This morning we embarked on a tour of the ancient town of Sibenik. In order to get there we had to take a tender. A small boat from our boat to the shore. Because the winds were high( 50mph) the had bit if trouble getting the small boat to stay close to the large boat and shore giving rise to a great sow of seamanship.
Croatia is clearly still trying to recover from it's " troubles". There are lots of reallly awful communist era buildings around and many recent ruins. However the tour of the old city was fascinating. It began as so many do with the church. St Jacob it is quite plain by Venice standards and has more the feel of the churches in. Berlin. High ceilings but heavy. The old city is behind the battlements and is all narrow paved alleyways. We came out near an elementary school that was out for lunch. The playground was open tp the square we were passing through and the kids were having a wonderful time chasing one another and giggling and generally being kids.
Next we boarded buses and headed down the coast ot Split. The coast is lovely with pines still running up to the shore. The groind is Frey rocky and our guidecsaid not veer fertile so there are these tiny plots of land all up and down the hills to true to avid erosion so that they can grow somethoongg.. There are vineyards son the hills but many are dying. The guidecsaid in the early 1900s there was a blight in the vines so many vin tars left and went to the US. She claims that one of them took a reisling grape and that it is from Croatia that the reisling comes.
We next stopped at the museum of a Croatian sculptor Ivan Mestrovic. His work is wonderful. We all enjoyed the stop very much. He taught ant NotrecDamevat one point and has statues in Grant Park in Chicago. He returned to his country at some point but died on 1962.
We returned to the ship for lunch and bit of wine. After lunch we went into Split to tour the Palace of Diocleation. He was a Roman emperor and is known as the last Emperor to persecute the Christians. The palace was huge covering 3800 square meters. The under levels remain and according to our guide are the same proportions as the upper levels. Over the centuries others built on top of the palace ruins and of course Christians eventually destroyed some to make their churches. The original mausoleum of Diacleatian is now the smallest Cathedral in the world. It is quite lovely and in parts you can still see the original decorations.
We then went out and through other squares including one where we were able to listen to a quartet singing. We also saw a number more of Mestrovics work including one won we had to rub the big toe of for good luck.
After the tour ended friend two and I went to the third oldest synogogue in Europe. It is om the second floor of a building on the old ghetto. We had to knock and be let in. There was another tour there who were being tod about the Jews in this p zit of the world. We lessened that there are only 80 jews in Split and that they do mot have a rabbi, now ever they ,eet ever Sabath and then have a kosher meal together.
Friend two and I decided to walk back to the ship rather than take the bus. It took us all of five minutes. All the others in the tour group took the bus.
After dinner they had a show in the theater on the 4th deck. There were four women and one male dancer and a singer. They were dressed in harlequin costumes for the most part. One dance had the, wearing all black except for black lit masks on their faces, hands and knees. It was very effective. Anyway it was a lot of fun. Not many of the passengers can stay that late however so the theater was only half full.
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