Split - A Time to Slow Down (Even Further) - Weeks 4 and 5

Greetings, trip followers!

Our next 2 weeks were in Split, the 2nd largest city in Croatia.  It’s on the coast and highly influenced by the Adriatic.  Our AirBnB was about 30 minutes on foot from the ferry dock.  Unfortunately, Roger’s faithful “maps.me” app sent us the long way around, but we arrived safely and met our host.  The AirBnB was larger than our last one—a two-bedroom instead of a studio.  The online pictures made it look better than it actually was (an old realtor’s trick), but it served our purposes well.

We needed several “down” days to handle a few issues like washing clothes, writing the blog, basically a sanity break from all the new stimuli.  Also, the soles of both of my Chacos split and I was in imminent danger of tripping (again) on the cobblestone streets or stairs.  We found a repair shop (easier said than done, let me say) and dropped them off.  Next, the shoelace of Roger’s Keens broke.  If we thought finding a shoe repair place was hard, finding a set of shoelaces was even harder.  We were directed this way and that with no luck.  Finally someone suggested the open air farmer’s market where we found a man at one of the booths who pulled a pair of white shoelaces from his pocket.  (Why he was walking around with a pair of long white shoelaces in his pocket is still a mystery.). Since Roger was desperate for the shoelace, we grabbed them and paid the $6 he asked.  Only minutes later, we found another booth that specialized in shoelaces of many colors and lengths for only $1 a pair.  Live and learn!

In addition to our days of “relaxation” as described above, we also experienced the following highlights:

1.  A tour of Diocletian’s Palace which Rick Steves claims is the only must-see sight in Split.  Located at the heart of Split, this walled “Palace” was the retirement home of Roman Emperor Diocletian.  Trust me, he knew how to live.  Originally it had large open spaces—gardens and courtyards—within the walls.  Now those spaces are filled with houses and stores.  We shared our visit to the Palace with literally hundreds of cruise ship passengers and other tourists like ourselves.  On one day during our stay in Split, there were 3 enormous passenger ships disgorging tourists to see the city.  Split has only 178,000 residents and the central area, far fewer.  The city doesn’t do a good job of handling an extra 12,000 to 15,000 on any given day.  We enjoyed the tour of the Palace, but not the crowds.

2.  A boat ride to Trogir, a small island just 12 miles northwest of Split where we spent the day.  Trogir is  a walled city with charming lanes and a few noteworthy sites.  For us, it was a pleasant way to spend a day away from the crowds and to have a great set-price lunch.  We did discover something in Trogir that we will remember for the rest of our lives: iced coffee, European style.  Maybe some of you have had this treat yourselves, but we hadn’t.  It’s made with cold coffee and milk, topped with 2 scoops of ice cream and whipping cream.  Wow! It’s good.  

3.  On Roger’s birthday, we took a 1-1/2 hour bus ride to Krka (pronounced Kurka) National Park.  In an effort to avoid the tourists who arrive by bus daily about 10 am and leave about 3 pm, we decided to stay overnight and see some of the Park when the tourists weren’t around, first thing in the morning or after 3 pm.  We entered the Park by boat from the charming village of Skradin where we left the bus.  (NOTE: This is the place to stay if you enjoy small villages without heavy tourist influence!). It was so nice to be back to nature.  The Park was relatively crowded when we got there, so we hopped a Park bus out of the canyon to the Park hotel, left our luggage and and planned to return after 3 pm.  We swam at the hotel pool until the 3 pm check-in, checked in, and then returned to the Park. We walked the boardwalk nearly alone through beautiful waterfalls for the next few hours.  That evening, we had a lovely birthday dinner on the terrace overlooking the pool.  The next morning, we took a boat excursion to another part of the Park to see gorgeous intact wetlands, bird life and an island monastery that has been functioning since the 1400s.  It was a great birthday celebration!

4.  At Fletcher’s (a dear friend from Kayenta) suggestion, we viewed the Mestrovic Gallery not far from our AirBnB.  Mestrovic was Croatian and became a famous sculptor during the early 1900s, some believe on a par with Rodin.  He was extremely prolific and the Gallery contained many of his pieces.  

