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Published: September 23rd 2022
Susan in Hvar
With breakfast pastry, getting ready to get the ferry to SplitGreetings from Split! I only have a mere 18,026 steps today, so I am behind yesterday, but today did involve yet more steps.
We were up quite early this morning, to ensure we were out ready to meet the group by 7:30, with time to get a pastry and coffee first. We hauled our suitcases back down the many steps (it was a lot easier going down than it was going up!) and popped into a bakery for a breakfast pastry to take with us and the coffee shop for a nice cappuccino. We met met the group, then we walked to the dock to catch our 7:45 ferry to Split. These ferries are very efficient, and always have lots of room to store luggage. The one hour trip was smooth sailing, and after we disembarked we waited at the dock for a bit, then met our local guide who took us to our hotel for the night, Hotel Slavija. It is located inside Diocletian’s Palace (more on that later), a really great location. We stored our luggage, then wandered around for 40 minutes or so before we set off on a walking tour with the local guide.
The
guide, Mirijan, was very lively and gave us a fun tour of Diocletian’s Palace. Diocletian was a Roman emperor, and he had this palace built between 295 and 305, for his retirement. The unique thing about the Palace is that it has been continuously occupied, and so has been protected. It is not an archeological site, it is a vibrant place where people live and work, within its walls. Tourism is a relatively new phenomenon in Diocletian’s Palace. Marijan said that when she was growing up there were no tourists, it was just a place where people lived. People still live here in the Palace (Lonely Planet says about 3000), but now have to contend with the big crowds. We started our walk just outside the Palace walls, then walked through the Palace, as Marijan gave us an interesting history and explanation of what we were seeing.
After the close to 1 1/2 hour walk, Susan and I set off on our own. We got tickets for the four main attractions in the Palace: Diocletian’s Mausoleum (which was later converted to the Cathedral of Saint Domnius), the Temple of Jupiter (later converted to the Cathedral’s Baptistery), the Temple of
Cybele (converted to the Treasury), and the Bell Tower. The Cathedral, one of the best preserved ancient Roman buildings still standing, is very beautiful inside. We wandered around the Cathedral, then I climbed the adjacent bell tower. The bell tower was constructed much later - between the 13th and 16th centuries. It was a fairly easy climb until the very last bit which was a narrow, steep stone stairway. There were excellent views, of the town of Split and the Adriatic, from the top of the tower. As I was descending the tower, just as I reached the narrow stairway, the bells, about 2 feet away from me, started clanging! Although I was somewhat prepared as it was close to noon and I knew they rang at noon, it still made me jump.
I met Susan in the main square where the daily show for the tourists was just starting. Actors in Roman costumes come out to the balcony and deliver a few lines. Kitschy but fun. We then continued on to the Temple of Jupiter, which was later converted to the Cathedral’s Baptistery. It is amazingly intact, with a barrel vaulted ceiling. A statue of St. John the
Baptist now sits where the statue of Jupiter would have been. We moved on to the Treasury, across from the Cathedral, a medieval building which stands where the Roman temple to the goddess Cybele once stood. It contains several floors of ecclesiastical collections.
We were now ready for lunch, and we had gone past Fig earlier (there is one in Hvar and one in Split), and I wanted to have a particular dish (flatbread with poached figs, cheese, and walnuts, which sounded really good) but they didn’t start serving lunch until 1:30, so we looked for someplace else (we can go back to Fig when we come back to Split in a week). We stumbled across a vegan restaurant called “Barakokula”, which turned out to be really good. It’s nice to be able to order anything off the menu, which is a rarity anywhere, but especially in Croatia which has a fairly meat-heavy cuisine. I had grilled tofu, with salads and sweet potato fries, and Susan had “Mt. Fuji Sushi”. We also tried some Croatian craft beer (Varionica), which were good.
We went back to Hotel Slavija, picked up our luggage, and settled into our very spacious room.
Not long after I met Zigi and a few other for a walk to Marjan Hill. Susan decided to stay in the room and take advantage of the bathtub to have a nice soak.
I walked up to the first viewpoint, and then to the small St. George’s Church, but decided not to continue the walk up to the top of the hill. I had enough walking yesterday, and I just wanted some quiet time to myself. After reaching the first viewpoint, I decided to stop at the restaurant there with a terrace overlooking the beautiful view, for an Aperol Spritz. This was the first Aperol Spritz of the trip, as I had been saving it for Italy, but I couldn't resist in this fantastic location. I enjoyed my drink, then continued down, along the promenade, then back to the hotel (I remembered just how to get back to it, a bit unusual for me as I generally tend to go in the wrong direction). I had about an hour, then we joined the group for our last dinner together. We are continuing for five more days, but as this is a combination trip, some of the group are
finishing here. Six of us from this group are continuing, and we will be likely be joined by others.
We had dinner at a restaurant just down the steps from the hotel. Susan one of the region’s specialities, called Pasticada (a beef dish with gnocchi), and I had vegetarian ravioli with truffle sauce and cheese. It was pretty good, but we’ve had better meals in Croatia. We also shared 1/2 litre of house white. After goodbyes to the group who are leaving, we headed back to our room, where we shared a teeny bottle of “Maraskino”, a very nice Marasca cherry liqueur, and I worked on the blog. Tomorrow we will have breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel (it’s not included but is reasonable for guests), and then we meet our next trip leader and new group and head out to Sibenik. See you in Sibenik!
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Carolann
non-member comment
What a Trip!!
Hello Lori and Susan ! Really enjoying reading about your travels - good grief you have to be fit! Stunning photos too. Look after yourselves. Carolann