Dubrovnik

The Croatia Airlines flight from Munich to Zagreb was delayed by an hour. When we did board it was a small plane. The flight attendants were really nice and made sure we had everything we needed. They served drinks and a Croatian cookie (which was pretty tasty.) We landed in Zagreb and were helped off the plane by friendly airport staff. We had no issues through Croatian Immigration – although the female official was pretty manly looking. We were told to meet at a certain time by the security line and they would help us board the flight to Dubrovnik.

The airport is one of the smallest I have ever seen. All the planes park away from the terminal and you have to take buses to them. We waited and at the appointed time were met by another airport person who took us through a special security line and into a special waiting area. We boarded our plane and again the flight attendants were very nice and friendly. An hour later we arrived in Dubrovnik.

Zagreb Airport was small and Dubrovnik Airport is even smaller. We were helped off the plane and to baggage claim by the airport officials and then met the driver we had our hotel arrange to pick us up. It took 45 minutes to drive from the airport to Dubrovnik – through small mountain roads.

I will now give a basic timeline of what we did during our seven day stay in Dubrovnik. The hotel (the Excelsior) looked a little gloomy from the outside, but the inside was first class. Every employee we met there spoke basic English, was very friendly and helpful. There was only one kid who we had as a waiter twice that barely spoke English and kept messing everything up. We did have a nice old man who waited on us and was very friendly. On the two days he was not working things did not go smoothly at the hotel.

Dubrovnik is very beautiful. It is right on the Adriatic Sea on one side with mountains on the other. Our hotel was a 5 minute walk to the old, walled town (it was a little difficult to push the wheelchair up and down as the streets are like San Francisco – very hilly.) Most days it was cloudy and windy and a few days it rained. The wind may the 60 degree temperatures feel more like the 30s. We spent a good deal of time in the Old Town. It is the off-season and so most of the cafes and restaurant were closed. The first day we saw a large group of German tourists come from a cruise ship and the Old Town came alive for the few hours they were there. I heard that in the summer they get around 80 cruise ships a day with thousands upon thousands of people. I’m glad we came when we did since it was cheaper and less crowded.

For the most part the Old Town was reachable with a wheelchair. We couldn’t go on one side which had many narrow steps or up the walls, but that was ok with me. One day we had a quick tour of the Old Town with a native girl. She told us about the history of the city including the 7 month siege by the Serbs in 1991. There was no military significance of the siege, but the Serbs wanted to annex the city, but even without food, water, electricity and cut off from the rest of Croatia the city survived. There are several maps around the Old Town that show you the damage done by bombs to every building. After the war the UN helped rebuild the Old Town exactly the way it was before. You can’t see any war damage in the city except for the pictures hanging outside some buildings and in the Museum of the Defense of Dubrovnik (which is on Mount Srd surrounding the city and which we took a cable car up to.)

The one issue I had with Dubrovnik is the food. The cafes and restaurants that were open off-season were mostly outdoors and with the strong winds it wasn’t very comfortable to sit and eat. Also, I wanted to have some real Croatian food, but everyplace – including the hotel – had nothing but fish and Italian food. I can’t tell you how many times I had spaghetti carbonara during our stay. At least all the people we met spoke good English and were friendly. That really surprised me since I thought no one would speak English.

All-in-all I have to say that I had a great, relaxing and fun time in Dubrovnik. I don’t think I would go there in the summer when it is very hot and crowded, but I wouldn’t mind going back any other time.