Saturday 22nd April - Zadar

So this is the 5^th Port Day in a row – another day off for Peter, but to be honest, we’ve walked so far, and climbed so many steps over the last few days, I feel like we need a few sea days and classes for a rest.

A nice slow lazy start then, with news from home, before getting to the shuttle bus into town at around 10.30.  The terminal was more like one you’d find in an airport, and we had to walk for ages to find our way out, and as we did, it all got a bit complicated because passengers coming back. (Yeah, I know, coming back already?)  

They told us that there were so many people waiting for the shuttle, it would take an hour before we could get on. And it was an hour walk into town. This caused the ‘frail old dear’ ahead of us to persuade the girl at the tourist info to order an Uber and also persuade us to share it with her.  We agreed, but when we got outside, there wasn’t any waiting for the bus as extras had been laid on.  So the woman jumped on the bus, and we, feeling guilty, waited for the Uber (despite the fact we could have got on the bus).   Shuttle buses left. We waited. The Uber Taxi arrived and the door opened. But it stunk so badly of of really strong cigarette or cigar smoke, we had to walk away.  Luckily, we didn’t have to wait long for the next shuttle, but we’ll definitely be thinking twice before helping out any other “helpless’ old ladies.

Zadar though was lovely. Like Dubrovnik and Split, Zadar has an old town within old fort walls.  The bus dropped us off at the end of the peninsula and we happily walked, enjoying the sunshine, the pleasant surroundings and just being there.

The first thing we investigated was the sea organ.  A little bit of genius to be honest.  Somehow, someone engineered the steps in such a way that as the waves of the sea hit the steps, the air inside was pushed around, to  be forced out of grills and holes in the steps themselves.  Each step section had a different sound and the result was a continuous off beat and random melody.  You could sit and listen for ages, and many people did.

From there it was a walk around the old town, investigating the various points of interest.  There was an old church building, which I think re-used a previous Roman structure which made it interesting inside.

We found a square of Roman remains, known as The Forum, a little harbour, a botanical garden, the old wall itself that you could walk along and a 3D model of the city (no fotie).

Spotting the Chiff Chaff (at least that’s what I think it is), and the little newts in The Forum greenery just added to it.

We really enjoyed our pleasant few hours in Zadar, made better by trying a couple more Croation meat pastries and then a couple of ice creams. 

It was then a shuttle bus back to the ship.  I must admit, that we’ve taken to dropping into the ‘Living Room’, the main lounge on Deck 5, when we get back from port visits.  Mostly to partake of the very excellent chocolate chip cookies or ice cream, as well as a cool drink, such as a beer for Peter, lemonade for me.  Everything is all inclusive, and if we wanted we could eat ourselves sick on the goodies there, but we have to remember we’ll be having dinner later, so we don't.

And that was Zadar.  Now we have a couple of sea days before Cagliari.

Thursday 20th April – Rovinj

Rovinj (pronounced Ro-veen) doesn’t have a pier big enough for a cruise ship, so we anchored out in the bay, and used the lifeboats as tenders to take the passengers across to the small local quay.  Peter and I got there around about 11.

It’s quite a large town - a very lovely, clean, friendly, holiday town to be honest. And central to it is the lovely little Old Town.  Little is a key word here, the Old Town sits on a small mount rising out of the sea.  Top and centre is the local church of St Euphemia and her remains reside in a large stone sarcophagas behind the altar.

All around and leading downwards from the church are the quaintest of narrow streets, lined with art and craft shops. And to top it all the peninsula is surrounded rocky little bays, some of which have been levelled and paved to make patio areas on which to sunbathe and swim from.  Idyllic.

The Old Town is a small area though, so once we'd spent a couple of hours there, we decided to walk a little further, past all the holiday resort hotels, along the coast to the Golden Cape Park.   It’s sort of advertised as a nature reserve, but it’s very much a leisure park, for things such as cycling, climbing, walking, sunbathing and swimming. There are plenty of trees, flowers and wildlife though. Peter and I enjoyed a good few hours wandering.

Having investigated as much as we wanted, we turned to make our way back.  Time was getting on and not having eaten since breakfast, we stopped at a lovely restaurant with a view of the sea and the Old Town.

It was such a lovely warm day, in such a lovely town, we didn’t really want to go back.  We dawdled our way back to the pier, then decided to sit and watch for a while before boarding a tender back to the ship.

So that was Rovinj.

Tomorrow is Venice, one of the reasons we came on this cruise and a place I’ve never visited. As Peter says…… “Bring it on!”

Wednesday 19th April – Split.

 Another easy start to the day, plenty of fuel in the form of breakfast, and we were off the ship around 10am ready to investigate the charms of Split.

I had done a little research before we came away, and I had worked out there were some key places to visit, but I didn’t really understand what I’d read.  Once we’d walked the 10 mins or so from the ship to the old town, and then walked through the Brass Gate, it began to make sense.

The very unassuming Brass Gate between these two buildings.

The Roman Emperor Diocletian was from Croatia. He’d was a good emperor, and also did something very unusual for an emperor, he retired.  He planned it years before and built himself a massive palace to retire to in what is now Split. It was finished in 305 AD, and he lived there for 11 years before he died.  A good deal of that palace is still standing, with much of the old town built into it.  The Brass Gate that we’d just walked through was one of the doorways into the palace.  

