It's open daily from 9am-9:30am, and 5:00pm-5:30pm. We took advantage of the opportunity to grab a cappuccino and a tea while we waited.
And as we were getting used to, it was a very rainy morning, on our drive between Murter and Split.
We arrived in Split about two hours later, around 11am. Split is an amazing place, Croatia's second biggest city behind Zagreb. The highlight of Split is Diocletian's Palace -- the Roman emperor's amazing retirement home, built between 295 and 305 A.D.
The Palace is incredible in every way. The breadth, the scope, and even its modern evolution. A tremendous amount of the 1700 structure is very well preserved. What's more unbelievable is how integrated the palace is with modern apartments, houses, shops, businesses, banks, etc. Countless structures have been globbed onto the original palace.
Parts of it are untouched, and have more of a Roman ruin feel.
While other parts have been attached to Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and even modern structures.
We paid a couple of kuna to climb to the top of the campanile from which all of the palace and Split is visible.
I couldn't get over how Roman this part of the world felt. It really brought me back to my high school Latin studies.
I was impressed with the seamless blend of ancient to modern, much like the great Italian cities of Rome, Venice, and Florence.
I had hoped this guy might have been an on duty police officer, but I think he was part of some midday presentation :-)
There were a few cruise ships and a handful of yachts in the harbor, so Split was a bit more crowded than our previous days on Murter.
Here's a good sample of a 1700 year old wall and one of the original portals into the city, tied into a 19th or 20th century apartment building on the left.
This is the best preserved of the 4 towers that anchored the borders of the palace wall.
The arches of the original promenade now surround the cathedral at the heart of the palace.
A black granite Sphinx outside of the Temple of Jupiter is thought to be from ancient Egypt, and perhaps 3000 years old.
This rendering of the palace shows how it might have looked around 305 A.D. at its completion. Notice how the Adriatic touches the front wall of the palace.
Both the north and the south entrances to the palace are well preserved.
We had lunch just outside of the palace wall, on a quaint little square, facing some of the medieval government buildings.
What do you know...Croatian wines, olives, oil, vinegar and some delicious cheeses from the famous island of Pag. Hard to beat!
After lunch, we walked around the outer perimeter of the palace walls, and found the statue of Bishop Gregory of Nin. He looks like a televangelist from the Middle Ages.
Bishop Gregory of Nin introduced the Croatian language into mass services in 9269 A.D.
It's afternoon now, which means its time for our daily gelato fix.
And after a couple of hours in Split, we hit the road around 2pm. We took the "scenic" roads from Split all the way to Dubrovnik. This was about 200 kilometers of jaw dropping coastal beauty.
We stopped a good dozen times to take some beautiful pictures, and finally, finally, finally we started seeing some sunshine!
Once the sun comes out, the waters of the Adriatic turn an almost surreal color of blue.
And with the sun, we started seeing some blue skies, for our first time in Croatia.
There's a small bit of the drive that turns inland for a few kilometers, and climbs high up through the mountains. I don't remember the name of this lake, but it's near the border of Croatia and Bosnia.
It actually looks to be two separate lakes, connected by a small canal and this bridge.
Finally, we get to use our sunglasses for more than just style.
So after about 20 minutes inland, we were back on the coast, driving those curvy roads and peering off of some steep cliffs.
We did drive through a small bit of Bosnia to get to Dubrovnik. It's kind of amazing to think about. I remember being 11 years old, in 6th or 7th grade, watching "Channel 1" at school, and seeing the drama of the fall of Yugoslavia with the Yugoslav Wars. And here we were, a couple of American tourists comfortably sightseeing in this part of the world. I think it gives me a bit of hope...
The Scotsman in me loved seeing a thicket of thistles at one roadside stop we made in Bosnia.
Okay, so it wasn't all sunshine. The clouds sort of came and went through the rest of the day.
And the light softened for some nice shots of the islands of the Dalmatian archipelago.
About 4 hours after we left Split, we finally arrived in Dubrovnik.
The Franjo Tudman Bridge is a dramatic, beautiful introduction to this city.
It towers over you, and spans high over one of several bays within Dubrovnik.
We checked into our hotel with a nice view on a decent little beach.
roat teens on our beach.
No matter, we left the hotel for a night out inside of Dubrovnik's Old Town. Like Split, Dubrovnik is an old city, built within a comprehensive set of walls, right on the sea.
While Dubrovnik is much "newer" than Split, still much of Dubrovnik is over 1,000 years old!
Here's Kim in front of the old cistern, with its 16 water spigots.
On the excellent recommendation of my colleague, Claire, we dined at a fabulous restaurant called Proto.
We had dinner outside, on the rooftop terrace, in a classic Mediterranean style.
Our amuse bouche consisted of a small pastry of cheese with a mustard and a balsamic vinegar spread.
We enjoyed some of the best wine of our entire trip.
We also enjoyed a half dozen of the local oysters, from the bay of Ston, which drove through a few hours earlier.
Kim and I split our entrees, which consisted of a filet of salmon in a mustard cream sauce, and a delicious mushroom risotto Dalmatian style.
What a meal! We had a really nice evening, and set out walking around the old town for a little while.
The old town is really pristine and clean. With no vehicles whatsoever allowed in the streets, it's a great, safe place to stroll around at your own pace.
Even within the city walls, there's quite a bit of elevation differences. We hiked to the top of one hill, and could see the Hilton Imperial hotel (under different ownership now), which was somewhat famously attacked during the Serbian/Montenegrin siege of Dubrovnik in 1991-1992.
The ambiance of the city at night is second to none -- we enjoyed it every bit as much as Paris or Venice.
We barely touched Dubrovnik in our few evening hours there on Tuesday. Check our next post for our full day spent touring the city!
:-Dustin
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