Day 96 Arenas, Forts and views abound!

Monday 25/06/2018 Apartment Neva Ulica Marina Getaldića 29, Split, 21000, Croatia

Planning adventures each day is either by we’ll see what we find or get the map out, or web sight searching..... Today’s will be let’s drive to where we are heading then once there find the sights... so as we drive into Salona we look for the brown signs to tell us what’ s about to see....

We took a left turn believing that’s where the sign was sending us, but missed something in the reading so we. Issued that site altogether... but we ended up finding another one a little old church on a rocky outcrop... I gather it must have been very old, but no signs to tell us.. from this experience John decided to look up his phone on the sights we could see at Salona... good thing he did because our next find is a massive old Roman Amphitheatre dating back to the 2nd century AD unreal to just wander around, with no one else around for most of our time visiting it! As we had entered there was a fellow in a little wooden gatehouse, we thought he was there to collect our payment for entry, but no only selling his figs... so I told him I would be after we looked around... the whole place was pretty much unintact.. only a few areas you could still see what it would have been like in its hey Day! The precision work that had been carried out on each and every stone was totally unreal... all done by hand, all fitted together just exact and the sheer size of the blocked so big, the weight of each massive block moving them around as well makes you realise the skill they had back then was probably more precise than we are often today, for most times we rely on machines, not human ingenuity.....
It was funny there was a house built just off the side of the Amphitheatre, actually overlooking it totally the way the position of the house was built, part of it was very old, the extension looked very new, but made you wonder how much of the house is from the Amphitheatre itself, ha ha... as with a lot of the homes around it made you wonder just how much was taken from the Amphitheatre structure...

(Amphitheatre at the northwestern end of the park. Built in the 2nd century, the arena was integrated into the town fortifications. Consisting of three floors, there was even a system to cover it all with canvas to protect against rain and the heat of the sun. There was a space underneath the auditorium for the gladiators to pray to the goddess Nemesis and a corridor to whisk out the gladiator's dead bodies. It was here that the Christian martyrs lost their lives. In the 5th century fights between gladiators ceased (civilized!) but fights between gladiators and wild animals continued. The arena could also be filled with water for the simulated reenactment of naval battles. The Venetians destroyed the amphitheatre in the 17th century as part of their struggle against the Ottoman) Taken from The Croatian traveller sight!

As were about to leave we ran into the fig man again, he asked where we were from, when we told him Australia he got all excited turns out his uncle lives near Wangaratta and he spent 2 yrs there in the late 70’s but came home when Croatia was having political unrest... he said it was a silly thing he did... I bought a few of his figs and off we set... this time heading to a Trogir...

It was really a mini version of Split... except it had a pretty well intact small fortress... we went to go in but after looking inside slightly realised it was mainly just walls which we could see outside... so we opted out and just wandered around her alleys like in Split... really very similar alleys, restaurants, cafes, cloths and tourist shops... a small port but a much bigger ocean front with a big marina and lots of luxury cruise boats afloat... it was quite pretty and not as busy, but still had heaps of tour groups all out for their look... again it had a massive Cathedral that looked amazing, but they wanted money to go in as they did with their museums.... 2 things gets me fired up paying to access church’s and museums.... they are meant for the people not to make money out of the.... I know in these countries they are most not supported by government funding, but there has to be another way of making money than charging you to see what really is for all the people... not just the paying ones...

As we wandered many of the little alleys I had ladies begging me to come into their shops to buy cloths they were offering huge reductions, things must be tough for them, they looked pretty desperate... not easy relying on the tourists I am sure...

We finished our time here with a piece of cake 🍰 for John and cappuccino I had a bite and no cuppa they didn’t do black coffee or tea... so I just had water.. then we hit the road to back home hoping we would get a park... fortunately we managed to get one but when John went back to get something out of it later he was blocked in... let’s hope they are gone tomorrow...

Left over dinner 🥘, we are getting tired again... keeping up the pace of sightseeing does wear you down, even though enjoyable, it’s physically demanding walking, climbing and taking stuff into the old brains day after day... a shame we didn’t have longer in each spot we could have done what we did at St Peter’s one day look one day off, but we can’t so on with the show...Læs mere