Dubrovnik Day 2

Hi everyone

Just a sample of the things that we got up to yesterday.

First stop was croissants and coffee al fresco in the square beside the market which is on every day. There we got chatting to a couple of American girls who had just flown in from Rome.

From here we went to St Ignatius of Loyola Church which was built in 1699 and completed in 1725. The fresco on the ceiling of the dome represents the glory of St Ignatius and is a wonderful sight. Near the entrance on the right is the Grotto of Lourdes and is one of the oldest grottoes built in Europe (1885). Its present design is by a Croatian artist called Lojzika Ulman and was built in 1966.

After this we visited the Natural History Museum which has another photographic exhibition by various artists of flora and fauna with some amazing images of birds in flight and Crickets killing wasps. The detail was fantastic. There was also an exhibition by a photographer called Mrtvo Zvono (yes I spelled it correctly) who has taken images from inside some of Croatia's caves.
If you are reading this Patrick, can you tell us what a Sivi puh is (glis glis) because it is the funniest looking little beastie. There were fabulous images of bats and you have to wonder how he managed to capture them with a camera.

We also visited the Pharmaceutical Museum which has many artifacts including the tiniest scales ever and quite a lot of religious artifacts that have been saved from the great earthquake in the 17th century. It also have lovely cloisters and a garden that has grapefruit trees with huge fruit just waiting to fall.

There was also another photographic exhibition here (they obviously like their photographers) by a guy called Zoran Marinovic. He has produced a series of images of the Congo children called Congo Hope in the heart of darkness. It is about the Congo children helped by Friar Ilja Barisic who has worked there for the last 37 years and all he asks for his pay is the occasional smile from a child. While working there he has been stabbed 17 times.

We spent the afternoon at the beach which is really just a pile of rocks that you jump of into the sea, very invigorating. However, a cool beer soon settles you back into your basking in the sun again. We have been told that if you want a sandy beach you have to take a boat trip but the rocks are so much more fun and perfectly safe.

Last night we took the cable car to the top of the mountain to see Dubrovnik from above. We believe that the cable car only opened up again on the 10th July as the previous one was destroyed by the war. The view from above is breath taking and what made it even better is that the sun was setting over the island and it was the most spectacular sight we have seen in a long while. We were up the mountain until about 9.30 catching the last cable car back down to the town, it was so worth the money and I would recommend everyone who comes to Dubrovnik to take a trip.

Hopefully we will be able to update the blog tomorrow from Rome but for now we have some urgent sight seeing and sunbathing to do, not to mention drinking nice cool beers.

Speak soon

Jean and Sheila