Split – the “Mediterranean Flower” and Hvar – the island of lavender

Thursday 13 June

So, it’s goodbye to Dubrovnik and hello Split.  Up early this morning, packed and in a taxi to the bus station to take the Promet bus to Split.  It was all very easy at the bus station, and we boarded our very comfortable double-decker bus and made ourselves at home over 3 sets of seats in the back.  Just as well as our 4 hrs 15-minute journey ended up being 5 hrs 15 minutes, with one ten-minute stop, just enough to get ourselves a coffee and croissant which had eluded us with the long queue in the Dubrovnik station.  It really was a very pleasant journey and the time passed easily looking at the stunning vistas from the upstairs of the bus.  Fortunately, we had a very sedate driver as the roads were very windy.   It was great to go through all the villages and get a real feel for the coastline.

Once we arrived, we easily found our new Air BnB home for the next three nights and just had time to shower and change before the star guest of the evening arrived!  Denise’s son Joe, who lives in Madrid, but travels extensively for work, was also in Split and was able to meet up with us.  What a treat it was to see him – I haven’t seen him since November 2019 so there was a lot to catch up on.  Joe works for an Italian liqueur company and is very much au fait with all the trendy bars and restaurants across Europe, and true to form had planned a fabulous evening for us.  We walked back into town and took in a few of the landmarks – more on this later in the next blog - and he took us to the hippest bar on the water’s edge for a pre-dinner cocktail – the perfect start to the evening.  Next, Joe had reserved a beautiful outdoor courtyard table at Konoba Laganini, in the very heart of the Diocletian Palace, a restaurant with a great ambiance and delicious food.  We had such a fun evening catching up, lots of laughs and reminiscing and ever the gentleman, Joe insisted on treating us to dinner.  Not wanting to end the evening, we had a wonderful walk through the old town and found a very cool outdoor bar for a last drink and then it  time to say goodbye to Joe and head back home to bed.

Friday 14 June

Big day today – we want to get out and see one of the islands and the obvious choice was Hvar.  We booked tickets for the ferry a few days ago so were dockside by 8.30am for our sailing.  A nice cruise of one hour and we disembarked at this beautiful island, the 4th most populated of the Croatian Islands.  Its location at the centre of the Adriatic sailing routes made this island an important base for commanding trade up and down the Adriatic across to Italy, and throughout the wider Mediterranean.  It has been inhabited since prehistoric times, originally by a Neolithic people, later by the Illyrians.  The ancient Greeks founded the colony of Pharos in 384 BC on the site of today’s Stari Grad, making it one of the oldest towns in Europe.  They were also responsible for setting out the amazing agricultural field divisions which are very visible on the Stari Grad Plain, and are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  In medieval times, the town of Hvar was important in the Venetian Empire as a major naval base.

So much for us to see and we didn’t want to waste any time as we only have one day here.  Just around the corner from the port we walked around St Stephen’s Cathedral, which provides a backdrop to the main square.  Baroque in style, it was built in the 16th century at the height of the Dalmation Renaissance and its most distinctive feature is its tall, rectangular bell tower.  We were pleasantly surprised not to find the place heaving with tourists as it is a very popular island with the Brits and being Friday a lot of them come over for long weekends.  It was great to be able to walk around and enjoy the quaint narrow streets, the Benedictine Monastery with its statue of the praying Monk in front of a book with the inscription “Pray and Work”, the city walls only finished in the mid-15th century and the Fortica Fortress occupying the site of an ancient Illyrian settlement dating from before 500 BC towering high above the town!

Hvar is famous for having a large fertile coastal plain and freshwater spring,  Its hillsides are covered in pine forests, vineyards, olive groves, fruit orchards and lavender fields. 

Keen to see as much of the island as we could, we had booked a rental car and once we picked it up got going with a first stop in Brusje to see the lavender – you know me – anything purple has got my immediate attention, you can never have enough of that delicious colour!  A lovely drive with stunning views of the seas and the mainland.  We were on a very narrow road, with not a lot of good tarmac and quite mountainous - we later found out we were not on the main road at all, which explains why there didn’t seem to be many cars around but my, did we have some good views of the Adriatic, the islands and those famous agricultural field divisions!  We stopped at this little, and I mean little, village called Velo Grablje, founded in the 15th Century.  In 1892 the Agricultural Co-operative was founded here, then named the Rosemary Co-operative and they produced rosemary and lavender essential oils, as well as olive oil and honey.  But the bizarre thing is, there didn’t seem to be anyone here – most of the houses were shuttered up and we only saw one man, one car and a motorbike!!!

Next up was Stari Grad, locals call it Old Grod, it’s the oldest and longest-lived city in Croatia and celebrated it’s 2403rd birthday in 2019.  Stari Grad is today’s descriptive name for the ancient Greek city of Pharos, founded at the beginning of the 99th ancient Olympiad – 384 BC!  It is assumed that it was founded by Greek settlers from the island of Paros in the Aegean Sea.  The town curves around the deep inlet that made Stari Grad so appealing to those Greek settlers, and cafés and restaurants are scattered along the palm-fringed promenade, with lots of little boats, plenty of them fishing boats, bobbing in the water.  The narrow white-stone streets, with their splashes of bougainvillea and smells of lavender from the stalls made for a very agreeable walk whilst we decided which restaurant to visit for lunch.  Interestingly, the most famous guests of the one we did choose were the abdicated King Edward and his wife, Wallis Simpson in the 1930’s!   Having been told that we must try the lavender ice-cream we found a home-made gelato shop and treated ourselves to a cone.  Yep, I love the colour, but if I’m honest, I thought it tasted a little bit like moth balls -not that I have ever eaten them, but it tasted like their smell!!!

Last stop on our tour was Jelsa, founded as the port for the community of Pitve, it grew in importance over the centuries.  During the 19th century it was one of the most significant maritime, shipbuilding and trade centres of the Adriatic, a starting point for a fleet of ocean-going sailing vessels carrying the best wines of Hvar, olive oil and salted fish.  It is an important tourist centre for the island with a regular passenger catamaran service to Split – have a look at this ugly catamaran that was in the port when we were there!

Back to Hvar – and somehow, we managed to find the proper road which made the return journey a lot quicker, but certainly not as picturesque as our initial one.  We dropped off the rental car and just had time for a walk along the promenade to have a look at the pretty-young-things chilling out to the music and good vibes at the famous Hula Hula Beach Bar!  Then it was back to the port for our ferry ride back to Split and to reflect on a day well spent.

Our last day in Croatia tomorrow and we will take the time to investigate further everything Split has to offer.