It was midday and hot so we found a table at a waterside bar and thought about lunch. We ordered two dishes; one of calamari and another of small fried fish for what we thought was going to be a light snack. However I think the kitchen must have over ordered today because we actually received two absurdly huge portions and despite doing our best to force it all down had to return quite a lot back at the end of the meal. We were in a perfect spot next to the men trying to sell thirty minute tours on glass bottomed boats and watching the guided tour parties trying to make decisions about who was going on and who wasn’t. Eventually we tired of watching the people parading back and forth, left the harbour and went back into the city.
We did some more wandering about but we were beginning to cover the same ground now so we left the walled city by the Pile Gate and with the unused portion of yesterday’s ticket for the visit to the walls visited the adjacent fortress of Lokanda Peskarija which included an awful lot of steps to climb but the reward was an excellent final view over the city and its famously restored red tiled roofs and I wondered just why anyone would want to destroy something so beautiful.
The trouble with climbing steps up is that you have to climb back down again and by now it was a very hot afternoon. We could see that the bus was approaching so we descended as quickly as we could and made it to the bus stop just as the driver closed the doors and moved away which meant that we had to wait another fifteen minutes for the next one for the short journey back to the hotel. We were at the front of the queue of course but this wasn’t especially helpful because the concept of a queue is something that Croatian people seem to understand even less than the French and when the bus pulled up an undisciplined rugby scrum formed and there was a lot of pushing and shoving to get on.
With the sun still shining we walked through the fringe of trees down to the stony beach where we found a spot to paddle in the sea that was reflecting the light from a perfect soft blue sky with soft clouds and just the occasional flick of grey. From here we could see the beach stretching out around the headland and as we walked further we came across the naturist beach and debated the subject of just what makes people with brains in denial and bodies desperately defying gravity, remove their clothes and proudly show everything off.
There is a question I’d really like the answer to? Why don’t super models sunbathe naked? These people’s bodies needed to be put through the hotel bedroom trouser press before coming out in the morning to get all of the creases out. The Germans were by far the worst of course; I have never seen so much pubic untidiness. Naked sunbathing is really quite nice and swimming in the sea with the water around the places where the sun doesn’t normally shine is a really pleasant experience, it’s just a shame that the people with bodies past their sell by dates like to do it most of all.
When I was a boy there used to be a top shelf magazine called ‘Health and Efficiency’ which showcased people, usually Germans, who were committed naturists. As adolescents with raging hormones, it was always a thrill to come across a discarded copy of this magazine; it wasn’t the pursuit of naturism that interested us of course because we were only really interested in seeing pictures of ladies bare breasts. You can still buy the magazine but it isn’t top shelf any more and I’ve had a look and you can get it on-line as well.
We abandoned the naturist section of the beach and returned for a second visit to the beach bar where there was a good view across to the islands and we watched little tourist boats going backwards and forwards carrying passengers from the new harbour just around the corner. After a couple of drinks in the sun we walked back to the hotel through the impressive swimming pool area stopping only to buy more Croatian merlot and then we rested for an hour before going out for the evening.
We did some more wandering about but we were beginning to cover the same ground now so we left the walled city by the Pile Gate and with the unused portion of yesterday’s ticket for the visit to the walls visited the adjacent fortress of Lokanda Peskarija which included an awful lot of steps to climb but the reward was an excellent final view over the city and its famously restored red tiled roofs and I wondered just why anyone would want to destroy something so beautiful.
The trouble with climbing steps up is that you have to climb back down again and by now it was a very hot afternoon. We could see that the bus was approaching so we descended as quickly as we could and made it to the bus stop just as the driver closed the doors and moved away which meant that we had to wait another fifteen minutes for the next one for the short journey back to the hotel. We were at the front of the queue of course but this wasn’t especially helpful because the concept of a queue is something that Croatian people seem to understand even less than the French and when the bus pulled up an undisciplined rugby scrum formed and there was a lot of pushing and shoving to get on.
With the sun still shining we walked through the fringe of trees down to the stony beach where we found a spot to paddle in the sea that was reflecting the light from a perfect soft blue sky with soft clouds and just the occasional flick of grey. From here we could see the beach stretching out around the headland and as we walked further we came across the naturist beach and debated the subject of just what makes people with brains in denial and bodies desperately defying gravity, remove their clothes and proudly show everything off.
There is a question I’d really like the answer to? Why don’t super models sunbathe naked? These people’s bodies needed to be put through the hotel bedroom trouser press before coming out in the morning to get all of the creases out. The Germans were by far the worst of course; I have never seen so much pubic untidiness. Naked sunbathing is really quite nice and swimming in the sea with the water around the places where the sun doesn’t normally shine is a really pleasant experience, it’s just a shame that the people with bodies past their sell by dates like to do it most of all.
When I was a boy there used to be a top shelf magazine called ‘Health and Efficiency’ which showcased people, usually Germans, who were committed naturists. As adolescents with raging hormones, it was always a thrill to come across a discarded copy of this magazine; it wasn’t the pursuit of naturism that interested us of course because we were only really interested in seeing pictures of ladies bare breasts. You can still buy the magazine but it isn’t top shelf any more and I’ve had a look and you can get it on-line as well.
We abandoned the naturist section of the beach and returned for a second visit to the beach bar where there was a good view across to the islands and we watched little tourist boats going backwards and forwards carrying passengers from the new harbour just around the corner. After a couple of drinks in the sun we walked back to the hotel through the impressive swimming pool area stopping only to buy more Croatian merlot and then we rested for an hour before going out for the evening.
Next to the hotel was a small purpose built holiday complex of concrete tourist shops and restaurants which wasn’t very thrilling but it was too far to go back into the old town so we selected a friendly looking place and had an acceptable meal that actually turned out to be a bit expensive. It was our final night in Dubrovnik so we went back to the beach bar and spent a relaxing hour under the stars drinking wine, listening to the sea and looking forward to the nest stage of our journey to the island of Korčula.
1 comment:
lol @ 'Health and Efficiency' magazine - I remember that !!
Slightly disappointed not to see any pics of you joining in !
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