Split

We said good bye to Zadar yesterday and regretting not having another day there to watch the race. We got going early which was a blessing as when we left town they were setting up for the race and we could have been trapped for the day. Our destination for the day was Split but first we were going to stop at Krka Ntl Park. Krka again is one of these waterfall parks for which Croatia is known for. It was smaller than Platvice Ntl parks having principally one large waterfall but expanded the experience by a boardwalk over a lake and marshy area above the falls. Some seniors groups caused congestion but we were able to squeeze by them. The waterfalls were quite spectacular. I had thought that we would have spent longer at the park but we were done by about 11:30. We had a 45 minute drive to Split airport which was about 20 km out of town. The gas gauge clicked on 3/8 of a tank on the drive which was perfect as we had picked it up with 3/8. I find car companies are not renting out cars with a full tanks of gas which makes it quite difficult to return it without overfilling the tank. It is always a relief to return a rental car especially after one has been cursed by the attendant when we picked it up in Zagreb. All was well with the car and the attendant was impressed that we had returned it with exactly 3/8 of a tank of gas. We took the 37 public bus the 20 k into town.

The principal site to see in Split is Diocletian's retirement palace. Diocletian had been a Roman Emperor from 284 AD to 304 AD to then voluntarily retire to Croatia. He built this palatial palace on the water, probably 200 metres by 200 metres. The outer walls were pretty preserved as was one central courtyard area. He had spent a lot of time in Egypt so a lot of the stone in the central courtyard had come from Egypt as had a sphinx. His crypt had been converted to a church/ cathedral.The rest of the palace had been replaced over the years with apartments. We wandered around before eating at a sandwich shop recommended by some influencer Andrew had seen on Instagram. The sandwiches were good and reasonably priced. We chatted in line with a stewardess for United. She had been working for 50 years. The Split layover was 3 days so she had brought her very elderly husband with her. After eating our lunch on the promenade by the sea we walked around exploring the city and people watching. Not as hopping as Zadar but it was a Sunday night.

Monday we were a bit slow.to.get going. They were calling for some heavy rain which never really materialized. I walked down to the ferry terminal to figure out where our ferry was leaving from the next day while Andrew slept in. It gave me another opportunity to wander the palace as it was a lot less busy. After getting bake to the apartment Andrew was up but was engrossed with planning his trip to Japan next month so I headed out to the Archeology museum as the majority of the museums were closed because it was Monday. They had a lot of sarcophagus es and tombstones from the Roman era but very little explanation or translation of the latin. Like many of the museums we have been to on the trip it was as my kids would say "mid". When I got back to the apartment, no rain had occurred so we headed out for a 12 km hike around the Marjan peninsula, a very large forested park just beside the downtown. It was good to get away from the tourists. Curiously they appeared to be thinning out the trees in the park which we thought was probably for fire abatement. We stopped at a beautiful beach and I made my first swim in the Adriatic. It was cold but the water was incredibly clear. We walked back to Split and had a movie night.Read more