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Another memory I have of my time as a student in Valencia was crossing the River Túria, which we called the dry river since it was pretty much just sand and dirt, the river having been diverted in the 1950s to prevent flooding.  The riverbed wasn’t much to look at and wasn’t serving any useful purpose though the bridges across it were nice.  Since I left, the city has transformed the riverbed into the Jardin(es) del Túria, or the gardens of Túria, a large urban park.  It is 9 kilometers long and runs from a park near the zoo to the new, modern arts and sciences complex.  The gardens have 5 kilometers of running trails (loved them, as do the locals as they were busy), exercise spaces, playgrounds for kids and adults, and sports courts and fields along with beautiful trees, flowers, water features, etc.  The gardens are crossed by 18 bridges of varying historical times and many of the city’s major museums and monuments run alongside of the gardens.

To start our last day in Split (and Croatia), Bob and I walked out of the residential area in which we were staying and away from Old Town to the westernmost part of the city to view Bene beach.  This is a popular beach for locals and is located at the edge of the large Marjan Hill Park.  We walked into the park on the road which was filled with lots of runners as well as families headed to the very small children’s amusement park located near the beach.

After walking around the beach, we headed into the park to climb to the other overlooks of the city that we hadn’t yet visited.  The trails were narrow, rocky, and not well marked, but it’s amazing the locational data stored in Google.  Bob has downloaded off-line ability with Google Maps, and it continues to be a handy resource.

From the overlook, we walked back down the hill on the southern side to visit the Ivan Meštrovič Gallery which is housed in his former summer villa.  Meštrovič lived from 1883 to 1962 and is a renowned Croatian sculptor.  He spent the last years of his life in the United States where he worked as a professor of sculpture for Syracuse University and then NotreDame.  We had not heard of him before our visit but where quite impressed with his work.

 

The Meštrovič gallery overlooked the sea, so after viewing his work in the gallery and a church down the road, we headed to the nearby harbor to explore more closely what we had seen from the overlook.

I think I had noted earlier that Split is in the Dalmatia region of Croatia.  Ever since I had learned that I had been watching for Dalmatian dogs.  I finally saw one — and doesn’t he (or she) look regal!

Split is home to Diocletian’s Palace which is an ancient palace built for — wait for it — yep, a guy named Diocletian.  He happened to be the emperor of Rome at the start of the fourth century AD.  The site is quite the tourist draw, but it is actually more of a village than a palace as there are a number of structures within the outer walls.  The structures inside were originally intended for about half for Diocletian’s personal use and half for the military.  Currently, the buildings are used by the locals for their personal residence but also for hotels, restaurants, and retail shops.  We had a map that provided an overview of the street-by-street layout with some history to help guide us through the maze.  We spent a good half day in the “palace” with hundreds of our closest friends.  It was an impressive structure and well worth the exploration.

 After completing our tour of the palace, Bob and I strolled along Marmontova, the pedestrian street, and surrounding area.  This is just a few blocks from the palace.

Harbor

A graffitied quote we liked — 



We took a 6:00 am ferry out of Korčula to Split, Croatia’s second largest city at just under 200,000 residents.  It is also on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, though further north than Dubrovnik.  It is the largest city in the region of Dalmatia, one of Croatia’s 4 historical regions.  It is a popular tourist spot for its famed beaches, Diocletian’s Palace, and Overall beauty.  We loved it!  

 While in Split, we stayed at an Airbnb not far from the Riva.  We had  our own small apartment and were able to wash our clothes.  The homeowner left the key for us, as he knew we’were arriving early.  After doing a load of laundry and hanging it out on the clothes lines on the building, we headed out to begin to explore Split.  We started with a climb up Marjan Hill behind our neighborhood for an overlook of the city.

We then headed back to and around the harbor to see some of Split’s many beaches.

To see a bit more of the island, Bob and I decided to walk 6k to the town of Lumbarda to check out its beach that our host had told us about.  While the day was a bit overcast, we had a good walk there and back.

Back in Korčula, we walked out of town along the other harbor (opposite from where we stayed and from which we left town in the morning for Lumbada) to get a good overlook of Old Town.

On Monday, September 18, Bob and I caught a 6:30 am ferry from Dubrovnik to the island of Korčula.  The ferry trip took about 2 1/2 hours getting us to the island at 9:10.  Korčula is an island of about 15,500 people.  It is also the name of the main town on the island, population 5,600.  The town’s main claim to fame for tourists, other than being a beautiful island get-away, is its medieval towers in the Old Town and being the supposed birthplace of Marko Polo.



After deboarding from the ferry, we had a picnic breakfast by the harbor and then walked a quick 5 minutes into Old Town in Korčula (the town) to our accommodation. We stayed in a room over a pizza restaurant that faced the promenade on one side of the Old Town peninsula.

