All Aboard - Heading to Croatia!

In the spring of this year, an Azamara cruise I'd booked was cancelled so I rebooked one for the fall that looked interesting.  It is called Croatian Intensive.  I have been to Croatia before - once with a friend in 2017 when we rented flats in Dubrovnik, Hvar and Split; and, another time on a cruise with stops in Dubrovnik and Split.  The itinerary of this cruise, however, will take me, not only to places I've been to before, but to some new places in Croatia including Opatija (with a tour to Rovinj), Zadar, Sibenik, and Pula.  It will also stop at Kotor in Montenegro.  I received a 130% credit for the cruise that was cancelled which was great.

We left Chioggia (now one of the ports for ships leaving Venice, along with Fusina) on Thursday afternoon and our first port of call on Friday was Opatija.  From the info provided on the ship, Opatija was once a well-known 19th century health resort and today is a popular holiday destination.  It is located on the eastern shore of the Istrian peninsula on the Adriatic.  From the town, you can see the beautiful islands of Krk and Cres.  While I am sure I would have enjoyed wandering around the port, instead I chose a shore excursion to the town of Rovinj which is on the western coast of the peninsula as I'd heard so many good things about how charming a place it was.  The bus ride, slightly over an hour, there took us through, what the guide termed as "grey Ischia", "white Ischia" and "red Ischia", the designations coming from the colours of the earth in each area.  On the way there, the guide gave a very good overview of the history of this region and how it has been "occupied" by so many empires, rulers and countries including the Roman, the Austro-Hungarian, Venetian, Italy and Germany during the war and even Napoleon for a brief time.  Our guide's grandmother (or maybe it was his great-grandmother) was born early in the 20th century in 1912 and he said, during her lifetime, she was the citizen of a wide range of countries including Yugoslavia until it broke up and Croatia became independent.  Her comment to him, when he asked her why she didn't travel, was "I don't need to travel the world; the world comes to me!"

Rovinj is a Croatian fishing port and the old town stands on a headland, with houses tightly crowded down to the seafront.  A tangle of cobbled streets leads to the hilltop church of St. Euphemia, whose towering steeple dominates the skyline.  The Rovinj archipelago’s 14 islands lie immediately off the mainland.  

Our walking tour began in the old north harbour then entered the main square and walked up to the hill along narrow cobble-stoned streets to the famous church, the Church of St. Ephemia, at the top.  I was pleased I made it up to the top.  We walked down the other side of the hill which took us to the south harbour where there were lots of bars and restaurants. We stopped (but didn't go in) at a boat museum and learned about the town's famous boat called a batana.  These boats are UNESCO-designated because of their shape and design.  We then went to what was historically sort of a bar (originally a sort of speak-easy) where we had a snack of wine and anchovies or tomatoes and cheese on bread along with a wine from the region.  A local fisherman sang and played a guitar while that was going on.  We had the option of leaving and many of us did.  I walked back into the main square where I found a lovely cafe and ordered a glass of wine (the Malvasia we'd had at the bar wasn't great) and a toasted sandwich.  That cost only 6.90 euros - I'm obviously not in Venice anymore!!  I looked at some of the items for sale in the market.  I didn't realize this area is famous for both white and black truffles and there were lots of truffle products available in the market.  One thing that caught my eye - didn't buy it though - were pop cans that had little model drum sets built inside.  The woman told me her son-in-law makes them.  They were very unique.  We met back up with our tour guide for the bus ride back to the port.  It had been quite a good shore excursion. 

Our next port of call was Zadar and I had booked a walking tour with Viator.  The local guide, Andrea, was great.  He has lived in Zadar all his life and his passion for his city shows in his discussions about his home.  There were only two people in the group - me and a woman from Parksville.  Small world!  

Zadar is a city whose past goes back 3000 years when it was first mentioned as a settlement in written documents.  It became a fully urbanized centre during the Roman Empire and, ever since that time, the city has been one of the most important ones on the eastern Adriatic coast.  

We started at Five Wells Square - and, why is it called that?  Duh, because there are five old wells in it!  What an original name. 

From there, we walked over to get a view overlooking the harbour of one of the old town gates.  We learned that the city wall, still standing around most of the city was built by the Venetians – we could see the symbol of Venice (the lion) over the gate.  We walked along the wall then down into the city seeing several churches (all but one of the city churches are Catholic), down the main street stopping for a sip of Zadar’s famous Maraschino liqueur (sort of a maraschino grappa) and heading to the ruins of a Roman forum.  While we’d been told yesterday of the various empires that had ruled this region over the centuries, I did not know that the Allies bombed Zadar during the war.  A significant part of the city was destroyed.  We spent some time learning about the Roman forum that was only discovered after the bombs of WWII. 

The final stop on our tour – and also close to where the ship was docked – was the famous “sea organ”.  The Sea Organ, created by Nikola Basic, is an architectural sound art object and an experimental musical instrument, which plays music by way of sea waves and tubes located underneath a set of large marble steps.  Its official opening was in 2002.  There are 35 underwater pipes stretching across 70 meters, swallowing air from the waves, making a sound similar to an organ.  Holes in the walkway are where the sound comes out.  Some say that the Sea Organ is the way the sea gives voice to the wind and some say it a bliss for your ears; however, our guide also said that for many citizens of Zadar it can be a relentless noise and somewhat annoying.  What I heard was reminiscent of the sound of whales.  See what you think as I videoed the sound, albeit with some people talking in the background.  

Near the Sea Organ, the same artist created something called The Greeting to the Sun.  This contemporary installation is made of 300 multi-layered glass solar panels in the shape of a circle of a 22-meter diameter. Throughout the day, it collects the energy of the Sun and transforms it into the electricity, which is then used by lighting around the installation throughout the night. The Greeting to the Sun in the immediate proximity of the Sea Organ have both brought Zadar to the front pages of all the global media.  I had dinner last evening with a couple from Liverpool I'd met before I boarded the ship.  Peter, the husband, scurried on deck to get a photo and video of it once the sun had gone down.  These are his photos and videos.

Our next port of call is Split where we are today; however, there are three huge cruise ships in port.  Because I have been to Split a couple of times before, including spending 3 days there in 2019, I decided to give it a miss and avoid the hoards of people as it is also a Sunday. I did go up to the pool desk to take some photos of the seafront in Split and the mountains behind the city as well as the other ships in port.