Split Croatia June 2019 ~ Day One ~ Old Town and Diocletian's Palace

[DisneyDaffodil]

Index

We all woke around 8:30am after a restful night’s sleep. We all showered and had a coffee while enjoying the views from our balcony. It was another hot day and the temperature was between 32 and 34 degrees all holiday.
Today we had planned to explore Split’s Old Town and Diocletian’s Palace. We set off from our apartment, walking along the front past the ferry and bus stations which was useful as we planned to use the bus station the next day. It was about a ten minute walk to the Riva (the seafront promenade) and we stopped to take some photos here (and plan where to head to next)

We decided to head into the Old Town and we planned to go through the Bronze Gate into Diocletian’s Palace basement. I tried using Google Maps to find it, but Google Maps let me down. However, we couldn’t find this entrance so instead wandered through the streets and squares of the Old Town. The first square (Fruit Square) we walked into was beautiful and the whole of the Old Town reminded us very much of Venice, which we had visited last summer. There were so many interesting buildings and statues on every corner and often where you least expected them to be. You’d turn a corner and there’d be a statue or a castle-like wall that all looked completely different. Similar to Venice, Split is another city that is wonderful to just wander around in and get lost. And if you get very lost, you can always use Google Maps to put you back on course (which we did many times on the holiday)

As we wandered around the Old Town we found the Game of Thrones shop and museum, as many scenes from Game of Thrones were actually filmed in Split and other parts of Croatia. Rob was very excited to see this as he’s a big fan of the series (the only one in our family as Georgia and I have never watched it).
He insisted on having his photo taken outside of the museum. We did plan to return to the museum but it never happened as we did so many other things throughout the trip. We did return to the shop later in the trip though 😉

We then found ourselves by the Golden Gate, which is on the other side of the Old Town. Before entering Diocletian’s Palace through the gate, we stopped to take photos of the huge statue of Gregory of Nin and the Chapel of Arnir’s bell tower. We watched many people rubbing the toe of the statue, as it is considered good luck. We decided this seemed a bit weird and not worth climbing the flight of stairs for. It’s an interesting statue though and the gate to the palace itself is very beautiful too.

Finally, we reached Diocletian’s Palace. It was very busy here and as it was out in the open, we all found it very hot. Despite this, it was stunning. I loved taking photos here, although sometimes it felt difficult with the amount of people packed into a relatively small square. The architecture here was beautiful and there was so many different things to look at.

In the next smaller square we walked into there were a group of traditional Croatian singers performing, which sounded brilliant with the acoustics of the building.

We continued to walk around the outside of the palace, taking more photos.

Then we decided to look around the Cathedral of Saint Domnius. We paid around £4 each to enter the Cathedral and it was definitely worth this small fee, even though the cathedral isn’t very large. It’s filled with beautiful architecture, artwork and religious artefacts. You could pay a little more to visit the treasury but we chose not to. There is also a bell tower in Split which was closed during our visit and we would probably have chosen not to do this anyway, as it wasn’t very tall and it seemed like a lot of steep steps for little height. We enjoy visiting churches and cathedrals in all countries that we visit, as they’re so beautiful and peaceful and this Cathedral was one of our favourites. Despite there being lots of people in the Cathedral, it still felt peaceful and calming inside.

My favourite part of the Cathedral was the doors on the way out as they depicted the life of Jesus and the workmanship needed to craft these doors was impressive and made them so unique.

I really liked the ceiling in one of the alcoves painted with stars and Biblical scenes and the golden angels holding hanging candles over the altar.

After finishing in the cathedral, we decided to look around the basement of Diocletian’s Palace. Some of this area is set up with stalls selling souvenirs and the other half is left empty and has an entrance fee of around £5.50 each (with a slight discount for Georgia as she is a student and had a student id) to look around. We looked around the stalls (and decided if we wanted to buy anything we would buy it later in the trip) and then paid the entrance fee to the basements. The basements were empty rooms and very large with lots to explore. The main attraction for this was that it had been used for filming several scenes from Game of Thrones. Although we enjoyed looking around here, we did feel like most of the rooms were very similar and it possibly wasn’t worth the entrance price (although we were glad we did it and would probably still recommend it)

We left the cellars and realised it was now time for lunch. We had no plans for where to eat today so decided to go back into the old town and look for something that we all wanted. We wandered around for quite a while as none of us knew what we wanted but eventually decided on one of the first places we had walked past. We only wanted a snack as we prefer main meals in the evening and so Rob had a calzone (which was not really a snack as it was HUGE) and Georgia and I each had a pizza wrap. We strolled back down to the Riva and tried to find seats here. It was difficult for us as it was now the hottest part of the day and we really wanted seats in the shade. Eventually we found a bench partially in the shade and ate here. This meal cost around £18 for the three of us including soft drinks and we all really enjoyed it. The wraps were really big too so we could barely finish them (thankfully we had Dad there to help) While we ate our lunch, there was a tour group next to us where the middle aged, male tour guide who spoke like a robot told one woman about the history of the flowers next to us for over 15 minutes. It was the most boring thing I’d ever heard.

After lunch we decided to head back to our apartment, as it was starting to get too hot and we’d explored a lot of the Old Town that morning.

