I honestly never thought this would be a city I would visit, despite hearing good things about it! We didn't have much time here as we didn't arrive into the city until just before lunchtime on our last day of our vacation. But you know us... let's try to get it all done anyway! It wasn't AS hot as it was in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but it was more humid. So the feels like temperature felt sort of similar to the days we spent in Medjugorje and Mostar.
This is what sitting on the border looks like, in map form.
One of the most important sights to see in Split is Diocletian's Palace. Split is the second largest city in all of Croatia behind Zagreb (the capital.) The Roman emperor's palace was built in the 4th century. He was born about 5 miles away from this location in the city of Salona (now Solin), which was the capital of Dalmatia at the time.
Awww, red roses are so pretty!
Just outside of the Peoples Square sits the Church of Our Lady of the Bell Tower. It was built around 1100 and it's the oldest Roman bell tower in the Dalmatia section of Croatia.
There's something homey and quaint about laundry drying on the line.
This is the Ciprianis Benedetti Palace was built in 1394 for a nobleman whose family owned it until the Benedetti family purchased it in 1860. Here, St. Anthony sits outside of the palace.
The tower at the Cathedral of St. Domnius looks like it belongs in Venice. Although it was built in the 12th century, the church itself is the oldest Catholic cathedral in the world that hasn't been almost completely renovated. It was built in the 4th century! This tower was actually renovated in 1908.
If you go downstairs (follow the crowds) you'll find Diocletian's Cellars. Over the years, they were used as a wine/food cellar for the Emperor Diocletian, a home for refugees in the Middle Ages and at one point, was even used for refuse. In our favorite show, Game of Thrones, it was used as the place where Daenerys kept two of her dragons chained up in Meereen. I loved the scene where Tyrion came down and spoke to the dragons in season 6 (episode 2.) It's hard to imagine it based on the above photo, but try to... without other humans or stalls where merchants are selling things.
The Vestibule (or Rotunda) was the official entrance of the Emperor. Originally, it was meant to impress the visitors to the palace. While still impressive, it's long lost it's dome and other walled frescoes.
The little harbor area of Split is lined with palm trees and (to the right) Diocletian's Palace. Back in the day of Diocletian around 305 AD, the water came right up to the palace. Now the harbor has been extended and there are shops and restaurants behind where I took this picture.
We decided to head back to the apartment because we were SO hot. Everyone wanted to get their bathing suits on and jump into the Adriatic. On our way back, we ran across our old buddy, Gregory. If you rub the big toe of Gregory of Nin, your wish will be granted!
I hope they wished for something good! Those kids behind Grant are wishing that the Bailey family would hurry up with their wish!
After changing and walking the long distance back to Split's Bačvice Beach, we finally landed a spot on the crowded but surprisingly soft sand. (What? No rocks like in Zadar?)
But that person jumping into the water on the right! Todd, the kids, Madison, KK and Lynne were swimming behind those guys playing a poor game of volleyball.
This is after the person on the right finished their jump into the Adriatic. Splash!
After I spent some time in the water, I sent Madison into the water to cool off and took over on "watching everyone's stuff" duty. So naturally, Todd decided to join me on the beach for a delicious cold Croatian beverage!
Then, being the awesome daddy he is, he went out to dig moats, build castles, and make dribble castles with the babies!
Meanwhile, back on the beach....
Natalie, giving me a sense of scale of how long Grant's moat was.
Look how cute they are! The babies think their dad is the coolest for building a castle and moat with them. Mommy just documented the whole thing. I know someday soon, they won't want to build dribble castles anymore. So this really makes me happy.
Dinner was at the Bakra Steak and Pizza bar (ie; fun for everyone!) This is really Todd's idea of fun these days. Lynne is totally supportive of this.
Our waiter snapped this picture of all of us on our final dinner of the trip. It was really a great dinner and we had so much fun!
Though not fun was waking up in the morning and having to go to the airport. Then you get there and there was this: we couldn't figure out why none of the sockets worked here at the Split airport. Then we realized this: none of them were plugged in and we had zero place to plug them in anyway!
To make matters worse... we got home and Todd and Kathleen decided to go to mass at Rose Barracks. The rest of us were tired and decided to go home. There was some confusion on Google Maps, which told us to take the A6 home. But all I could think was that we weren't going to Rose Barracks like Todd and Kathleen, so I ignored it and took the A9 home. It was allegedly only a few minutes longer to go the A9, and that is the usual way I take home. About halfway home on the A9 near Schnaittach, there was a super long line on one of the exits and just as we approached it, it told me to take the exit. But of course, there wasn't time for that once it alerted me. So I stayed on the A9. And that was bad. Because there was a fatal accident in which sadly a young girl died. It took us 3.5 hours to go home - a ride that normally takes 45 minutes. But we made the best of it (along with some fun inside jokes... that's WAK, mega Bailey's!) And we were sad for the family who lost their baby girl. It's hard to get upset about traffic knowing something like that happened.
Until next time, Split! We loved your beaches and can't wait to go back!
Once again, we took a van between the two countries. Here I am sitting RIGHT on the border!
This is what sitting on the border looks like, in map form.
I totally laughed when I saw this at the border. Why is an old Antenne truck here in Bosnia and Herzegovina? Antenne is a radio station chain in Germany (kind of like "I Heart Radio" or something equivalent to that.)
It's a little hard to see, but our drive to Split gave us a nice view of Klis Fortress. It's on the right side... not on the highest ridge, but just a bit below it on a medium sized ridge. Much of the Oathkeeper episode (Season 4) of Game of Thrones was filmed here (and at Diocletian's Palace in the city of Split.) When Daenarys comes out to speak to the people of Meereen, it was filmed here at this fortress. It's also where she had the masters crucified as repayment for when they had crucified the slave children. In real life, there has been a fortification here since around 300 BC.
