August 16 – Trogir and Sibenik

We are enjoying our little hotel just inside the Silver Gate of Diocletian’s Palace here in Split. It has such a lovely terrace where we are enjoying breakfast outside each morning and evening drinks every evening.  

Down side - yesterday was a major festival day and folks partied in the adjacent square until 2:00am. And the bells in  the practically adjacent bell tower started pealing merrily away at six am. 

We are all a little tired. 🥱

We have an all-day tour to some of the small towns in the surrounding area.  On the way out of Split we saw an aqueduct. Turns out it dates from the end of the 3^rd century to the beginning of the 4^th century and was bult by Diocletian.  It was destroyed in the 6^th century but was rebuilt.  It brought water to Split until 1932.

Our first stop is the small fishing village (and tourist town) of Trogir.  The town dates from the Roman times and the old section was great to walk…narrow streets, ancient stone buildings, colorful locals…

and a pretty promenade along the waterfront. 

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More Trogir
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From there we followed the coastline for quite a ways…lovely but we didn’t get to stop.  

The drive ended in the small fishing village of Sibenik.  This is a much “newer” city in that it doesn’t date from the Greek and Roman times.  It was founded by the Croats and the first mention of it in the historical record was in 1066. 

We had lunch at a sidewalk café and then headed on up the hill to see more windy, narrow streets and…

the Cathedral of St. Lawrence (no photos inside). 

At one square a musician was playing a lovely sounding instrument that looked like a lap-sized flying saucer or two dented woks welded together.  After getting back to wi-fi access we did a bit of research. 

It is called a Hang, and according to Google the name comes from the Bernese German word Hang, that has a double meaning…Hand or Hillside (for the shape of the instrument).  It is played by tapping the sides of the saucer.  The sound was soft, warm and soothing.  Loved it. 

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More Sibnek
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Then it was back to the long drive back to Split.  

Back in Split we did a bit more sight seeing...

and a visit to the Silver Gate. 

As well as a visit to the "basement" in the walls of the Diocletian Palace.

We had dinner at a café we liked along the waterfront.  What a great stay in this lovely town.

Split, Croatia...what an absolutely gem of an old city.  And it is crawling with tourists.  Old town Split is dominated by the palace built by the Roman emperor, Diocletian.  The walls are pretty much intact, everything within the walls is tightly controlled in terms of exterior work, it is a labyrinth of tiny windy streets but retains the Roman lay out of two main streets that cross in the middle.  

We have thoroughly enjoyed exploring.  And the best part...sitting in the sidewalk cafes, having a drink or meal, people watching and enjoying the lovely warm breezes coming off the Adriatic. 

August 17 – Drive to Dubrovnik

We were picked up late morning for our transfer to Dubrovnik, a four plus hour drive.  We were ready on time and a greeter walked us down to the harbor area where we were to be picked up by our driver…who was having phone problems (or whatever) and was about 45 minutes late.  But he showed up so all was well.

The drive was partially inland...

where we saw a number of small towns on the hills. 

We had a short stop for a drink and refreshments and then headed out again.  The last half of the drive was mostly along the coast.  It was a very lovely drive.

One of the towns we drove by was the town of Ston.  We didn't get to stop.  Too bad, looked like it might be worth a bit of wandering.  We were able to get a few photos through the windows.

We arrived early afternoon in Dubrovnik…a city that is perched between the side of the mountains and the coastline.  

Paul accidently left his phone in the car so there was a bunch of frantic phoning of the tour company and his cell phone.  The driver must have eventually been reached or heard the phone ringing and he eventually picked up.  Fortunately, he hadn’t gone too far and the phone made it back to Paul before too long.

It was pretty warm out and so we decided to have snacks at the bar at our hotel and then rested for a while in our rooms.

For dinner we headed out to a restaurant recommended by the bar staff.  It was just around the corner from the hotel.  We ate on the terrace where we had great views of the city walls.  And the food was very good.  

It was a lovely evening.

August 18 – Dubrovnik City Tour

We had a morning walking tour of Dubrovnik.  It is humid and a bit warm so we were all wilting by mid-morning. 

Dubrovnik is Magic.  Known as the Pearl of the Adriatic, it is just Magic.  The area was originally founded by the Greeks but the massive fortifications and the town inside were established by the Croats and construction of the walls was done between the 12th and 17th centuries.  They are in incredible shape

The place was pretty packed and they even have directional signs (way in and way out) to get into the city to avoid a massive jam.

The walls are almost 6360 feet long.  After our city tour Paul decided to climb the stairs up to the top of the wall and walk the entire length, in the sun, heat and humidity...and came back soaked.  (Google said over 1000 stairsteps from ground, all the way around the wall, and back to ground.)  Glad he made the trek because he got really good shots.  The rest of us stuck street level.  

Much of the city within the walls was massively bombed during their war of independence from Yugoslavia (1991-92) and 86% of the buildings within the walls were destroyed.  What an amazing  restoration project.  

The absolutely most impressive feature of Dubrovnik is the massive city walls that date from the 12^th to the 17^th century. 

We started at a plaza near the West Harbor.  There were lots of tourists in the plaza listening to tour guides.  Overlooking the harbor was Lovrijenac Castle, a small, secondary castle.

There were lots of kayakers in the harbor, getting ready to head out of the harbor.  The brightly light kayaks were a big contrast to the stone walls of the city.

Inside we had a great city walk through about half of the city.  There is a main, wide street that runs from the city gate to the eastern harbor gates.  All the streets heading inland had lots of stairs going up the side of the mountain to the walls.  The side streets heading to the water were all pretty flat and that is where the tour focused. 

No vehicles are allowed in the city but even if they were they would only be able to drive from one gate to the other.  All the side streets were very narrow and could handle only pedestrians and a few hand carts.  There were lots of small shops, cafés and ice cream shops in the town.  

We even found a rubber duckie shop so bought one for our little grandson. 

We stopped by the Dubrovnik Cathedral but didn’t go in. 

We eventually ended up at the east gate where the tour ended.  There was also a big harbor there with lots of boats and what looked to be ferries.

We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the harbor.  Then Mary, Phyllis, and Jim headed back to the hotel and Paul decided to walk the city walls…in the sun.  And the heat.  And the humidity.  The walk was 1.2 miles and Google said over 1000 stairsteps from ground, all the way around the wall, and back to ground.  

The views of the city were great…looking over the vast expanse of orange tile roofs.

And there were also good sea views.

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More Dubrovnik
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Paul came back absolutely soaked from the sun and the heat.

After resting up a bit we all decided we were still too tired to head back into town…so we all decided to have dinner at the hotel.  Food was pretty good, lovely terrace eating but it was right on the main road so there was a lot of traffic noise.  The chocolate dessert was pretty awesome.