We arrived in Split and docked and were off the ship and through customs shortly after 8:00. We couldn’t get into our AirBnB to drop off our luggage until 10:30 (and couldn’t formally settle in until several hours after that, as the cleaning lady needed to do her thing following the previous guests’ departure), so we had a leisurely breakfast before walking to the flat and dropping our luggage.
We returned to the promenade by the water and took a long walk to and through part of Marian Park, after which we grabbed lunch and then looped back to the flat to unpack and get settled in.
We had a 2-hour guided walking tour at 6:00 with a guide who was born and raised in Split, had a Master’s degree in history, and who spent COVID building 3D models of various parts of Diocletian’s Palace, which was a “summer home” for the retired Roman emperor that, through various iterations over the centuries became the kernel from whence Split grew.
As a tourist destination, Split apparently exploded once Game of Thrones came out on HBO, as substantial scenes were recorded in Split and in the palace itself.
The guide was incredibly knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and we agreed that he likely provided one of the best city tours that we had been on on the entire trip (Cordoba and Valencia were both excellent; Bologna was an absolute disaster).
After the tour, we decided to get out of the palace walls, which had lots of restaurants, but they were very tourist-filled and tourist-focused. We worked our way almost all the way back to our flat…without finding any other restaurants. Apparently, evening food service largely exists to cater to the tourists. So, we looped back down to the old city and grabbed a meal there (which was quite good).
An interesting/memorable experience of the day:
Benton: how Croatia leaves deeply historical pieces just out in the open where they can be touched (the 3,000-year-old sphinxes from Egypt being one example; the “Roman road” being another); ordering an “iced coffee” with dinner and getting a strange look from the waitress, followed by her needing to check if they could do that and reporting they could…and then getting an “ice cream coffee” complete with whipped cream on top!
Tim: the guide noting that it was only worth going to the west from the palace, as everything that was built out to the east was “just Communist buildings;” and then, as we were looking for dinner, glancing to the east and seeing multiple buildings that reflected that statement!
