"Mr. Gorbachev, Don't Tear Down This Wall!"

Walled cities have been a favorite of Carol and I since we went separately to York, England.

And Dubrovnik is one of the best walled cities.  And their walls are amongst the hardest I've ever walked/hiked on.

To be fair to me, I am about 14 weeks post knee surgery, so the struggle was real.

(Editor: "Be fair to you?"  When/why would I ever do that?  Writer: Not you! That's to alert my readers that I'm still recovering from major surgery!  Editor: Don't you mean your reader, singular?  Writer: Hi mom!)

Carol was too banged up from the ATV crash that someone should not have allowed to happen to attempt the wall.  

Look at it this way, honey.  With your dislike of heat and humidity, I did you a favor, even if your ribs disagree!

Maddy and I started at the southern most of the three gates, the Ploce Gate.  Maddy mountain goated along, until she got worried about me and came back looking for either me or the medics preparing to stretch me off the wall.  

I decided to stop punishing her (and myself), so at the third gate (the famed Pile gate), I bailed out of the wall.  There were lots of ups and some downs (at some point there had to be a downslope, but I'm not sure I ever found it!)  Oh I found it, but the ups had taken it out of me.

For someone who has never seen Game of Thrones, the whole thing had a GOT feel to it, especially as the show has a scenes based in Dubrovnik, and a lot of deaths.  I'm just glad I didn't become a GOT casualty.

All kidding aside, I wasn't that bad off, but it was tough on my leg and, since I didn't have much post-surgery stamina, on my breathing.  Even though we started a bit after 8am, walking the walls can get dangerously hot in the summer, and for those of you not keeping score, it's August.

Once I came down, I ended up wandering around the Pile Gate area, taking a nice cold drink from the spectacularly large "Onofrio's Big Fountain."  Built in 1438 to bring water from a spring 7.5 miles away, the fountain's sculptures were damaged in the 1667 earthquake. 

(Editor: I'm just glad you didn't call it the "spectacularly tiny "Big Fountain."  Writer: Hey, I don't name these things.  I report, you decide.)

The fountain only has 16 carved faces remaining, as well as cute carved dog at the top of the fountain.  Pipes come out the faces, refreshing travelers such as myself with clean, cold water.  

Alas the Renaissance Church from the early 1500s was closed, but I went into the Franciscan Church.  The church was rebuilt after the 1667 quake in the Baroque style.  

Whilst Maddy was flying through the rest of the walls, I promenaded down the Stradun, the wide, flat main street of the city.  It's flat because it's in the middle of the city, while both the East and West sides extend up hills.  The Stradun was a canal until it was filled in during the 11th century.

After that, I headed for Gianni's Gelato, tabbed by some to be the best gelato in Dubrovnik for a well-earned gelato break and a stroll along one of the city's marina.  The gelato was quite good, but if you are looking for basic gelato flavors, they offer really weird stuff.

From there I headed back up the hill to our apartment to get ready for our boat trip.