Kastela

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Kim enjoyed her specially cooked GF breakfast this morning, as I did mine.



We had a bit of a lazy morning, as the weather wasn’t great, and our boat trip to Split wasn’t due to depart until 11.15am. When we arrived at the Ferry Terminal, there was a sign there saying that the ferry would not be running today due to the weather.



We trudged back to the apartment, picked up the car keys, and headed for Split. As a detour, we decided to take the coast road to Split via Kastela. The "town" of Kastela is actually composed ofseven coastal villages built around 15th and 16th-century castles. At the time, wealthy families in Split felt greatly threatened by the march of the Ottoman Turks into Europe. One by one, they filed into Kastela Bay and built fortified mansions. With the sea in front and Kozjak Hill behind, they were in a good defensive position. As it happened, the Turks never arrived but the castles remain.



Signs indicating directions to each fortified mansion are found along the road through Kastela, and we took a detour to view each one.



After winding our way through the seven coastal villages that make up Kastela, we finally arrived at Split. At the time of planning our holiday, we were tossing up whether to stay in Split or Trogir. We are so glad we stayed in Trogir, as Split is a large run down tourist mania. We parked our car near the docks where a myriad of ferries and buses were coming and going, ferrying passengers to all points of the Adriatic Sea. The tourist shops lining the docks were tacky and run down.



We headed for the Palace of Diocletian, which was pretty impressive. The Palace was built for the Roman Emperor Diocletian at the turn of the fourth century AD, and it remains the world’s most complete Roman Palace. During our visit to the Palace, it started to rain heavily, and thus, we had to seek refuge in an up market coffee shop that sold Macarons. The coffee and cake hit the spot, and provided us with the energy we needed to continue on our walk through the Palace.



With the weather closing in again, we decided to Split from Split, and head back to our apartment in Trogir.

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