5.  We had a personal (with emphasis on the personal) wine tasting in Kastel Kambelovac, a small community just north of Split. Roger still grins about this. We found that a 3-car train ran between Split and the wine region.  I suspect the train is used primarily by commuters and shoppers who don’t want to take a car into Split.  So we hopped aboard.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t understand the conductor when he announced the stations, so we got off one stop before we had planned.  It was very hot and humid that day—in the mid- to high-80s.  But we had no choice but to walk to the winery.  We arrived early for the tasting, but the host let us start early.  We were shown to their tasting room—just the two of us—where we were plied with 5 generous servings of wine and a huge charcuterie of meats, cheese, tomatoes, olives, bread, sardines, tuna pate, and olive oil.  So nice!  We made it to the return train just in time—our designated driver.  Since Split was the “end of the line,” we got off where we were supposed to, although Roger had to wake me up.

6.  On one of our walks home along an unexplored lane, we found ourselves climbing—there seemed to be no way to get back to the AirBnB without reversing our steps.  We eventually climbed to the crest of the hill high above our AirBnB.  The hill was part of Marjan Park.  Our ascent into the Park was unintentional, of course.  I had planned to take the tourist train up the hill.  Hundreds and hundreds of steps later, we arrived a the top—nice view, beautiful pines.  It is lovely to have a park in the middle of a town.  Another day, we walked around the base of the peninsula Park for a swim in the ocean. 

7.  Finally, near the end of our stay, we took a 3-island boat excursion.  One stop was in a bay with a sunken ship that you could snorkel over.  (I think the ship was old and the residents sunk it for a tourist attraction.) Another was at “blue lagoon” where we had lunch and swam in the water.  The water there was clear and the aqua color gorgeous.  Last, we stopped at a small village to poke around.  We had fun.  Met a couple from Belgium who regaled us with stories of the beer produced there (which according to them far exceeded German beers) as well as their takes on Great Britain leaving the European Union among other political topics.  Nice people, good day.

All in all, it was a quiet 2 weeks in Split.  We did a few touristy things, but often just did what we do at home.  Each evening about 7 as the sun begins to set and the temperatures cool, all of Split comes for a stroll on the promenade along the water.  It’s a nice way to end a day.  We enjoyed our stay in Split, but the crowds of people are hard for us after covid.  We are ready to move on.

Mljet & Korcula Islands - Week 3

As our time in Dubrovnik drew to an end, we hopped a bus from Old Town to the new port to catch a ferry to Mljet Island.  It was a quick 1-½ hour trip with comfortable seating. Though Mljet (muhl-YET) Island is one of Dalmatia’s largest, it is sparsely inhabited and undeveloped, covered with oak and pine forests and is home to Mljet Island National Park—the reason for our visit.  Rick Steves suggests a day trip to the Park. We think it is worthy of an overnight or two.  There are two adjoining saltwater lakes: Great Lake and Small Lake (connected at a bridge) to walk around, a boat trip to an island in Great Lake, kayaking, scuba diving, biking, swimming in the lakes or in the Adriatic.

We arrived at the Hotel about 4 pm, checked in and found that the buffet dinner wouldn’t start until 7.  Not wanting to miss this day’s 10,000 steps, Roger calculated that we had just enough time to buy a Park pass and walk around Small Lake before dinner.  We walked up the street from the Hotel, then up and over concrete stairs into the Park—nothing in Croatia comes without stairs!  We found the path and wound our way around Small Lake.  The pine smells, the bird calls and lack of people were delicious after our time in Dubrovnik.  We completed the day with a glass of local white wine and a lovely buffet dinner on the terrace overlooking the water.

 

The ferry docks where the boats are anchored.  

As you can see, the hotel (above the yachts) is just steps away.

Small Lake with Great Lake in the distance.

    A map of Mljet National Park with the 2 salt-water lakes.

Ominous clouds greeted us on day 2.

