Day 14, June 6th, 2008. Dubrovnik, Croatia. Korcula Town, Korcula, Croatia. Ston, Croatia.

Hard to believe but our last early morning of the trip and we were bound for the island of Korcula. The alleged birthplace of Marko Polo, this island is said to be a beautiful destination with the remains of an old walled city mimicking that of Dubrovnik. Not that close to where we were staying this would prove to be fairly lengthy “excursion”. Our tour began with a small shuttle bus picking us up at the Hotel Villa Argentina in the Lopud section of Dubrovnik outside the city walls. It was a short walk up a steep narrow road – the very same road we took to meet Nina and our Adriatic Kayak tour. This time we stopped at this old-fashioned luxurious hotel and met a small shuttle bus in front. At 8:30 the bus pulled up and we filed in with an older couple. The bus picked up two more people in front of the Hilton near the Old Town Pile Gate and we continued on to the ferry terminal. However, instead of filing onto a ferry to Korcula we joined up with another larger tour group in a large tour bus. We got on their bus, complete with tri-lingual tour guide (Croatian, English and German) and began our 3-hr. journey to the town of Orebic where we would board a ferry for the short ride to Korcula. With our guide narrarating the way, we traversed the very same roads we traveled a few days before when we came down to Dubrovnik via bus from Split. Our route stopped for a half hr. near one of the 12 bays we passed along the coast not far from the town of Zator. At a café overlooking a bay with a small beach and Jadrolinija ferry we had breakfast before boarding the bus again for the second leg of our journey. The scenery was still incredible and when we pulled into Orebic the sky had turned cloudy and we were thinking it might be our first rainy day of the trip. But rain here and rain back in the NE USA are quite different. We saw nothing more than light rain or a brief passing shower. The ferry was booked through the Elite Travel Agency who had organized the day tour and the small ferry crossed the small sea from Orebic to Korcula Town in around 15 min. on a ferry arranged by the agency. The town of Korcula is quite beautiful which was evident from the approach we made to it from the sea. There are two main towers along what used to be the city walls looking out over the bay. While the walls themselves have long since been torn down the old town section of Korcula Town is very much intact with a somewhat similar albeit smaller feel than Dubrovnik’s Old Town.

When we got off of the Elite ferry we were immediately handed off from our bus tour guide (Christina) to our Korcula tour guide (Stanka). Stanka took us up the grand steps of the harbor to a narrow passageway by which we found ourselves in the main square in town. In this square were their main cathedral and a museum of historical religious artifacts related to the town and its church. First the church, an impressive stone structure it paid homage to the many sailors and fishermen who have lived in Korcula over the years by incorporating a wooden ceiling into the cathedral’s interior. This wooden ceiling echoed that of a boat’s skeleton. There were a few smaller shrines devoted to various saints including St. Blaise the patron saint of Dubrovnik. Next door the museum housed several rare and valuable religious artifacts. Once the house of the bishop who lived on the island, this museum held rare paintings, Abbott and Bishop costumes, coins, jewelry and a gold necklace given to Mother Theresa in 1979 that she passed on to a Bishop friend who lived in Korcula. Stanka took us down the centuries old stone steps and streets showing us the town hall (still in operation) and Thinkers Way, the only street in Korcula Old Town without any steps. Once we were beyond the Old Town City, Stanka explained that the walls of the Old Town were actually taken down some years ago and that all that remained of the walled city were the two towers.

This concluded our tour and we left Stanka to have lunch at Pizzeria Doris near the far side of the Korcula harbor for lunch.

With our last day being tomorrow we remembered that on the way to Prague we wished that we had checked-in online with BA beforehand. We found an internet café but to no avail, we were just outside the 24-hr. window for checking in online. We spent the rest of the time before we had to board the ferry back to Orebic walking around the town along the water and hoping the rain would continue to hold off. Dark storm clouds had gathered at the peaks of the Dinar Mountains overlooking the island from the mainland. While exploring the old town we spent some time relaxing along a gorgeous tree-lined promenade that looked out onto the water and across the sea to the mainland.

We boarded the ferry and then the bus waiting for us in Orebic for our next stop on this tour. A winery in the Dingac region was a short drive away. Just on the other side of the Dinar Mountains, the winery was modest in size but was easily able to accommodate our group numbering approximately 40 in size. We tasted red table wine, a stronger older red, a light white wine, the grappa and also a cherry flavored liqueur that they make as well. We were overcome by the quality of the wines and the fact that getting them in the states would be impossible or prohibitively expensive, so we purchased one of the aged reds.

Our last stop before returning to Dubrovnik was the town of Ston. A historic town that centuries ago first became a key ally of the Dubrovnik Republic for its rich salt marshes and secluded harbor, the town built a long wall to protect itself from foreign invaders. This wall protected its citizens as well as the salt marshes (still in operation today) from invaders. The long wall, the longest of its kind in all of Europe is actually the second longest wall in the world only behind the Great Wall of China. We disembarked the tour bus and with only 30 min. set out to climbing one of the wall’s lookout towers. It was bright, sunny, clear in Ston unlike the coast near Orebic and by pushing ourselves we were able to make this very steep climb and return to the bus in the allotted time. “These are the last steps I’m climbing in Croatia!” exclaimed Jess but the views made the exertion worth it. Needless to say none of the active seniors on our tour had attempted such a thing and we were proud of our accomplishment. We could see the marshes and the wall was so large that it stretched over the mountain and out of view. We were even able to look towards the coastal mountains and see vineyards from the wine region we had just visited.

The larger tour bus we were on dropped us at the Hotel Villa Argentina without involving the smaller shuttle bus we had taken in the morning and we walked back to Renata’s House.

Later we opted for a more traditional Dubrovnik/Dalmatian dinner at the Dubrovnickian Kantun – highly recommended from Time Out, the food was fantastic, I had a dish that had its origins in the 15th century, Jess a beef/gnocchi dish just as ethnic. There were many Americans in this small restaurant off a side street of the main stradun which only reminded us of the fact that this was our last night of the trip. For much of the trip we had only gone out for one drink after dinner but tonight it seemed right to have two. The first one was at a caffe just outside the walls and facing the harbor. This caffe was probably one of the local establishments that we could hear at night from our room at Renata’s House. A small group of these outdoor caffes had been waking us up off and on over the last couple of nights. The other caffé was along the stradun and there we had our last Dalmatian liqueur a pomegranate flavored one for me and fig flavored for Jess. Of all the flavors we had tried on the trip (and I think we had tried them all) fig was our favorite.