On our walk back we stopped to grab ice creams (as it’s not a proper day of the holiday if you don’t eat an ice cream) Rob had a chocolate orange ice cream, I had panna cotta and raspberry ice cream and I had white chocolate ice cream (which is the best flavour of ice cream but too often tastes just like vanilla. However this white chocolate ice cream was one of the best I have ever tasted) We love ice cream on holidays and found that the flavours and quality in Croatia equalled what we’d had in Venice the year before. In comparison though, in Venice we had paid around £3 for an ice cream whereas in Croatia it cost us only around £1.20.

About 5 minutes away from our apartment we stopped at a larger ‘Tommy’ Supermarket and stocked up on the essentials of water, beer, chocolate milkshake and a litre bottle of Croatian Malbec for £3.75 which was really good quality wine and for such a cheap price.
We rested in our apartment for a couple of hours, before changing into our swimwear and heading down to the beach around 4pm. It was so nice to have the beach so close as we were able to easily go there for a few hours before heading back out that evening. Rob sat on the grass above the beach with the towels and sunbathed, while Georgia and I went in the sea. The sea was really calm and clear and we could walk out quite far without it being too deep. I loved being able to see to the bottom of the sea as I often don’t like swimming in the sea if something like seaweed touches my leg and I don’t know what it is. The sand at the bottom was also so soft and there was no seaweed, pebbles or rocks so overall it was a really nice sea to swim and relax in.

After around an hour on the beach we headed back to our apartment to get ready to go out that evening for a meal. We decided on a restaurant near the one we had ate at yesterday that we had seen called Toc Tapas and Wine. We sat outside and watched the sun set while we ate our meals and chatted. I enjoyed watching a cat and her kittens playing while we ate our meal and all of the people walking past with their pet dogs.

Again, the service here was very good and the food was delicious. Rob had the lamb chops and a side of fries, I had the spaghetti with shrimp and I had the spaghetti and tomato sauce. Rob’s lamb chops were huge and all of our meals were delicious. Even though Georgia and I’s seemed very simple meals, they tasted excellent.

We sat here for quite a while, Rob and I had two lagers each and Georgia had a large bottle of water. The meal came to around £50 including a small tip which was exceptional value. We were glad we visited here that evening, as similar to the night before this restaurant was full every other night we walked past, which was a shame as we would have liked to have eaten here again.
We strolled back to our apartment and had a few more drinks on our balcony and headed to bed by around 11pm.

The next day we caught a bus to Krka National Park.

[Melbatb]

What a lovely day! I am another fan of visiting churches - such peaceful places!

All your meals look delicious! And very good value!

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by Melbatb

What a lovely day! I am another fan of visiting churches - such peaceful places!

All your meals look delicious! And very good value!

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This cathedral was quite small but gorgeous. Even though there were quite a lot of people in it, it had that serenity and calmness that churches all seem to have. We tend to visit lots too, and this isn’t the only one we visit in Croatia 😃.

We were very pleased with the prices and quality of food here, and everything was beautifully presented too.

[Goldia]

The old town looks so pretty, a great place to wander around and as you said get lost in. What a lovely day, it does look hot though. Food looks tasty. How many lamb chops were there? It looks like a mountain!

[JLH]

looks lovely - I thought the food in Croatia was very nice and reasonably priced when we went and we had to get an ice cream every night too! Is the beach you went to all sand and no stones at all then? did you miss not having a pool at all - so many places in Croatia we have been looking at dont have a pool and cant decide if we would like that or not.

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by Goldia

The old town looks so pretty, a great place to wander around and as you said get lost in. What a lovely day, it does look hot though. Food looks tasty. How many lamb chops were there? It looks like a mountain!

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We did love the Old Town, but found it easier to visit in the evenings after the first day as it was really hot 😃

I didn’t count the lamb chops but it was a mountain 😂 The chips were in another bowl. I couldn’t have eaten it all and even Rob struggled but he said they were too good to leave

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by JLH

looks lovely - I thought the food in Croatia was very nice and reasonably priced when we went and we had to get an ice cream every night too! Is the beach you went to all sand and no stones at all then? did you miss not having a pool at all - so many places in Croatia we have been looking at dont have a pool and cant decide if we would like that or not.

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The beach is Bacvice Beach which is the main beach in Split and it is the only one that is completely sand. We did stroll to Ovcice Beach one day but it was pebbly so we preferred Bacvice.

I wondered if we would miss a pool but as the beach was so close we used that to just pop to for an hour or so, plus we had a whole day on a boat trip with plenty of swimming and snorkelling stops later in the trip.

[Inky]

Sounds lovely where you stayed x

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by Inky

Sounds lovely where you stayed x

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Yes it was a great apartment and Split itself was a great mix of city and beach break. It was also good for getting around from there as there was a bus station and ferry port close by.

[tracy99]

Loved reading your next instalment & picking up lots of tips.
The old town,looks really interesting,with some lovely architecture,but I can imagine it got pretty hot,walking around it,in the day.
Looking forward to reading about you using the local bus to the national park,as this is definitely on our to do list.
Some lovely photos,which is giving me a better feel of the place.
Thanks for the update
Tracy x