We had, yes you guessed it, another slow start to our day.
After breakfast we went for a walk along the foreshore away from the old Walled town, around a point just to the north of us.
Our breakfast view
It was mostly a nice easy walk, as long as you don’t mention me slipping on rocks and falling as I was trying to put my hand in the Adriatic Sea on the Dalmatian Coast. Damn that sea slime was slippery and those rocks hard. All good the only injury was to my pride, and a bit of dirt on my shorts!
The walk gave us an opportunity to get a better view of the 14th century old town from a slight distance. It’s a gracious looking settlement from afar, particularly after the island cruise boats had left. There were a few interesting buildings along the way, we both took pictures of one that had a row of angles standing on a wall out front of it.
We got as far as an old church with a tall bell tower, but we couldn’t see a way in.
We walked back to our hotel via a supermarket, I qhad previously said in an earlier post that the water in Croatia is considered the best in Europe, what we didn’t know was that there was one exception to that generalisation, Korcula, it is well known, apparently, for its acquired taste! So we stocked up on bottled water. This is the first hotel on our trip that hasn’t offered free bottled water, just when you really needed it! (Don’t get me wrong, you really did need it in Greece)
I took a walk through a bit more of the old city just before our tour, A Taste of Korcula Food & Drink, which started at 2pm.
It seems we had walked around and through most of the old walled town last night and this morning. It isn’t as big as it appeared. There are a lot of tourists in town, with typical groups of about 15 people led by a “flag on a stick waving” guide. Many different nationalities but predominantly European, particularly German. I managed to get a few photos with no people in them, we prefer them that way, so as not to distract from the subject. I found a couple of small churches/chapels, no names to be found, and the main entrance into the Walled town, sweeping staircase and all. I also found a section of the old wall that was essentially intact. It was an interesting walk.
Oh, I seem to remember I promised more of Marco Polo. The locals here would have you believe the famous trader and Explorer was born in Korcula, rather than Venice. Korcula also claims that Marco Polo set out on his most famous journey to China, from this town. It seems that it was all a good story based on flimsy facts and the want to draw people to the island. Korcula has a preservation order on the house he was supposedly born and it is now a museum in his honour, with lots of themed trinkets for sale. I guess if you spin a story often enough, well enough and with a touch of “fact”, it eventually sticks.
Our Food and Drink Tour was centred on Lumbarda, about a 10 minute drive from our hotel. First up was a honey tasting, at OPG Komparak, where we tried several honey varieties of a young beekeeper. 
He started by explaining all the beehive interpersonal dynamics ( basically sucks to be a male bee, and almost as much to be a female[worker bee] ). His business started off being honey and olive oil, then Covid hit and he took the opportunity to expand into gin! He had all the ingredients except the juniper berries growing on his land. Now his business is booming. There was one “small” glitch during Covid when he lost his sense of taste and smell – nearly burnt the place down because he couldn’t smell something burning, but he survived all that and is doing well. A really nice guy doing good. His honey was good, his Olive oil was good, and his gin, I like the burnt orange(neat) and Deb liked the lemon with tonic. (Was like lemon sherbet)
Next we went to a family owned and run winery, Vins Sabulum. While waiting for their own licence they use the families facilities to process and bottle their wines. We tried their dry white, a GRK, it was a nice wine that would fit with any food you would have white wine with. Next we tried their Rose, made with Plavac Mali, the variety they use to pollenate their GRK. Then we had the Plavic Mali. It was a 2020 vintage that had at least 6 months on oak and 6 months in stainless steel.
I enjoyed all the wine. We had some delicious snacks while we tasted the wine, olives, sardines, prosciutto, cheese, olive oil and bread. We finished with their fortified wines, a plum Grappa and a Limoncello.
Next we drove through the village of Lumbarda, and saw Grape vines at various stages of growth, Dalmatian cabbages, and other veg growing in the fields. Very small allotments.
From there we finished our tour at Ivan’s place, OPG Anica Bazika, he was an affable man who loved what he does in his spare time. We had sugar preserved figs, almonds, orange peel and green figs, followed by jams of all description ( including fig and chilli), his red and white wine, his fortified brews of fig, carob and lemon, then pancakes with various jams and then his Plum Grappa and his version of Limoncello. All very tasty.
It was a very sweet afternoon’s frolic and our guide Rachel was delightful.
At 7:50 we went down to the waterfront watch the sunset. Unfortunately some boats had other ideas. There were 13 Dalmatian cruising boats, docked side by side out from the wharf, 6 & 7 deep, and about 7 or 8 super yachts (let’s play spot the Oligarch) lined up at the docks.
No sunset to be seen . At least we saw it last night!
