July 6: Dubrovnik to Split

This morning I woke up around 5 and started packing as quietly as I could so I didn't wake up the kids. Eventually Maddy woke up and then she woke LB up at about 6:20, just in time to head down for breakfast. After breakfast we went back to the room to finish packing and then around 8:15 we went to the lobby to check out and get on the bus and leave for Split. Driving north on the Adriatic coast was absolutely stunning, winding around sea cliffs and dropping down past towns situated along calm sapphire bays were truly sights to behold.

Looking Back at Our Hotel

Ivan told us earlier in the trip that the southern part of Croatia didn't have any big highways because of how close the sea is to the Bosnia and Herzegovina border, leaving no room for Croatia to construct a road. This geographic conundrum forces everyone to take the sea road, which is definitely to the benefit of us tourists. We had arranged with Ivan to make a stop about one third of the way to Split in a small town called Ston.

A Random Street in Ston

Ston is located at the beginning of the Pelješac peninsula, which happens to be the narrowest part of the peninsula, which was a perfect place to build a wall that was meant to protect against any Venetian attacks. The town also has been a significant producer of salt since those times as well.

The Salt Pans of Ston

Nowadays Ston is also known for producing very high quality oysters in the brackish waters of Ston Bay. Nemanja parked the bus and when we got out the parking lot had an olive press just sitting there. It also had a small area where there were Roman numerals painted and then numbers painted around them. Ivan showed us that if you stood on the Roman numeral that corresponded to the current month your shadow points to the time, so it is a human sundial. They even had numbers painted for daylight savings time.

Testing the Human Sundial

After the parking lot Ivan took us over to the salt production area and showed us the salt pans, where I eventually bought some fleur de sel to take home. Ivan had some unused tickets for entry into the city walls so Vaughn, Charlene, Paul, Andrea, Julie, Wyatt, Cedric and Evan all walked around the city walls.

Walking the Walls of Ston

In the meantime Ivan took the rest of us to a restaurant that was owned by someone who also owned an oyster farm, so that we could try the famous Mali Ston oysters. The restaurant was named Baća, and it had a large outdoor patio shaded by an old mulberry tree. LB, Christal and I all ordered 3 oysters on the half shell and Yeh-yeh, Ni-ni, Brian, Lindsey, Kelsey and Megan ordered two orders of the oyster flower, which had 3 raw oysters, 3 grilled oysters and 3 fried oysters.

Oysters on the Half Shell

The brininess of these oysters seemed like it was lighter than other oysters I've had and they had a meatier texture to them as well. LB really enjoyed them and told Uncle Brian they are definitely one of his favorite oysters that he's tried.

The Oyster Flower

The hikers had already finished walking the wall before we got our oysters, so once we finished we got back on the bus and drove the rest of the way to Split. Shortly after Ston we got on a newer highway that slowed us to travel a little faster and in some parts it wound around some hillside vineyards that supposedly produce world class wines using a local grape called plavac mali, which is like an older brother to Zinfandel.

A Plavac Mali Vineyard

We arrived in Split a little after 1pm and luckily the hotel pretty much had all our rooms ready, so we dropped off luggage and got settled and then met in the lobby. The group decided they wanted to get lunch and browse around the mall so we got Ubers and went to the Mall of Split. The food court had a decent variety of food and I got a meat burek from a place called "The Burek." Burek is a traditional filled pastry pie in Croatia and this one was pretty tasty, especially for a mall food court.

Beef Burek

Once we finished eating everyone kind of dispersed to wander the mall and shop until we got picked up by Nemanja at 5pm to go for a tour of old town Split.

A local tour guide named Saša joined us to give us a tour of old town Split, which is mainly made up of the former Roman emperor Diocletian's palace. Diocletian was the only Roman emperor to retire and he built his palace in Split because it was near his birthplace and childhood home. We started out touring the substructure of the palace which was along the south side and butted up against the sea when it was built. Game of Thrones actually used the substructure as Khaleesi's dragon lair, which was kind of cool.

The Dragon's Lair

After the substructure Saša took us up to the main square where the two main roads through the palace met and on one side of the square was Diocletian's mausoleum and on the other was the temple of Jupiter, who was supposed to be Diocletian's father.

Looking Up in the Main Square

After the main square we toured around the rest of the palace, which by now has become a mixture of buildings up until it became a UNESCO site and now no new construction is allowed, just restoration work.

They Blocked Traffic

Then we went to see the north gate, which was the main entrance to the palace, and then the west gate, where there was a 24 hour clock that was very unique, before making our way back to the promenade where Saša and Ivan left us for the night.

All the Cousins Except Maddy

From the promenade we walked up to the Marjan viewpoint, that Sasha had pointed out before, to get a good look at the city and take a bunch of pictures.

Split from the Marjan Viewpoint

By this point Maddy had woken up and was really wanting ice cream so we walked back down towards the city and found a little shop called Luigi's that was very good. I had the splitzka rožata flavor which was inspired by a traditional Croatian dessert that is similar to creme caramel, and it was delicious. After that our kids were getting tired so we ordered some takeout and got an Uber with Yeh-yeh and Ni-ni back to the hotel for the night.

Splitzka Rožata