Sunday, September 8, 2013
Dubrovnik to Trogir
Up at 8:00 a.m. to another gorgeous day, surprised not to see a
cruise ship, but then one pulled in as I was making my coffee. Time
to pack up and start heading back north. Our vacation is winding
down. Just three nights left till we catch our flight. We've seen a
lot. For breakfast we had leftover pizza. I'm not going to want
pizza for a year after this.
Today we take the coastal road north to Trogir. We spent an hour or
two in Trogir about a week ago, but this time we'll spend the
night. I settled our bill with Vera for our four-night stay, and we
checked out just after 10:30, happy to see much less traffic
through the city today.
We followed the D8 north along the coast. Two days ago we took this
road as far as the Peljesac Peninsula, and it's lovely again today.
We aren't going to see all of Croatia's 3,600 miles of coastline,
but we'll do what we can.
A few kilometers past the turnoff for the peninsula, we reached the
border of Bosnia i Herzegovina. Croatia is interrrupted from itself
by Bosnia i Herzegovina's 20 kilometers of coastline. You have to
stop at both ends of the 20 kilometers for passport control by each
country. It would be pretty tedious if you had to do this all the
time. There's talk in Croatia of building a bridge to bypass BiH
altogether, but in the meantime...
Anyway, we used this brief entry into Bosnia i Herzegovina as an
opportunity to fill our tank with less expensive gas again, 2.45
convertible marks per liter, “only” $6.25 per gallon. The cheapest
gas of the trip!
Bothersome border
crossing
Neum, Bosnia i
Herzegovina
We followed the scenic coast as far as Brela, then got on the A1
toll road to bypass the greater Split area, exiting at Prgomet and
descending into Trogir from the northeast.
Croatian
coast
Croatian coast and
farmland
Greater
Trogir
Trogir from
above
Trogir is a small island, and Ciovo is a bigger island just beyond.
They're connected to the mainland by bridges. Our soba is actually
on Ciovo, just a short walk from the Old Town of Trogir. We arrived
at Rooms Carija early in the afternoon. This is the nicest place
we've stayed since Slovenia. The rooms are modern, with a fridge,
hair dryer, and satellite TV. There's plenty of off-street parking
and a private, shaded seating area outside. As an outstanding
bonus, the owner speaks English and told us to help ourselves to
free beer in his outdoor kitchen!
Beer break at Rooms
Carija, Trogir
After a while, we walked a block to the nearest beach and went
swimming in the Adriatic, or at least we ducked our heads under.
The word “beach” is used loosely in Croatia, meaning anywhere you
can jump into and climb out of the sea, and most of the beaches we
saw were rocky areas that have been concreted over to provide
sunbathers with a surface on which to sprawl. People had their
towels thrown down and were laying out on hot, hard concrete all up
and down the coast.
We didn't stay at the beach long before returning to Rooms Carija
for showers, where we discovered another awesome feature of our
room: a Disco Shower Head that lights up when you use it. Too
cool.
We had a short visit in Trogir earlier in our trip, but there was
still a tall thing we hadn't yet climbed, so we walked across the
bridge to the Old Town and went straight to Kamerlengo Fortress, at
the far end of the harbor-front promenade. The fortress is the most
castle-ly place we saw on the whole trip, including the actual
castles. Superb views of the town and the sea. We were there for
sunset. Very romantic.
Kamerlengo
Fortress
Trogir from the
fortress
At dinnertime, we walked around town checking out way too many
menus before selecting Bistro-Jumbo. I don't know why we waste so
much time picking a restaurant when there's hardly any difference
between them. I felt a dire need for some protein, so I ordered
rumpsteak, while Tom ordered lasagna. Tom's lasagna was great, but
my steak was pretty mediocre. It was chewy, like something you'd
get at Western Sizzlin, only way more expensive. Still, it was good
to get a chunk of meat, and I felt energized afterward. At the end
of the meal, they gave us each a shot of very potent plum schnapps.
Yowza!
Good place for a sword
fight!
Katedrala Svetog
Lovre
Trogir's Old Town is a UNESCO world heritage site. I know this
because there's a neon sign reading "UNESCO" on the city wall.
Neon? Really? You don't think that takes anything away from the
charm?
UNESCO
Trogir is awesome at night. I thought the little town would be
dead, but no way. There were still deserted little winding alleys
to wander and get lost in, but the main square was filled with bars
and tables and a stage with live music. The whole place turned into
a club after dark! After a while, we went back to our soba and sat
outside drinking beer. I heard music drifting over the water from
Trogir till past midnight.
Trogir at
night
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