First impressions

First note - my luggage arrived without incident (see last post.) When you arrive at the airport in Split, it definitely looks like a small Caribean airport, pretty palm trees, far away from everything. The bus to town runs 'when no planes are due in' which means you could end up waiting to a delayed flight. We finally made it to town around 3:30 and as you drive into Spit you see lots of concrete houses where they do paint them in pretty pastel colors. As you get closer to town you can see that Split is a rather large city and once you get in and settled, you realize that what makes Split special is that the architecture is quite literally from every major period of time. The highlight of the old town is the old walls of Diocletian's castle but just as fun are the modern buildings, those built under the Soviet's are pretty ugly, but there are occasional 17th and 18th century buildings as well as some baroque. And this town functions in and among all of it. Old Roman walls outside a Marina Rinaldi fashion store or a store built into those ruins that sells running gear. All pretty amazing to see the juxtaposition of so many centuries, just handling modern day life.

The center of the what was the palace of anti-Christian Diocletian is now a cathedral which seems like a cosmic revenge as Diocletian is actually known for persecuting Christians. Some say he persecuted Christians to secure the slaves he would need to build his huge palace. He abdicated his position as Roman Emperor to retire to Split around 295 A.D. After his death, the palace remained a vacation retreat for the rulers of Rome.

The water front is lovely and modern, with cruise and ferry ships along the coast. The town still seems to be finding it's way as a tourist location as signage and history, all written in five language is around, just not where you would expect to see it.

There is a lovely farmers's market with the sweetest strawberries I have ever tasted for sale. It is a must stop before tomorrow's hike through a park at the edge of town. Oh, and there is a big statue of Gandalf just north of the harbor in a park. Suspect that is not really who it is but it is a dead ringer!