Thanks Dianne and Mary. You might try refreshing the picture page. There seems to be a glitch where sometimes the right arrow doesn't show up to click for the rest of the photos, but it does on a refresh.
The Croatian Riviera
I came home to find the San Francisco Chronicle’s travel section with a cover story touting the Croatian Riviera as the Next Big Thing – the place to hobnob with the “in” crowd. I had no idea we were so with it.
Apparently, the “in” crowd is German, British and French. We only came across a few Americans during our entire trip – a couple from DC we met on the plane from Dubrovnik to Zagreb and Martha Stewart’s neighbor, the one she got in some landscaping feud with a while back. He – along with three friends and his six-man crew - was cruising his 112-foot boat, Unfurled, in the same areas we were. We thought the boat should be called Furled though, as we never did see them raise the sails. Another impressive boat was the 189-foot Princess Tanya, which pulled in at Hvar while we were there. Tanya is a charter that sleeps 18 in addition to the crew and rents for $238,000 a week. Whoever had her appeared to be Asian royalty – or at least was treated as such. Every time the young woman appeared on deck, she was surrounded by five white-gloved people in waiting. Our dinghy could have been its dinghy’s dinghy.
The coastal towns we visited included Trogir, a small island town connected to the mainland by a short bridge. Trogir has a beautiful waterfront lined with restaurants and has a quay where boats tie alongside. The town has Venetian influences as it was under Venetian rule for a lengthy period. There’s a colorful outdoor farmers’ market daily as well as vendors selling T-shirts and other items. There’s a fort at one end of the island. We stayed directly across the quay at the Villa Sikaa, a quaint hotel with nice views of the waterfront and a friendly staff. Breakfast was yogurt, toast and omelets. There’s not a lot to buy in Croatia, but I did find some good buys on some silver jewelry in Trogir.
From Trogir, we made a day trip to Split, the home of Diocletian’s Palace. It’s an amazing place built around 300 AD and containing some 220 buildings that are now homes and contemporary shops, such as Benetton and Mango. Diocletian had the place built as his retirement home. Apparently, he only ventured out to watch Christians get thrown to the lions. The place is wonderfully preserved. There’s a peristyle courtyard, an Egyptian sphinx and a belltower you can pay a couple of dollars to climb up. Ironically, Diocletian’s mausoleum was eventually turned into a Christian church and his body was removed. The octagonal building now has an interesting relic-filled treasury. There are pieces of skulls inside metal head-shaped containers with viewing windows on the top, boxes of bones, pieces of fingers, and purportedly a couple of pieces from Jesus’ cross. The basement is also open for a couple dollar admission fee. It used to be the garbage dump – those above would put their trash down holes to the basement, but it’s been cleaned out and you can walk through and see the wonderful vaulted ceilings. It also houses contemporary art work. Between Split and Trogir is a large modern mall with an enormous supermarket and several attractive shops. The place was just about empty.
The coastal road from Trogir to Dubrovnik is said to take anywhere from four to five hours depending on the traffic and the weather. Just about everything in Croatia – including some of the roads – is made from limestone. When it gets wet, it gets slippery. The coast road has limestone in it and is apparently the scene of many wrecks during the rain. Fortunately, we had sun on the coast, no traffic and a relatively quick drive to Dubrovnik.
Next: A stop in Bosnia, a few days in Dubrovnik and finally getting our boat