Croatia and a couple of Balkans, day 2, Lokrum Island

A short boat trip from Dubrovnik lands you at a small jetty on the island of Lokrum. The boat was packed and there had been trips going all morning but the island seemed large enough to accommodate everyone without any crowds.
Lokrum has an interesting history. The Benedictines established a monastery here in 1023 and legend has it that Richard the Lionheart came ashore when his boat was wrecked, returning from the crusades in 1192. Richard wanted to donate a church to the island for the hospitality he had received but was implored to build the church on the mainland instead, and so Richard is rumoured to have funded the first cathedral in Dubrovnik. The island was later owned by the wife of Archduke Ferdinand of Hapsburg who had a mansion and gardens built here in 1859. Maximilian was executed after he had become the Emperor of Mexico and his wife became insane. The mansion has now all but disappeared but some of the gardens remain and a botanical garden was established here in 1959.
It was late morning when we went so the sun was high in a very blue sky and we were looking forward to a swim. Here is the landing jetty which has a background of umbrella pines. Being hungry we sat overlooking the jetty and ate our pizza and cheese pastry. The Croatians are very good at pastry!

A little walk from the jetty takes you to the ruins of a Benedictine monastery which has a rather nice looking restaurant in the middle where we eventually had a cup of coffee. There were a number of peacocks strutting round, just adding a little atmosphere with their cries.

We walked through the ruins until we came to an olive grove. This and the surrounding area was filled with little rabbits who seemed to have no fear and had crossbred to create some interesting colour patterns. Olive groves are so very photogenic and some of the trees were apparently of a great age.

We proceeded across the island until we came to a little swimming hole on the other side. This is a very salty lagoon known as the Mrvto More or Dead Sea. It was indeed so salty that I found it impossible to keep my legs under the water to swim!. It was not as warm as we thought it was going to be and so we took a long time to get fully submerged, but once there it was very pleasant.

Next we walked further to the sea shore which was very rocky with steps leading down into the water for swimmers. There was a fort like structure at the top which we went to. It was all very Aegean!

Here are some more abstract pictures from the shore, using a 'big stopper' filter and some intentional camera movement. My forays into 'art' were stopped when the filter fell into a rock pool. It was unbroken but rather salty so I though it best to get it back to the apartment for a wash before using it again!

We had the cup of coffee sitting in the sun and discovered an exhibition on the Game of Thrones, as the island is used as a location (neither of us have ever seen this programme). Anne took the opportunity to sit on the eponymous throne!

Finally we walked through the botanical gardens, after a fairly extensive search for them. There were cacti and lilies as well as a carpet of orange autumn croci over the lawns.

 

Finally it was back to the jetty for the short ride home. Lokrum had been so pretty and interesting for an afternoon's entertainment.