September 13, 2003
Saturday Sep 13: Kotor to Dubrovnik, Hrvatska: Will the whole trip be uphill?
I am training myself better and better all the time to be up and away very early. With my alarm sounding at 6 am, I was on the road by 6:19 am and on the way to the ferry crossing, which meant I had a bit of backtracking to do along the water's edge. Oh, too bad (sarcasm).
Like yesterday, the views along the water were amazing, though the road eventually went inland and up, WAYYYYY up to the border crossing into Croatia. What a simple process compared with Turkey to Bulgaria. I had to actually ask the border patrol to stamp my passport, otherwise it was a quick wave through.
Thinking that this was the last climb until I 'rolled' into Dubrovnik, I was able to fly in a rather high gear, going I'm sure about 30 km/h.
But..... as I approached Dubrovnik, there was a road that should have had rungs on it, then when I thought I was 'there', I turned a corner and had to climb another road-ladder. I stopped a few times, then sat at the lookout over the old city and fortress of Dubrovnik wondering if I had died - both from the beauty of the view and the pain of the climb.
I actually then did roll into the city at about a gazillion km/h on a reverse ladder. But what a place.
I wanted to be close to the fortress, and am I ever close. The guy I met yesterday in Kotor had suggested an area to look, and sure enough, there they were, and they had a room and somewhere to dry my laundry and store the bike. All for 150 K. Not bad considering the location and the niceness of the spot.
Shortly I will head to the fortress to walk the walls, apparently the highlight of the city. It can be done in total, as they are in fine shape, having been totally repaired after the shelling fom a few years back. So far I have seen no evidence of these bombing scars.
For tomorrow, I am hoping that the hill out of town is not as steep as today, that some how the Adriatic has a magical pull on the hill to make it a lot lower. It's tough climbing that steeply!
Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 776 km (482 miles)
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