Things always seem better in the morning. The bed was comfortable and the road fairly quiet. We had a nice breakfast finished up with a slice of fresh bread from a loaf that I estimate is over a foot wide!
We headed back to the ferry port for a second attempt to find out what exactly we need to do. This time I asked the port guys who direct cars and they were much more helpful - pier 25 is where we will be headed (behind the red building for information!). We walked this in blazing sun now in the high twenties. I am still not totally sure where we need to park but we have a better idea today. Three hours still seems to be the preferred waiting time so that’s what we will do. In the meantime, time to get on and explore Split.
I have never watched an episode of ‘Game of Thrones’ and I think we must be the only people here not to have done so. It looks impressive, there’s a museum with entrance to the underground vaults where filming took place. I bought a fridge magnet for my sister’s husband Brian who is a GOT fanatic. This entitled us to a free pose in a throne which apparently is integral to the series. As this meant little to us, Gulliver Bear posed instead and gained a lot of interest and the woman in the shop insisted on shaking his paw (we gave her one of his business cards!).
Next I wanted to find a tiny silver shop I had read about prior to our visit. The shop is run by a jeweller who has been in this particulate shop for 48 years but has been making filigree silver jewellery by hand for over 60 years. He is the third generation of his family to do so and his son will take over in time. The jewellery is beautiful and I wanted to look at the bracelets for my ever-growing collection (I’m wearing 5 at the moment with another that needs repairing). He charges by the weight of silver but not the amount of time. He told us that his eyes were still good but not his wallet. There were two I was instantly drawn to but I went for the more unusual one which is so delicate and Colin generously bought it for me - it is beautiful. The jewellery maker - Mr Čivljak was a lovely man and even reduced the price (we hadn't asked him to) and showed us the tiny bits of silver wire he creates his jewellery with, each bracelet takes at least a day to create.
We needed sustenance after this purchase and food a lovely little restaurant just outside the walls of the Diocletian palace. We explored the city some more before walking a long way in the heat up the hill in the Varos district to reach a view point over the city. There was a welcome breeze up there and an interesting old Jewish cemetery as well.
We walked down via flights of steps and eventually located an ATM which didn’t charge huge commission. Later in the evening we tried the restaurant just around the corner as recommended by Ivica - very good steak and we shared a morello cherry pancake!