Once we arrived, we checked into our apartment (or rather, we just dropped our bags off as they were still cleaning it) and headed into the city. Right outside of the walls to Diocletian's Palace stands the statue of Gregory of Nin who was a medieval bishop that pushed the Catholic church to say Mass in the native language rather than in Latin (which most people didn't understand.)
One of the most important sights to see in Split is Diocletian's Palace. Split is the second largest city in all of Croatia behind Zagreb (the capital.) The Roman emperor's palace was built in the 4th century. He was born about 5 miles away from this location in the city of Salona (now Solin), which was the capital of Dalmatia at the time.
Awww, red roses are so pretty!
Just outside of the Peoples Square sits the Church of Our Lady of the Bell Tower. It was built around 1100 and it's the oldest Roman bell tower in the Dalmatia section of Croatia.
There's something homey and quaint about laundry drying on the line.
This is the Ciprianis Benedetti Palace was built in 1394 for a nobleman whose family owned it until the Benedetti family purchased it in 1860. Here, St. Anthony sits outside of the palace.
The tower at the Cathedral of St. Domnius looks like it belongs in Venice. Although it was built in the 12th century, the church itself is the oldest Catholic cathedral in the world that hasn't been almost completely renovated. It was built in the 4th century! This tower was actually renovated in 1908.
If you go downstairs (follow the crowds) you'll find Diocletian's Cellars. Over the years, they were used as a wine/food cellar for the Emperor Diocletian, a home for refugees in the Middle Ages and at one point, was even used for refuse. In our favorite show, Game of Thrones, it was used as the place where Daenerys kept two of her dragons chained up in Meereen. I loved the scene where Tyrion came down and spoke to the dragons in season 6 (episode 2.) It's hard to imagine it based on the above photo, but try to... without other humans or stalls where merchants are selling things.
The Vestibule (or Rotunda) was the official entrance of the Emperor. Originally, it was meant to impress the visitors to the palace. While still impressive, it's long lost it's dome and other walled frescoes.
The little harbor area of Split is lined with palm trees and (to the right) Diocletian's Palace. Back in the day of Diocletian around 305 AD, the water came right up to the palace. Now the harbor has been extended and there are shops and restaurants behind where I took this picture.
Today, Riva Harbor in Split has a walkable promenade that mimics what the area looked like 200 years ago under Napoleon's rule.
Large and small boats come and go in Riva Harbor.
We decided to head back to the apartment because we were SO hot. Everyone wanted to get their bathing suits on and jump into the Adriatic. On our way back, we ran across our old buddy, Gregory. If you rub the big toe of Gregory of Nin, your wish will be granted!
I hope they wished for something good! Those kids behind Grant are wishing that the Bailey family would hurry up with their wish!
After changing and walking the long distance back to Split's Bačvice Beach, we finally landed a spot on the crowded but surprisingly soft sand. (What? No rocks like in Zadar?)
But that person jumping into the water on the right! Todd, the kids, Madison, KK and Lynne were swimming behind those guys playing a poor game of volleyball.
This is after the person on the right finished their jump into the Adriatic. Splash!
After I spent some time in the water, I sent Madison into the water to cool off and took over on "watching everyone's stuff" duty. So naturally, Todd decided to join me on the beach for a delicious cold Croatian beverage!
Then, being the awesome daddy he is, he went out to dig moats, build castles, and make dribble castles with the babies!
They couldn't really do this in Zadar because of all of the rocks, and we didn't go to Florida this summer, so this was their only chance to make a killer sand castle!
Natalie concentrating on the tallest dribble castle in Croatia while Grant digs deep into the castle moat.
Meanwhile, back on the beach....
Natalie, giving me a sense of scale of how long Grant's moat was.
Look how cute they are! The babies think their dad is the coolest for building a castle and moat with them. Mommy just documented the whole thing. I know someday soon, they won't want to build dribble castles anymore. So this really makes me happy.
We had some dinner reservations, but had to get back to clean up, so after a few hours, we left the beach. On the way back, we saw this ... display? Corn on a wheel (with a horseshoe!), and other random stuff (like a basket of herbs and perhaps a radio?)
Dinner was at the Bakra Steak and Pizza bar (ie; fun for everyone!) This is really Todd's idea of fun these days. Lynne is totally supportive of this.
Our waiter snapped this picture of all of us on our final dinner of the trip. It was really a great dinner and we had so much fun!
Though not fun was waking up in the morning and having to go to the airport. Then you get there and there was this: we couldn't figure out why none of the sockets worked here at the Split airport. Then we realized this: none of them were plugged in and we had zero place to plug them in anyway!
To make matters worse... we got home and Todd and Kathleen decided to go to mass at Rose Barracks. The rest of us were tired and decided to go home. There was some confusion on Google Maps, which told us to take the A6 home. But all I could think was that we weren't going to Rose Barracks like Todd and Kathleen, so I ignored it and took the A9 home. It was allegedly only a few minutes longer to go the A9, and that is the usual way I take home. About halfway home on the A9 near Schnaittach, there was a super long line on one of the exits and just as we approached it, it told me to take the exit. But of course, there wasn't time for that once it alerted me. So I stayed on the A9. And that was bad. Because there was a fatal accident in which sadly a young girl died. It took us 3.5 hours to go home - a ride that normally takes 45 minutes. But we made the best of it (along with some fun inside jokes... that's WAK, mega Bailey's!) And we were sad for the family who lost their baby girl. It's hard to get upset about traffic knowing something like that happened.
Until next time, Split! We loved your beaches and can't wait to go back!
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