Cavtat

About 15 km down the road from Dubrovnik is the village of Cavtat. This was the first historic settlement in the area, before Dubrovnik itself was built, dating back to the Greek city of Epidauros in the 6^th century BCE. The name is a Croatian rendition of Civitas Vetus, or “old city”. 

St Nick's Church

We took an Uber to the village, arriving late morning. After getting our bearings we walked around to St, Nicholas’ church, where what appeared to be a wedding was disgorging onto the pavement. Weaving our way amongst the churchgoers we found the Shell Museum. The what? Yes, a museum dedicated to the humble mollusc! We paid our €8 apiece, watched a short film that told us all there was to know about molluscs, and then wandered amongst the exhibits. They consist of one family’s shell collection throughout their lives, which was now being held in a church hall. They were labelled with Latin names, location, date, and remarks, but very few common names. 

We emerged from there to find the church crowd had dispersed, and attempted an ingress to the Rector’s Palace. Unsuccessfully, as there didn’t seem to be a public entrance. Maybe because today is Independence Day, when Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. We wandered along the waterfront, and as the clocks of the village where striking twelve, decided to stop for lunch – the inevitable pizza, Greek salad and beer.

After lunch we walked up the hill to the Račić Mausoleum, sculpted by Ivan Meštrović in 1922. From there we could see over the other side of the peninsula. We took a different path back down to the promenade, and decided that we’d pretty much done Cavtat, so enquired about a boat ride back to Dubrovnik. One of the operators on the waterfront had a boat leaving in 10 minutes, so we took that. It’s about a 45 minute ride back to the Old Town. We walked through, stopping at a gelateria along the way, before getting our bus back to the hotel… 

I see dead people...

...except here. They do have a reservation, though.

Leaving Cavtat

…where a surprise awaited us. Earlier in the day, I’d contacted guest services to express dissatisfaction with the cleaning, or, lack of it, our room had received the previous day. On arrival we found a complimentary plate of fruit, some chocolates, and a bottle of bubbly as an apology! Unexpected, but this is supposed to be a 5-star hotel, so I guess we were right to do so.

Tonight we’re heading out to a restaurant called Taj Mahal. Now in the UK, and indeed New Zealand, such an establishment would be an Indian restaurant. Not so here, though; it’s traditional Bosnian food, apparently. I’ve looked on their website and there’s no indication of why they chose this name. Perhaps we’ll never know?