Split & Diocletian's Palace (Croatia)

The drive from Plitvice to Split was via rugged mountainous terrain. We had chosen to forego the highway and drove down along the eastern border of the country. The mountains basically reach all the way to the coast so likely the highway also passes through mountains, it just likely passes through more developed area as well.  We passed through a number of small, deserted towns with very plain architecture. We had two distinct impressions: The buildings were likely built under the communist reign. The territory likely experienced "action" in the more recent "conflict".  

With this move we are now officially touring what is called the Dalmatian Coast. With all the columns at the various Roman ruins, we particularly liked this post card. (From what we've read, there is no clear connection of the dog to the coast, but it's still a great card.)

We arrived in Split not quite knowing what to expect. The city started as the palace of Roman Emperor Diocletian (built at the beginning of 4C). Our room was in the old Palace somewhere, as is about 1/3 of the full UNESCO Heritage site (which also includes the "Old Town" that grew up around the Palace as well as other area within the Walls later built to protect the city).  Looking at a map, we could not decide if one could drive in the Palace area or not.  The answer is "not". Garmin knew that. But Garmin led us on a very convoluted walk through little alleyways, up and down MANY steps, from the pay parking through the old Palace.  Note: From a map of the city, you can't really distinguish an alley, from a hallway from a street.

Fortunately we had left the luggage in the car.  Upon arrival, our innkeeper provided a much simpler route to the inn, one with only 3 small steps…perfect for wheeling luggage.

Diocletian's Palace in its heyday

A bit of Diocletian's Palace (bottom left) & the surrounding "Old Town" Today

A view of current buildings on top of the Palace Foundation...

The typical truck for "Old Cities".
That's the driver standing on front.

As with so many Roman places, the palace was rediscovered in the middle ages and the materials were used to build a "new" city on top of and within the ruins.  Over time, those who could afford to do so moved to the west of the "Old Town" where the breezes and views make a lovely place to live. And the palace was populated by the poor. Now, in the summer, the Palace is populated by: lodging, shops (souvenirs, clothing & shoes), pizza places, coffee & gelato bars, some nice restaurants (with tables squeezed into any available space inside or out), the fish market, and even fine remnants of the old palace. The most impressive being the bell-tower.

The bell-tower is quite beautiful from inside and out. There are many "cutouts", giving it an almost lacy feeling. It also means that you feel more exposed and at "risk" if you have a fear of heights. It was amazing to see so many people, bordering on sheer terror that continued to climb to the top for the view. Bill was one of the ones dealing with the terror. His draft content for this posting included the phrase: "with metal stairs clinging to the walls". Actually the stairs were pretty well anchored to the walls. A lot of climbers were "clinging" to the walls. And yes, it was worth it...at the top, great views over Split.

Looking up the stairway in the Belltower. If you look closely you can see
6 levels of stairs. Notice how open it is. For contrast, Pat recalls feeling
very claustrophobic climbing Giotto's Tower in Florence.

In the winter, we were told, the Palace is basically deserted. The same stone walls that make it cool and comfortable in the summer, make it cold and maybe even dreary in the winter. But it's a delightful place to wander on a summer day…if you don't mind the touristic developments. We don't as long as they are suitably camouflaged to fit with the backdrop.  We enjoy having the dining & shopping options available when needed and can ignore them otherwise.

Our room was near the Peristyle (the central courtyard of the Palace) and right next to the "Temple of Jupiter".  All of which means we were directly on the tour route which includes an alleyway only wide enough for one person at a time…leaving a bottleneck in front of our inn.  The Innkeeper takes advantage of this by having a shop at the ground level. Smart. (Fortunately the windows were great. Open you heard everything. Closed, almost nothing.)

Two wine bars provided four of our meals here.  We can't eat full meals constantly, at least not without buying new, larger clothes. ;-)   We enjoyed both the Zinfandel Wine Bar & the Wine & Cheese Bar where we tasted a variety of Croatian wines along with local snacks.

Bill perusing the dessert wine options

Interesting but so little Croatian wine is exported,
it's only relevant for travelers. It does show the outline of the country though.

