On Thursday, we went on a day trip which started off with a stop at the small town of Ston whose main claim to fame is being another old town with a stone wall. There was, in fact, a wall which enclosed Ston and a neighbouring village, Mali Ston; the wall itself goes over a hill and was originally about 5km in length but now only 3.5 km wall exists. On our first trip, our guide explained that Ston was one of the first defensive posts which guarded Dubrovnik.
Ston itself is at the southern end of the Pelješac peninsula. This is like a finger of land which sticks out from the Croatian mainland. As I wrote earlier, the coastline north of Dubrovnik is interrupted by a short 20km stretch centred on the town of Neum which belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina; when Croatia enters the EU next year, passing the two border crossings will become more complicated than it is now. Thus plans exists to build a bridge from the Pelješac peninsula to the Croatian mainland north of Neum; such a bridge would be about 2.5km in length. Although preparations have been made, the project has stalled for lack of money.
The vegetation on the peninsula is lush, comprising mainly vineyards and olive trees. This is a wine making region, famed for its red wines.
We drove about 65km from Ston, arriving just after the town of Orebic at the strait of Pelješac; we then disembarked from our tour bus and alighted onto a water taxi which took us across the strait and onto the island of Korčula. The island itself is composed of four towns of which the largest is also named Korčula; this is yet another walled town. Some people have called it a mini-Dubrovnik as it too has its walls, its churches and the same street plan consisting of criss-crossing alleyways most of which have many steps (the middle of the town is higher than the edges of the town).
Korčula is known as the birth place of Marco Polo so many of the souvenirs bear his name instead of the island's name. He was born while the island was under Venetian rule (as opposed to Dubrovnik, which was a major enemy to the Venetian monopoly of the Adriatic sea). It is a very pretty little town; whilst still very hot, we were favoured with a stiff breeze which helped cool us down; the humidity was also lower. We had for lunch grilled fish (as usual); this time we had some Croatian fish whose name I didn't catch. The fish itself looked something like carp, although the head was bigger and the torso smaller. Whatever, it was delicious.
Korčula too is covered with vines but here the defining wine is white.
After our free time in the town ended, we met by the jetty in order to take a water taxi back to the peninsula. After a short drive, we arrived at a winery which is open to the public ('we' actually comprised two groups of about 35 people. Just as we arrived, a 50 seater tourist bus arrived, and another two buses arrived as we were leaving, so it was rather cramped inside the winery. We were given five different wines to taste (I don't drink wine and so declined but the others were all too pleased to knock back what they were given): a simple red (12% alcohol), a more complex red (14%), a sweet desert wine (15%), a cherry brandy (35%) and grappa (40%). Quite a few people bought bottles of wine at the small store - the prices were about 35% cheaper than those in Dubrovnik, not really surprising as buying at source cuts out the middle men.
From the winery it was a simple hour and a half drive back to Dubrovnik. Most of the people nodded off, although I am not sure whether this was due to the heat or the wine (or maybe both).
Yesterday (Saturday) we had a day off: we had no trip planned and simply stayed in our flat until about 5:30pm when we went down to the old city once again. Once again, we visited areas which we had not visited previously including the Buza Cafe which I had read about but the linked site claims is not that well known.
This is a cafe which one enters via a door set in the old city wall; steps lead down to a terrace which is situated outside of the wall on rocks which separate the wall from the sea. The cafe has a gorgeous view of Lokrum. We had seen the cafe twice: once from the boat ride which we took around Lokrum and once when we were on the city walls. We didn't stay in the cafe for we were looking for something to eat and the cafe only offered cold drinks.
There is no shortage of restaurants in Dubrovnik - indeed, I wonder how some of them survive as there are a few restaurants which appear empty. We ate in a terraced restaurant, eating filleted grilled fish. It surprises me slightly that filleted fish costs about 60% of whole grilled fish, yet one doesn't have to struggle with cutting the fish open and extracting all the bones. As far as I can see, this is a win-win situation. Presumably, the filleted fish is of lower quality than whole fish but I'm not complaining.
