A long trip home

 We were up at 3:30 AM and left our place at 4:10 to walk to our taxi location. He was ready for us so we were on our way immediately ( in the rain).  

We checked in with minimal problems. The check in machine which we needed only to upload our passports. didn’t work so we lined up with all other early arrivals to see a check-in rep to input the information.

Caro had a coffee before we went through security. $C4.50!!

The plane loaded at front and back ( we walked out to it).

The flight went smoothly (and we got a snack).

In Amsterdam we used a couple of our free lounge passes as we had a 5 hour layover. The lounge was very nice and we had wine and food. Also, after one week of trying, I finally got my  new esim to work so I watched a lot of YouTube videos to use up the one Gig of data!

I wanted to get through passport control and security early “just in case” of issues. Passport control was automatic passport readers followed by a nice lady who merely stamped our passports. Total time: maybe 2 minutes and then it turned out there was no security so we were through and walking to our gate in no time. While on the walk to our gate we went to a store to spend our Euro coins. 

Also, I counted up the steps (recorded on my phone) for this vacation and got 308,000!

The flight seemed very long. We were not sitting together. I had a window seat and the lady beside did not communicate at all. Caro had an aisle seat two rows behind me.

Lisa picked us up and had supper made for us. She also brought along Beckett so we could get our first Grandkid “fix”. I am pretty sure Beckett was almost overwhelmed with all the kisses and hugs (especially from Abuelita!)

Split

We had a great sleep last night and after dawdling around our room for a bit we went out; first we climbed up the church tower. The tower stairs were very creepy to me.

The photo above (taken from the first or second level of the bell tower) has a circle around “our” covered terrace where we ate a couple of our meals.

The photo above has an arrow pointing to the present day location of our building, in the then ancient city in Diocletian times (300 AD)

Afterwards to the “basement” part of this huge palace. 

The basement has an interesting history but there was no point in taking many photos that essentially looked the same. When these basements were excavated (and not all areas have been cleared yet) the area was FULL of  refuse and what is now dirt (but was poop “back in the day”). There are holes in the ceilings at various points where people had broken through the basement roof in order to make a toilet hole from their homes above.

Afterwards we went back to our place for lunch. 

We pre-booked a taxi to pick us up at 0430 a short ways outside the palace walls ( fingers crossed there😬).

Next, a climb up the small mountain/hill on the edge of the port area. It was a nice hike but we made a mistake in not bringing water so we cut short the walk and headed back down to the waterfront area where we soon enjoyed a coke/water at an outdoor cafe along the water front

I had to use an ATM to get more cash and Caro needed to get some stuff so once that was accomplished we headed back to our place. 

Interestingly there have been concerts every night here. Usually we can’t  hear them well ( even though they are held only 60 steps and around a corner from us). This afternoon is a different story. There is some kind of rock band going “hard at it” and we hear them clear as day ( we have our windows open). 

In the evening we went to the pizza place on the street level below us and had a fantastic pizza ( Croatia style)

Also we found out the band name that is playing their set as I write this. The drummer is the star Billy Cobham. I had to look him up. He 80 years old now, in a couple of Halls of fame and has played with many of the stars of the 60’s and 70’s.

When the band takes a break we can hear another group singing quite clearly (and beautifully). They are located slightly to the left of our building in a round palace entrance that has beautiful acoustics. In fact earlier today we listened to three men sing old Croatian music in another one of these acoustically beautiful places within the palace walls. They were playing for tips and of course we helped them out!!

Plitvice Lakes

We got on our tour bus at 7AM for the start of our 12 hour tour day. 

The weather was overcast with some rain. We travelled on the inland highway ( four lane divided with a speed limit of 130kph) to about Zadar before turning inland into the mountains. 

We went through a series of tunnels as we proceeded into the mountains (the longest tunnel being 5.9 km)

Plitvice park was AMAZING and worth the $C60 each entry fee. The waterfalls were plentiful and beautiful. I could have taken 100 photos. 

We even saw a beautiful black and yellow salamander

We were in the park for about 3 1/2 hours and walked almost 6 km along with our guide. While the rain held off for most of the time the clouds never went away. The temperature was around 20 degrees  which is 10 degrees cooler than it has been for all our trip.

Upon returning back to our Air BnB we went up to the terrace and ate bread and cheese which we had purchased fresh. Also a bottle of Rose was on the menu.

