Another day, another Kuna, another lovely breakfast on the terrace. Today we were in no particular hurry as the Games Of Throne walking tour didn’t start until 11am.
We ambled down the hill again and in though the City Walls. We were met by a sheer mass of people. Dubrovnik is on the Cruise Ship standard tour. In summer they can have passengers from 6 or more ships in dock at the same time. The place must be an absolute nightmare then. We had been warned in advance to take heed of the published cruise ship schedule. As it was early in the season today there were ‘just’ 3 ships visiting today with a total of 3000 passengers disembarking for the day. It was like Disney on a really bad day. There were tour groups everywhere and it was a struggle to walk along the streets. We saw 23 different tour groups from one ship alone. Somehow this all needs to be controlled more as it really wasn’t pleasant. Nevertheless we met up with about 40 other people who had also booked the GOT (I know the jargon now) tour. We were split into 2 groups and our guide was a self confessed GOT geek.
Now I did try really hard to engage and be interested in what we were being told and shown but it lasted all of about 10 minutes. Karen was enthralled from the outset. After a load of background nonsense we were taken for a photo opportunity at what I thought was the Kings Landing. I kind of understood that until Karen explained that Kings landing was not a jetty as such but a place. At this point I lost interest at all, especially when Karen couldn’t tell me what planet these mythical countries were set on.
I just cannot understand or do any form of fantasy or science fiction. Anything which does not comply with the natural laws and normal physics baffle me, especially where the author can make stuff up to make or get out of a situation. There are of course some exceptions to this that I do like but they are rare. The boys always quote that I liked Harry Potter. But here’s a confession I only really liked the first book/film. The one with the background and setting up the premise between the ‘muggle’ world and the magical one. As each book/film went on I liked them less and less to the point where I never understood what was going or why. Don’t get me started on Star Wars. To appease Neil I did go to see one of the more recent ones with him. I tried really hard to understand and get into it. Neil knew he was on a loser when I asked as it started if the Stormtroopers were goodies or baddies (still cannot recall the answer). I had no idea who any of the people were or what they were doing and so fell asleep. Neil woke me up and I was then even more lost so rather than annoy him and disturb others with my snoring I left and waited outside enjoying people watching all the other geeks waiting for latter showings. The same applies to all the Marvel films. I kind of liked the first ones in each series (Iron Man 1, Captain Marvel, Black Panther etc ) with the set up and the background. After that I am totally lost with all the CGI fighting sequences that go on forever for no purpose. I simply have no idea who is fighting who in the Avengers films. If in any of these types of films/shows they can make up new rules like flying or dragons or resurrection or whatever then why don’t they just do it from the start and put us all out of our misery, Fantasy stories are just fairy stories for adults. Give me a good rom-com with Meg Ryan anyday, with characters I can believe in and want to be. Rant over.
The tour then took us up to fortress where they filmed a load more scenes. They seemed to made great use of CGI in changing some of the backgrounds. I wondered why they bothered even coming to Dubrovnik and didn’t just green screen everything but decided I should keep that thought to myself. The fortress itself was quite spectacular and I wandered around rather than listening to the talk. After this we were taken to the Walk of Shame. It was here Karen decided she felt cheated as the actress playing whoever it was who did the walk did not actually do so naked. They flew someone in from the UK who was her body double. This was due to the fact the original actress (Lena Hedley?) was not only pregnant but also has more than 60% of her body covered in tattoos. The body double got paid £1000 for walking down the stairs 6 times whilst extras threw jam & marmalade at her each time (I have no idea why).
In truth the tour had taken us to many of the places we had already visited but of course we did not know the connection with GOT etc. I thought it was a lot of money for what it was but Karen got her money’s worth. We passed 6 other GOT tours whilst doing ours and they were also running all through the day. The tour ended with us being taken to the official HBO store where they had a replica Throne (the original is in a studio in Belfast). I assume (perhaps wrongly) that this is what the whole series about. We both had our photo sitting in it. It wasn’t a very comfortable throne. We thanked the guide and I informed him that I had no idea what he had been talking about as I had never seen the programme. I think he was bemused by why I had come along but I told him I had been dragged by the Queen of the East (well I thought it was funny).
By now some of the Cruise passengers had departed so the streets were returning to normal levels. We found somewhere for lunch and ordered Caesar salads. In keeping with all the food to date, these were probably the worst we have ever had.
We then decided to walk the City Walls. These are 1.9km all around and were amazing. The admission is not cheap and there is no readmission. The walk way is one way round (although typically we kept passing people from the Asian continent ignoring that and causing all sorts of confusion). The views were great although Karen struggled with her knee at the number of steps both up and down. About ¾ way round we stopped at a cafe on the walls and got her a beer as a reward. The walls were definately worth the effort of the walk and climb and offered almost a calm view of the City below.
We then ambled back to the Hotel where we sat on one of the terraces for a while enjoying the fine weather. As we had done loads of walking and still not had a decent meal in any restaurant we decided just to go to the Hotel Piano bar (still no pianist) to order from the bar menu. As before it was acceptable if expensive and with that another day was done.
