Monday journey to Cavtat and Konavle

Cavtat harbor

Almost everybody on the tour took this morning’s optional trip to Cavtat and Konavle.  Cavtat is a fishing village, turned to tourism, about 10 miles south of Dubrovnik.  There are water taxis connecting Dubrovnik and Cavtat, but we took the more prosaic bus.  The town is set on the side of a hill and along a sheltered bay, almost an artificial movie-set in its beauty.  We walked through back lanes (this is a town of only 2,000), through a grove of trees and up a hill to a cemetery.  The whole setting was so beautiful that our tour group kept splitting up into little subgroups as people wandered off looking for the best photography angle. 

Leading our group is like herding cats even under optimum herding conditions (meaning raining or windy).  Today was a sunny morning and we were all more interested in seeing the town than listening to Program Leader Dino give us touring instructions.  Dino is extremely patient about herding us all together up the hill (I guess he knows we can’t get too lost between the bay and the hill behind it in this small town.)

Our next stop is Konavle, a farming area in the long valley running from east of Dubrovnik to Montenegro to the south.  In the mountainous country of Croatia, Konavle is a rare flat area along a river and heavily farmed.  It’s also known for wines.

We stop at a centuries old water mill for lunch which of course includes the obligatory shot of grappa.  There are people in historical Croatian costumes to greet us but most of us are busy petting the resident horse and donkey.  (As I said earlier, we just don’t herd well.) 

The mill is interesting; it doesn’t use an overshot wheel for power but rather an axle with vanes under the mill stone.  This allows the miller to vary the grinding speed by the depth the axle is lowered into the stream (which is very strong and fast).

We’re fed lunch, consisting of the usual bread, cheese, prosciutto and wine.  We manage to form a line for this - food always gets our attention and we herd up well for lunch.