Day 14 - Dubrovnik

Connie at entrance to synagogue and C's orange umbrella (he can't snap shots and hold umbrella at the same time)


The view from our apartment


Sunday -- October 18 -- Day 14 We’re Not in Kansas Anymore

We were awakened before 6 a.m. with a knock on the door. Breakfast was being served before docking in Dubrovnik. Wasn’t bad except for the hour. It was raining. The dock isn’t far from the edge of the Old Town so it was a short ride to the gate, but no cars (and they really mean NO Vehicles) are permitted inside so we had to walk with our bags through a pretty steady rain to our apartment. The town is quite steep, which I knew, and I took special pains to get us a place on the South (ocean) side of town, to avoid the stairs up the mountainside. We had good directions, though as in Italy, directions don’t help too much when the streets aren’t marked by name. Had our landlady, Renata, not been hanging out the window calling my name, we wouldn’t have known we’d arrived. What she hadn’t told me is that there were two flights of steps to get into her house and two more inside to our apartment! But her husband helped with the bags, and we’re o.k. without luggage.

The place is funky and cute. Lots of potted plants, dormer windows in the bedroom, not quite even floors, only a one burner (that works) stove, a nice new-ish bathroom, and an absolutely incredible view of the marina and town. We dump our stuff, put on dry clothes, check our email (did I mention wi-fi?) and head out to look around.

Charlie had never found the hat he wanted and now a head covering is urgent. It is raining hard, with a blustery wind, and it’s bitterly cold. We’re layered. I need more socks. So we go shopping. The main street is filled with tourists, all carrying umbrellas, all going in and out of the shops, and it’s a madhouse. He buys a big orange umbrella. He could be a tour guide holding it up to be seen. The shops have straw hats and cutesy baseball caps, and he’s particular. And no socks. After an hour I convince him to buy something, anything, even if he overpays and never wears it again. He settles on a (overpriced) ski cap (tuke, for those North of 54’40 latitude). Now he looks like a local fisherman. But no socks.

We meet our group for a walking (are we crazy or what?) tour of Jewish Dubrovnik. Amazingly, there’s a large group. We head straight for the synagogue and he does his whole bit inside. There’s very little to see besides the synagogue anyway. There are only 45 Jews (6 or 7 families), no minyan, and they have services only on the High Holidays with a rabbi imported from New York. To hear this (catholic) young man’s history, one would think there was no such thing as anti-Semitism until the Nazis came. From what we’ve read it wasn’t quite that rosy, but Jews did experience relative freedom through the middle ages and the Renaissance. Anyway, the synagogue suffered a lot of damage during the 1991 war. The torah from the 13th or 14th century was sent to N.Y. for safekeeping and then the Croats had trouble getting it back. But back it is, and on display.

We had lunch afterwards with some Australian Jews we met on the tour. They gave us some travel tips, since they’d just come from the north and been to many of the places we intend to visit.

The Old City is so small -- about 5 minutes walk from one end to the other -- we went home to get warm and dry. Warm is relative -- the wind rattles the windows, so they’re not airtight -- but we have a space heater in the bedroom. We napped -- still recovering from our very short night on the ferry. Still raining when we woke up and went out again, but the tourists were all gone. Many were from the cruise ships (we could tell by the logos on the umbrellas provided by the ships). Still no socks. So we went to the tourist info and asked where the locals shop and it turned out to be a short bus ride to a small “mall.” Success! And so quickly and easily we could make the round trip on the one ticket.

All the guidebooks say to begin one’s visit by walking the perimeter of the city’s walls. But I demur, citing the weather. The wind is so fierce it’s inverting my small umbrella. I’m afraid we’ll get blown off. So we wander some more, go home to get dry and warm, and then go out to dinner. When in Dubrovnik you’re expected to have seafood. So I order prawns. I fully expect them to be in the shell, with their heads on, but I don’t expect them to be smaller than our cocktail sized shrimp. Never have I worked so hard for so little return. Oh well, I felt justified in ordering dessert -- which was a fabulous nut cake.

Home to blog and to bed.
P.S. Despite the weather, we’re friends again.

10,051 wet steps