Since I arrived in Split six hours before the start of the group tour orientation meeting, I explored the old town on my own. Split is the second largest city in Croatia. The hotel location was perfect, right on the edge of the old area of town that was a retired Roman emperor’s palace (from around the year 300). The entire palace area is a UNESCO world heritage site. I spent several hours just walking around this area. It is jaw-dropping how well preserved the historic center of Split is. And of course, there were plenty of restaurants, coffee shops, ice cream shops, souvenirs, etc.
I became thirsty with all the walking on a sunny, 75-degree afternoon. As I am a fan of craft beer, I saw a sign on the awning of a coffee bar with outside seating in the shade on a busy corner (within the pedestrian only zone, so perfect people watching spot). But surprise, the waitress told me it was an Italian shop, so all the craft beers were from Italy. So, I had my first beer in Croatia that was not from Croatia. Up to that point, I had tried the popular local beers Karlovačko and Ožujsko (lagers), and a craft beer, Bura Brew.
The orientation meeting for the group tour started at the hotel at 6:15pm. Everyone but me had a name tag that came in the mail before the trip. I was 99.9% sure I had packed mine. However, I somehow left mine behind. We had 22 participants. I was the only solo traveler in the group. Everyone was from the United States. Of the 22, ten were traveling together, as well as a group of three and a group of four, and two couples. Our group leader was a man from Croatia, I would guess about 40 years old. Ivan was outstanding-perfect English, very colorful and animated, funny, and highly knowledgeable of Croatian history and culture.
The next morning, after breakfast, we had a presentation at the hotel from a local historian about the famous sculptor from the area near Split, Ivan Mitrović. We then headed out with a local expert for a guided tour of Diocletian’s Palace. Yes, I was now with one of those groups of people following someone with a flag on a pole who I have historically complained about. We listened to our guide with our “Whispers” devices.
After a tour of the palace including a visit to a museum where we could see how they built the palace 1,700 years ago, we had lunch and then time on our own to explore.
The next morning, we packed our luggage, had breakfast, and boarded a bus that took us to the ancient town of Šibenik on the Adriatic coast, which is north of both Split and Trogir. A local expert met us there and we had about a two-hour tour, followed by another hour to explore the town on our own.
It is crazy how many yacht-sized boats were in the marinas in Trogir, Split, and now Šibenik . As the tourist season is nearing its end, many of the boats are not being rented at the moment. Fun fact: 38% of all boats available for charter in the world are based in Croatia-a country of 4 million people.
After our visit at Šibenik, we boarded the bus and drove along the old coastal road. We stopped at a very small and old village for lunch. The restaurant was owned by a priest who inherited the property from his family. The priest, with our group leader translating, talked for about 20 minutes about his family history and the history of the village. He then handed us all shot glasses of rakija. We toasted — Živjeli! — and then had lunch.
The bus then headed back to Split, this time not to a hotel but to the harbor, where my hotel for the next seven nights awaited, the ship MY Barbara. More on that in the next post.
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