World Cruise - Day 107 - Apr 28 - Dubrovnik, Croatia

Sunrise over Croatia:

The word of the day is weight.  Everyone is talking about weight, mainly for two reasons: 1) luggage; 2) weight gain (or loss, in the rare instance).  People are starting to pack (some have even finished packing already) and are discarding things that weight too much.  Everyone (including us) started with suitcases that were pretty much at the limit when the trip started, so anything acquired during the trip is subject to one of the following: 1) throwing something out of equal weight (or giving it away) to counterbalance; 2) putting the heavy stuff into carry-ons, backpacks, bags, purses, pockets; or 3) paying the overweight charge for luggage.  Or the other option—ship it home.  Some people are going to the post office today to ship back a box of stuff that they need, but won’t need right away (since it will probably take awhile in transit).

I brought along an empty duffle bag that we filled up in Fort Lauderdale at the beginning of the trip with all of our toiletries.  Now I can use the duffle for our extra stuff.  Um, I think it will be pretty full.  So picture this:  Krissie and Brian, both with two huge suitcase in tow.  Brian is wearing a backpack and somehow trying to also balance a duffle bag somewhere.  Krissie has a purse and a bag that she got onboard from Princess.  Got the picture in your brain?  Now picture that dragging suitcases through Venice, up and down bridges.  And on and off the ferry in Seattle.  It will be an interesting site, I’m sure.  We’ll just take our time and do our best with it.

The sail-in to Dubrovnik was spectacular:

There were two lighthouses at the end of this island, which was our turning point into the harbor:

View of the bridge with the Sultan of Oman’s private yacht on the right:

New Dubrovnik stretched out along the harbor area:

We did a Bible study and video sermon, then went into Dubrovnik to meet up with the rabbi (David) and his wife (Patti) to visit the Jewish synagogue in Dubrovnik.

The Jewish synagogue was there, but we weren’t able to do any prayer service in the synagogue, since it’s apparently no longer an active synagogue, only open as a museum:

The former prayer area of the synagogue:

One of the old Torah scrolls at the synagogue:

Dubrovnik is filled with an amazing number of nooks and crannies to explore:

We even found a basketball court that doubles as a soccer field in the upper part just inside the wall:

This is the view from the basketball court.  Who could play basketball with this view?

In Dubrovnik, many of the roofs were either damaged or destroyed in the 1991 war.  You can see a new roof in the foreground and an older roof just beyond that, with the far part of that repaired.

View down a side street in Dubrovnik:

This is the smaller harbor area, not where our ship came in (which is about 3 miles from the old city), but where small boats tie up:

This guy was playing an old instrument, looked like a violin, although not sure of the name?

There was a guy with parrots putting them on your shoulder for pictures (and a tip):

The center of the city is the low point, so anytime you climb up toward the wall and look back, this is the view:

We went just outside the wall, where we had a drink with a spectacular view:

I saw a small lizard running nearby our table:

This is the view from where we stopped for drinks as we climbed down below on the rocks:

We stopped later for lunch at Taj Mahal, a restaurant we went to back in November when we were here in Dubrovnik.  It is not Indian food, but Bosnian, all made from scratch and wonderfully delicious:

Back to the parrot guy, I love the look this girl is giving one of the parrots:

That parrot climbed down from his perch because he saw a lady eating an ice cream cone.  She gave him the last part of it:

I caught a pic of this cat climbing up a fence to get into a private area where it could sleep:

Krissie was chasing the pigeons, making them fly:

These local teenage girls were sitting just outside the wall singing a song:

Pigeon out on one of the piers:

Krissie was sitting up on this wall and asked me what I would do if her sandals came off and fell into the water.  I said I would go down to retrieve them:

So off they came (luckily they landed below on that walkway and I didn’t have to go swimming):

Krissie went exploring some of the doors on the side of the hill:

Krissie is up above the door she was just at, posing on the side of the hill:

View looking back toward new Dubrovnik:

…and the view of old Dubrovnik and the wall surrounding the city.

This was at the fort just outside the city walls:

Krissie climbed out onto this tree to get this pose, I was praying that the tree didn’t give way:

View from the harbor down below:

Taking the steps down to the beach at the harbor:

Looking back up toward the fort:

Down at the harbor just north of old Dubrovnik:

Krissie is posing by one of the doors cut into the rock:

Krissie did this pose for Brandon, it is her pullup pose:

Can you tell that I’m in love with this woman?  What a great subject to photograph!

Krissie:  “I’ll make it look like I’m diving into the water!”

Once we got back onboard the ship, we set sail for our next stop tomorrow, Koper, Slovenia.

The evening entertainment was the Pacific Princess World Cruise Choir:

…under the direction of David Craithorne:

Everyone was wearing a musical note on their left shoulder:

Chuck introduced one of the songs tonight:

Tomorrow is Koper, Solvenia.