Bean team‘s Dubrovnik culture shock

Dubrovnik is steeped in 1400 years of history but our intrepid travellers discover that tourists are more interested in landmarks where the Games of Thrones and Star Wars were filmed.

The Old City of Dubrovnik was designated a UNESCO world heritage site in 1979 but all anyone visiting wants to see is where they filmed Game of Thrones.

History is a funny thing. When The Daily Telegraph’s Bean team arrived at the walled city on Croatia’s Adriatic coast in their vintage car tourists from the tour buses crowded round with no idea of the epic drive Francis Birtles undertook in the same model Bean car a century before.

DONATE: Birtles and the Bean fundraiser for Royal Flying Doctor Service

Former Dubrovnik Airlines hostess Manuela Sabic has worked in tourism since she was a teenager and is amazed at the current generation’s take on the 1400-year-old city.

“Dubrovnik was always a crowded city but today all the tourists want is to see where they filmed Game of Thrones, Star Wars and Robin Hood.

Matthew Benns in Dubrovnik where Game of Thrones was filmed.

“It is funny to think there is so much history here and that is what people are interested in,” she said.

Which is all well and good but where exactly did they do all that filming?

“We never knew, it was all very secret,” she said. “Tour guides can take you round now but back then they filmed in winter when the tourists were not here and kept things under wraps.”

Filming in winter would explain why Cersei Lannister looked so unhappy when she did her naked walk of atonement down the Jesuit Steps in the city.

See where in the world the adventurers are in the map below:

It is just one of the many famous TV and movie spots the Bean team of The Daily Telegraph’s cartoonist Warren Brown and I have taken in on their epic 24,000 km drive from London to Melbourne.

Highlights include the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley where the Bean car was made 100-years-ago and Peaky Blinders was filmed and Hohenwerfen Castle in the Austrian Alps which was renamed The Schloss Adler for the movie Where Eagles Dare.

The journey the original adventurers did in 1927. Illustration: Warren Brown

Since leaving London with a farewell from Miss England Milla Magee and the warmest wishes of King Charles the Bean has covered 2300km – roughly the same distance as Sydney to Cairns.

The walled city of Dubrovnik is a World Heritage Site.

However, crossing Europe the Bean has travelled through eight countries – England, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia.

Team mechanic Tony Jordan spent his day in Dubrovnik changing the oil and running a “spanner check” on the venerable roadster.

“The Bean is running absolutely perfectly at his stage,” he said. “We have done a few modifications including a new radiator to replace the old honeycomb one and they have definitely helped improve the original car.

“I have absolutely no doubt it will make it all the way to Melbourne.”