We ventured out of Split one day and visited the remains of Klis Fortress, a renovation in progress, located high on a hill with views over the surrounding countryside. The initial mountaintop Klis Fortress was constructed by Illyrians several hundred years BC and conquered by the Romans in 9 AD.  The castle evolved over the centuries, withstood the 12C siege by the Mongols but fell to the Ottoman forces in 16C. A century later it was seized by the Venetians. Despite all this, it is in pretty good shape for a "ruin".  Of course it's tourism draw has been recognized, hence renovations are in progress.

Tower at Klis

The nearby Roman Ruins of Salona are indeed ruins, the best being the amphitheater which is truly only a shadow of it's former glory. Still, the tourism draw of the ruins has helped present day Solin expand it's economy beyond oil and cement.

The Amphitheater - not very impressive...

This gets points for recycling.  The picnic table top is from an old sarcophagus
and the seats are bases of columns

We later stopped in Trogir for lunch and a look around. Trogir is basically a small island, connected to the mainland by a short bridge. Fortunately you can easily park nearby and walk to the island, thereby avoiding the traffic bottleneck at the bridge. The island has (drumroll…) many shops and restaurants to pass the time.

Trogir Castle

Trogir 

Our last day in Split was spent climbing the hill at the end of the peninsula, after climbing around 178 steps they finally advise you that there are 318 yet to go, all of which is made longer with some pathways between. However there was a little shade and the views over the water and back to the mountains were worth the effort. Besides, as you might guess, we also needed the exercise.

The beaches in Split, as in much of the surrounding area in Italy & Croatia, are concrete decks, stones, or VERY coarse "sand" where the beachers lounge, play games, and enjoy the water.  The water is indeed beautiful and appealing but we've grown use to avoiding the sun so we relax and watch others treating their skin the way we use to treat ours. Pat is at least envious of them.  Bill was never much for swimming.

We left Split for Hvar Island (pronounce this without the "h"; it's not quite accurate but you'll be close) on one of the many Jadrolinija ferries and took our final photos of the city and its mountainous backdrop.

View of Split from the Ferry to Hvar

Plitvice Lakes National Park (Croatia)

The Brochure Photo - Much better overview than we could shoot.

With our trusty Garmin and directions from the rental car agent, we exited Zagreb and made our way successfully to Plitvice (PLEET vee chee). For much of 2 hour trip we were amazed at how like rural Maine the territory is.  (Note the latitude is very close to the same but who expected the terrain/plant life and scene to look so much the same?  Not us.)  

Maine type traffic ;-)

As we neared our destination, things changed. It became more rugged and we discovered Rastoke Falls. This turns out to be an introductory version of the waterfalls at Plitvice.  

Rastoke Falls

Plitvice Lakes National Park is noted for it's 16 lakes separated by natural dams of travertine that result in literally innumerable cascades of water ranging from about 1 inch to 255 feet in height. The overall system stretches over a distance of 5 miles and makes a drop of 450 feet or so.  The travertine is deposited by some interaction of moss, algae & bacteria that builds up at a rate of about 1 cm per year.  Apparently this is created by the same process as the terraces at Pamukkale in Turkey.  We'll be telling you more about that in roughly a month from now.  

The national park is networked with a series of boardwalks and trails. To facilitate traveling these trails, Ivica Luketic created a series of options labelled creatively A through K.  Trail A is designed to take 2-3 hours. Trail K is designed to take 6-8 hours. Additionally the water exiting from the lowest lake forms the Korana River.

Upon arriving at our accommodations on the same Korana River (with it's own private waterfall) we were greeted by our host (the same Ivica Luketic who designed the trail system for the park), two large friendly dogs and a pony that is about the same size as the dogs. 

The Welcome Crew at Sobe San Korana (Sobe means "Guest room")

After enjoying lunch at a nearby restaurant (another meat platter for two and some local wine), we did Trail A as personally recommended by Ivica (saving us from studying the map and wondering how much of the trail system to attempt starting in late afternoon. We started from Entrance 1 and walked along the base getting our first views of the hundreds of falls connecting the lakes. We hiked to the top of the highest falls for a few more photo ops. We pretty much OD'd on the number of irresistible photo ops in our 2 hour hike. And lucky for you, we are sharing only a few of them. There were truly more falls than you can count, in limitless sizes shapes and descriptions. And all are surrounded with lush foliage. Definitely a place to be included in any travel itinerary to Croatia. 