On our first day, we continued our explorations out of Old Town to see more of the coastline.

On our second full day in Croatia, we took a 15 minute boat ride to the nearby island of Lokrum which is a designated nature preserve with a botanic garden, historical remains, and a number of beaches.  Boats between the Old Town of Dubrovnik and Lokrum run every half hour.

After returning from the island, we walked to Banje Beach, Dubrovnik’s most famous beach, and then back through Old Town to our accommodation.

Sunday was a cloudy day with light showers off and on.  We still got out to see some of the areas we hadn’t yet explored.



Dubrovnik is a small city of about 43,000 on the southwestern coast of Croatia on the Adriatic Sea, in the region of Dalmatia.  It is famous for its walled Old Town and was added to the list of World Heritage Sites in 1979.  Bob and I decided to start our official introduction to Dubrovnik with a hike up Srd Hill for a good overlook of the city.  The city is built at the base of, and up the side of a hill, so we had some steep urban walking on a series of steps in the residential neighborhoods before getting to the base of the hill hike along a busy highway.  Those not wanting, or unable, to hike up the hill can pay for a gondola ride to the top.

After hiking back down, we worked our way back through neighborhoods and into Old Town.  Old Town is architecturally and historically interesting, set along a gorgeous coast, and filled with a number of museums,  shops, cafes, and restaurants.  We were only disappointed that you had to pay to walk on the wall ($24 each!), as we had been able to that for free in the UK.  We decided to save the money, as we had a view from above on the hill.

For the final European stint of this travel adventure, Bob and I purchased 2 “free” (actually $55 each since free seems to be impossible anymore) tickets from Chicago to Dubrovnik, Croatia.  All we had to do was fly American Airlines (AA) from Chicago to Charlotte, NC, then Charlotte to Madrid, Spain, and then Iberia (AA partner) into Dubrovnik.  All of our flights were on time and problem free.  However, we left Charlotte at 4:40 pm, much earlier than our usual flight departure times for Europe.  We weren’t tired getting on, we ate early, there were a lot of lights on all night/day during the flight, and the flight attendants went through the aisle during “sleep time” to offer orange juice or coffee?!  It was the first cross-Atlantic flight that neither of us managed to sleep at all.  After a 3+ hour layover (and an unusually long, convoluted bus ride to our plane, we boarded the Iberia flight from Madrid to Dubrovnik where the only food and drink offered was for sale.  No free water or anything else offered.  We don’t plan to eat on flights anymore but were surprised about no free water or soft drinks or anything.  It was a 3 hour flight.  But, the price was right, as we kept reminding ourselves, and we got to our desired destination intact.  The beauty of Dubrovnik, and the friendliness of our accommodation host, kept our spirits up until we could get some sleep.

 After the scenic bus ride to the main bus station, we walked about 30 minutes around the port into a residential neighborhood to get to our room in a family residence.  The home is certified as a public accommodation.  Our hostess was very friendly and gave us some juice and cookies upon arrival which we really needed at that point.  She also gave us a map and explained some local areas of interest and different buses to catch, if we wanted.  Her English was limited, but much better than our Croation (though she appreciated our attempts with please and thank you), but we managed to get the gist of what each other was saying.

After getting settled in our room, we walked to one of the many beaches that surround the peninsular coast of Dubrovnik.  We picked the Copcabana Beach as we liked the name, it wasn’t too far from where we were staying , and it faced the waters where many of the ships came and went.  It was a lovely little beach area with a sense of fun.

Bob and I were able to spend a few gorgeous late-summer weather days in Chicago at Bob’s nephew and wife’s house both before and after their wedding.  They live in a great area of town — within a mile of the Lincoln Park Zoo and Conservatory and Lake Michigan and about 2 miles from Wrigley Field.  They are also right off the brown line on the El and near lots of great restaurants and shopping.  We took advantage (within limit so) of our proximity to Whole Foods.  

In terms of sightseeing, we tried to see areas of town that we hadn’t explored much before and that were free cuz that’s how we roll these days.  One of the first places we visited was the Lincoln Park Zoo and Conservatory.  Both were free, very impressive, and pretty busy for a Friday afternoon.

 

After the wedding, we met up with my Aunt Dee who lives south of the loop .  It was a lovely Sunday afternoon, so we walked two hours from the Lincoln Park area to a neighborhood closer to the McCormick Center.  The walk gave us an opportunity to see a lot of different neighborhoods, and we were rewarded with a great meal at a tapas restaurant and an introduction to Mariano’s, a poor man’s Whole Foods, by my aunt.

 

One day we walked into downtown via the beautiful Lakefront Trail which was also my running route during our stay.