You know nothing, Jon Snow!

Well now we know all the filming locations of Game of Thrones!

Today was Game of Thrones (GoT) tour day where we were taken around lots of the filming locations and shown where and how HBO adapted Dubrovnik to fit with the filming.

But first, we started the day with breakfast in the hotel; now this wasn’t just any breakfast, there was a full continental breakfast including bread, croissants, boiled eggs, fruit, ham, chicken, cheese, yoghurt, mozzarella, olives, tomatoes, peppers, hummus, fresh orange juice, water and coffee!



Breakfast was excellent and we were very full and looking forward to walking off all the calories. We met our guide, Roko, for our GoT tour at the fountain just outside Pile Gate. The first stop was Fort Lovrijenac, or as many might know, the “Red Keep,” or at least one version of the Red Keep!











We took a few pictures, before heading to the old town, now with ear phones to listen to the guide. There were various locations filmed in the old town, but the Main Street was never used as it was too expensive (basically, all shops, homeowners, etc have to be paid). The most important filming location was definitely the steps in front of the Jesuit Church, where Cersei did the walk of shame. 


And, our tour guide was in this scene (guy with his head leaning left). He decided Tommen was too much of a wuss to kill while he had the chance…


After the tour of the old town, we headed towards the ferry to Lokrum Island. Now there are only a few filming locations here, in particular, the trading city of Qarth, but the most important thing on the island, is the Iron throne. This is actually the real Iron throne used in the production which was gifted to Dubrovnik, and I got to sit on it! There is a funny story to this, apparently Queen Elizabeth II was asked if she wanted to sit in the throne, but as a ruling monarch, she had to decline, as she could not sit on another throne.




The island was actually beautiful, and it was only a 15 minute crossing; my only complaint was the number of peacocks, I’m not the biggest fan of things with wings! But i did get an Aperol Spritz and an ice-cream so can’t complain too much!



After the island visit, we continued on with the guide to Ploce Gate and to a taxi which was due to take us to Arboretum Trsteno, a beautiful garden oasis about 30 minutes drive from the old town. It was 10 EUR entry, and only cash was accepted. Now Lokrum island was quiet and peaceful, but this was even better. These gardens were used for lots of conspiring with the Tyrells, Sansa, you name it…..We also saw a snake, harmless apparently, but it did fit quite well with GoT.






The Arboretum was the second last stop of the day, so we got in the taxi and headed to a lookout point; it was absolutely amazing, not only did we see a picturesque Dubrovnik from above, we acould also see three different countries from our spot (Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro).




The tour was excellent, but you definitely need to watch GoT to appreciate the sights and also the CGI which went into changing Dubrovnik to King's Landing.

After the tour, we were dropped off in the old town and decided we needed a drink; thankfully, the first place we found which also had a tiny bit of sun, also had a happy hour! A few drinks later, and we headed back to the hotel to get changed for dinner.


Instead of changing and relaxing, I changed and then we ordered a bottle of wine in the gardens at the hotel. It was beautiful and so relaxing! Unfortunately, we only had 30 minute before dinner, so saved the rest of the bottle for the next day.


Dinner was at Marco Polo, a Michelin recommended restaurant in the old town. We shared bruschetta to start, then I had monkfish wellington and Iain had steak on a lava stone. We were both so full, there was no dessert.






After dinner, we had a quick beer in the Dubrovnik Beer Factory then headed to The Fat Båstard Pub to watch the remainder of Eurovision. All I can say is that it was interesting; we didn’t stay for the votes, but we did watch once we got back to the hotel, before heading to bed around 1am! Well done Austria, not sure I really like the song though….









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