We hoped to do the 5-mile walk around Great Lake, take a boat to the island in the middle, and maybe do some biking or kayaking the following day.  But fate had something different in mind.  We awoke to a threatening sky and within an hour, rain and thunder.  Our check-out time was 10 am, but our ferry didn’t leave until 2 pm.  Fortunately the kind Hotel receptionist allowed us to stay in our room until the ferry arrived.  We talked, read and watched the rain soak into the dry land.  The Croatian coast is nearly as dry as SW Utah—people here were delighted with the storm.  About an hour before we caught the ferry, the rain stopped.  Roger took the opportunity for a quick jump into the Adriatic.  It was a little chilly for me. We left on the ferry, a little disappointed that we were not able to see much of the Park.  

Our next island destination was Korcula (pronounced KOR chula) about an hour away.  The ferry rides have been pleasant…I sometimes get seasick, but the catamarans have been very stable and the sea gentle.

Our lodging in Korcula was within the Old Town walls—very exciting.  Our AirBnB host gave us photos to guide us through the warren of paths.  First, we lugged the baggage up the stairs (of course!) through the gate into Old Town, turned left at the 2nd right and we were there.  Our place here was fantastic.  The host provided us with milk, eggs, bread, coffee, oranges, a liter of homemade strawberry water, cookies, cereal, tea, sliced ham and cheese, plus all the condiments.  Oh, my…we were set for the week!  

Steps into Old Town

Looking out the Old Town gate

Our place is the pink building on the right.

It doesn’t look so great from the outside, but 40 steps up later…

Here is the kitchen and dining area

And the bedroom.  Everything we needed for the 4 days.

We arrived Korcula in time for dinner at a restaurant recommended by our host.  It was a few doors away on a terrace overlooking the water.  Kathy had baked spinach and cheese cannelloni and Roger had fish.  We also ordered a liter of local white wine.  Korcula is known for its Grk (pronounced Gurk) and posip white wines, so we treated ourselves.  All of this was especially memorable and fun because the storm we left in Mljet Island found us just as we were finishing dinner.  Our waitress came by and shook her head.  “It looks like rain is coming,” she said to us.  “What happens then?” I asked noticing how full the terrace was becoming.  “We move inside,” she said.  But inside was a space of only about 10x12 feet.  An interesting challenge, I thought, as more people were seated for dinner.  Imagine, twelve tables of us chatting happily under large umbrellas (which we were told were sun umbrellas) for the shade…all of us happily eating excellent meals.  Suddenly the rain starts…at first it is just a little.  Our waitress explains that the “sun” umbrellas would protect us for 15 minutes before they started leaking.  The minutes pass.  Roger and I leisurely finish our meals. Others are just getting started.  Guests and waitstaff nudge the tables closer together to avoid the drops from the umbrella edges.  The rain picks up. Drops start to fall through the umbrellas.  The waitress removes our dinner plates (now empty).  We grab our liter of wine (now only a ¼ remains) and rush inside the restaurant.  We are the first.  We find a small table.  We didn’t think there was enough space inside, but we all squeezed in as if it was all planned.  Lively conversations and laughter followed.  We stumbled home on the cobbled path, very happy after all that wine that we lived just a few doors away.  It was a delightful end to a great day.

We spent the next morning exploring Old Town.  For centuries it was one of the most important outposts of the Venetian Republic.  It retains much of it’s Venetian influence.  It is laid out in the shape of a fish skeleton.  There is one path down the middle of the walled town and smaller lanes branching off in both directions like ribs on a fishbone.  We walked each lane, peeking into the tourist stores, looking at restaurant menus to see what we could afford and what looked good and just getting the lay of the land.  

One of small lanes off the main path through Old Town

We returned to our AirBnB to wash laundry (yes, it had a small washing machine), hang it out (many people hang it out the windows, but we had a rack inside for drying), and to overcome our computer problems.  We definitely had to be in the right frame of mind to do that.  In the end, we were successful.  I now have access to Google, to our blog, to our banks, to our regular email, etc. all of which we had been unable to access at one time or another since our arrival.  What a good feeling to be reconnected with the world!  (Says the woman who never carries her phone with her!)

