1752

Oh Leunig you are naughty.

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Days 7 & 8 Croatia – Pag, Zadar & Trogir

We left Plitvice early as it was going to be an extremely long day and many miles to return to Trogir near Split.

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Days 7 & 8 Croatia – Pag, Zadar & Trogir

We left Plitvice early as it was going to be an extremely long day and many miles to return to Trogir near Split.

The first part of the morning the countryside was shrouded in mist and again the sight of abandoned and boarded up farmhouses and villages emptied of people struck a dark note. We stopped at a ruined Serb Orthodox Church –

At one of the places we stopped at for a coffee break, Gospic, the guide told us not to talk about the war in the cafe. This town it seems was a mixed town once until the Serbs who hadn’t fled at the outbreak of the war were massacred by the Croatian townsmen. One person attempted to confess and point out those in the town who had participated in the killing of the Serbs but he and his family were driven from the town. No one has been charged with the murders of the Serbs.

The fog and mist had cleared and it was a starkly brilliant day on the Adriatic. There was not a hint of a breeze, the heat was stifling. The views of the two arms of d Pag Island as the bus wound down the mountainside were spectacular –


Pag Island is a barren, rocky island with no trees, little vegetation and no rivers or streams. The island is a rather strange moonscape defined by two mountain ridges dotted with patches of scrub. The salt works became the foundation of the island’s economy in the 15th century.


Finally we reached the base of the mountains and got the ferry across to Pag Island from Prizna. The road climbed up into the mountains and we drove along the ridge till we were looking over the town itself –

Pag is famous for its sheep cheese and lace.


From Pag we travelled down to Zadar where we had lunch and viewed some more churches. I was too hot to be bothered to take any photos. In the late afternoon we arrived in Trogir and in the evening walked into the old part of the town to have a meal there. After dinner we walked back through the town square and I attempted some pics. Again these are a bit blurry, but I was tempted by the sight of the moon –

The next morning I had a few hours to walk around Trogir before going to the airport.
Trogir was named a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1997.

A town has been on this site since Roman times, the Croats settling in the town by the 7th century. The town retained its autonomy up to 1409 when Venice had bought the rest of Dalmatia, Trogir refused to accept their rule and the Venetians were forced to bombard the town into submission.

The town occupies a tiny island in the narrow channel between Ciovo Island and the mainland.

The most impressive church in the town is the Venetian Cathedral of St Lovro built from the 13th to the 15th centuries. We tried to visit the cathedral just after mass but were chucked out by the rather aggressive person who looked after the place.

Opposite the Cathedral is the Church of St John the Baptist and its impressive clock tower –

It was then off to the airport and then to Rome for the night before my next stop – Valletta, Malta.

Click here to wing your way across the Med to Malta.

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Day 6 Croatia – Plitvice Lakes

Oh what a relief it was to visit the lakes, the air was cooler and from the hotel room, the only sounds you heard were the wind in the trees and the sound of waterfalls. It was a lovely spot. I was so glad we stayed for two nights as it gave us a whole day to explore the lakes and it wasn’t just a rushed job.

If you want to know a little about the Plitvice Lakes the Wikipedia entry gives quite a good description of the park –
Plitvice Lakes

I enjoyed the misty coolness and quiet of the morning walk around the lake with very few people on the trails. It was quite definitely a sharp contrast to the heat and crowds of daytrippers in the middle of the day. I took a picture of the line of people coming down one of the trails from the car park above. God it was like a line of ants, neverending and the sheer numbers overwhelming, the full horror of mass tourism. Apart from that it was a truly delightful day and I enjoyed sitting on my balcony in the evening just listening to the water dripping and falling. It was very restful.

Behind the cut is pure picture spam. No need for commentary from me –

To Pag, Zadar and Trogir

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Day 6 Croatia – Plitvice Lakes

Oh what a relief it was to visit the lakes, the air was cooler and from the hotel room, the only sounds you heard were the wind in the trees and the sound of waterfalls. It was a lovely spot. I was so glad we stayed for two nights as it gave us a whole day to explore the lakes and it wasn’t just a rushed job.

If you want to know a little about the Plitvice Lakes the Wikipedia entry gives quite a good description of the park –
Plitvice Lakes

I enjoyed the misty coolness and quiet of the morning walk around the lake with very few people on the trails. It was quite definitely a sharp contrast to the heat and crowds of daytrippers in the middle of the day. I took a picture of the line of people coming down one of the trails from the car park above. God it was like a line of ants, neverending and the sheer numbers overwhelming, the full horror of mass tourism. Apart from that it was a truly delightful day and I enjoyed sitting on my balcony in the evening just listening to the water dripping and falling. It was very restful.

Behind the cut is pure picture spam. No need for commentary from me –

To Pag, Zadar and Trogir

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I was amused listening to this week’s Ockham’s Razor this morning. It was presented by Shelley Gare,author of a book called The Triumph of the Airheads – and the Retreat from Commonsense and she discussed the growth of totally useless services and the awful amount of money wasted on them.

Click here to view transcript of show or listen or download it –
Nothing is the new something

I decided I wanted to not stay home again and as I still have some discount vouchers went to Broadway Hoyts to see Perfume.

