Day 14 - 18 July Dubrovnik

So Dubrovnik today - we awoke in a beautiful bay just north of the old town, full of the limestone villas with red tile roofs, sailing boats, ferries and more super yachts. But we didn'tactually go into Dubrovnik, because we've been there before (well okay, for a few hours in 2009). Instead out tour started at 8.45, we piled into the bus and headed north away from Dubrovnik.


Our first stop was at Mali Ston, on Mali Ston Bay - a long fjord-like cut in the ladnscape running southeast. We got on a boat and motored probably only a short distance, but quite slowly. Then we were tiied up to another boat that was already there, and they gave us fresh oysters from the oyster beds and steamed mussels.


Mali Ston - town wall behind leading to Ston

We motored back in a nice breeze and walkesd through a couple of streets in the small town. Then the bus took us on to Ston, the main town. This was a pretty and well-preserved old city within the city walls - the Walls of Ston zigzag across thre local mountains. We were walked to the old Roman salt pans, past the church and gardens before we got our free time. It was so unpleasantly hot that we just walked to a local cafe and sat with a cold dirnk until it was time to go.

Next stop was a winery, Vina Vukas, a short distance north. It turns out the area mostly make heavy red wines from the main local variety (which translates as 'small blue'). But recently they've branched out into whites and roses. And they were all nice, the winemaker was knowledgeable and the winery was cool and comfortable.

Our final stop was most of the way back to Dubrovnik at a local olive oil producer in Orasac. He has restored the original horse-drawn mill and gave us a demonstration (the horse was actually quite keen and had to be persuaded not to start immediately). After that we went out to his lovely, cool terrace and ate salad from his garden with local cheeses, proscuitto, olive oil and a vinegary (but appealing) homemade red wine.


Once we finished we got back to the ship around 4pm and rested in the cool until we unmoored and wound out between the islands.


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