At 8 PM we went out on the streets, watched a small portion of a concert in the Center (100 meters away from us) and had a gelato before heading indoors.

Good Byes and Split

This morning was quiet. We went to have breakfast as usual. As we were finishing, a few of our fellow travellers came in for theirs and so we chatted one last time with them. 

We had agreed last night to take an Uber to the old city with Liann (Edmonton) and Lori (Kelowna) as they were staying nearby for a couple of days. 

By 11:30 we were at our new place. BEAUTIFUL!!  The room was ready so we got all the instructions from the fellow on site. We think this place is going to be perfect

Due to problems with the blogger tonight I can only get the Air BNB photos to load at the end of this posting. $@!!!

At 1 PM we met up with Liann and Lori and had a gelato together. Yummy!

After what I think is probably our last good byes to these ladies from our trip Caro and I started walking down the malecon; looking for,and finding the meet up location for tomorrow’s 12 hour excursion tour. 

Further walking took us along to a beach where Caro got her “fix” by wading in the Adriatic water. 

Upon returning to our place in mid-afternoon we had nice naps. 

Later we went shopping for bread,cheese and wine which we enjoyed about 5 PM. While we were eating, another couple came up to the terrace. Turns out they are from Calgary!

Around 6:30 we went out to the seafront promenade street and then worked our way back through the old city. This palace area is very much like Kotor with tiny streets and restaurants around every turn. The huge difference is that here there seem to be no Muslim ladies wearing hijabs (there were MANY in Kotor)

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Split

We had a 6:30 breakfast in anticipation of our ferry shortly after 7:40.

The passenger ferry turned out to be cancelled however a car ferry made an unscheduled stop to pick up about 100 or so stranded people. We left Hvar port at 8:30 AM. 

The crossing from the island to the mainland was quite rolly at times,and we arrived in Split at 10:15

We were picked up by van taxis ( with one person in our group heading directly to the airport) and off we went to the industrial area of the city. The vans waited for us while we dropped off our bags into storage and then back to the Center and Diocletian Palace

Our local guide met us there and have a great tour of the palace. 

We then walked a short way to a restaurant where we had our last meal together. We gave our CEO (chief excitement officer) another round of applause and at this point most of us gave her our tip money for a job well done. 

While most people headed back to the hotel with Karolina, Caro and I (along with Patty from LA ) continued walking around the downtown and palace areas. 

We found the location of our Air Bnb for tomorrow and a further two nights. Located right in the middle of the palace it is beautifully located. 

We decided to walk back to the hotel. It took 35 minutes but we were chatting the whole time so it went fast.

The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent relaxing and then saying our good byes to many of our fellow GAdventure travellers. Kind of a sad time. 

Hvar again

Upon waking up we went up to hotel reception area for a nice breakfast. Because we had over an hour before our boat tour we walked down to the main town as we weren’t going to have a lot of time afterwards to enjoy this stunningly beautiful place. 

Caro picked up an item or two in the food store and later we went to an ABM to pick up some more Euros. We don’t really need that much cash however on Saturday morning we say good bye to Karolina ( our Polish guide) and the rest of the group and of course it is “tip” time for Karolina. 

The weather today is super windy and upon return to the hotel we were informed that the boat tour was cancelled by the boat Captain ( too rough and dangerous)

Therefore,change of plans! I put out the word on WhatsApp that Caro and I were going to walk up the hill to the fortress. Three people joined us. 

The view was spectacular. It was so windy one of my hearing aids almost came out so I had to take them out and put into my pockets. 

Instead of returning to the hotel right away after we walked down we went back to the downtown and picked up some wine and snacks to enjoy throughout the day. 

After I woke up from a nap in the afternoon we walked down a very rocky unofficial pathway to the beach area. Here we found a beautiful malecon walkway which we followed for about a kilometre. It went around two bays and at the end the little bay was protected from the super strong winds. Caro decided to go for a swim. 

Back at the hotel again ( while enjoying a glass of Rose wine) I got hold of our AirBnb of our upcoming three night stay  to make arrangements to be there earlier than normal check in. 

Supper was at 7:30 PM. It was good , as expected. Because a couple of people are gone by tomorrow night we had our final meal tonight with all of us saying a few words about the trip. There was also a surprise birthday cake for our guide Karolina