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| 6:00am Moon from my window, Split |
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| View from the room in the morning, Split |
What a nice night in my modern room and to wake up at 6:00am and lift my head just a bit off the pillow and see the most beautiful sky with the moon still in the sky looking peacefully down on us.
I had a phenomenal breakfast which like the rest of the hotel was chic and trendy with little artfully presented dishes including a yummy black polenta creation in the shape of a small star with a tiny piece of smoked salmon on it and little cups filled with a brightly colored veggie and cheese creation looking almost too beautiful to eat.
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| View from my room in the morning, Split |
With over two hours to explore the city again I headed out and walked and walked and then sat for a little bit by the water and watched the hundreds and hundreds of people pass by and all the other hundreds sitting at cafes along the Riva. I was amazed that for a Thursday in April the multitude of cafes were packed to capacity but it's nice to see all the business doing so well. I can't even imagine what it must be like in the high season you probably can't move down the promenade so I'm very glad I had such a beautiful sunny day to explore the city when you could still see the sights easily and without the oppressive crowds.
I picked my suitcase and walked the 10 minutes to the bus station and by 1:30pm we were pulling out and on our way down the coast.
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| Entrance to Diocletian's Mausoleum and Cathedral of St. Duje, Split |
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| Entrance to Diocletian's Mausoleum and Cathedral of St. Duje - The Palace was decorated with numerous 3500 year old granite sphinx, originating from Egypt's Pharaoh Thutmose III. Only three survived the centuries. One is still located on the Peristyle, the second sits headless in front of the Jupiter's temple, and a third is in the city museum. Split |
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| Entrance to Diocletian's Mausoleum and Cathedral of St. Duje, Split |
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| Fountain near the Statue Gregory Nin, Split |
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| Jupiter's Temple in Diocletian's Palace. The Palace was decorated with numerous 3500 year old granite sphinx, originating from Egypt's Pharaoh Thutmose III. Only three survived the centuries. One is still located on the Peristyle, the second sits headless in front of the Jupiter's temple, and a third is in the city museum. |
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| Bell Tower near the Gergory Nim Statue, Split |
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| Gregory Nin Statue, Split |
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| Beautiful architectural details at the Golden Gate entrance, Split |
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| Busy Riva cafe's, Split |
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| Arch near the Golden Gate entrance with the person gape vines on top. It appears that the balcony above connects to apparently and the vines are someones personal garden area. What a great use of city space and ancient city space at that. Split |
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| View looking up at the bell tower above Diocletian's Mausoleum and Cathedral of St. Duje, Split |
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| The busy Riva cafes, Split |
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| One of the wonderful ancient walls surround Diocletian's Palace with huge palm trees, Split |
The drive was as spectacular as the rest I've had while here and amazingly we even had to cross the boarder into Bosnia and Herzegovina where we had to show our passports. It was kind of exciting considering I had no idea we were going to do that and at first wasn't sure where we were but I knew there really could only be one choice since I'd seen a map recently. We were in that country for about an hour and 30 minutes of that was spent at a lovely and modern rest area where I think the country requires all buses to stop so that they can encourage the travelers to get a snack at the cafe or little grocery shop. I think it's a fair compromise since we are crossing their country that we leave a little of our tourist dollars with them. Neum, Bosnia and Herzegovina is the only coastal town in the country and their only access to the Adriatic so it's a pretty important little town and beautiful looking very similar to all the other seaside towns we'd passed in Croatia but I'm sure at closer inspection there would be several details that are particularly Bosnian/Herzegovinan.
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Neum, Bosnia and Herzegovina
view from rest area |
We stopped at the Croatian border and showed our passports again and before we knew it we were crossing the very modern bridge that reminds me a little of the one in Boston that looks like a whale and down to the bus terminal in Dubrovnik. From there I had to take the public bus about 10 minutes to the other bus stop right near the walled city and switch to bus number #4 which took me across the street from my hotel. There are so many affordable options for stayin in Dubrovnik this time of year and 4 of the budget hotels are all in a row along the seaside about a 10 minute bus ride out of town. I had chosen the Hotel Komodor which is the oldest hotel in Dubrovnik and got pretty good reviews on Hotels.com at least compared to the other 4 and was only $35.00 a night including breakfast so perfect price wise which was great.
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| View from Bus from Split to Dubrovnik |
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| View from Bus from Split to Dubrovnik |
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| View from Bus from Split to Dubrovnik |
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| View from Bus from Split to Dubrovnik |
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| Bridge, Dubrovnik |
Well when I arrived in front of the hotel entrance something looked wrong and all over the windows the signs said closed. Well the good thing about Hotels.com is that I knew I would get my money back without issue it was just what to do for a room so I just walked the minute or so up the small hill to the nearest other hotel and this one had a beautiful modern look which is in contrast to the others in the area so I chose to go in there and figured I would ask to use their wifi and connect with hotels.com. Well the receptionist, who was so sweet and kind and within minutes had said nothing to worry about that the Komodor was not opened for the season but they would accommodate me here. I guess the 4 budget hotels are all owned by the same company and they planned on this to begin with. I actually remembered then that one of the reviews said they were put up in a different hotel. Well this one is much nicer than mine and actually has an indoor pool and sauna area so in the end it worked out better but for a minute or two walking up the little hill I was a little annoyed that mine was closed but it's all good as they say. My room faces the park in the back and not the ocean but for this price and having gotten the upgraded hotel, I really can't complain. The Hotel Uvala overlooks the water from the main public areas including the dining room so at last I can enjoy the water when I'm in the lobby typing up my blog.
