Dubrovnik

24/09/2008
Dubrovnik is nicknamed the Pearl of the Adriatic and is like a fairy tale city. The buildings have an old world charm and the streets are paved with marble. There are plenty of restaurants with hucksters touting for business which all adds to the colour and atmosphere.There are cruise ships arriving every day and walking the streets you hear a variety of languages.
The tour guides carry coloured paddles that match the coloured sticky labels on the clothes of their regiment of tourists. It is fun to sit back at a cafe while enjoying a coffee and count the number of paddles that go by.
With our apartment being just off the stradum, in the middle of the old town it is so convenient to everything and we can hear the buzz of passing pedestrians and the aromas of a nearby restaurant.
We did out usual self guided tour and ended up at a museum which had lots of relics of St Blaise, who is very big in Dubrovnik and his statue is everywhere, holding the city of Dubrovnik in his arms. One of the relics is a very ornate finger cast in gold which struck me as a little unusual. Then discovered this little window in it so you can see the bone - quite gruesome!! There are also ones of legs feet and arms.
St Blaise was supposed to have warned a monk in a dream that Dubrovnik was going to be attacked by the Ottomans thus diverting the attack.