The next day, we took a small group wine tour.  There were 6 couples.  We visited 3 wineries and toured a large part of the island.  We met a very interesting couple—we think maybe in their late 50s—from Florida.  They sold their Florida home, all their possessions, and were traveling around the world.  This kind of life decision always fascinates Roger and me.  They usually stay in a place for at least a month so that they feel like a part of the community…they learn how to live in a foreign place.  They make plans for the next destination and perhaps one or two more.  They are just “bumping along.”  They have no set itinerary, but plan to meet with friends from the States along the way.  Lovely people, lovely conversation…made the wine tasting all the better.  We tasted the red Plavic Mali and white Posip wines along with many others at the 3 stops plus honey, cherry liquor, dessert wines, and local cheeses.  Another lovely day.

One of the stops on our tour.

The last wine stop

An isolated beach on our wine route.

If you sailed the Adriatic, you would find tiny harbors,

beaches and turquoise water everywhere.

Vineyards on Korcula

One day we hiked around Korcula harbor to a “water park” and series of beaches.  The walk took us along the coast, past beautiful homes, around a little harbor and then to a roped-off swimming area (roped off from the boat traffic).  We never found the “water park” which according to the road sign had a slide, etc.  We did find a beautiful campground right on the water with lots of trailers and campers.  We continued our walk on an unpaved path that extended around a peninsula, found an isolated spot and jumped into the cool water.  It felt great after working up a sweat on the walk.  We looked through a large grocery store (well-located near the campers) and a nice hotel (largely populated by Croatians, I think) and finally we split a beer at a beachside cafe.

Our last morning on Korcula, we took pictures and sat for an hour or so watching people.  A cormorant kept diving and surfacing near us.  In the crystal clear water, we could clearly see the bird chase its prey under water.  It corraled the fish onto the rocks near where we sat and then tried to catch it.  Several times, the fish jumped back into the water and hopped along the surface to escape.  Finally, the bird caught its breakfast…almost like a PBS special right within our view.  

The cormorant…okay not a good shot, but you get the idea.

Our perch to watch the cormorant and people.

It is Tuesday.  Time to move on.  I will miss Korcula.  We hop the ferry to Split where we will be for 2 weeks.

The ferry to Split

 

Dubrovnik - Week 2

We started week 2 with an enjoyable 45-minute ferry ride from Cavtat to Dubrovnik. The ferry landed in the Old Port in Old Town (the walled portion of the city which is pedestrian-only).  We wandered our way through the City Gate and across the draw bridge, looking for the street where our AirBnB was located.  We arrived to find a steep stairway of 132 steps where the street should have been. We decided to take the “long way” around, rolling our luggage uphill along the roads to avoid the steps, easier on our luggage and ourselves.  

Waiting for the ferry to Dubrovnik

Frana Cala - street to our AirBnB

We settled into our one-bedroom AirBnB which has a gorgeous view of the Adriatic and Old Town, and then walked back downhill to Old Town for dinner.  Roger’s meal (shown in the pictures below) is typical here—sautéed fish and a mix of a spinach-like vegetable and potatoes.  What is not so typical is that he got to choose his fish from a platter of 4 freshly-caught fish.  All the restaurants have outdoor seating, often down a shady (in a good sense), narrow path…very romantic.  Of course, there are no cars in Old Town, so narrow paths are the rule.  Over dinner, we chatted with an interesting couple (about our age) from Kentucky.  He is a pediatric neurologist and his wife of just one year had worked in pharmaceuticals. They had met online during covid.  We discussed the outrageous cost of drugs in the U.S., concluding that things have to change. After dinner, the two of us hit the ice cream shop for a little dessert.

