The coast of Croatia continues to amaze us. We loved Zadar! We stayed here from 8 AM to 8 PM and needed every minute! And the weather continues to be gorgeous. Sunny and 75 with no humidity! What’s not to love??
We started our day with a tour of the old town. It’s the oldest Croatian coastal town dating from the 9th century BC. It too is a walled city and our tour guide took us around to many of the historical sites within the city walls. It was under Venetian rule for a long time so there are many ruins tied to Venice. There are also some very old churches with cool architecture. We visited the Cathedral of St. Anastasia, the patron saint of Zadar. This week happened to be the anniversary of her death so they had her sarcophagus open to view her body. Needless to say it was a little tough to look at!
After our tour we went back to the ship to get lunch (of course!). The nice thing about the Azamara ships are that they are so small, we can dock right in the main town so it’s so easy to get on and off. We also like how so few people are on this ship. There’s never a line to get on or off the ship. Soooo much of a different experience from the large Royal Caribbean ship we were just on! And since we were docked right in town, we were right next to two really cool artistic things in Zadar. The first was their “Sea Organ” which is a set of concrete steps at the ocean with underground pipes that play music when the waves come in. The other is the “Greeting to the Sun” which is a round circular panel of solar cells built into the concrete near the shoreline that lights up at night. We could see it from our balcony and hear the Sea Organ as well. So cool!
After lunch we took a “Tuk Tuk” tour. A Tuk Tuk is like a golf cart that can carry 4-8 people. They are fun to ride around in and our tour guide took us to the “newer” part of the town where most of the locals lived. It was so much different than the old town. I thought we went to Egypt since we even saw the Sphinx! Lol
After the Tuk Tuk tour, we took a sunset boat cruise. Ernest Hemingway once said the sunsets he saw in Zadar were the prettiest in the world. I wish we could confirm that but it clouded up slightly at dusk and so we didn’t see a great sunset. But we had a great time since it was just us and 6 German girls and they were a hoot as was the captain! It was so fun!!
After that we went to dinner and saw the show. We had a long but fun day! On to Split!
PS: Well guys, the internet on the ship once again was struggling to allow me to post pics so I’ll have to send them separately.
The Wandering Italian 