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| A Bas-Relief Map of Roman Emperor Diocletian’s Palace helps you get your bearings in Split |
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| The Bell Tower of the Cathedral of St. Domnius dares from 1100 AD |
When I was growing up there was a rivalry between my hometown of Montreal and the capital of English Canada, Toronto. This never made particular sense to me, as the argument that Toronto was inferior seemed to revolve solely around that city’s inability to drink alcoholic beverages on Sundays. Or so my parents said. It appears that in Croatia, a similar rivalry exists between Dubrovnik and Split, the two Dalmatian coast town Viking visits on its Mediterranean Odyssey. After considerable research, it seems to come down to this: Dubrovnik has altogether too many…cruise ship passengers. Split on the other hand is ‘a real town’ where you can mingle freely with the locals.
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| Two Cruise Ships in Split: Viking Star and Splendour of the Seas…the latter just a little over 50 percent bigger than the Star but with over twice as many passengers. |
Oddly, on our visit to Dubrovnik, Viking Star was the only cruise ship in town, whereas in Split we were one of two. The other carried twice the number of passengers we did and they were much in evidence in beautiful downtown Split. Nevertheless, I loved Split. Just keep in mind that I never actually saw Dubrovnik.
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| Diocletian’s Palace |
dominates the entire center of the town. One of the oldest cities in the Mediterranean, Split is considered to be 1700 years old to coincide with the building of the Palace. However, archeologists discovered evidence of a Greek colony that thrived in the 4th century BC. Like so many places in this part of the world, Split has had many masters. It was Byzantine then became part of the Republic of Venice, until Venice fell to Napoleon when it was given to the Hapsburgs of Austro-Hungarian fame. With the fall of that Empire, in 1918, the city became part of Yugoslavia. During World War II it was annexed by Italy until that country fell to Germany. It went back to Yugoslavia after the war and finally in 1991, Croatia seceded from Yugoslavia following the Croatian War of Independence. Phew.
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| Fishing Shacks on the Cetina, a river known for its trout. |
the other. It seems impossible to believe that any river could penetrate these massive walls of limestone but then you come to the Cetina. We boarded boats for a thirty-minute ride up to Kaštel Slanica, a restaurant known for serving local specialties. These include frogs, eels and trout from the river, and game—venison, boar and water hen– from the forests. I was disappointed to see that all that was on offer to us was a platter of ham and cheese, some rather good bread and red or white wines. And in keeping with all
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| Kaštel Slanica |
my culinary activities this cruise, the wine was served at about 11:00 in the morning. As we approach the shank end of the cruise, several fellow passengers wondered what on earth they were going to do when not served wine every morning before 11:00.
