Day 92 Sibenik delights!

Thursday 21/06/2018 Apartments Cirjak 411 Sveti Petar na moru, Sveti Petar, 23207, Croatia

Our time for this mid section of Croatia is drawing to a close... we have enjoyed this time here having a day of RnR then a day of discovery... but all good things do come to an end.. the thing we will both miss the most is the sea views that greet us each day...

So for our discovery day today we are heading to Sibenik... pronounced Shibenik by the locals as it had that inflection thing above the S....Sibenik is the next biggest town down from Bio Grad....

On arrival here like so many other old towns we have entered, we have thought it was awful nothing to offer and why are we here... but once you start digging you start to discover a whole new world opening up to you...

We were fortunate to find a car park straight up at the library and yes we had to pay... you pay every where to Park... the other bonus was when a John went to use the library loo I found a book in Sibenik with a map... great now we can plan... we looked at it and decided which way we would at head in, only about 30 steps later we got way laid by a group of tourists in tour coming through a park, so once all clear we headed through it too... finding our way down to the waterfront harbour... where about 10-15 Yachts, Catamarans, Luxury Cruisers all lined up along the wharf..one feather large CAT was backing in as we approached.... wow would I live to be in this one plenty of moving room.... then we watched a yacht about a 42 footer back in as well.. as mentioned before it’s a boaties paradise here in Croatia, with all the villages along the coastal routes... islands and inlets with non stop cafes, restaurants, sights to explore all at their finger tips as they headed up and down the coast...

It was now our time to sit and take in the sights, so that’s what we did at a path side Cafe... as with most cafes here they only sell drinks no food... odd it seems you would wander how they make enough money out of just drinks, but they must as they are so many around... at the end after for once a great cuppa, I headed to the loo where it was into a kind of underground bar come disco type premises..... all decked out with different themed sitting areas, so interesting to see so yes I had to capture it...

Off to see St James Cathedral just up the stairs... well another difficult session so to speak with me trying to get shots without people... to be honest most of the time I just shot with the people but today I would have like the get entrance of the door 🚪 without the extras... this was not to be so I just took what I could, good thing I did as 2 big tour groups rocked up all wanting their pics all wanting to access the Cathedral at once... being a tour group they would have been able to go in pretty quickly! I thought John had gone inside which I thought was odd he hates inside the church’s... but I spotted him heading in, so I thought! Anyway I lined up them realised it as a pay system again..and No I was t going to pay to go into a church.... don’t get me going... back have had to redo this story today 3 times and in my last version you copped all the reasons I am against it, fortunately I am tired now and no energy to write all I write before... why have I written this 3 times... well who knows other than for some reason there was a glitch in the system and what I had saved was totally lost..
John and I searched for ages for it... but to no use..
For had all but finished it ready to post.... we have had lightening and rain about all day and this phone line is a huge problem, coming into here, so I feel it has a spas attack and lost the last 3 hrs of work I had done.... to say i am upset 😢 wouldn’t cover it today!

Then tried to take pics up the side but due to a huge scaffold of seating sitting in the small square next to the church that became difficult as well... with only a narrow walkway along the scaffolding, you had to just hope for the best... it did work out ok!
From here we headed through all,the unreal little alleyways, discovering, restaurants here and there, amazing old doors, wrought iron window covers and gates... Pink Hydrangers here and there, ivy creeping along walkways and up buildings making it look so pretty.. a walk into a deck restaurant with an old herb garden apparently made like it was centuries ago..

So up we climbed each set of stairs towards the first fortress St Michaels... it was after arriving a bit of a let down, but not their fault really... they had pumped mega amounts of money to refubed the failing Fortress they have tried to keep some of the authentic feel of it but it really has taken on a more modern feel to it... a restaurant set up, on the top level a fairly good size concert amphitheater for concerts... Brian Ferry is preforming here soon... but with this as a main part if the old fort it seems to have lost that feeling you get when going to an old building if you get my drift... still they have done a great job with this one and the next one we got to The Barone Fortress... more on it soon... we wiped around it fairly quickly finishing with a 20-30 min movie on the history of Sibenik, played out by all the locals... well done and gave us a good overview on its history...