One of the waterfalls

Another waterfall

An intersection of the boardwalks with requisite waterfall between them

A peaceful lake

Yet another waterfall

The next day we focused on trail C, designed to take 5-6 hours. We started with a 15 minute hike from the parking lot to entrance 2. A short boat ride left us a the beginning of a series of boardwalks and paths through the lakes and streams put us right in the action. It was several hours of walking through the trees enjoying the sound of falling water.  We the short circuited the official trail (per Ivica's recommendation) by taking a tram ride to a later portion the led down through a cave. Very cool ...in both senses of the word. 

The Tram with a high powered truck because there are some steep hills to climb

Bill in the cave, which is more of a vertical tunnel

We returned to the entrance by boat, feasted on some delicious raspberries offered by one of the vendors and returned to our new local favorite restaurant for some trout. All in all a very pleasant, calm, soothing, experience.

As an aside...  At the Sobe (Inn), we chatted with fellow guests, a young couple from Holland.  (We always say "The Netherlands" but the Dutch apparently say "Holland").  The woman works with technology for managing AC, heat, etc for corporations. This is pretty much what Pat did in her first job (...which also included doing the same for Walt Disney World in Florida. That's another story, but feel free to ask about it. It is interesting.) Anyway, Pat mentioned that her main challenge in that job was explaining it to others.  The woman working in the field today said, "It's still just as difficult, that's why I simply tell folks that I am in building management."

Zagreb, capital of Croatia

The train from Ljubljana to Zagreb had few stops but there was one long stop for the border crossing.  For some reason the Slovenian officials came through and checked our documents. Then minutes later the Croatian officials checked them again. In the meantime the Slovenian engine was swapped our for a Croatian one and we were finally off again.  

Zagreb is a far bigger city than Ljubljana. Ljubljana is more appealing from a touring perspective. But what Zagreb lacks in charm and outstanding attractions, it makes up for with the food options. We had little idea about what we would do in Zagreb other than see the city and visit a few museums. What we found was a Culinary Experience with fish, meat, and other dishes very well prepared paired with fine Croatian wines.

They say that historically, Zagreb was comprised of two rival hilltop settlements. Oddly enough only one hill is at all noticeable, and it isn't very high. This hill is home to the "upper town" which is reached by an easy walk or a very short funicular ride.  (Do keep in mind we have recently made serious climbs to castles in several nearby cities. …)
The upper town is most visited for the St Mark's Church with its two shields (one for each settlement, I think) on the roof (interesting for a brief visit) and the Naive Art Museum (housing very fine examples of art with a primitive childlike simplicity...totally worth visiting.) 

St Mark's Church

Naive Art by Mijo Kovacic

Naive Art by Ivan Vecanj

We found a third reason to visit the upper town -- Trilogia Restaurant. Very small. No standing menu.  The meals all depend on what was available at the market earlier in the day. With each course we had our waiter select an appropriate glass of wine. For starters Pat had baby mackerel and Bill had fried cheese; this was followed by mushroom risotto for Pat and veal with polenta for Bill. Dessert was "apple pie and ice cream".

Baby Mackerel & Zucchini 

Pie & Ice Cream

The architecture of central Zagreb (housing the theater & several museums) is dominated by buildings from the late 1800's to early 1900's. (Newer Communist architecture is simple and not especially memorable.) What struck us was that so many of the public buildings were kind of a basic mustard yellow color...see a few samples below. Pat has never cared for basic mustard nor does she care for the color. Maybe this also colored her perception of Zagreb?

Arts & Craft Museum (Mustard Yellow)

National Theater (Mustard Yellow)

Buildings on the main square (Only one in Mustard Yellow. Phew!)

Confused Building- Not quite sure why someone thought this worked.

We enjoyed exploring the Ethnography Museum and the Arts & Craft Museum. The Ethnographic Museum included artifacts representative of each of the continents plus samples of the range of the typical dress of the people of the Croatian region throughout the ages. Bottom Line: They seem to have had as many variants of costumes as the people of Mexico.  And equally colorful as well. The Arts & Craft Museum focuses on the lifestyle of the pampered aristocracy of Zagreb through the ages...furniture, artwork, dinnerware and such. Fun to see but nothing outstanding. 

