Day Twentyfour - Jun 21, 2017

Dubrovnik, Croatia

High Point: Empty ramparts before the cruise ships woke up

Low Point: Eleven mostly vertical miles, and the calves are keeping a ledger

Miles By Foot: 11

Today's Antiquities: The City Walls of Dubrovnik, Bokar Fortress, Lovrijenac, the 1991 harbor-fire exhibit, Mt Srd Fort

Today's Weather: 83º and super sunny, with a lovely breeze

Tonight's Lodging: Our Old Town Dubrovnik hideaway

Touristic Events: Walking the city walls, the Mt Srd cable car, the 1991 bombing exhibit, a sandwich near the Hilton, a third Lapad swim, the set build at Lovrijenac, takeaway from Barba and Guloso on the steps

Travel Tip: Walk the walls early; the heat and the crowds both arrive on schedule

Daily Didactic

Today was the Dubrovnik checklist day, which we'd been politely avoiding all week because it involves doing the things everyone else is also doing. We got two wall tickets at the Pile Gate and went up before the cruise crowds, which is the one trick we know, walking the ramparts while the Stradun was still mostly empty. The walls drop straight to the Adriatic on one side and onto a sea of terracotta roofs on the other, with somebody's laundry strung in a walled garden below and the cliff bar umbrellas just starting to open. Theresa found the whole thing funnier than the height warranted, which is its own kind of view. After the walls we took the gondola up Mt Srd, which is the postcard move and we knew it. The summit itself is a giant communications tower and a stone fort, not romantic, but the view of the entire walled city sitting on the water is hard to argue with. So is the small exhibit up there on the 1991 bombing, the harbor on fire and a map of every direct hit, which rearranges the orange rooftops in your head a bit. We came back down, found a modest sandwich bar near the Hilton, and walked off to Lapad for a third swim because we are nothing if not committed, Theresa watercoloring the coast from a beach bar while I had a beer and watched the boats. We capped it at Lovrijenac, where they were building the set for a Midsummer Night's Dream right inside the fortress, ladders and a poster of a bearded man wearing a small forest. Dinner was takeaway calamari from Barba and Guloso, eaten on a quiet flight of steps. Eleven miles, eighty-three and sunny with a breeze. For Alaskans, that's a lot of stairs.