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Today we left beautiful Dubrovnik to travel north to Split. We passed several cruise ships, one of them was the Celebrity Constellation which had been in Kotor yesterday. Our hotel was near the New Port and there are lots of "booze cruise" one day boats here that take you around the islands and fill you up with food & booze.
There is a small piece of Bosnia that goes to the Adriatic Sea, so we crossed from Croatia to Bosnia, stopped for coffee, then 6 kilometers later back into Croatia. The border crossing were quick. Apparently this land strip provided a buffer between Dubrovniks land to the south, and Venetian controlled areas to the north, and it has stayed that way. The Croatians are actually discussing building a bridge to nearby islands so that drivers don't have to go through Bosnia on the road. There's alot of tension here between Croats & Serbians.
The route is along the coast and the cliffs dramatically rise up from the ocean. Consequently the road curves alot and I felt a little carsick (or bus sick since we are traveling in a bus). We went by a beautiful farming valley called Neretva where
the Neretva River empties into the Adriatic Sea. Our tour leader Branko knows people here and we stopped at their fruit and liquor stand. We tasted homemade liquor: pear, cherry, mandarin, and herb liquor with a pretty high alcohol content. Branko says they make liquor out of anything - even limestone (just kidding).
We stopped in Makarska, a small, beautiful coastal town. We had time to walk around and have lunch. The weather is quite warm, in the 80's, and it was pleasant to have lunch by the sea. They have "booze cruise" boats here too.
We arrived in Split and had a local tour guide to bring us around the Diocletian palace. Split is the 2nd largest city in Croatia. The name comes from the yellow flowers that grow wild all over the hillsides. The Greek word for the flowers turned into a Roman word which turned into a Venetian word, then shortened to the word Split. Diocletian was born in this area, which was the capital of Roman province of Dalmatia. He was a Roman emperor for 20 years, retired here and had a huge palace built (finished in 303 A.D.). Diocletian was a cruel Roman
leader and tortured & executed many Christians. Diocletian's successor, Constantine, legalized Christianity and made it the official religion of the empire.
The palace is 2 parts: a luxurious villa and a fortified Roman town. Inside the palace walls are a cathedral, crypt, treasury, museum, Jupiter's temple, cellars. When we entered the cellars (Podrumi) there was a huge wine tasting event (they make lots of local wine nearby). For you Game of Thrones fans, the cellars are where Daenerys Targaryen locked up her dragons. The cellars support the structures above. The cellars also held water, some brought by an aqueduct from the mountains which is still used today. Diocletian brought 13 black granite sphinxs from Egypt and Christians destroyed many of them because they hated him.
From the cellars we went to Peristyle, the main square, the cathedral (which was Diocletian's mausoleum), and a mostly intact Sphinx. Diocletian's remains were pillaged by Christians and no one knows where his remains are. Red granite pillars are from Egypt, and the walkway is from local limestone. "Roman soldiers" will pose for pictures, and male singers (klapa singers) performed in one of the domes. Even with a missing top the sound was
great.
There are 2 main streets: north/south (Cardo) and east/west (Decumanus) and the intersection is the main square. Outside the Golden Gate is a statue of Bishop Gregory of Nin, a 10th century Croatian priest that tried to convince Vatican to allow Mass in Croatian rather than Latin. He couldn't convince them and masses were said in Latin for a long time afterwards.
Outside the palace is a pedestrian walk, Obala Hrvatskog Narodnog Preporoda, called Riva for short (Italian for harbor). There are lots of restaurants and souvenir shops here, and it's a nice place to sit and relax.
We checked into our hotel and went to dinner as a group. Two guys playing guitar and accordion and singing accompanied our dinner, and some of us danced ( what can I say, we had all the wine we wanted to drink).
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Pamela Bryant
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Hi Sue, I am enjoying your blog and looking at the beautiful pictures! Be safe!!