Split, Croatia

The first stop on our cruise was Split, Croatia. As we approached the harbor, this is what we saw. A picture is worth a thousand words, but I don't think even this picture does the scene justice. The skies were threatening rain, but we didn't get any. The temps were in the low 60's, perfect for touring.

We spent the afternoon touring the cities of Split and Trogir. Both are beautiful old cities. We had a local guide to show us around. This first photo shows the Riva, the main thoroughfare along the waterfront. The buildings were connected to the Diocletian Palace, which was built in the 3rd century by a Roman emporer. We toured the palace, where today 2,000 people make their homes inside its walls.

Here we are standing outside the palace walls. The palace is in the process of being restored. When the Croatian people took over the palace following the death of the emporer, they wanted to get rid of everything that reminded them of him, because he had persecuted all of the locals who were Christians. He thought he was God, and wanted to be treated as such.

The next photo shows Bill rubbing the big toe of a huge statue behind the palace. Legend has it that if you rub the toe, you will come back to Split. OF course, we hope the legend turns out to be true! (The statue is huge, as you can tell from the size of just the toe, and is of the guy who united all the tribes in Croatia after the death of the emporer. We can't remember his name!!!)

We had a little free time in our tour so Cindy and Iwalked through the local market. They were selling everything from shoes, belts, hats, fruits,veggies and assorted nuts. The photo below shows some of the assorted nuts that were for sale. The nut in the front kept following me around all day! We did buy some fresh figs and munched on them the rest of the afternoon. We ended up with a half kilo of figs. We had so many I passed them out on the tour bus on our way back to the ship.

About a 30 minute bus ride away from Split is the town of Trogir. There we toured a cathedral and the town square. Trogir was named by the Greeks from 2 words meaning 'goat' and 'hill'. I paid special attention to that bit of trivia due to the Greek reference. It was beautiful, as you can see below.