John Edward Cooper’s Notes

1. That’s the way the electrician fixed the problem, rewiring the unit after finding that the switch on the hair dryer itself was irreparable; or:
2. I imagined the whole problem, and nothing had been done.

I lean towards “1.” The bell started ringing again at 9am. We went down for breakfast. I had much the same as yesterday, but today instead of potato wedges had baked mixed beans in a very much rendered-down sauce. We went back to the room, then set out ca.10.30am. The sky was overcast but the breeze was warm. We walked as far as Lapad Bay at the end of Šetalište Kralja Zvonimira then turned right along the promenade that ran parallel to the bay on its north side. At the last café on Sunset Beach there, I had an americano coffee (not as strong as I’d have liked) and Janet had a Coca Cola Light.


Restaurant Casa bill, issued at “10:58:04”

Then we proceeded along “the scenic coastal walkway” (to quote Janet). A sign promised a cave at a place called More. From time to time, we passed flights of steps down to nearer the sea, and once or twice went down to have a look. What appeared to be a headland ahead, sticking out leftwards on the horizon, proved to be an island (Koločep, I found out, when looking again at the photos).




Sunday 26 May 2019 — 11:12:58
Going along the promenade Šetalište Nika i Meda Pucića north of Lapad Bay, westwards


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 11:20:30
Going along the promenade Šetalište Nika i Meda Pucića north of Lapad Bay, westwards, passing More


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 11:23:16
Down steps to nearer sea level


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 11:25:12
View west from “11:23:16”

At the end of the promenade was a gated road taking us northwards past the Valamar Durbovnik President hotel at the headland of the Babin Kuk district. I thought we’d be able to go on further, but there was a dead end, so we turned back. Janet wrote: “We were surprised when it suddenly came to an end at a posh ‘come and get some cancer here’ hotel. Gruesome!” (“Come and get some cancer here” refers to the abundance of sun-beds that such establishments provide.)


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 11:40:38
View west from the end of Šetalište Nika i Meda Pucića: (ahead) the island of Koločep


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 11:40:54
View south-west: the Grebeni islets


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 11:41:04
Villa Grebeni lighthouse

On our way back, we stopped ostensibly for refreshments at More, but actually because we needed to pee. We went down flights of steps to the foot of the cliff (see “11:20:30”), where there were tables under umbrellas — just as well, because it had started raining. Before we went back up to the promenade, we had a quick look in the cave.


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 12:33:14
The cave at More


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 12:35:28
Returning along Šetalište Nika i Meda Pucića


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 12:36:50
Rocks and a little cave

On Šetalište Kralja Zvonimira there’s an abundance of eating and drinking establishments. We chose the restaurant of the Hotel Perla, called Restoran Agora. I chose what Janet had had yesterday: čevapčići with fries, chopped raw onion and the same mildly spiced tomato sauce. Janet had a seasonal salad with chicken. She had two Coke Zero. I chose my first drink because it had a German-looking name, “Grimbergen”,[i] but in fact it was brewed in France. It was a “Belgian abbey”-style beer, as Leffe is; and the one I had, “Double Ambrée”, was 6.5% a.b.v. It came in its own branded glass. It was a touch too honey-sweet for my taste.

[i] Grimbergen, where the beer was originally brewed, is, in fact, the name of a town and municipality in Belgium.

Sunday 26 May 2019 — 12:54:36
Lunch at Restoran Agora

So my next drink was Erdinger “weizen”. I don’t know whether the older of the servers… was German, but she seemed almost overjoyed at my choice. (They had the young, pretty one at the entrance, smiling and luring customers in.)


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 13:20:04
Lunch at Restoran Agora


Restoran Agora bill, issued at “13:47:32”

From there we went to the bus stop. It was raining fairly heavily. The ticket office was closed today. I can’t remember the line number of the bus we got to Pile. The driver took our 30 kn (15 kn each) but didn’t issue tickets. Just round the corner from the end of Brsalje Ulica to the left were public toilets, and we had the right change to operate the 7 kn, coins-in-the-slot automatic gate. It continued to rain as we entered the Old City. Janet donned a thin transparent plastic anorak for protection, but I felt that I would get hot and sweaty and took mine off again. We walked down Stradun looking in souvenir shops for a “national” teddy bear to be pals with Icelandic Arne, Austrian Anton and Hull Kingston, but they were either cheap looking or had big starey eyes. “In the end,” Janet wrote, “we became fed up of wandering around in the rain so went to the restaurant we had lunch in yesterday.” Most of the tables were occupied, but by sliding one of the end tables in slightly, under the edge of the canopy, I was able to get sufficient shelter there. I had two Karlovačko Crno, as yesterday, and Janet had two Coke Zero. I finished with an espresso. “As I ‘people watched’,” Janet commented, “I realised that ‘oriental type’ ones far outnumbered anyone else. So many of them! It was very busy again in the square, as yesterday at that time, and it was fascinating to just sit and observe.”


