The forecasted storm arrived, full force, in the middle of the night. Thunder shook the balcony doors and lightening lit up the sky and the sea. Quite the spectacle, but we sailed on up the Adriatic Coast towards Croatia.
We didn’t arrive in port until almost noon, giving us a leisurely morning. The rain was still coming down which kept us inside. We had scheduled a city walking tour here with a company independent of the ship. We got a map from our guest services to assist us in locating our meeting point. The group had sent us one and everything was in Croatian, the ship’s map was in English, but between the two and allowing ourselves plenty of time we found it.
We met our tour guide, Gabby, just off one of the side streets within the walls of the Diocletian Palace. Most of our time would be spent in and around this palace learning the history of both Split and Croatia. Like other areas of the Adriatic and Mediterranean that we have visited, Split had its own Venetian occupation for more than 300 years. Their influence is felt, again, in the architecture and in the language.
The Palace was built by a Roman Emperor as a ‘retirement’ home. It was basically a walled city for himself, his family and the guards and servants who served him. After his death, many of the structures within the wall were demolished and individual homes were built that exist today. The Palace grounds have been continuously occupied for 1,700 years. Today, 200 residents still live within the walls, while others, seeing profits, moved out of the city and turned their homes into cafes, B&B’s and hotels!
The tour continued outside the Palace, along the waterfront promenade and up into the hills above the city. Gabby is a fourth generation Croat and very proud of her country, their history and excited for their future as a young democracy.
The tour ended on the hillside and we wandered back down the streets to a bar in a plaza for a glass of wine. Tom asked if they took cards, but must have been misunderstood because they only took cash. They took his Euro but made change in Kunas (Croatian currency)! We stopped at a bank to see if we could exchange Kuna for Euro, but we didn’t have enough Kuna for 10 € only five! So Tom was on a mission to spend his Kuna (good only I’m Croatia) before we got back on the ship!!
The ship left port at 7 p.m. just as the lights of the city were coming on. We had our last dinner with our fun staff and said our goodbyes to our steward who will be going home to Indonesia tomorrow for three months. We packed our bags to have them in the hall by midnight and kept out only what we would need for the morning. The sailing was VERY windy and the most movement we had had on the ship. I was a little uncomfortable at the beginning but soon was asleep 😴
Domani, Venezia!
¡Ciao America! 