Our climbing days in Dubrovnik

13.09.2011 - 16.09.2011 30 °C

Our apartment was up 390 stairs from Dubrovnik's Old Town...not the "best choice" (Angus' words) but it was quiet and the owner Stjepo was very helpful in printing off our proxy voting papers to allow us to vote in the upcoming Yukon election.

Democracy in action!

On our first day in the city we descended looking for somewhere to swim. Beside the wall, just to the right of the fort, there is a secluded bay with some great spots for jumping and only a few other swimmers. When I swam out beyond the bay and turned around, the view of the high walls surrounding Dubrovnik was fantastic. The next morning we came down to walk right around the walls. We had hoped to get an early start to beat the heat but we aren't very good at that so we were making our way around at about 11:00 am and it was hot, hot. There was no shade so Max and Angus kept retreating into the shaded sentry towers which appear on each side of the wall. If I had had a padlock with me, I may have locked them in to stop the complaining! The views were amazing from each side and it was very easy to look down and imagine people living and working inside the walls in Renaissance times. Now there are many tourist apartments and restaurants but we did pass a school where the students were chatting and working just steps away from where we were walking.

That evening we went to a concert in the atrium of the Rector's Palace. There was a guest conductor from Indonesia, Noorman Widjaja, and he was so energetic, it was hard to take your eyes off of him. The Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra was wonderful and being inside the palace but with the ceiling open above us was awesome. The programme was Mozart and Dvorak...with a Wagner encore. Angus especially enjoyed the clarinet soloist.

On the subject of music...a big thank you to Sylvie Hamel for suggesting that we bring speakers to play our iPod. The Colby was the last thing that we bought before leaving Vancouver and we have loved arriving at each stop and putting on some familiar music. We hooked it up to the iPad and watched Philadelphia (part of the kids' education of movies from the 90s) and last night, we listened to This American Life before going to bed. A family that listens to TAL together....

Outside the gates of the Old Town