Azamara Italy Cruise Vlog Part 3 - Azamazing Dubrovnik!

Hello and welcome to part three of our incredible voyage on the Azamara Pursuit down the east coast of Italy and up the Adriatic to Venice. In this episode we're going to focus on Dubrovnik in Croatia so stay tuned as we take you on an explorative stroll around this fascinating UNESCO World Heritage Site. Popularized in recent years by being a giant film set for the tv series Game of Thrones the city became king's landing. The focal point for all those family struggles those from another age faced on a daily basis involving swords, frozen zombies, dragons, silly arguments about who's got the best house and sleeping with your own sister. Yes you heard that right. Quite a bit of it was filmed here as you can see by these before and after pictures. If you still don't know what I'm talking about we'll just call it Dubrovnik. It's much less complicated that way. While I'm on the subject of film locations did you know they also filmed scenes from the recent Star Wars film The Last Jedi here too? Mind you the only recognizable feature in the scenes from the movie is the shiny stone road surface. Why on earth did they come here at all? Must have been for the ice cream which is utterly delicious and you get a fist-sized dollop for reasonable coin. Anyway don't let ridiculous amounts of CGI and naughty desserts distract you from the main event here. In reality Dubrovnik is a must-visit destination and should be on everyone's bucket lists movie tourist or not. It is simply a stunning city. Speaking of stunning we even thought we'd stumbled upon yet another wedding which seemed to be becoming a bit of a theme on this cruise but came to realize that this bride was not suffering acute lambs after shaking off her groom but was in fact a model doing a photo shoot in a fancy dress. Oh well she still had lambs though. One thing you have to do when you're here is walk the ancient city walls. This gives you an unparalleled view of the old city and its surrounding Adriatic waters. The walls running uninterrupted for nearly two kilometers and boasting 17 towers was constructed between the 12th and 17th centuries and in places are up to six meters thick. That's thicker than my waistline after a cruise. In fact it's never been breached by a hostile army. That's the walls not my waistline. But that doesn't mean to say hostile armies haven't tried. In Europe's most recent war in the 1990s the Croatian war of independence from Yugoslavia the city was besieged for nearly eight months. The walls held firm. Thankfully the restoration work since the siege ended in 1992 has rectified the damage to the 11,500 or so buildings that were hit by the Yugoslav bombardment. And I must say the Croatians have done an incredible job of making this city utterly authentic and beautiful once more. With the wall only half walked well it takes a while you know and only half a while was available to us today. We wanted to explore Lokrum the 180 acre wooded island nestled right in the middle of the bay of Dubrovnik and a short ferry ride from the ancient harbour. Getting across is cheap and enjoyable and if you're on Azamara or any other small luxury cruise ship chances are you're anchored in the bay so you get a great view of your ship both there and back. Large cruise ships are docked miles away from the historic centre and you need a shuttle bus to get in and out. Small ship cruising the gift that keeps on giving. This island is still well worth the visit. Its monastery, botanical gardens and viewpoints are fascinating. The monks were forced to leave the monastery and island in the 15th century and legend has it they put a curse on the island on anyone who possessed the land after them. That's not very monk-like is it? And there's paths, paths upon paths and more paths. A veritable labyrinth of paths that seemed peppered with unusual wildlife. Fort Royal Castle sits atop the island's highest point, 96 meters above the sea and is reached by a hike up a straight but pretty steep path. The views are incredible though and you'll want to sit there and stare out a while if only to let your legs recover. In the monastery there's a Game of Thrones exhibition as parts of it were also filmed here too and you can sit on the Iron Throne. Yes, the real Iron Throne. Actually I'm not sure if it's the actual one used in the series because that got melted by a dragon. With legs praying for a bit of me time we headed back to the ship knowing that in a few hours we'd be back on the mainland for the as amazing evening which promised an open-air cello concert in the heart of the old town. Erm, except it wasn't meant to be. The threat of rain meant that the as amazing evening was not to be in the beautiful twilight kissed ancient surroundings of this beautiful city but instead moved indoors into the rather more sober cabaret lounge. The disappointment was palpable amongst guests but there was nothing to be done. A wet cellist and a soggy audience does not an as amazing evening make. However the pre-show buffet dinner was superb and really ushered in an atmosphere of anticipation and a jovial party spirit. Well the rain might have dampened the old city streets but it certainly didn't dampen Anna Ruckner's energy and enthusiasm for entertaining us and her exhilarating performance was nothing short of brilliant. Here's a small taste along with a little recap of our as amazing day in Dubrovnik. Well that's all for this episode. Thank you for watching and I hope you've been inspired to visit Dubrovnik and the best way to do that is on an Azamara ship of course. Please consider subscribing and pressing that like button. Until the next time and our final time on this voyage, goodbye!