Folk Costumes at Ethnography Museum

More Folk Costumes at Ethnography Museum

To get a better sense of the city we road the Hop-On Hop-Off bus.  It really should just be termed a sightseeing bus because the routes are so infrequent that while you can hop-off, it is highly unlikely that you'll find a later bus convenient to hop-on.  However, this did give us a good view of the city.  There are many green parks but there is a very notable modern park area. – quite huge with many water focused activities.  The folks from Zagreb are big on their olympic sports participation.  But the coolest thing at the park was the water skiing area.  We couldn't see it closely but it looked like someone arranged a flat, circular ski-tow that water skiers hitch onto and ski away.  

A couple evenings we actually kept things light and had a little wine with small plates of cured meats and excellent cheeses.  Our last dinner was a Vinodel.  It was far larger than we expected and likely we would have thought it too commercial if it hadn't been so highly praised.  It did live up to it's reputation (and hence was quite busy…but the service was quite attentive.) For a starter we share roasted red peppers.  Bill had veal ""under the peka (roasted in a special pan) with potatoes, Pat had veal with cheese & spinach. For dessert we shared a Croatian "flan". Delightful.

One surprise in Zagreb was the ceiling lamp in our room.  It was a crystal chandelier made in a rainbow of colors…and basically the same as one we arranged to have transported to San Miguel for our friend Anado. 

The Ceiling light in our room

Slovenia

Slovenia is a small charming country.  You can hit the highlights in 3 days but there are enough activities to keep you busy much longer.  As previously mentioned, we visited one of their notable caves and the Lipica Stud Farm from Italy, as well as driving around the mountain region a bit. Then we spent 4 days at Lake Bled, followed by a day in Ljubljana.  (pronounced more or less as: Loo bee yah na).


Before going more into our tour, we pause for a little background on Slovenia (assuming that you, like us prior to this trip, are only vaguely aware of the country.) Slovenia became recognized as a separate country in January 1992 (after 5 years of putting the pieces in place (getting internal agreement to separate, establishing a constitution, setting up the government, elections, ….) It may be young, but it is the oldest of the countries that separated from Yugoslavia.  The people are proud to have separated quite peacefully. It may have been due to luck and timing, but they were indeed lucky to avoid the military actions in their sister states of Yugoslavia. (They had their share of military action in WW II. We toured a lovely area that has inconspicuous bunkers representative of those housing thousands of soldiers. Very small. Very basic. No heat. Many soldiers died of starvation, many others from the cold.)

Lake Bled is one of those areas where you just want to sit and absorb the beauty.  The aquamarine lake has one small island (home of a cute church) and is "guarded" physically by a castle and spiritually by a fine cathedral. The backdrop of the Julian Alps only enhances the beauty. The town is cute with an alpine look enhanced with a few stately buildings, including Hotel Bled. Hotel Bled is known for being the former summer residence of Yugoslavian President Tito, popular leader of communist Yugoslavia (those who came after Tito favored Serbia too much leading to their downfall).

You can take in the beauty of Lake Bled by walking around the lake, climbing the steps (or driving) up to the Castle ...or by sitting at a Cafe sipping coffee, mineral water, wine… as the Europeans do for hours at a time. 

Bled’s little island and Otok Church in front, with Bled Castle high above 
and Church of St Martin on the far right

In case anyone gets tired of enjoying the beauty, there are lots of alpine activities available, including .... hiking, biking, rafting, kayaking, zip lining down a waterfall, ... 

The morning transfer to the Nova Gorica train station was interesting. The station is in Slovenia just across the border from Italy. However, there is no crossing at the station so the driver let's us off in Italy and we walk from Italy to the train station, at most 100 feet. The train stops in several small villages and you can see streams and mountains along the way. Quite nice.

