise ships stopped. The Huge ships departed past the old city one at a time and off toward the north to Venice, most likely. By traveling at night they will miss the true beauty of the Dalmatian Coast: the islands, the sheer escarpment of the mountains rising straight up into the sky and, I might add, the winding coast road! The ships left by 6:00 pm and were only a memory beyond the horizon by 6:45 when we left to go back down to the town.

The old town was almost deserted by contrast when we arrived. We walked through town looking at each restaurant menu until I believe we had seen every one and decided on the first restaurant we had seen (of course). The meal was quite good under an umbrella outside complete with “entertainment”. This entertainment was in the form of a chamber group and choir giving a concert on the main walking street in front of us on the steps of the church. Eating al fresco in Dubrovnik at a delightful restaurant and listening to the music amid century’s old (but restored) buildings, palm trees and cobbled streets made me realize that the advertising slogan for Croatia was not mere huckstering but true: “The Mediterranean as it once was”.

With a gelato for desert on the street we came home and felt another fine day had been put to bed.

Lesson for Day 40: This jewel of the Adriatic on the Dalmatian Coast is worth the visit. [This is an example of the literary technique called understatement]