Backdrop for both “Game of Thrones” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” Dubrovnik has soared in popularity since my last visit. Its 80-foot-high, 2-mile-long walls, built as defense ramparts in the 12th through 17th centuries, enclose spectacular Gothic and Renaissance stone churches and towers, exquisite fountains and town squares — reason enough to choose Dubrovnik for filming.
So it was a delightful surprise to learn that Croatia’s so-called Pearl of the Adriatic would be our first port aboard our Celebrity Apex cruise from Athens. Cyprus, on the original itinerary, had been scrapped because of soaring COVID-19 rates.
My friend Cathy wanted to walk Dubrovnik’s walls while I intended to check out the delightful market I remembered in the old town square. Not wanting to waste a moment of the ship’s shore time, we were among the first passengers ashore.
After crossing over Dubrovnik’s drawbridge entrance, we picked up a free map near the Pile (pronounced “pee-lay”) Gate and set our market meeting place for Gunjaiceva Poljana 90 minutes later. Cathy could exit the walls near the market, and we would meet at the town square’s fountain, still flowing with fresh clear water after all these years. Presenting the required COVID vaccination certificate, she paid the 34 euro admission and climbed the stone stairs to the walls, eerily familiar to her as the King’s Landing stronghold of the Lannister family on HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”
Although it still was early as I meandered toward the market, crowds surged down the main street, Placa. Film fans thronging the seaside Old Town before the pandemic returned in force this past summer sparked official moves to limit the crowds threatening its UNESCO Heritage site status. Limiting huge cruise ships was one of those moves. But the Apex, built for 3,000 passengers, carried just 600 on this early cruise.
I hoped also to visit Lokrum, a 20-minute ferry ride from Dubrovnik. In the 12th century, the off-shore islet had sheltered Richard the Lionheart when he was shipwrecked upon return from the Third Crusade. It’s the site for an amazing arboretum of tropical trees, also seen in “Game of Thrones.”
Smiling market vendors offered me artisan cheese, honey, produce, lavender and souvenirs. I bought sugary orange peels, pretty soaps and bags of lavender and snacked on fresh slices of watermelon. Settling in at the fountain to people-watch, I soon was greeting Cathy, just as planned. We shopped for handmade lace before setting off to explore steep, staired alleyways brimming with shops.
D’Vino wine bar, with its wonderful cheese snacks, lured us out of the hot sun to linger over tastes of Croatian wines, which had improved greatly since my last visit. Lokrum would wait until another time.
Travelers’ checks
Visit CelebrityCruises.com to learn about next year’s Mediterranean itineraries and where the Apex is sailing now in the Caribbean.
Get Dubrovnik info by clicking “Translation” at tzdubrovnik.hr.