There are two train stations in Bled, neither is convenient to the town.  We hired a driver to take us to the lodge and to later provide a full day of touring.  The driver, Grame provided a short tour of town and hints on local dining and touring enroute to the Hotel Berc. We ate three times at one of his recommended dining spot, Osteria/Cafe Peglez'n. They have excellent fish, meats and wine. They provided us a very tasty (and pretty) dessert plate to help us celebrate our 45th anniversary.

We spent one day walking around the lake. Enroute we climbed up to the Castle and explored the small museum there. They were filming (a movie? an promotional piece? Who knows…) and Pat got a shot of the key actors dressed in medieval costume coming up the stirs. By the end of our tour we found ourselves at Villa Bled. We decided to stop for a glass of wine, which became a couple glasses of wine accompanied by a trout plate (prepared three ways-pate, smoked, croquette). After lunch we toured the theater constructed during Tito's ownership. It is decorated by large murals depicting local history.

I can smile big too...with enough wine.  These are
bottles from sparkling wine made by the local monks

It took me awhile to frame this shot but...
The most amazing thing is actors can
just keep on smiling beautifully

Natural refrigeration used at a rest stop along the hike around the lake

The castle from inside

Pat's birthday tour took was a tour through the Julian Alps we took a tour with Grame in NW Slovenia with a touch of little Italy, visiting a ski jump, making a short walk to a water fall touring the bunkers enroute, lunching at a very "local" restaurant that Grame had found by chance. We enjoyed a local dish (the name?  who knows.  But it was a large flat piece of ground meat with cheese and prosciuttio all breaded and fried. It was pretty yummy. And we think they said that it had no calories. We followed this with some wine tasting. There were a couple great ones. We'd share the names and types but we'r e pretty sure you won't find them at your local wine store.

Slovenian Hay Rack ...also sometimes extended to become a shelter
for a wood pile; Julian Alps in the background

Us with a bridge over the Soca River in the background

In the wine tasting room.  Bill needed just a little more wine.
(Note nozzle in his left hand and fine wine glass in his right hand.)

To celebrate our 45th anniversary we walked to and through Vintgar Gorge and finished the day at Restaurant Peglez'n. The feast was completed by an over the top dessert arranged by our waiter. (Actually this was just the start of celebrating our 45th Anniversary.  We have allotted ourselves one very special foodie experience for each celebration…starting with our 2012 birthdays and anniversary that we failed to celebrate properly at the time.  The two restaurants in Istria got us through our 2012 birthdays. We looking forward to a few more similar experiences. We'll keep you posted.

Our seafood dinner for two at 

Restaurant Peglez'n

And the accompanying dessert

We had a significant weather change overnight prior to our move to Ljubljana, thunder showers and rain followed the three lovely days. It was a short distance to our hotel, so we opted to walk from the train station…but, bad decision!  There was a major downpour. We were a little damp (make that drenched) when we arrived at our hotel. Thankfully we were able check-in early and spent the next half-hour drying out. The weather cooperated reasonably well after that and we joined a walking tour of the city and later dined outside.  Ljubljana is a lovely, small city. It is the smallest capital in Europe.  Lots of beauty, culture, history, … The main part of the old city lies along the Ljubljanica River in an around the local castle hill.  Basically much of the architecture dates from the early 1900's as the earlier buildings were destroyed by earthquake in 1895. Hence buildings are primarily baroque with some Art Nouveau/Art Deco thrown in.  Hopefully the photos will give you a feel for the vibe.

The main square in Ljubljana

Dragon on "Dragon Bridge".  Dragons
are the legendary "protectors"
of Ljubljana

Lujbljana viewed from the Castle

Triple Bridge- If traffic is too much for one bridge
just build two more like it (actually the
two side bridges were built for pedestrians)

Inside the Cathedral

Later, at the hotel we had a snack and, duh, wine, for "dinner" at the hotel before retiring to our room to prepare for the move to Zagreb, now as veterans as Croatian travelers (do you recall  that we started our journey in Istria in NW Croatia?) 

Before leaving Slovenia, one more observation. To drive in Slovenia, you need to purchase a "vignette" for the day, a week or more. This vignette is placed on the windshield of the car and serves to cover all highway tolls. At first it was confusing in it's simplicity (it's never really stated that this covers the tolls, they just make it clear that you need one), but we really appreciated not having to think further about paying tolls.