To the Coast!

 

Thursday, May 8

We left the chilly mountains of interior Croatia at Plitvice Lakes in a light rain and under gray skies.  Nevertheless, the morning drive southwest to the coast was an interesting one, through small villages with ruined stone churches, rolling countryside, and lots of (primitive) roadwork. 

Our first destination was Zadar, a small town that must elicit love-at-first-sight sighs scores of times each day.  The ruins of a Roman forum, more churches than we could count, wide ancient walls encircling a lovely Old Town full of narrow cobbled streets, modern shops in ancient buildings and a harbor full of all manner and size water craft would be enough for any visitor to admire.  But, the waterfront promenade that bordered it all was just spectacular -- the broad, tree-lined Riva, paved with gleaming white stones, could not have been more enticing.  Blue sky, bluer sea, and white ferries heading to the forested islands offshore made for a setting that is hard to beat.  We stopped to enjoy the Sea Organ, a series of pipes and whistles built into the steps that descend into the water and emit strange sounds with the movement of the sea.  Adjacent to that is the Sun Salutation, a circular array of solar cells that collect energy during the day and produce a light show at night.  Must be interesting, but we needed to tear ourselves away from lovely Zadar and be on our way.

We'd chosen a coastal route for our afternoon drive, so we thought there might be even more good things in store.  We had lunch in a waterside park and then continued driving south along Croatia's Dalmatian coast.  More blue sky, blue water, busy harbors, and vistas of offshore islands -- summertime heaven for Croatians and lucky vacationers!  Our next stop was tiny Trogir, a walled island with another fine Old Town,  a broad Riva that offered parallel parking for some amazing yachts, and old fortifications.

We were headed to Split, Croatia's second largest city  and a business and commercial hub.  We'd been forewarned by the landlady of the apartment we'd booked that some guests have found that GPS has been unable to locate the address.  We'd done some preliminary looking at maps and routes before we left home, and had counted on checking plans online once more last night, but because we were without WiFi, that didn't happen.  As luck would have it, our heretofore trusty GPS was not immune to whatever had led others astray, and we found ourselves significantly off our targeted destination.  We tried various combinations and permutations of the address we'd been given and then Tom remembered that he'd had difficulty with that address when we'd originally plotted our route.  By changing the street name to one he'd previously found, we ultimately found ourselves where we needed to be.  Once there, and successfully parked a very tight spot, Tom let the landlady know that her address as listed on the online booking site was not, in fact, the name of her street!

After some much needed liquid fortification, we decided that we wanted to stay in for dinner, which we did, after picking up some things from the market down the street.  Refreshed, we headed out after dinner for the short walk to the Riva, where all of Split goes in the evening to walk, sit, sip, and watch each other and the world go by.  It was a beautiful scene, with the broad promenade full of locals and visitors alike, and, with a little gelato, a great way to end any day!