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| The waterfront in Split. |
I left you at the port in Split as we returned from Korcula and skipped to the next 2 days- the waterfalls and the gorge. I thought I'd fill you in on the rest of my time in Split. We arrived in Split and headed to a new AirBnB apartment and we struck lucky with a very spacious, very traditional and beautiful apartment not too far from the beach. It had the nicest bathroom ever! It could sleep 7 people, so we had extra rooms we didn't need and blessedly, a washing machine for some of our sweaty clothes!
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| The living room in our apartment was SO lovely and spacious we found it hard to leave! |
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| Lovely bright bedroom with plenty of space.There was a second bedroom too. |
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| Truly,the nicest bathroom ever. SO spacious and well thought out. |
Our first day, we decided to get to the apartment and generally just chill on the sofas until we went out to dinner in the old town. We chose a nice place, of which I have no memory, and then wandered round the town, enjoying a drink and sitting listening to live music. We even found someone playing swing music and we joined an older couple to do some east coast swing dance to it! It was quite hard dancing with a shoulderbag!
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| Outside Diocletian's palace. Note the Roman soldier. |
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| The picturesque grand hotel. |
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| Diocletian's palace by day... |
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| Diocletian's palace by night.... |
If you visit Split, there's a bar or just within Diocletian's palace that has cushions on the stairs all around. Drinks are very expensive there but they do have some fun live music. Lots of musicians all around the place and we even saw a wedding walking through the streets with a band. Bear in mind that Split is very crowded and busy- especially Diocletian's palace. There are an array of shops for all tastes, so if you like shopping, it's a good place for you. There are some tiny winding streets around. Oh and there are lots of people dressed up in Roman costumes- just so you know.
The nightlife is quite busy there too. One thing we enjoyed was a 'high-tech' ride for children which involved being spun round in wooden baskets, hung from ropes on a wooden frame. I loved how low-tech it was but how much fun it looked.
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| Game of Thrones does fairground rides... |
The other part I wanted to fill you in on is our brief visit Sibenik (built 1431-1535).
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| Sibenik Cathedral |
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| Stairs to the cathedral from the sea front. |
On our way back from the Skradinsky Buk waterfalls, we visited Sibenik for some half an hour where we had a quick look at the cathedral. It's not as impressive as some other cathedrals inside, it's actually quite small, but the outside is very interesting. It is part of the Unesco world heritage sites, since it is a combination, architectually of North-Italian, Tuscan and Dalmatian architecture.
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| Views of the interior of the cathedral |
It also combines Gothic and Renaissance architecture successfully. Made out of stone entirely, with no other materials, stone which is unique to the island of Brac (Southern Dalmatian islands), it is unique in terms of the construction techniques that were used for the dome and also the vaulting. It looks impressive from the outside as interestingly, there are 71 heads carved all around the outside of the cathedral.
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| One of 71. Ordinary people from all walks of life, carved into Brac stone. |
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| Faces, faces... |
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| More ornate carvings in Brac stone. |
We didn't spend that long inside, as time was limited, but it would have been nice to have been there longer. The baptistry is also considered very fine.
On the way back to Split, our driver stopped so we could all take photos of this view.Apparently, it one of the most photographed views in Croatia. Not sure why!
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| Most photographed view? |
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| A bit closer? |
We had a nice time in Split but now we were ready to travel onto our 3rd accommodation destination of the Elafiti island, Sipan...