Then off we set to climb up the hill to the next fort we had paid for... The Barone Fort names after the Barone who organised the forts to be built to protect them from the Ottoman invasion...
This fort has also been refubed with like St Michaels kissing much of its authenticity as well... but it is what it is at least they still have them with a modern twist... they had much to our delight a great restaurant so we decided as it was very quite and relaxed without a lot of people we had a cheese platter of local cheeses... most very tasty except for the Sheep’s cheese which is very strong in flavour like goats cheese... still it was lovely a glass of wine and beer for a John and we didn’t feel like moving... from here we headed back along the dirt track above the hill road we walked up on... this took us to St John’s Fortress sadly this poor fort has been totally let go..a huge big communication’s Tower right in the middle of it, but the outer walls are looking worse for wear... parts falling apart... it does appear to be the biggest fort, so seeing it let go has got us asking why other than the cost which would have a huge impact... but it looks so very sad..
It’s technically shut no one is allowed in but it did have a sign to say enter at your own risk... so yep John entered yes I followed worth a quick look, but with all the others it’s really just the outer walls that are the fortress...

Having done the 3 fortress’s we headed back down to finish our look at old Sibenik town to finish our exploring... what a delight it was to discover the different alleys and all they had to offer... so many little restaurants tucked in here and there! Gift shops, cloths shops, so much for the tourists really... but the one thing that took away from the tourists was the display of banner up the majority of main alleys... children had painted themselves on a material banner there were 100’s of them so bright and colourful... earlier in the day when we had our cuppa we had observed children building a traditional hay house and other traditional items".. when we went back around as we tried to find some old wells, they had completed the project it looked great... we had seen children in a Belgrade doing the same thing when we were there at their festival in the old fortress. Same concept not sure what it represents but it looks fun and interesting... as long as you dint have a hay allergy...

We had done as much as we could and John was very tired again, so we decided to head home.. only as we went towards the car we went in the direction we had planned to go this morning... we really didn’t miss anything much, but what we did find fascinated us totally... it was a pond with a huge rock on the rock was all this moss and a sprinkler going... under the sprinkler were all these funny looking turtles... thats right you read right turtles... there were heaps of them. All clambering to get to the top funny to watch and funny to see... it really was the strangest thing after all the history we have just walked through... but worth seeing... anyway headed home had, had enough for the day... when we got home a John had a 2 1/2 hr sleep... he has been getting so very tired and really we are t doing it hard I am a bit concerned as to why he is so tried all the time unlike him...

After his sleep which was until 7 pm we headed across the road to the finally open beach bar... the owner was cooking away on the BBQ and inside there were heaps of young guys all dressed in colours.... turns out it was Croatia playing Argentina in the world soccer cup... in Russia... the boys were in good form..we sat down by the water and ordered our drinks next thing the owner told us to get some of the BBQ food... y now the place was filling up and the atmosphere was like watching our guys watch a league game at home... we spent a couple of hours there watching the proceedings and around 9.30 heard home we could still hear them across the street after we got home... turns out Croatia won this round..l very excited for them... for the last few weeks we have seen all this patriotic goodies in the stores and we weren’t sure why, now we know...flags everywhere, Croatian memorabilia on car bonnets, side mirrors in the oddest spots. But they sure do love their soccer here...

A day well spent our last until Split...we are going backwards to Split after here fir a few days... then head north. We certainly have enjoyed our time here looking over 90% of the time clam seas in the passage between us and the island across from here. Great views, comfy apartment and interesting sights... very different to what we thought when we drove in... you can’t judge a book by its cover at all....

Info on Sibenik below....
Šibenik, Italian Sebenico, port in southern Croatia. It lies along the estuary of the Krka River a short distance east of the river’s mouth on the Adriatic Sea. Although first documented in 1066, Šibenik was probably founded earlier by Slav migrants. It was chartered in 1167 and until 1412 was fought over by Venice and Hungary-Croatia. After 1412, when Venice prevailed, Šibenik grew and prospered despite unsuccessful assaults by the Turks. In 1797–1815 it became part of Napoleon I’s Illyrian Provinces, after which it was absorbed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After World War I, in 1918–21, it was Italian and then became part of Yugoslavia.
Historically, the town has been distinguished for its culture and scholarship. The Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Jakov (1431–1536), which combines Gothic and Renaissance elements, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000. The City Gates, Loggia, and several Renaissance houses are well preserved. St. John’s Fortress (12th–13th century) overlooks the town from the north. Šibenik is a coastal shipping station linked by a rail line to Zagreb. Its major exports include bauxite, timber, building stone, wines, and liqueurs. There is a shipyard, a ferrous-alloy plant, and an aluminum plant (at Lozovac). Electricity from a hydroelectric station at Krka Falls, to the northeast, powers an electrochemical plant. Šibenik’s tourist trade is centred on the local beaches and the offshore islands of Prvić and Zlarin, resort areas without a local water supply. Pop. (2001) settlement, 37,060; town, 49,374; (2011) settlement, 34,302; town, 46,332.もっと詳しく