A River Cruise and Split

I spent most of our day in Split actually not in Split, but in the small town of Omis (pronounced Omeesh) and on the nearby Cetine River. As I mentioned, Dave and I bought an excursion that consisted of a river cruise and lunch in the forest, followed by a city highlights tour in Split. Dave didn't feel well enough to go, so I went on my own, along with about 20 other people from our ship.

We took a bus down the coastal road to Omis and were given a short time to wander the tiny town. Tommy is one of the main supermarket chains in Croatia, from what I can tell. I was seeing them all over the place.

Here's our trusty river boat, the Marco Polo.

And this is the scenery along the river. The Cetine River flows through a deep canyon with steep limestone walls, with little ramshackle fishing shacks along the banks. I have no idea what that round building is on the hilltop. Some kind of old fortification, maybe.

Rock-climbing is a popular activity in the canyon, as is ziplining. (I did neither, not that I was offered the option.) Can you see the rock-climber in the picture above? He did have ropes, at least.

The river seemed very clean and the water clear. I saw lots of ducks.

We chugged upstream for a while and eventually stopped at a sort of outdoor beer garden, where we disembarked and were given wine (at 11 a.m.!) and a plate of locally produced meat, cheese and olives with bread.

Then we piled back onto our bus (which had wound down the canyon road to the beer garden to retrieve us), and headed back to Split.

The main sight in Split is Diocletian's Palace, which was built by the Roman emperor around 300 A.D. Diocletian ruled the Eastern portion of the empire from here. (Apparently he was from this part of the world, so he was returning to his roots.)

We traipsed around the palace and got an overly long explanation of Diocletian's reign and temperament from our tour guide, who loved using the phrase "as such" to conclude many of her sentences. It's just as well Dave wasn't there because that little verbal tic would have driven him crazy. As you can see above, tourists can pose with costumed Roman soldiers in one of the palace's courtyards.

Just as our tour ended, the skies opened and we got a deluge of rain, along with thunder and lightning. I ducked into a nearby coffee shop with the curious name "@Noon" and got an Americano. A Canadian woman asked to sit at my table and we chatted about our travels -- she was here for an electronic music festival. She tipped me off to something called the "vestibule," a part of the palace I hadn't seen with an oculus, or round opening, in the ceiling -- so I went back and found that after the rain let up.

Then I wandered through town for a while, taking pictures, before heading back to the ship.

I told Dave about the day and he said, "It sounds like I didn't miss much." I must not be a very compelling travel narrator!

I was very amused to stumble across the Cafe Bar Monty Python. I wonder if anyone goes in there and tries to do the dead parrot routine?

Here's a little video showing the beer garden where our tour group ate, along with some musicians who entertained us there, a quiet view of the river and a video of the vestibule in Diocletian's Palace.

Today we're in Dubrovnik and as I write it's gray and rainy. I'm not sure what we're going to get to see, but as long as I have some rain protection I'm going to get out and about. Dave feels better today so he may join me as well. At least we won't need sunblock!