Dubrovnik

This Thursday marks Warren's and my tenth wedding anniversary. We thought we'd take a special trip to southeast Europe to celebrate. We started in Dubrovnik, a well preserved walled city in Croatia. In the summer, Dubrovnik is a bustling resort town but we practically had the city to ourselves since it is the off season. 

The weather was beautiful our last day in Dubrovnik so we took the opportunity to walk the city walls. It includes sixteen towers, several forts, and amazing views of the city on one side and the clear blue water on the other.

Croatia is across the Adriatic Sea from Italy so the food seemed similar to Italian food, which I was happy to see. The best meal I had was this spaghetti with shrimp at one of the few restaurants still open during the off season. It was amazing! I accidentally forgot to let Warren try it because it was so delicious. 

Sponza Palace currently holds the city archives, with documents dating back to 1022. It was built between 1516 and 1522 and was not damaged by the earthquake in 1667 that destroyed most of Dubrovnik's buildings. 

The city bell tower was built in 1444 and is located in Luza Square, a market area at the time. The bell tower has two clocks, one is a traditional face clock and the other was added in the 20th century and is unlike anything I've seen before. It has roman numerals for the hour and regular numbers for the minutes, but it only changes every five minutes. So the time is inaccurate every four minutes out of five.

Inside the old city walls Dubrovnik is pedestrian only which made for an easy weekend of wandering. We didn't have to worry about which side of the street we were on or getting lost as everything we wanted to see was contained inside those walls. This is truly one place where the city is the site. 

I was really impressed with Dubrovnik and am pleased we started our trip in this beautiful city. I know it isn't an authentic look at Croatian life but the city is picturesque and a great starting point to many other worthwhile destinations in this part of Europe. Now, off to the next!