Trogir to Zadar via Sibenik and Krka

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Wednesday, 23 June 2010
Km so far: 2872

Left Trogir in the sunshine and drove up the coast heading north, initially to visit Sibenik, where there is the famous cathedral of St James. The coastal drive was as scenic as ever, and there seems to be no end to the number of islands that lie off the Dalmatian coast. It must be a brilliant place for sailing.

Sibenik has a maritime flavour to it with lots of boats around and numerous offers to cruise the islands. The cathedral is well worth a detour as it is the most magnificent church we have seen in the Balkans, enormous, beautifully executed in the Romanesque style with an impressive dome, a colourful rose window and a baptistery cleverly illuminated by natural light to create a sort of grotto of cream light in the dark bowels of the church.

From Sibenik drove inland a few miles to visit the Krka National Park, famed for its series of waterfalls. Took a boat up river from Skradin and spent an hour traversing the well laid out walkways and climbing innumerable steps to view the cascades which are an impressive sight. Lots of children were swimming in the water. We did not have time to go up river and there is a lot more to see, but it is not the sort of national park you can just wander around, you must stick to the trails. Nevertheless, I wished we had more time, but we wanted to reach Zadar before dark.

Did a short stretch of fantastic and empty motorway before realising that we were missing some more coastal scenery so headed west and up the coast to Zadar, which turned out not to be as stunning as some of the other stretches of coast. After some difficulty orientating ourselves we found the ‘Pansion Albin’, a B&B about a mile out of the town centre, very comfortable with a very accommodating host.

Spent the evening in Zadar Old Town which is quite different to Trogir, Dobrovnik etc. It is not an old Venetian town, having been built by the Croats, and it is a mixture of styles from the 17th century to modern, with German and French influences. It does not have the feel of being a tourist playground, it is a real live busy place, a port for boats to Ancona, hundreds of yachts in the large natural harbour, and of course dozens of attractive street cafes.

Having eaten we walked along to the seafront and at the north-east corner of the Old Town are a couple of modern additions. The ‘Sea Organ’ is a series of tubes beneath the pavement through which air is forced by the lapping waves to create eerie deep musical tones that emanate from the holes at your feet. The ‘Greeting to the Sun’ is a 50 feet wide glass bricked floor with a surrounding circle of brightly coloured lights set into the pavement. Below the glass pavement are hundreds of coloured lights that produce waves of colour. We could not decide if this was random or in response to people moving about on the glass floor, but however it works it is an impressive piece of art and attracted a big crowd.

Long drive planned for tomorrow, all the way to Rovinj, beyond Pula, almost at the end of Croatia.

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