We were collected from our hotel at around 9:45am and taken down into Hvar. We walked from the carpark to the area on the wharf where the ferries come and go. It’s always a mystery how the system works, no signs anywhere, no real indication where each ferry is going to, masses of tourists with perplexed looks on their faces – but it does, somehow. The ferry left on time at 10:15am.
My musing on things I have noticed so far.
It has become very aware to us of the amount of coughing people do in enclosed places like planes and ferries. We seem to be getting good at recognising all the various cough types, clear your throat, something went downthe wrong way, dry cough, wet cough and then there’s the “Spicy Cough”, we move away from these!!
Smoking is still very much a part of European life. Seems you are allowed to smoke/vape almost anywhere.
Croatian’s on the face of it are very religious people, and a degree of modesty is expected in public areas
Overall, the food in Greece seemed to be cooked more consistently than in Croatia, we were disappointed a few times here that the seafood we ordered was overcooked.
No one sun bakes directly on the pebble beaches here, you hire a sunlounge at anywhere between 15 & 40 euro a day.
Seems every town has an “Old Town”, usually Walled, and it is usually the centre of tourism.
On the screens on our ferry it said that this ferry was the largest passenger ferry in the world, carrying 400 passengers at 40 knots! There are lots of spare seats but it looked like lots got on board.
Our trip to Split took almost an hour, about 20 mins longer than expected. We were picked up and taken to our hotel by a man with a resort style buggy.
Our hotel in Split is close to the main entrance to the old town. Our room wasn’t quite ready when we checked in, so after doing all the formalities and getting some guidance as to where we were, things to see, places to go and local restaurants, we went outside and sat by the pool. A couple of minutes after midday, Michaela from the front desk brought out a glass of Rica each (think Cherry Grappa), I finished up having both. It left a nice warm after presence.
We have a nice room on the first floor. Each room in the hotel has a different picture theme in the wallpaper, ours is GRGUR of Nin (or Bishop Gregory of Nin). There is a statue of him at the north gate to the old town. 
Legend goes that if you rub his big toe your wishes will come true. There is more about GRGUR at the end of this post, I have copied it directly from our room folder.
We got let into our room around 12:30pm. We unpacked and settled in.
We went for a walk into and around the old town looking for something for lunch. It’s a really interesting “old town”, unlike the others we have been through this holiday, it hasn’t been restored fully. There are major buildings that have been “made safe” but not rebuilt, others have had minimal to major restoration done on them.
We walked through the green market traders, most of the stall holders had already gone, but it was interesting to see their produce and prices, not really too different to ours. We then walked to the centre of the old town and then into the tunnel that takes you to the waterfront. That was really different and interesting, but more on the old town in a while. We eventually found a place for lunch in the square where they were setting up for a concert later today. The lunch was very forgettable. We then set out to erase lunch with a gelato. Michaela from our hotel had suggested a few Gelato shops, we headed for her favourite, when we eventually found there was a queue maybe 50 people long waiting to get into the shop. 
We decided to look for the 2nd best recommendation, it was a small shop with its name hidden under an awning. It took a little bit of finding. But there was no queue, a lady was just paying and we were next. We got our gelato and went to a small square to sit and eat it. It was OK, and much better than lunch. As we finished our gelato there was a flash of lightening just north of us followed soon after by a big crash of thunder. We thought we should get moving.
From there we decided to head back to the hotel via the statue of GRGUR. We found him no problem, standing just outside the old town’s north gate. A big imposing bronze statue of a mystical look wizardy type. Although there were lots of people trying to get photos and rub his toe we managed to get some clear air and some good photos.
We then walked back following the north wall.We found a supermarket and got some provisions for our road trip into Bosnia tomorrow. While we were in the supermarket the skies opened up and there was a reasonable shower of rain. As we left it had tapered down and we walked back in the light showers.
We left for our tour at 6:15pm, to meet our guide at 6:30pm at the SW tower of the old town.
The old town has a feel of bygone wealth, similar to Buenos Aires in Argentina, but not quite that wealthy.
Ok, just back from a very generous food and history tour of the Palace of Split with our wonderful guide Lucy. That’s right, it is not an “Old Walled Town”, it is/was a purpose built Palace of a Roman Emperor, Diocletian. He built the Roman Palace in Split as his retirement home. It was built in just 10 years, at the turn of the 4th century. The original main streets of the Palace were wide enough for 10 Roman soldiers to march side by side down the streets.
Over the years since then it had undergone several transformations imposed on it by occupying Empires, but the Palace was never under seige, so was never destroyed by fighting.
It has been transformed by Venetians, the Napoleonic French, the Austrians, the Hungarians and the Tito Communists. Each has left an indelible mark on the Palace.
The most significant roman constructions that remain today largely as they were originally built by Diocletian are the Mausoleum (now the Cathedral), the Temple to Jupiter. J7st west of ghe Mausoleum, and the Basement (its construction was solely to support the buildings on top of it and were never used for anything much). There are remains around the Palace of its Roman roots like the Sulphur baths in the hospital in the SW quarter, original Roman columns and an Egyptian Sphinx near the main square and the fortress towers in the SE and NW corners of the Palace walls.
Then there are buildings and modifications to buildings by all the occupying Empires, some much better than others. The modifications range from Murano glass windows to communist cement buildings.
There is way too much to go into here, but its well worth looking up if you’re interested.
In amongst the walking history tour we managed to fit in a movable feast. We ate and drank at three very different restaurants through thenight, local food specialities were served at each, along with wines. Way too much food. I might try to give a run down of what we ate in tomorrow’s post.
Our tour finished at 10pm, what a great night.
GRGUR or GREGORY
The bronze statue of the Bishop Gregory of Nin – the work of the Croatian sculptor, of world fame, Ivan Meštrović – can be found in Split next to the Golden gate. Ivan Meštrović gave the statues of Gregory of Nin to the Croatian towns of Nin and Varaždin. There is a belief connected with the bronze statue of the famous Bishop Gregory, a real symbol of pride in ordinary people, which says that touching the big toe will fulfil one’s wishes
THE BISHOP GREGORY OF NIN, the main advocate of the Old Slavonic language and the national glagolitic script and the church service in glagolitic had his seat in Nin from 900-929. In 925, when Tomislav was proclaimed King, the Bishop Gregory of Nin – the symbol of national pride – had a leading supreme church power the State. He was the head of the Nin Church which at that time meant being the head of the whole Croatian Church
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