Onwards and in our case downwards towards Split. We left before 10.00am and I texted Robert but he was at work so I said goodbye to a woman that I had assumed was his wife. She spoke the same amount of English as I do Croatian - basically one word but she seemed pleased that I had tidied the apartment and emptied the bins. Turns out she was actually Robert’s mother so lucky I had not mentioned anything to him!
We had chosen to stop at the small town of Trogir, about 1.5 hours from Split to look around. I had worked out the GPS co-ordinates of a car park close to where we wanted to be and we got there with no problem. The heat is rising! It was scorching so we stopped for a beer as soon as we had crossed the little wooden bridge into the old Venetian style part of Trogir and I noticed another Croatian kitty in the shade. Later we had excellent cherry ice cream.
We then drove the thirty minutes or so into Split to our third apartment. The SatNav worked well but the entrance was a little difficult to spot and unfortunately (my fault) we overshot and had to rapidly reset the SatNav for a circular route around the one-way system to attempt to enter. Luckily as we held up traffic our new ‘landlord’ Ivica rushed up the drive to help us navigate into the ninety degree drive down a ramp. I decided it would be a good idea to stand in the middle of the road facing two lanes of oncoming traffic and stop it by holding up my arms… it worked and I’m still here!
Thank goodness I have booked apartments with parking at each place. I don’t think we will need the car again until we leave in a few days which is a relief. Apartment number 3 - Maric 1 - is a great size with a large bedroom. Again, like our place in Zadar there is a strange hot water heater in the bathroom but all seems to work well. Ivica has generously stocked up the fridge for us with milk, beers, three fruit juices, some strong smelling spirits and other soft drinks.
We headed into town in the late afternoon first via the beach - quite nice and very busy and then onto the ferry port where we will be catching the ferry with the car on Thursday when we travel to the island of Korçula. Nobody seemed very knowledgeable about where we need to head for (it is a large port with three ‘piers’) or indeed how early we need to be queuing for a 10.45 departure. We have been advised between 1-3 hours! This caused somewhat of a row as I through we should aim for 1.5-2.00 but Colin thought 3. It turns out that despite purchasing the tickets for the car and us, this is only a purchase and no confirmation of a place on the ferry. Great. A frosty atmosphere as we stopped for the worlds most expensive iced coffees I have ever had - more ice than coffee and then a traipse around Split visiting various ’Tommy’ supermarkets to stock up with fruit and and evening meal. Not my finest culinary effort of a cardboard like pizza enlivened with chorizo and smoked cheese. Hope things improve tomorrow…
