Day 12: Beating the crowds

Thanks to Rick Steeve’s advice, I beat the crowds around the top of the walls of the old city this morning.   There’s a pretty easy strategy when visiting Dubrovnik - as any guide book or former visitor will tell you - avoid the cruise ship crowds like the plague.

The walls surrounding the old city look kind of like the pictures of the great wall of China - up and down and changing all the time.   When I told Abby about the wall walk yesterday, she was disappointed to hear that the walk wasn’t “balancing along the top of a narrow wall” the whole way.   That gives whole new meaning to the term “tourist TRAP”.  

Following my guidebook’s advice, I was out my door by 730, leaving behind sleeping beauty 1, 2 and 3.   A ten minute walk down to the Pile gate, I was back in the city that I’m starting to learn like the back of my hand.  Picking up a cheese burek from my regular guy (oh, that’s very cringy Craig!), I headed to the Ploce gate and waited for the 8am opening.

The wall walk must be done counter clockwise (I guess so they can control the crowds). Apparently it used to be free, then a couple of dollars, but because of GoT inflation, it’s now $30!   If you enter the wall by the Pile gate, you do the lesser of the halves first and mingle with many more friends.  

When the gate opened, it was just me and four other people.   Climbing up the 30 or so stairs, I was on top of the wall.  I felt immediate satisfaction and a little breathless (not from the climb, from the view of the inner city!).  This half of the walk was on the land side of the wall.  All of the climbing was from the Ploce gate to the Pile gate, so it was better to get that out of the way in the cool shade of the morning.   

I noticed a couple of full basketball courts below in the old city and saw lots of activity from residents getting ready for their day.   The nicest view was from one of the towers at the higher end of the wall.  I had a great view of the whole old city - all of the orange, clay tile roofs, limestone structures, bell towers and church steeples... it was beautiful.

The second half was a little less interesting, but still nice.   The wall shifted, heading out to the Adriatic, and the views to the city were usually obstructed by the large, seaside buildings inside.  The sun’s position was not good for pics of the city but the view of the sea below was nice.  The walls seemed to rise right out of the sea and at some points looked to be 50 meters high.  There were several, undoubtedly ancient, coffee and ice cream shops at the top of the wall, above Buza I and II. 
  

The crowds were still sparse on top of the wall by the time I was done the 1940 meter walk, but when I got back to the Stradum, I could feel the inevitable humming of tour groups up ahead.   By the time I got to the Pile gate, the P/SqM/m (measured with the standard measurement for “people per square meter pressing through an opening per minute”) coming in through the gate was a healthy 173.8.   The crowds outside the gate were crazy - tons of buses and desperate people with no time and lots on the agenda.   It’s like really good birth control for cruising - Beth and I repeat that we will not be cruise people (with an exception thrown in for the Arctic and Antarctic).

On the way back, I climbed up the big fort overlooking the Pile gate - the ticket was included with the wall walk.   It was empty and breezy which was nice, but otherwise it was unremarkable.

Back to the Oasis for a swim and to wake up the girls.   The babies were up and in the pool, and everyone else was up or out:  Papa and Blair were in Montenegro and Kris and Steve had slipped out to join the wall walkers.   

Our four went back to the city for a great lunch and short alley perusal, but we quickly melted back to the oasis for a quiet afternoon.  I managed to find Italian Eurosport so I could complete my Tour de France homework for the day...

The boys went shopping and most of the team put together a great family meal at home tonight which we gobbled up after the babies went down for bed.   We all sat around the TV watching an unfortunate Belgium loss to France in the World Cup final.  Tomorrow is the really big game!