Ten Days in Croatia, November 2006

[Ginna]

ARRIVAL
We flew from Nice to Frankfurt, there being no direct
flights to Split or Dubrovnik. The 1 ½ hour flight
was wonderful with beautiful scenery ­ mountains,
rivers, and forests in their fall colors. Then the 1
½ hour flight to Dubrovnik. They fed us on both legs
of the journey, quite a surprise! With heavy luggage
we opted for a taxi to the hotel, the Hilton Imperial,where we upgraded our room to one with a balcony with
a view of the Old Town and the Adriatic. We loved
this pink hotel, in an old, refurbished 1897 building, just a minute or two from the Old Town.

DUBROVNIK

We immediately headed out for a walk around the
magnificent Old Town, with its more than 500 year-old
walls (almost 2 kilometers), glistening white marble
streets, little alleyways and steep stairs. There’s a
lovely feeling to the 1000 year-old marble Placa, the
main street, where we sat outside on this warm
evening, having a “Welcome to Dubrovnik” drink.
Dubrovnik, named after the local oak tree, was known
as Ragusium in Roman times and by the 12th century was
an important trading stop and seafaring state. It
came under Venetian authority in 1205 and there are
many Venetian influences to be seen.

The next day, really our only full day in Dubrovnik,
sadly was rainy and very windy. We headed for the
Cathedral, with its amazing collection of reliquaries
in the Treasury. The huge, heavy wooden Treasury
doors had to be unlocked with foot long iron keys!
Then we spent an hour in the Rector’s Palace, where
the ruler of Dubrovnik lived. The building itself was
very interesting and the collection of inlaid
furniture was gorgeous. One desk, all inlaid with
beautiful woods, had a mother-of-pearl butterfly and a
bird watching it with its mother-of-pearl eye. But my
favorite piece was a waistcoat, 18th century French,
that was hand embroidered with colorful flowers; the
buttons, each about the size of ½ my pinky nail, were
individually hand-painted with portraits!

The Dominican Monastery, with its 15th century
cloisters and large collection of paintings from the
Dubrovnik School, was lovely. The hand-painted altars
in the church were very sweet. The Church of St.
Blaise, the patron saint of Dubrovnik, was next.
There are statues to St. Blaise everywhere in town -
at the city gates, in niches, and so on. He keeps
Dubrovnik safe from evil and hardship. In the bell
tower opposite his church, two figures strike the bell
to ring out the hour. The Sponsa Palace, one of the
few buildings not destroyed in the devastating 1667
earthquake, is beautiful ­ very Venetian-looking.
There is a sad room with pictures of the young men who
died in the Yugoslavian wars.

For lunch we stopped at Dundo Maroje where they
started us off with a tuna pate bouche amuse. We
shared a salad and David had the sea bass while I had
a wonderful seafood risotto. Afterwards we explored
the Franciscan Monastery. In the evening we attended
a violin and guitar concert at the St. Saviour Church,
built in 1520. The only lighting in the church was
the candlelight which danced on the vaulted Gothic
ceiling.

SUPETAR
On Saturday, we left by bus for Split. It was a 4 ½
hour ride and we enjoyed the spectacular scenery, with
the mountains on the right and the Adriatic on the
left, with islands all along the way. In places the
mountains were pleated like an accordion by ancient
seismic forces. We passed fish farms and orange
groves and arrived with perfect timing to catch a
ferry to Supetar where we would spend the next week.
We checked in to our apartment with a terrace facing
the sea, and quickly went out for a pizza supper. The
pizza was great, made with a local gouda (!) and ham
and mushrooms. We shared the restaurant with a group
of twelve 9-year-olds, and a couple of parents,
celebrating a birthday party.

Sunday morning we caught the early ferry to Split. It
was rainy again and we walked around Diocletian’s
palace. This is a huge area with churches, the main
one built as Diocletian’s mausoleum, shops, cafes,
housing. There are still about 300 people who live
there and there is lots of shopping. Amazing to walk
in this area which has been there for over 1800 years!
For lunch, we asked a couple of young local women for
a suggestion and they directed us to Varos Konoba(Konoba is a quaint little eating spot) which we very
much enjoyed. It has dark wooden ceilings and red
drapery and wine-colored linens. We shared grilled
vegetables as a starter; David had lamb chops while I
had the pasticada, a local specialty of larded beef
cooked in heavy red wine and spices, served with
gnocchi. It all went down very well with a bottle of
the local Opol rose.
BRAC

The next day we decided to just explore the island of
Brac. We rented a car and drove to Skrip, a tiny town
where you feel that you have stepped back at least
1000 years. The tiny church of St. Duh (Holy Spirit)
was built in the 4th century! Houses are roofed with
heavy stone plates looking like an armadillo’s back.
Then we drove over rocky hills to Bol, passing
pomegranate trees and olive trees. There were bags of
newly picked olives everywhere, waiting to be picked
up. We walked around Bol on this gorgeous day, sunny
and warm, and enjoyed this fishing village and tourist
spot. The Adriatic water is clear and inviting. We
had a delicious lunch on the terrace of Restaurant
Jadranka, opened in 1967. They served David an
insalata caprese for 4 and me grilled vegetables for
2! David followed up with salmon with pasta while I
had grilled scampi. Too much food, but we did our
best, washing it all down with a local white wine.
All the furniture on the terrace was made of tree
branches, each seat different; we were shaded by the
red and green leaves of the overhead vines.
SPLIT

Tuesday, we again took the ferry to Split. We came to
really enjoy these ferry rides, about 1 hour each way,
time to relax, read, write postcards, and so on.
There is very comfortable seating, nice bathrooms, a
bar, non-smoking areas, and big-screen TV’s where they
showed tennis, Sunday Mass, and other events.
Dubrovnik, which we had heard much of, is a small town
of about 60,000; we expected Split to be smaller
since we had never heard of it, but actually its
population is almost 300,000. Split is not pretty,
with unattractive high-rises everywhere, but
Diocletian’s Palace makes up the center behind a
palm-lined promenade along the sea, and the view from
the ferry is impressive with the grey rocky mountains
behind the city.

