Dubrovnik to Ston to Split, Croatia

Time to leave again

I took this picture from our hotel Saturday morning before we left Dubrovnik

We had a lovely drive along the Dalmatian coast and our coffee break stop was in this charming town, Ston, initially important for its salt flats, a key to wealth before refrigeration

It was well fortified to protect it from those Turks…It was an important fort in the Republic of Ragusa, of which Dubrovnik was the centre.  Those walls are second only to the Great Wall of China as the world's longest defensive walls.

Such a pretty little town…



I really enjoyed our stop here.



and yes, we had a sample



One more look at that wall


On the road again we had a tangerine stop and they were delicious.  Here are our guide, Ned, and our driver, Alex collecting them for us.


and eventually we reached today's destination, Split around 1 pm.  Split is the second largest city in Croatia, the largest city of Dalmatia,  and the gateway to many beautiful islands.  Again it has many layers of history from being to a Greek colony to part of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, then Venice became its ruler, Napoleon took over, then Austria etc. etc.

We had time to  wander before touring the Roman Emperor Diocletan's Palace-he was from this area and retired here...he was the last non Christian emperor...

The street along the waterfront in the old city is Riva and is in front of the palace but at one time the palace was right on the waterfront and is actually a whole complex not just a building

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We had a wander, shared a wrap for lunch and of course dessert was gelato...above is Repulic Square dating from Napoleonic conquest.


Then we had a tour within the palace's walls.  Above is a map…

Above is in the "basement" and those oak logs are 2000 years old

A statue of Diocletianus who was not overly popular due to his killing thousands of Christians, many on this coast-Original statues of him were destroyed as a result of this.

Now we are above ground.. 

Incredible stone work...

We had a lovely a capello concert

You can hear a bit as well

There are many structures within the palace compound built through the centuries-there is an exclusive hotel with only seven rooms.  People still do live in houses here and there are shops and restaurants.

St Dominic's Cathedral from the Middle Ages 

So Christians got their revenge on this emperor eventually...

 And you can still find a couple of Roman soldiers who will be happy to pretend to chop off your head for a small fee...

Definitely a fun place to visit although we had lots of company!!!!  My friend, Donna and her husband actually stayed in the hotel on the palace grounds when they were here.  

A little more time to explore and then we were off to our Hotel Atrium which was very modern and nice but the streets were noisy due to the big soccer game between Split and Zagreb



I think that was actually the view from our hotel room.



I think we had our best  meal of the trip in a restaurant near our hotel recommended by the hotel concierge.  I think it cost us each about $20 Canadian dollars, no dessert, but we each had a glass of wine.

There were happy sounds in the street as Split tied the game in the last moments.

The forecast for Sunday was rain and colder weather for our journey to Ljubljana.  This made Sue and I think how fun it would be to head south to Greece rather than back to dark and often rainy November in Vancouver.