July 20, 2012: Dubrovnic, Croatia

July 20, 2012: Breakfast at the Splendid Hotel was quite nice. We sat in the outdoor seating area overlooking the bay:

view from breakfast eating area

Above us were tall pine trees loaded with pine cones:

After breakfast, we took the bus to the walled city. The bus stop near the hotel was just outside the gate of a quaint stairwell leading up to a house. Croatia seemed to be a bit more classy than Bosnia and the Greece we visited:

 

The bus dropped us off just outside the main gate of the walled city:

We walked inside the outer wall to the main gate, Pile Gate (Gradska Vrata Pile). Above the door was a statue of the patron saint of the city, St. Blaise:

Inside the wall, we saw Onofrio's Big Fountain:

Onofrio's Big Fountain (Velika Onofrijea Fontana)

Across from this was the Church of St. Savior (Crkva Svetog Spasa):

Church of St. Savior (Crkva Svetog Spasa)

And next to that the Franciscan Monastery Museum:

Franciscan Monastery

Franciscan Monastery

Moving on, we walked down the Stradun where there are a lot of tourist shops and a man with huge colorful birds for people to take pictures of:

birds on the Stratun

The alleys off the Stradun were very enticing:

Alley off the Stradun

Alley off the Stradun

At the end of the Stradun was the Sponza Palace built in 1522, the Bell Tower the original one built in 1444, and Orlando's Column (Orlandov Stup) which was built in 1417 from where men would announce newsworthy messages long ago. The more important the news, the higher the spokesman would go up the column. This column was also used as a pillory for punishing people. On top of the top step was a thin line that was used as a standard measurement for people to use in measuring length. This measurement was the length of the elbow of Orlando on the column:

Sponza Palace

Sponza Palace (left) and bell tower (Gradski Zvonik)

Orlando's Column (foreground) St. Blaise Church (background)

Just behind Orlando's Column was St. Blaise Church (Crkva Sv. Vlaha) named after the patron saint of Dubrovnic who became the patron saint due to a dream that a local priest had. He dreamt that St. Blaise told him in the dream that the Venetians would soon attack the city. The priest alerted the authorities who then prepared for war. This prediction came true so that from then on, St. Blaise was the patron saint of the city.

St. Blaise Church

Here are other pictures taken when we roamed through the streets of this quaint town:

Cathedral

view from top of stairs looking down

After roaming the streets, we had dinner on a very quiet secluded street that seemed to have restaurant after restaurant catering toward diners interested in more than pizza. We selected a cafe where I had fish:

dinner in Dubrovnic (fish)

Dubrovnic Old Town was certainly a great day's trip. Tomorrow we would see the city again but from the top of the wall surrounding the city. Until then...