After dinner we bought some more chocolate, admired a trio (guitar/violin/flute) playing by the Pile Gate and took our regular number 8 bus back home.
Ston itself is at the southern end of the Pelješac peninsula. This is like a finger of land which sticks out from the Croatian mainland. As I wrote earlier, the coastline north of Dubrovnik is interrupted by a short 20km stretch centred on the town of Neum which belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina; when Croatia enters the EU next year, passing the two border crossings will become more complicated than it is now. Thus plans exists to build a bridge from the Pelješac peninsula to the Croatian mainland north of Neum; such a bridge would be about 2.5km in length. Although preparations have been made, the project has stalled for lack of money.
The vegetation on the peninsula is lush, comprising mainly vineyards and olive trees. This is a wine making region, famed for its red wines.
We drove about 65km from Ston, arriving just after the town of Orebic at the strait of Pelješac; we then disembarked from our tour bus and alighted onto a water taxi which took us across the strait and onto the island of Korčula. The island itself is composed of four towns of which the largest is also named Korčula; this is yet another walled town. Some people have called it a mini-Dubrovnik as it too has its walls, its churches and the same street plan consisting of criss-crossing alleyways most of which have many steps (the middle of the town is higher than the edges of the town).
Korčula is known as the birth place of Marco Polo so many of the souvenirs bear his name instead of the island's name. He was born while the island was under Venetian rule (as opposed to Dubrovnik, which was a major enemy to the Venetian monopoly of the Adriatic sea). It is a very pretty little town; whilst still very hot, we were favoured with a stiff breeze which helped cool us down; the humidity was also lower. We had for lunch grilled fish (as usual); this time we had some Croatian fish whose name I didn't catch. The fish itself looked something like carp, although the head was bigger and the torso smaller. Whatever, it was delicious.
Korčula too is covered with vines but here the defining wine is white.
After our free time in the town ended, we met by the jetty in order to take a water taxi back to the peninsula. After a short drive, we arrived at a winery which is open to the public ('we' actually comprised two groups of about 35 people. Just as we arrived, a 50 seater tourist bus arrived, and another two buses arrived as we were leaving, so it was rather cramped inside the winery. We were given five different wines to taste (I don't drink wine and so declined but the others were all too pleased to knock back what they were given): a simple red (12% alcohol), a more complex red (14%), a sweet desert wine (15%), a cherry brandy (35%) and grappa (40%). Quite a few people bought bottles of wine at the small store - the prices were about 35% cheaper than those in Dubrovnik, not really surprising as buying at source cuts out the middle men.
From the winery it was a simple hour and a half drive back to Dubrovnik. Most of the people nodded off, although I am not sure whether this was due to the heat or the wine (or maybe both).
Yesterday (Saturday) we had a day off: we had no trip planned and simply stayed in our flat until about 5:30pm when we went down to the old city once again. Once again, we visited areas which we had not visited previously including the Buza Cafe which I had read about but the linked site claims is not that well known.
This is a cafe which one enters via a door set in the old city wall; steps lead down to a terrace which is situated outside of the wall on rocks which separate the wall from the sea. The cafe has a gorgeous view of Lokrum. We had seen the cafe twice: once from the boat ride which we took around Lokrum and once when we were on the city walls. We didn't stay in the cafe for we were looking for something to eat and the cafe only offered cold drinks.
There is no shortage of restaurants in Dubrovnik - indeed, I wonder how some of them survive as there are a few restaurants which appear empty. We ate in a terraced restaurant, eating filleted grilled fish. It surprises me slightly that filleted fish costs about 60% of whole grilled fish, yet one doesn't have to struggle with cutting the fish open and extracting all the bones. As far as I can see, this is a win-win situation. Presumably, the filleted fish is of lower quality than whole fish but I'm not complaining.
After dinner we bought some more chocolate, admired a trio (guitar/violin/flute) playing by the Pile Gate and took our regular number 8 bus back home.
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