We didn’t stay in Split this day, but took another bus
to Solin where we walked for miles around the Roman
ruins. They are very spread out and not as impressive
as we expected; I think we are spoiled by the many
extremely impressive sites that we have visited. Then
we took another bus on to Trogir, a tiny walled-city
on the sea. The town was celebrating its Saint’s Day
and there was a band playing in the main square and
girls in local costumes passing out apple doughnuts to
everyone, including us. The town (pop. 1600) is a bit
like a smaller Dubrovnik, with a maze of medieval
marble streets. We wandered about, stopping for a
lunch at Rest. Fontana, along the promenade lining the
seafront. We enjoyed the Dalmatian ham, seafood
salad, and a plate of mixed hors d’oeuvres with a
local white wine. Prosek and jam pancakes were our
delicious dessert.

The next day, we slept in, explored Supetar, visiting
the charming Church of the Annunciation with its
ceiling in peach, lime, blue, and rose. There aren’t
many shops in town, but we did visit a nice
antique/art shop with a charming owner, so involved
with each piece. She spoke of the homes where the
antiques were found, the local artists, and the
heritage and culture of the island. She recommended a
restaurant in the next town, Restaurant Gumonca, in
Mirca. We headed over there and found a lovely place
on the sea, with a vine covered terrace. We of course
ate outside and had learned our lesson about ordering
too much food! We started with small mixed salads;­
everything seemed so fresh and the olive oil
especially good. David had grilled chicken and I
ordered the small portion of veal cutlet with
vegetables. It seemed like a HUGE portion to me! But
we finished it all with a delicious bottle of rose.
We didn’t want to leave this idyllic spot.

We drove to Lozisca where we walked around the little
village and admired the church and bell tower. Many
of the bell towers on the island have onion-shaped
domes. We wondered who lives in these tiny, seemingly
forgotten towns and if the towns will exist in 50
years?

The island of Brac is very rocky and the marble for
Diocletian’s Palace was cut from the quarries here by
Roman slaves. There are huge piles of rocks, not
out-croppings, but sized rocks everywhere, some with
openings like doors and some with funnels at the top,
as if for smoke to escape. Perhaps they were places
for shepherds or homes for people thousands of years
ago. No one knows. We drove back “home” singing “Far
Away Places” and “Slow Boat to China”.

Thursday we again headed to Split, to see more of
Diocletian’s Palace, checking out the shops and more
of the alleyways. Then we headed to the Archeological
Museum, housed in a beautiful old stone building. The
exhibits were wonderful:­ glass containers in the
shape of women’s heads, jewelry, belts, marvelous
mosaic floors. Most of these treasures were found in
Solin. There was a group of American students there,
part of the 600 on Semester at Sea, docked in
Dubrovnik, on their trip around the world. What an
amazing experience that must be!

We walked back to the main part of town and discovered
Narodni Square, one of the loveliest squares with a
very Venetian feel to it. We decided we would have to
have lunch here. In Restaurant Kavana we ordered
grilled vegetables followed by seabass for David and
lasagna with shrimp and Dalmatian ham for me. Then
it was back on the ferry and a drink while we watched
the sunset from the dock in Supetar.

Friday, our last day on the island, we did some more
exploring, driving over to Milna, a little harbor on
the western end of the island. In the summer it is
bustling, but it was very quiet on this warm November
day. We walked around but could find very little: ­
the church was closed and there weren’t even any
restaurants open. We finally found one across the
inlet where we had a really average lunch. We also
explored Nerezisca, an inland village which was once
the center of the island.

Saturday we took our final ferry ride to Split where
we caught the bus to Dubrovnik, along with a group of
students from the Semester at Sea group. We got back
to the Hilton, where they greeted us warmly for our
return and went out for a final dinner. We chose
Proto, a charming place, and ate upstairs but inside
as the sun was going down. The beamed cathedral
ceiling, stone walls, and beautiful blue linens give a
very comfortable feeling. We both had soup to start, ­
David a fish soup and a vegetable ragout for me. Then
David had grilled salmon with mushrooms and pasta
while I had a huge Greek salad, all washed down by
another Opol rose. For dessert we enjoyed a last
glass of prosek. After a last walk around the city,
we headed back for an early night to be ready for our
6:30 AM flight to Frankfurt. A memorable trip

We'd never been to Croatia before we arranged this trip but fortunately Jeanne was there to help us with the itinerary, sightseeing, restaurant and hotel suggestions. Her consultation service was great and helped make our stay a success!

[myacc]

Thank you for your information

[sophiamoniquesm]

Excellent information. This is what readers need to know.

[tcook23]

Great information, I am looking forward to going to a couple of these places on our second trip back to Croatia. I have eaten at Proto, and it was simply wonderful!