Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik is a walled city on the Adriatic in Croatia. It is a major tourist destination and with good reason. It is really gorgeous.

The first thing we did in Dubrovnik was walk along the city walls, along with all the other million tourists. It gave us a nice overview, and we saw where people were jumping off some cliffs. Which was the second thing we did in Dubrovnik. And maybe the highlight of the whole trip for the boys. They were really high! And everyone else jumping off was, like, 25 years old. Isaac is eight and very brave.

I was pretty proud of my brave boys. Did I jump? Ummm, have you met me? No. Here are some more views from the walls:

This is how Ben spent most of our trip - on Nephi's shoulders.

The city itself is very lovely to wander through.

We discovered Cockta here, a Yugoslavian classic soda. It was really quite tasty!

One afternoon we spent swimming at this beach, just outside of the city walls.

One morning we took a boat to the nearby island Lokrum where the boys played tag in a hedge maze at an old monastery.

There was a small lake in the middle of the island where we swam for awhile. Joseph made a bunch of his signature cairns.

The island was full of wild, roaming peacocks, who are very loud birds. Joseph was not afraid to get right up in their face for a good photo.

We went to considerable trouble to get this photo of our family with Dubrovnik in the background here.

On our final day we hiked up the large hillside, Mount Srd, above the city to the old Napoleonic Fort Imperial at the top. There is an expensive cable car that you can take up there, but if you visit, my advice is don't take it. The free hike up is a steep 30 or 45 minute climb along a well marked path with really interesting stations of the cross relief sculptures along the way. We really enjoyed it. At the top is a museum about the siege of Dubrovnik, part of the same conflict that ensnared Sarajevo. The Serbs spent two months bombing the city, for no real reason other than to be big jerks (or so the museum said). The city is a cultural treasure and was of no strategic importance, and they did an enormous amount of damage. All the bright red roofs are ones that had to be replaced from the bombing, which was a good chunk of the city. The Croats held Fort Srd, however. There are great views from up there and we really enjoyed the morning.

That afternoon we packed, and on the last evening of our trip we enjoyed the beautiful city in the evening light and got some gelato.

The view at sunset from our bedroom window in the apartment we rented.

Dubrovnik was a beautiful end to our trip. It was heavily touristed but it didn't matter. The air and sea breezes felt good here, the city and sea were gorgeous, the apartment we rented was beautiful. I thought by this time of our trip I would feel worn out and bored, but I felt rested and re-energized by our few days here. We loved you, Dubrovnik.