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 15:38:44
Refreshments at Restoran Magnolia


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 16:48:00
View across Brsalje Ulica from Restoran Magnolia

Before returning to the hotel, we went down to the moat area below Pile Gate. There were orange trees, and we wanted to see if we could pick an orange to try. We supposed that they might be sour.


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 16:58:26
Pile Gate and the moat


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 16:59:34
The moat


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 17:01:48
Pile Gate: drawbridge, moat, and orange tree

In fact, we found some that had fallen off a tree. As Janet peeled one, it attracted the attention of the “sky rats”. The orange was not at all sour — quite sweet, in fact — but it was rather dry, not juicy.


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 17:02:12
A curious crowd of pigeons…


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 17:02:30
…witnessing the peeling of an orange


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 17:05:32
Stone bridge over the moat at Pile Gate


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 17:08:02
Pile Gate, seen from the moat


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 17:08:24
Fort Puncjela


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 17:10:00
Fort Bokar (left) and Fort Lovrijenac (right)

Then we got a bus back. It was a №6 bus, the same as we’d ridden on the outward journey yesterday.




The imprint of the machine indicates that we boarded at “17:15”.

But its route on the return journey was different from that of its outward journey (see the map below); it looped round by the side of the northern inlet of the sea, the Bay of Gruž, before approaching, from the north-east (along Ulica Miljenka Bratoša), the crossroads where the bus stop for the outward journey was. We missed the bus stop just before the crossroads, and had to get off, after the bus turned right, at the next stop in Ulica Iva Dulčića and walk back. One thing I saw from the bus, on its (to us) unexpected diversion, was the single-pier asymetric cable-stayed bridge north of the Bay of Gruž; and I decided to walk back to where I saw it, to photograph it.


“Map of the city’s bus lines” from the folding map

First, though, I went back to the hotel with Janet, after we’d visited a public toilet off Šetalište Kralja Zvonimira (“very wet inside,” Janet commented: “well, in the ladies’. About an inch of water on the floor.” The men’s toilet was OK).


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 17:41:50
Šetalište Kralja Zvonimira: Grand Hotel Park partially hidden by a tree to the left


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 17:42:24
Grand Hotel Park


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 17:44:42
Interesting tree in the hotel grounds


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 17:46:48
Grand Hotel Park

Ca.6pm, the church bells I’d heard this morning started ringing again. Then I set out, and retraced the route of the bus back along Ulica Miljenka Bratoša to the Bay of Gruž. On the way, I saw a couple looking at a cat, and I commented, “There are very many cats in Dubrovnik.”
 “Do you speak English?” one of them asked. They were German. “Is this the way to the harbour?” she added.
 I was able to confirm that it in fact WAS the way. (They’d have had a walk of over a mile, though, after getting to the Bay of Gruž, if they’d come off a cruise ship, because these were moored all the way round on the other side of the bay.)
 When I got to the bay, I turned left and walked north a hundred yards or so to find a vantage point from where I could photograph the bridge.


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 18:27:04
Franjo Tuđman Bridge


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 18:27:18
Franjo Tuđman Bridge


Sunday 26 May 2019 — 18:29:06
Gruž Port

On the way back, I realised that I didn’t recognise my surroundings and that it WASN’T in fact the way back. (That’s the sort of thing that happens in dreams, but now it was happening in reality!) I carried on regardless, thinking I’d meet a familiar road; but the street I was on seemed to be coming to a dead end, and I had to turn back. I realised, once again by the bay, that I’d gone too far to the south and missed my turn back along Ulica Miljenka Bratoša. I zipped my jacket over my camera because it was raining again.
 After I returned to the hotel room, Janet and I went down to the restaurant, ca.7.15pm. “There has been a large contingent of orientals in the hotel since we arrived,” Janet wrote, “and when we’d almost finished our meal, another load appeared in the dining room — some with bags. They’d clearly just arrived and had come straight to the dining room… as it was just after 8.30pm. Dinner finished at 9pm.” I thought I heard the older waiter — the one who’d served us drinks on the first evening — mutter, “Too much!”
 Back up in the room I… transferred 31 photos from the camera to the WD Elements HDD (21:24–21:25). Viewed them in Windows Photo Viewer, and rotated three that needed it (21:27–21:28). Janet was showering and doing this and that. We were both in bed by 10pm.

[Monday 27 May 2019]