Lovrijenac in Dubrovnik

We kicked off our second day in Dubrovnik with breakfast at our hotel, but this time, there were some furry guests on the terrace outside!

Look how distinguished he is.

And he had a friend!

Everybody needs a pal.

After taking an Uber to Old Town, we took a short walk to the Dubrovnik Cable Car.

The walk was actually lovely – walking through the rocky outcroppings and green vines peppered with the occasional pink flower here and there.

We also got to see a view of the City Walls from a new perspective.

We also walked past a fire station, which was so interesting to see. I hadn’t seen one in another country before.

Shortly, we made it to the cable car station.

We purchased our tickets in advance, so getting aboard was easy. We kicked things off with more beautiful views of Dubrovnik.

They would be by no means the last.

Once we had enough folks in line and the cable car staff were ready, we all piled onto the next car.

I’m not going to lie, it was hot in Dubrovnik, and some of the folks on this cable car smelled a little sweaty. It was a humid ride up.

The views though – were crazy.

Once we got to the top, I started taking photos, and the cable car employees told me that there were better views elsewhere, but I liked the symmetry of the cable car lines.

But they were right – the view at our lunch would be phenomenal.

I’d yet again made reservations for our meal, anticipating that getting the good views would be hard to get. At the top of Mount Sri, my favorite restaurant Gradska Kavana Arsenal has a sister restaurant called the Panorama Restaurant. Would also highly recommend this place. Also, our waiter the day before had given us a discount for the Panorama Restaurant, so it was great to use that since we’d planned on going anyway.

Booking our table a month in advance worked out – we once again had an incredible view with our meal.

Let’s get a little closer, shall we?

Stunning.

I started off with an iced coffee, which hit the spot.

I once again ordered a risotto, still drooling over the previous day’s bowl of deliciousness.

While we ate, we could see the cable car head up and down the mountain.

There was fog over the ocean that made the horizon line hard to see – ocean and sky blended together in greys and blues.

We enjoyed another excellent meal, and once again could not resist dessert. We’d kept seeing a caramel dessert at each restaurant called Rožata, and decided to try it here, since we were languishing in the views.

It was very similar to flan. Very good!

After eating, we walked around the top of the mountain, looking at a few of the vendors selling jewelry and crafts.

I ended up buying a pair of beautiful pearl earrings from this vendor, which I’m super glad I snagged.

We took a look at the cross at the top of the hill.

The cross was a gift to the city of Dubrovnik, and was put up in 1935.

We checked out more views of the landscape and city, including the lovely yellow flowers at the top of the mountain.

The mountains appeared very rocky in the distance – I would have loved to explore more of the nature and wildlife in Croatia, but our time was limited this go around. Next time!

After taking the cable car back down to the city, and walking back to Old Town, we did our first of many attempts to secure the infamous face cream in Dubrovnik.

The Franciscan Monastery in Old Town has been making its own face cream since 1317. That’s right. 1317.

Even better, the face cream is made from ingredients grown right in the monastery’s garden, and is still made by hand using the same ingredients and nearly the same methodology since its creation.

The original cream is their iconic rose cream, but they’ve branched out into other scents and formulas now. I had it on my list to secure a jar for myself and my mother, but when we arrived at the monastery, it was just a few moments after the pharmacy closed.

The monastery building and museum were still open, however, and the guy at the front gave us discounted admission since we came so close to closing time.

We love a good arch.

And look at those beautiful flowering trees through the arches.

Unclear if some of the roses within this particular garden are the very same used to make the face cream.

The monastery included an old map of the city, which was super cool to look at.

It also held a fascination inscription from 1527: “Oh, death destroying everything in 1527 by cruel plague. Life is a journey – days are running away.”

Wow. That was intense to read so close to our own era’s pandemic. Thinking through the plague this city endured, and how different their struggles must have been without our levels of technology and care.

There were also a few details here that, you guessed it, reminded me of Game of Thrones.

The Faceless Men, anyone?

How about actual dragons?

Ok, maybe not actual dragons, but close enough.

Sad that we were not able to secure the face cream, we decided to try a new adventure and headed to Fort Lovrijenac, AKA, The Red Keep.

We started at the stairs, which were also used as filming locations in Game of Thrones.

Bye, bye Baratheons.

And so the incredible views of Old Town resumed.

Not going to lie, it was a bit of a hike to get to the top of the Fort. Many, many stairs.

But, we were again rewarded with views.

Admission to the Fort is included in both the City Wall tickets, and the Dubrovnik City Pass.

Again, we were struck by how beautiful the stonework was.

Check out those arches.

We took (more) stairs to the top of the Fort, which was super fun to check out.

The whole fort was still lined with cannons, which were amazing to examine up close.

First of all, the coloring was amazing.

Secondly, look at the carvings. Cannon number one? That’s insane.

There were several different designs, which made me wonder about the time in which each was used.

This one was my particular fave. Imagine launching a cannonball at a ship using a cannon decked out with dolphins. Hell yeah, dude. Lisa Frank would have loved that.

They even had a pile of cannonballs stacked at the top.

Absolutely wild.

Imagine loading one of these up. I don’t even want to know how heavy those are.

We took yet another set of stairs to the tippety top.

The reward was getting to see another glimpse into the past.

And another glimpse of Old Town.

We wandered through the miscellaneous nooks and crannies here until we’d had our fill of the fort.

And because I can’t help myself, I have to show you the sleepy kitty we encountered on our way out.

My man is tuckered out.

Before heading back to Old Town, we went to the hotel that the cast and crew of Game of Thrones stayed at while filming. It was gorgeous, no surprise.

We wandered the city streets, looking for more bookstores, and eventually found ourselves in the evening, ready for dinner!

We selected a spot called Dalmatino, which was excellent. Would definitely recommend checking it out.

I ordered the shrimp and pistachio pesto makaruni, because I can’t resist pistachios, and I love pesto. Pistachio pesto? Sign me up.

Makaruni are hand-rolled pasta that was traditionally only handmade for special occasions. They were very special and expensive, so commoners could only afford them just a few times a year. Now, you can have them any day at Dalmatino, and let me tell you, they are delicious.

Close up of the delicious makaruni.

We had yet to pop open the bottle of champagne we purchased at the airport, so we decided to ask for a charcuterie tray to go from the restaurant, to pair with our champagne, and headed back to the hotel to sit on the terrace, enjoying the Dubrovnik sea air and our bubbly drink.