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Published: April 30th 2013
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Sunday 28th April, 2013. Split, Dalmatia, Croatia
Today was our first tender stop. This means that we cannot dock as the ship is too big - so we anchor offshore. A few of the lifeboats miraculously become 'tender boats' and are used to ferry the passengers from the ship to the shore. The advantage of tender stops is that they usually drop you off at the heart of the destination. The disadvantage is that you have to take a ticket and wait your turn in the Vista Lounge. All of the guests on tours get to go first. With this in mind we decided to go and have a posh breakfast in the restaurant. This always takes ages but the quality of the food is excellent and we knew we would have to wait for a tender boat anyway.
Once we had tendered ashore we headed straight for the tourist office which is located in the Diocletian Palace. This is not a single palace but the name for the old town. The Tourist Office is situated in the Church of St Roche which is a place of interest in its own right. We picked up a walking tour map
and headed straight for Galeria Mestrovic (The Mestrovic Gallery). The gallery is out of Split town and we decided to walk there along the newly renovated seafront. It was extremely clean and well done. There were even permanent wooden sun-loungers along the promenade so people could take a rest and take in some sun. D tried one out. There were some modern metal sculptures and paving stones dedicated to successful Croatian Olympic Medalists of the past. There were quite a few of these. Seems they are a nation that is sh*t hot at water polo!
After some 40 minutes we reached the Gallery which houses the sculptures of Ivan Mestrovic. We purchased our tickets which we were told by the sales girl, also included entry to Mestrovic's Crikvine. We decided to do the Crikvine first and return to the main gallery afterwards. This was located about 250 metres further down the road. Mestrovic Crikvine is a 16th century Renaissance summerhouse, which Ivan Mestrovic bought and refurbished based on his own design between 1939 and 1941 for use as a place of peace and contemplation. The complex is located on a secluded cliff top above the sea, Mestrovic interpolated a
cloister with stone Doric columns and the Holy Crucifix church. We strolled around the cloisters and took some photos of the statue of Apocalypse located at the far end. We were just about to leave when the janitor called us and told us we had missed the best bit! He directed us to a small doorway which led into the Holy Crucifix Church. This contained a cycle of 28 wooden reliefs portraying the Live of Jesus of Nazareth which are erected on the church walls. It took nearly 35 years (1916-1950) for Mestrovik to complete the panels (largely when he was away from Croatia). The cycle is one of the masterpieces of European Sacral Sculpture. The chapel also contains an impressive carved wooden Crucifix in the sanctuary.
We then retraced our steps and visited the main gallery which houses Mestrovic's sculpture masterpieces. These are made of marble, bronze, plaster and wood covering all the periods of his rich, creative work. The gallery was built based on Mestrovic's own design between 1931 and 1939 and was intended to be his family home and his working studio. It is surrounded by a beautiful Mediterranean garden which contains some lovely bronze sculptures.
The view of the sea and the Central Dalmatian Islands is spectacular.
After leaving the gallery we found a way back down to the beach. We followed the coastal path (passing the water polo club) all the way back into Split town re-joining the new promenade just after the marina. The walk along the path was very picturesque - reminded us a lot of home. We didn't see any other cruise passengers which was lovely.
We made our way back to the Diocletian Palace where D put on his tour guide hat. We followed the route which we found in a local free newspaper which we'd picked up at the Tourist Office earlier. It contained a good map and walking tour. The Palace itself was begun around 298AD and took 10 years to complete. Typically Roman, it is rectangular in shape. Its two main streets run North to South and East to West and create 4 quarters. There are 4 main gates located in the centre of each outside wall. We entered through the Iron Gate. We took in many of the sites following the walking guide carefully (we saw too many things to list them all in
this blog). We paid the 10 Kunas each to go up the Bell Tower. M got about two-thirds of the way up and had to stop (damn vertigo!). D continued to the top and took some pictures of the views over the city.
We changed our remaining Kunas back into Euros and caught the tender back to the ship. We had lunch and then went to the quiz. We came equal first and won a couple of snazzy Holland America line lapel pins. We went to the 6 pm variety show featuring Annette Wardell (the English soprano) and David Howarth (the English pianist) before going to dinner. We shared again with Jennifer and Bill (who we had first met a couple of nights ago) from Canada. Bill reminds M of Clark Kent (Superman). Our best day yet!
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Linda Thornley
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Look at D chilling out.....
Where does he think he is?....on holiday! Love the photos...loads of information! Hope you're having a great time. xx