Actually, the Brass Gate leads into the basement halls of the palace.  It’s a huge area, quite an amazing space with loads of rooms large and small that just seemed to go on one after another after another. For €7 each we could go have a wander, so we did.

From there we went on into the rest of the palace grounds.  First there was more of the basement, where all the souvenir stalls were set up.  There was some really nice stuff, but I don’t understand why rucksacks made in Nepal were being sold on craft stalls in Croatia?

Onwards and upwards to the ‘Peristil’, a central courtyard in the palace grounds. As we pottered around we came across an operatic trio making use of the acoustics of one of the remaining roman rooms.  An awesome sound!

For €12 each, we could visit the Cathedral and the Bell Tower with the Treasury Museum thrown in for free.

The bell tower is relatively modern, with very high steep steps at the bottom before opening out to the space you can see in the photograph below.

The Cathedral is definitely an old roman building that had been converted.  The carved lions at the entrance, the huge marble pillars and the hunting frieze circling the ceiling were among the many clues.  And to think the original building dates from 305 AD!

The rest of our time there, we simply explored.  We passed Jupiter’s Temple, walked out of the Iron Gate, bought lunch from what seemed to be the Croatian equivalent of Greggs, took photo’s of the Gold Gate and wandered back into the area of the palace through the Silver Gate.  All in all a good day’s wandering.

 

Peter dwarfed by the statue at the Gold Gate

And that was Split. 

Tomorrow we are in Rovinj, (pronounced Ro-VEEN).  No research done on this one, so I haven’t a clue what to expect.

Tuesday 18th April - Dubrovnik

We were looking forward to this port, me because I’d heard it was a brilliant place to visit, and Peter because he’d been before and really liked it.  He told me it was a brilliant place to visit.

And then of course, there is Game of Thrones.  We were both avid followers of the series, and with Peter being a bit of a groupie regarding anything to do with filming, Dubrovnik promised so much.

We docked in the port, surrounded by hills and mountains on land and islands out to sea. It all made for a gorgeous view as we stepped out onto the balcony this morning. 

We didn’t rush, making sure we had a good breakfast, and caught the 10 o’clock shuttle bus which took us the 3 miles or so to the historical centre of Dubrovnik.  The old town is completely walled in, full of narrow and angular streets that criss cross in all directions, climbing up and down on steep sets of stairs.  Not a place for a car, van or lorry.  Again, after a little online research before we came away, we had decided our aim today was to walk the city walls. The shuttle bus stopped just outside said walls, so we headed straight for the entrance gate.

Our first shock came when we realised that in order to walk the walls, we would have to buy tickets at €35 each!  We were astounded.  But tickets included access to all the museums etc within the walls, and it’s not as if we come to Dubrovnik every day.  We paid the €70, got the tickets and set off.

There are a LOT of steps up and down the walls, and it’s a good trek to go all the way round, but we loved it. I remarked to Peter that many places that we visited had one or good views to enjoy as you walked round, but here, everywhere you looked from those walls was a view.  It was stunning.

I loved looking inwards from the walls, at the narrow stair ways and alleys running throughout the old town.  The tiles on the rooves, the chimneys, ruins of old buildings, cafes, gardens and churches.  They all made up the fascinating landscape of the city.  Although the it was expensive, we were very glad we’d opted to pay the price and do the wall walk.  It was brilliant.

We came to the last tower - here's Peter, I made him stand while I took the picture of the backdrop.

And it turned out it was the one from the Game of Thrones scene where Daenerys can't get into the tower where her baby dragons have been locked away (second series I think). I remember her walking around it, and there wasn't an entrance.

In reality, of course there is an entrance, and quite a lot stairs to the top to give excellent views.

And finally, we'd done the complete circuit. So we descended back into the old town and then wandered up and down the streets and stairways to find a couple of locations where GoT scenes had been filmed, one of the most famous of which was the Jesuit Staircase, where Cersey had to make her Walk of Shame.

As we wandered we came across an art type museum covered by the Dubrovnik pass, so we decided to pop in and have a look.

But our tickets weren’t right?  We were told we couldn't go in? Apparently there are two types of tickets: the Dubrovnik pass, at €35 which allows access to the city walls, visit Fort Lovrijenac and all the museums etc, and the city wall tickets, at €35 only allow you to walk around the walls and visit the fort.  But that wasn’t explained when I bought the tickets, and the guy in the ticket office never asked if I wanted one or the other.  So if you are reading this and plan to get tickets yourselves – check first!  I suspect that you can only buy the Dubrovnik pass online.

Anyway, feeling a little miffed, we consoled ourselves with an ice cream as we made our way towards the town gate.  And what an ice cream!  We certainly weren’t short changed there.  Two scoops equalled a mountain, and it took us a while to eat it all.  It was really nice too.

Out of the gate, we made our way over to Fort Lovrijenac.  Oh my!  More steps, up and up and up.  But once we reached the top and got inside the fort, we found ourselves looking at more GoT film locations, and even better, more views.  The top of the tower at the fort must be nearly as high as the highest point of Dubrovnik old town walls.  Looking over, we could see the rooves of everything inside. Fantastic.

Then it was down, down, down all the way to the gorgeous little bay used in so many GoT scenes and then on to the shuttle bus back to the ship.

A brilliant day, and somewhere we would be very happy to visit again, which is really good, cos we are coming back in October. 

Tomorrow we are in Split.  I wonder how that will compare.