Dubrovnik, GoT#2

Dubrovnik, GoT#2 (10/21)

I just couldn't help myself. Here I am at the site of Game of Thrones' (GoT) King's Landing so I JUST had to go on a tour.

It was every bit as good as the one in Split and it was very cool to see the pictures of the GoT scenes and what bit of the old city was used for the scene and to see how the imagination of the film makers enables them to put together this wholly imaginary world through skillfully piecing together little snippets and the use of computer graphics to enhance or augment what is here.

Plus, our tour guide talked about some of the logistics that made it all work. I much enjoyed it, even if my feet did start to hurt from shuffling about on limestone cobbles. 

'Fun' fact: the roofs in the old city are so red because many of the buildings were damaged by shelling during the 1991 war and have since been rebuilt with new tiles.

Fun fact #2: the pigeons that were released from the pigeon pie at Joffery and Margaery's wedding feast were white and not re-captured. They have since mated with the city's standard gray pigeons and you can now see white or multi-colored white pigeons around the city. (A GoT geek out.)

Fun fact #3: Lena Headey, the actress who portrayed Cercei Lannister, was pregnant when the 'Walk of Shame' scenes were shot so most of the walk was done by a body double, with Lena's head attached via computer graphics to the double's body for the walk as seen on TV. (You get the picture.)

After a bit of rest, I had lunch at the 'Mea Culpa' Pizzeria. Aptly named, I must say, as it's adjacent to many of the sites that were used for Cerce's 'Walk of Shame'. (Sorry about GoT geeking out on you there; you were probably hoping I was done.)

During the afternoon I walked around the city wall. It's sufficiently busy that you're required to walk one way only and once you start there are at most 2 opportunities to exit. I chose the second option and went all the way around. By the time that I started in the early afternoon the wall-walkers had dwindled in number so I didn't feel pressed, which was good because I took a lot of photos.

Many, many stairs and a gelato later I exited from the east gate, where I'd entered in the morning. 

At that point I sat down and completely reconsidered my plan to walk back to the hotel. The route that I'd worked out was about 9km and my feet were telling me that they weren't interested. To make the decision even easier, my resting place was right in front of a cab stand. 

So... 

Cab back to the hotel where I arranged with the nice young man driving to pick me up tomorrow for my trip to the airport.

Well, except for a couple of hours in the morning before heading to the airport, that's it for Croatia, 2019. It's been a great trip and a real adventure for me. Cool, wet Madrid and a reunion with my sweetie are calling out to me.

Highlight video #1, video #2, video #3, video #4