Dubrovnik; Tuesday, 13 May, 2008

The walk to the first attraction of the morning was a long and arduous one, across the road to the bus stop to pick up the Cabriobus, Dubrovnik's "open-top" sightseeing bus.

After completing the tour I wandered through the town to the harbour to catch the boat out to the small island of Lokrum. Firstly a monastic settlement, then the playground of the Hapsburgs, then a Napoleonic fort, today it is a haven for nature (and in one small corner naturists!) and uninhabited, to the point that you have to be off the island on the last boat, nobody stays overnight.

I had a long wander around the whole of the island, taking in the ruins of the monastery (and the very nice restaurant that is now in its grounds), the cliffs and lakes of the island (which appear to be suffering from a peacock infestation, I have never seen so many in one place!) and walking up (and I do mean up!) to the Napoleonic fortress.

I finished my wanderings about 10 minutes before the ferry was due so I had a short wait by the small landing stage, and gently topped up the sun-burn! The ferry got me back into town and I wandered over to the airport shuttle bus companies office to check the times of the busses for the following day, before heading back into the old town to take in more of the sights.

I had the guide book with me and it suggested two possible walking routes which I could merge easily into one as I had already done a circuit of the city walls. The first part of the walk was up the narrow, stepped lanes towards the Ethnographic museum, which turned out to be shut by the time I got there, and the bolt on the door implied that it wasn't just for a late lunch (even though the sign claimed they were open 09-16 daily!)

I then took in the cathedral and some of the other churches in the city centre, including having a look around the Franciscan church, monastery and cloisters, which included a small museum.

With a serious case of museum feet I stopped for a refreshment break on the main street, before catching the bus back to the hotel to freshen up before heading back out for dinner.

Instead of heading straight into town, I quickly caught the bus in the opposite direction to the end of the peninsula to take some photos of the sunset over the islands. Whilst I was able to take some photos it was obvious that the weather was on the turn, and after dinner, walking back to the bus stop I was certain I could feel the odd spot of rain.