Split-Croatia Sept 2013

We arrived in Split at around 2.00 p.m. and went in search of our accommodation .It wasn’t that far from the bus station, the trick however was to find it. I managed to work out the direction and knew it had to be off the main road, but the name of the street where it should be didn’t match up. I managed to find someone to give me directions. We weren’t far away just needed to go under the arch just a little way down the road and we would be there.

Main Square in the centre of the Palace

That was negotiated easily and as we walked up the narrow road, again a man came hurrying down to help us, and again it was the woman who did all the work of running the establishment. Dalmatian House is in a great location not far from the old town. Our hostess was very helpful and even did our laundry for us when I enquired where I could get it done. We gave here our laundry, she gave us a map, pointed out some good places to eat and we were off to explore.

Split is an interesting town which has been built within the ruins of Diocletian’s Palace. Shops, houses are crammed into a spider-web of narrow lanes. It is wonderful to wander through the lanes turning this way and that to see where you end up.


One of the laneways



In the centre of the palace the Emperor’s Mausoleum was transformed into the Catholic Cathedral in the 7th century. Diocletian was Emperor (284-316); he was one of the greatest Roman emperors. It took him 10 years to build the palace in Split. Opposite the Cathedral is the Temple of Jupiter which has been turned into a Baptistery.

We also went into what is now called the basement halls which were originally the ground floor. The original palace was right at the water’s edge so I imagine the ancient ships sailing up to its outer walls and doors.

From there we decided to check out the Maritime Museum. There were some interesting exhibits, though I skipped through a lot of the military stuff, however, one exhibit which caught my attention was who developed the concept of the torpedo and its history. Another exhibit was a fish holding jar, which after fish have been caught, but still alive are place in a large jar with holes in the side which is subsequently placed in the sea, fresh fish, that can’t escape.

It did bucket down with rain for a short period of time which we were lucky to miss as we were in a shop at the time. After lunch we walked along the shore and up the hill to Marjan Park. We popped into a little Franciscan Church which we passed on our way.



View from Marjan Park



We climbed a number of steps there was a little Jewish cemetery located at the top. From the top there was also a wonderful view of the town and coastline.

We ate dinner at a restaurant recommended by our hostess, Fife which was by the waterfront. It was certainly worth going to, the food was good and very reasonable, as obviously very popular with locals and tourists alike.

On our last day we wanted to have a ‘boating’ experience but not have a whole day tour, we took a ferry to Brač an island more noted for resort style holidays than history. It was very pleasant journey across. The main town Supetar is very small; exploring any of the interesting places didn’t take that long. We had a rather nice lunch overlooking the sea, wandered around the coast then made our way back in time to catch the next ferry back to Split.

The next day we left for Dubrovnik and as we handed back our keys to our hostess she gave me a little present as a souvenir. It was a very nice touch.