View from the patio of our AirBnB

Kitchen of our AirBnB

Our first meal in Dubrovnik

We signed up for a Food and Wine Tour to acquaint ourselves with the local cuisine.  It was so much fun!  Our guide, Ana, regaled us with tales of Old Town.  For instance, she explained that young women used to sit on their balconies with small egg-sized pouches of fragrant liquid and drop them over the edge as a favored suitor walked by. If the fellow didn’t particularly like the woman, he ran away.  She talked about the 1990s war when Croatia fought for its independence from Yugoslavia. Dubrovnik was under siege for several of those years, water and food cut off from its people. The Old Town residents survived with underground cisterns that held rainwater and stored grain.  Of course, the tour also included food and wine!  We visited 4 restaurants, each serving us a plate of food and a glass of wine.  Roger and I took a different wine each time and then shared allowing us to taste both the reds and whites. They do make a good red: Plavic Mali from the Peljesac peninsula just north of Dubrovnik.  It may not be sold in the States due to small production.

Food Tour

Our second restaurant stop on the tour

One day we took a bus to the “new” Dubrovnik, to the north of Old Town.  Many Croatians who used to live in Old Town got tired of the crowds, converted their Old Town homes to vacation rentals, and moved to the newer section of this city.  It is a peninsula with a lovely pedestrian promenade encircling it.  There are frequent sets of steps down to the rocky shore for sunbathing and swimming—all open to the public.  While the edges of the peninsula are becoming touristy, the interior is filled with homes of the locals.  A different tourist seems to be attracted here—ones who come for the beach, the restaurants and a longer stay.  We read for an hour or so in a bar on the promenade shaded by big pines and other trees and then hopped a bus back to our place. We are thinking of returning to this area before we leave Dubrovnik for another aperol spritzer (aperol, champagne and soda) and a swim.

One of the new hotels in the new Dubrovnik

Path around the peninsula

Croatia has more than 1,000 islands along its coastline. One day we took a boat tour to 3 of these islands to snorkel in limestone sea caves and enjoy the sandy beaches (sand is a rare commodity here, most beaches are rocky—bring your water shoes!).  We explored the beautiful caves, enjoyed lunch on the beach and soaked up way too much sun!  We met a wonderful group of people—Vietnamese newlyweds from Connecticut (a med student and her nurse husband), a young couple from Taiwan, a young couple from the Canary Islands (who were patient with us as we spoke to them in our very poor Spanish), and a young American woman currently living in Budapest while she works on part 2 of Dunes.  She assured us that this second part of the movie will have a satisfying ending.  Oh yes, there was also the handsome Croatian boat captain who asked if we would tell the Spanish couple that he wanted their help to get a job in the Canaries. He didn’t speak Spanish and they didn’t speak English.  We mentioned his request to the Spanish couple who just laughed.

Blue Cave

On our island snorkeling tour

Another day, we ferried over to Lokrum Island nature reserve just 15 minutes off the coast of Old Town.  We walked a trail around the island, took a swim, read and enjoyed watching the peacocks chase people with food in their hands.  In the 1300s during the plague, people were quarantined 40 days on this island prior to being allowed to enter the city.  (There are no records of any of them complaining about this restrictions.)  Evidently, this is where the term “quarantine” arose…from the 40-day period in the Venetian language.  It was found to be a highly successful method of containing the plague.  Some of you who know Roger well will not be surprised when I say that we “bush-whacked” our way across the nature reserve back to the ferry using his “maps.me” program.  There was a perfectly good path, but no….we had to follow his maps.me program…and get lost.

Lokrum Island Nature Preserve

A pesky peacock

Lastly, we walked the wall surrounding Old Town.  We are keeping up with Roger’s goal of 10,000 steps (or 5 miles a day) a day.  Sometimes we double that. 

Old Town with Lokrum Island in distance

Old Town Wall

Old Port into Old Town

View from the Wall

Inside Old Town

In sum, it has been a whirlwind week in Dubrovnik.  The weather is humid and warm (mid-80s). We return from our activities each day all sweaty and hot (remember the 132 steps we have to climb to get back home!).  But we are loving it.  We notice that most of the travelers here are younger than us—they handle the stairs better.  But then Roger reminds me that most people are younger than us.  Hmmm!

