Day One Hundred Six - April 21

Today we arrived in Dubrovnik at our scheduled time of 07:00. The weather gods were not shining down on us this morning as it was raining very hard. Our departure to see the old city had been delayed.

This is the second day in a row where rain was has been putting a damper on the day's activities. If only the weather would cooperate although we have been lucky up to now.

The country of Croatia has a total population of around 4 million people while Dubrovnik population comes in at roughly 43,000.

The city is located on the Adriatic Sea in the region of Dalmatia. In 1979, the city was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in recognition of its medieval architecture and fortified old town. In it said the walls surrounding Dubrovnik were erected in the 16th century and run about 1,900 meters in length to encircle most of the city. Their height reaches a maximmum height of 25 meters.

In port along with our ship was the MSC Fantasia with its 3,274 passenger capacity and total capacity of 4,644. A very large ship when compared to our small Insignia. I even noticed a water slide on the top deck of Fantasia. No thank you.

A shuttle bus service was offered by Oceania to take me to the Pile Gate, the entrance to the old town. I am flying solo for the next three days as Janice is quarantined for symptons of a very bad dry cough. She tested negative for Covid twice and strep throat. I am still allowed to come and go while staying in the same stateroom. Janice is not a happy camper and regrets having gone to the Doctor in the first place. The 3 ports she is missing were high on her bucket list.

I tagged along with Keith, Ilona, Richard and Joan as we explored the old city in the steady rain. You have the opportunity to walk up to the top of the two ramparts but there is a small charge for this. Please make sure to bring a credit card with you as some shops do not take Euros. Guess who forgot his credit card?

As you make your way through Pile Gate and on to Stadun Street you will notice the many shops and restaurants situated here and down the narrow streets on either side of the main street.

One of the churches in the old city is the baroque style St. Blaise's Church which is worth a stop if just for its medieval architecture

The old city was still quite busy even with the weather and I cannot imagine what it would be like if it sunny and hot.

There were many cat sightings within the old town more than say Athens and the Acropolis. Leaving the port I returned to the ship.

Our ship departed at 17:00 for our next port Umbria (Ancona) Italy 222 nautical miles away on Friday. Tomorrow will be my first solo ship tour 7.5 hours in length "Historic San Marino".