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| Klapa Ostero in the Dominican Monastery |
It was another absolutely amazing day! The alarm went off at 7, breakfast at 7:45. The special today was any kind of egg, but I had the usual. The ship anchored off the old town of Dubrovnik.
We loaded the tenders at 8:30 to head to old town to meet our local guide Vlho. He was a pretty decent guide and was quite humorous. We entered the Ploce gate and stood in the main square. Luckily the tourists from the big cruise ships weren't there yet, so it was a great time to take photos.
I will just list what we saw there since there was so much:
St Sebastian Church (1400s). It is near the gate because St Sebastian is the protector against plague.
St Blaise Church with the statue of St Blaise on top. He is always shown holding a model of the old town.
City cats that we saw roaming.
The shops all around the main square and down the Main Street (the stradun) have entrances that are half doors with half windows on the other half. The door used to be kept shut and merchandise was passed through the window.
The statue of Orlando (also known as Roland in Europe). Legend has it that Orlando saved Dubrovnik from a 15 month long siege.
The small Onofrio fountain (large one at the opposite end of the old town.
Sponsa Palace with its beautiful facade - used to be the custom house.
The bell tower with its bronze figures as clankers.
The Rector's Palace exterior which was beautiful.
Then we walked down the Stradun to the land gate.
The large Onofrio fountain which has 16 spigots with ugly faces for each.
Then we took a tour of the museum at the Franciscan Monastery. The only exciting thing there was the beautiful cloister and some neat arms and legs containing "relics".
Then we had a choice. Most everyone in our group climbed the huge stairs to walk part of the old town walls. I had too much I wanted to see down below. Bill went on the walk.
I went in to St Savior Church, a small, plain church. I went in to the Franciscan Monastery church - a large one with many beautiful altars and a magnificent organ high in the rear.
Because I was there, I went out the Pile (land) gate and took some photos. I wandered back down the Stradun, and a gelato store caught my eye. The gelato is uniquely displayed, and I wanted a photo. Two cute guys said it was fine, so I took their photo, too.
I got back down to St Blaise Church and saw the woman whose luggage had been lost (just heard that it was back on the ship!). We chatted for a bit outside the church and were entertained by a man in a 'summer' Santa suit.
Mass was going on, but tourists were still going in and out of St Blaise. I went in and got to see the 'incorrupt (not decomposed) body of St Silvan) and the gold St Blaise over the altar.
I went on to Dubrovnik Cathedral to see the magnificent pipe organ there, the altar painting by Titian called The Assumption (c.1552), and the beautiful stained glass and side altars.
When I came out, Bill was there. We had about an hour before the 12:30 tender that we wanted to catch, so I talked him into going up the mini-Spanish steps up to the Jesuit Church of St Ignacio. There were only about 50 steps, but the walk was worth it! While we waited for that mass to be out, we went to a little cafe in front of the church to have a beer and a coke.
Going in to St Ignacio was jaw-dropping even though I had seen photos online of the altar. There was also a grotto on the side with fake greenery, a Virgin Mary, and a set of crutches!
As we walked back to the gate and pier, we went to Rozario to make dinner reservations for dinner tonight at 7:30. This will be our only chance to eat onshore, so I had found this one online before we left home.
Lunch was going on when we got back - a buffet on the Lido Deck: lobster cocktail, pork loin with apple, zucchini salad with sesame, avocado with sun-dried tomato, chiled melon soup, whole grilled sea bream, chicken curry, cake with cinnamon crumbles, and homemade walnut ice cream. I tasted much, but not all of it.
From 3-3:30 we got to swim from the boat. The crew had set out a rope thing with swim mattresses attached and handed out floating noodles. The water was chilly at first but felt really good soon. There was a fairly strong current, and the crew had set out rope bounderies to keep us in tow. Bill took photos and then joined me in the water. It was over far too soon.
We cleaned up and got tendered in to old town to the Dominican Monastery for a Klapa performance in the cloisters. The touring closed at 6, so we had the place to ourselves to hear the all male 8 member Klapa Ostero. They sing a Capella, mostly old Croatian songs. It was a half hour of incredible music. I bought one of their CDs after and had chicken skin for quite a while after.
Most of the group went back to the ship for dinner, but we went on to Rozario. First we went cigar hunting for Bill. We looked in a couple of stores and finally I talked to a friendly restaurant guy who gave us a map to a cigar store. We found it on one of the many side streets. Bill was quite happy with the selection and bought a few.
The restaurants themselves are usually quite small, but they set up tables on the walkways and landings by their restaurants. We had 4 appetizers and Bill got a steak. First came mussels - 40 of them in a bowl. Then Bill got his ham and cheese rollups. I got homemade pasta with truffle sauce. Bill got his steak with a sauce containing figs. My last appetizer was a bowl of black risotto with cuttlefish ink and fish. It was all too good, but I had too many appetizers and was quite full.
We got the 9:30 tender back to the ship.
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