A surprise fireworks show over Old Town from our patio

Our last morning in Dubrovnik

Cavtat, Croatia - Week 1

After an anxiety-ridden, 2-hour delay in Las Vegas, we boarded our plane for the first leg of our journey (LAS to Frankfurt, Germany).  We were nervous that the delay would cause us to miss the ongoing flight to Croatia, but at least we would be in Europe!  Knowing this would be a long flight, I spent the extra cash to get “premium” economy which normally allows for extra leg room and little more.  So when we arrived at our seats, we both felt there had been an error on our tickets.  We had “pods” like in first class!  Only 4 seats per row and they fully reclined.  I still think it was a mistake, but we quickly sat down and pretended like we belonged.  We had delicious meals with alcohol and more movie selections than on Netflix!  While we slept, the pilot put the metal to the peddle and landed the plane only 20 minutes late. 

Needless to say, we arrived in Frankfurt on Tuesday afternoon pretty rested and happy.  The onward flight to Dubrovnik was “cattle class,” but it was short so no complaints.  After Passport Security and Customs (there was no one there!), we were met by a young man holding our name on a sign and hustled off to our AirBnB apartment in the small picturesque village of Cavtat.  A very “soft” landing for us.

Cavtat (pronounced Savtat) is tucked in a harbor on the Adriatic.  It is a sleepy, one-street resort town surrounded by forests and high rocky mountains to the east.  The apartment we rented is up 52 steps from the harbor.  And the bedroom is located on the top floor (another 24 steps!).  Once our host showed us our place, we changed clothes and walked down for dinner at an outdoor restaurant on the harbor.  Beer and pizza!  (We can’t give up old habits immediately, you know.)  The next few days we walked around town, peeked into shops, read restaurant menus and hiked around a bit…just letting our bodies adjust to the new time zone and climate (lovely humidity with temperatures in the 70s and 80s).  

                                                        Steps from the harbor to our entry door

                                        Our front door and patio.  The bedroom is on the 3rd floor.

View from our bedroom window

Aqua water - On the path around the village.

Harbor-side restaurant

Overview of Cavtat

On Friday, we caught a tour to Montenegro, a small country to the south and east of Croatia.  We originally planned to stay in Montenegro for our first week, but covid restrictions and extremely high car rental rates for people over 65 (the nerve!) made us rethink that plan.  The bus tour was the perfect “plan B.”  We traveled from the jagged cliffs above Cavtat to the farmland and vineyards of southern Croatia, and finally (once over the border) to the twisty road surrounding the Bay of Kotor, our destination.  We passed many small villages with Illyrian, Venetian, Roman and Greek influences, all pasted to the sides of the limestone mountains surrounding the Bay.  We stopped at Perast, a world heritage site and considered to be the “pearl of Venetian baroque.”  It has a population of just 200 residents.  We walked through town, grabbed an ice cream and then boarded a boat for a visit to the man-made island Our Lady of the Rocks.  The boat then took us to the town of Kotor (the highlight of the trip).  Kotor is butted up against a steep cliff and at the end of the bay (or fjord).  Its Old Town is a delightful walled-city with 3,000 residents.  No streets, just narrow paths between a randomly placed collection of limestone buildings.  Yes, it was touristy.  It gave you a Disneyland feeling, but it was real.  The Old Town walls crawl right up the mountainside.  It takes 1-½ hours to walk it round trip (1,355 steps and 700 ft elevation gain).  We passed on that fun adventure and had a delightful fish lunch instead.  We still made our 10,000 steps that day.  

Kotor Walled City

                                                    Our Lady of the Rocks island in Kotor Bay

Perast, a tiny village on our way to Kotor

Roger in Perast (small village near Kotor)

Paths in Kotor

Wall and moat around the city

The wall extends far up the hillside - takes 2 hours to walk it.

On Sunday, we took a bus to nearby Cilipi (pronounced Chil-ip-e, accent on the first syllable) for a folk dancing and singing performance.  We thoroughly enjoyed the mid-day performance - traditional dress, traditional instruments, and lots of laughter.  Kathy even got to dance with one of the performers.  We returned to Cavtat to have lunch, read and later to take an afternoon swim in the Adriatic—cool, but refreshing.

The musicians and dancers

Kathy teaching one of the dancers (ha!)

A great first week!  Many people on tours accomplish in a day what we did in a week.  But like “slow food,” we enjoy “slow travel.”