Split--the second largest city in Croatia--was our destination on Thursday. While known for many things, the city is best known as the place Diocletian built his palace after he retired from being Roman Emperor in 305. Our bus dropped us off right in front of the place.
What you're seeing here is the outside of the palace. Diocletian's residential rooms were right behind this wall.
One of the rooms in the "basement". Our guide told us that we were actually standing in the palace sewers, and that those large holes in the ceiling were where the stuff dropped in. She also said that these chambers weren't cleaned out until the 20th Century. Yuck!
Artist's rendering if what the palace looked like in Diocletian's time. The water in front is now the promenade with cars and pedestrians that you saw in the first picture.
A display in the "basement". There was a Spring flower festival going on at this time too. The displays were nice, but it was sometimes jarring to see them here.
Mosaic floor tiles uncovered during an excavation.
The view from one of Diocletian's windows.
The palace vestibule, where visitors to the Emperor were kept waiting. It was not open to the sky during his time--it was covered by a dome but that collapsed earlier.
A sphinx in the palace peristyle. This was the area that Diocletian was celebrated as the son of Jupiter. He had brought many columns and a dozen sphinxes here from Egypt. The one shown is the only one left intact and is over 3500 years old.
Leaving the palace, you come up on this towering statue of Bishop Gregory of Nin. He defied Papal Rome in 926 and used the Croatian language in religious services. Also, rubbing his big toe will bring you good luck (so I did).
After the palace part of the tour, we started exploring the rest of Old Town Split. Our Gate 1 tour director will occasionally surprise us with extras and here she worked with a local bakery to give all of us some Sweet Easter Bread, or Sirnica (Pinca).
You're supposed to share your piece with three other people. This is Fe's third. I gave away a third and ate my own but Fe couldn't finish hers--it was dense--so guess who kept it from going to waste. Good thing we're walking so much.
Did you know Croatia invented the necktie? That's why you see these magnets a lot.
A plaque in People's Square that marks when the Split synagogue was destroyed on June 12, 1942.
Clock Tower on the left and Ciprian's Palace on the right.
View in People's Square
Marko Marulić statue, People's Square
Street scene
Republic Square, influenced by St. Mark's in Venice.
Split waterfront
Palm-lined promenade
, it takes some time t get where we're going.
The obligatory placename sign photo
What a cool town. It would have been easy to just get lost in the city streets with all that history, but we had a bus to catch and to be honest, we were ready to sit down and relax.
Croatia isn't really a big country, but with a slower-moving bus and roads that--for geographic reasons--can be winding, it can take some time to get where we're going. Which in this case is Dubrovnik, 232.5 km (144 mi) and 2.75 hours away.
Some people were excited about crossing into Bosnia-Herzegovina on the way to Dubrovnik through the Neum corridor, but that was eliminated by the Pelješac Bridge, a 1.5 mile-long structure completed in 2022. I'll admit I was disappointed, but border controls between EU and non-EU countries for a bus full of Americans would have eaten up precious time.
Pelješac Bridge
I did get a photo of Bosnia though. Neum is at the far end of the inlet, not in the foreground at the left.
This shot is from an overlook after the bridge. Those are mandarin trees in the fields below.
At around 5 pm, we made it to our hotel in Dubrovnik, the Valamar Lacroma. It's about 5.6 km (3.5 mi) outside of town, which is unfortunate but it's hard to get hotels in the Old Town since a lot of properties are BnBs or rentals. There is a bus line into town though, which we can use.
Our room for the next couple of nights.
That's it for now. You've probably noticed by now that I'm a day behind. We did explore Dubrovnik today (both guided and on our own) and we'll do the same tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll catch up soon.
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