After leaving Trebinje in the morning, we crossed the border out of Bosnia (non EU) back into Croatia. As we passed the border crossing passport check (still all have been faster than our first into Serbia) we soon glimpsed the Adriatic.

A wonderful sunny day met us as we dropped our luggage at our great accommodation at Plat some 6km down the coast from Dubrovnik. We soon set off for the Old city and a guided tour with a very knowledgeable local man. He told us of Dubrovnik, its days as an independent state and its heyday as a trading location. Apparently they could have sided with either the turks or the French, but they leaned west.

The battlements used the steep hill behind and the ocean on the other side, with then only a gate on either side as the original entries to the walled city. We heard of their original tall archery strategic walls that were superceded by outer curved ones to better deflect cannonballs in later times. The city was never extensively bombed/attacked but was sieged 5 times, but in each case the power of money and knowing your enemies saw limited damage or duration. The city at one stage had its own silver coin mint and was often the conduit between the mountain men and the traders from the seas (Italy)...hence the need for money. Once silver became in less short supply in the 1500s as it was found in South America, their economy declined.

They had also both a monastery (Franciscan) and a convent that were literally across the square from each other. Much shenanigans happened between the two groups...and a tunnel was also built under the roadway to enable fraternising...We heard too about the role of slavery with often young girls coming from large families outside the city to act as servants in the home. Once they turned 18 they could either marry or stay on as full servants if the noble family wished. There were a lot of unwanted pregnancies from these girls. There was established a place that we visited where the young girls could take their babies (they had no other option to avoid the shame of not being able to work, their families would not have them back and if they could not work they would get kicked out of their workplace family) and drop them off at night ringing a doorbell or sorts and the baby placed in a turntable would then be taken inside by nuns. If they tied a piece of cloth to their baby's foot or hand, they had 7 years in which to return to claim the child otherwise it too would be put into the house servant pool. If they elected not to do this, there was a possibility that the baby would be adopted by a wealthy family as this occurred often at the time as a sign of status and wealth, from where the child had the chance to grow into a noble family. Heartbreaking.

The water security was provided by a 14km long aqueduct from the mountains well behind the main one visible from the city. We tasted it...delicious. Their sewage under the city was built in too. A major earthquake did cause major damage and killed a lot of inhabitants as it occurred on a Sunday when everyone was in church and many rich people who sat at the front were killed as they could not escape the shaking buildings in time! Something biblical there about first being last and last being first...the kingdom was near that day. There was also a funny anecdote about how the local children during the middle ages used to play ball games in the street adjacent to the monks church...resulting in some annoyance to the monks. Some early "graffiti" from the monks in Latin basically said that if the children didn't stop kicking their ball up against the wall all the time, then God would surely see to it that they weren't spared from the plague...kids hey? Still plenty of great cats getting around the city. Apparently their numbers are managed by them being caught and neutered, and they really aren't a problem. We also spotted our favourite stray ruffly mutley that we saw when we were here a week ago as he trotted by, clearly busy but happy to show himself to us again. Great character he is.

For the afternoon, after a yummy seafood lunch (prawn burger and seafood pasta) we caught a ferry across to Lokrum Island where much of Game of Thrones was filmed. Sat on the throne, visited the fort at the top of the island and enjoyed the eucalypts that they had planted at their botanic gardens there, along with a large number of peacocks! Strange but interesting. The lovely blue waters of the Adriatic had us smiling a lot as we ferried to and from the island.

Back to the hotel for a quiet night in after some amazing sunset photos over the water. Brilliant stuff.