Interesting movie, not as dire as the critics made out and yes it’s a little strange. I haven’t read the book so don’t know if it stuck to the book or took liberties.

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Everything is nothing

I was amused listening to this week’s Ockham’s Razor this morning. It was presented by Shelley Gare,author of a book called The Triumph of the Airheads – and the Retreat from Commonsense and she discussed the growth of totally useless services and the awful amount of money wasted on them.

Click here to view transcript of show or listen or download it –
Nothing is the new something

I decided I wanted to not stay home again and as I still have some discount vouchers went to Broadway Hoyts to see Perfume.

Interesting movie, not as dire as the critics made out and yes it’s a little strange. I haven’t read the book so don’t know if it stuck to the book or took liberties.

Read Full Post »

Day 5 – More Split & the Fortress of Klis

I was glad to quit the horror of the ashtray room. Thank God it was only for one night, we had a guided tour of Diocletian’s palace in the morning and some free time to wander around Split till the early afternoon and then we were off inland to the Plitvice Lakes in the afternoon.
After the visit below ground of some of the remaining truly Roman ruins of Diocletian’s palace we then went above ground to visit the Cathedral and the Baptistry.

In 1757, the Palace was visited by the Scottish architect Robert Adam and his draftsmen. Adam published the results of their work in 1764. His book is the first thorough study of the Palace. It is important not only because it contains the earliest detailed drawings and surveys, showing how the building appeared in the eighteenth century, but also because it attracted the attention of a wide public, including scholars throughout Europe.

For some of these drawings of Split or Spalato and Diocletian’s Palace which show how it would look in Stephen and Jack’s time click on this link to Ruins of the palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia – Adam, Robert (1728-1792)

The construction of Diocletian’s Palace commenced around 295 when the Roman emperor, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus decided to build a grand villa on the bay of Split, near his birth place of Salona. In 305, at the age of 59, after a severe illness, Diocletian retired to his palace in Dalmatia, taking up his hobby of growing cabbages as well as bathing in the sulphur and thermal springs of the area to treat his rheumatism. When solicited at a later date to resume the honours which he had voluntarily resigned, his reply was, “If only you could see the vegetables planted by my hands at Salona, you would then never think of urging such an attempt”. He was the first Roman Emperor to voluntarily remove himself from office; all previous holders of the title either died of natural causes or were removed by force.

Emperor’s palace occupied an area of about 30 000 square meters. It was rectangular and was originally fortified by 16 towers. It was rather ironic that the mausoleum of Diocletian, one of the chief persecutors of the Christians was transformed in the 7th Century by Bishop John of Ravenna into a cathedral dedicated to the assumption of the virgin.
For more information on Split and Diocletian’s Palace go to this site –
The “Palace” Of Diocletian at Split
They wouldn’t let you take pictures inside the cathedral (Diocletian’s Mausoleum), so here are pics of the Cathedral and Bell Tower and the Peristyle in daylight –



The baptistery, originally built as the Temple of Jupiter. This is the font, it was covered with stone plates in the 19th century, decorated with “pleter” – interlacery ornamentation –

At the rear of the baptistery is a statue of St John the Baptist by the Croatian sculptor, Ivan Meštrović –

For more information on Ivan Meštrović, click here –
Wikipedia Entry – Ivan Meštrović
Ivan Meštrović also sculpted this statue of Gregorius of Nin, sounds like something out of Tolkien and he certainly looks like a LOTR character –

Gregorius of Nin was a 10th-century bishop who has been honoured for centuries in Croatia for asserting the right against the Vatican to say mass in Croatian rather than Latin. Rubbing the statue’s toe is said to bring good luck. The toe has been worn smooth and shiny as a result. I sat in the shade of the old city walls to eat pizza with Noel and the New Zealand couple again, contemplating the statue. Quite close to the statue outside the old town walls is what looks like a re-creation of one of Diocletian’s Palace Corner Towers –

We ducked back into the old city to have a coffee in the main square before going back to the hotel. This is a picture of an old Clock Tower on the square –

We went back to the hotel and boarded the bus to go to Plitvice. Our road took us to the east and inland and to the other side of the mountain range through the pass protected by the Fortress of Klis, the word Klis means “key” –

The Klis fortress, one of the most significant fortifications in Croatia, due to its strategic importance had a significant defence position. From the 2nd century BC this area was inhabited by the Illyrian tribe of Delmati, while the first records about the fortress from the 10th century speak of the Roman fortress Kleisa being besieged by the Avars and Slavs which hastened the conquering of Salona in the first half of the 7th century at the time of arrival of the Croats.

Here is a view of Split from the battlements of the fortress –

The end of the 11th century was marked by the end of the Croatian national dynasty and Klis fell under the rule of the Hungaro-Croatian kings. One of them, Bela IV and his family used the Klis fortress as shelter during the Tatar siege in 1242, at which time his daughter Margita was born. Nowadays she is celebrated as St. Margita of Klis.

The most turbulent time of the history of Klis was the beginning of the 16th century, the time of the greatest Turkish invasion to these areas. An important role in its defence was played by Petar Kružiæ, captain and town duke, who together with his warriors Uskoks managed for two and a half decades to resist Turkish attacks and besieges. With his death on March 12, 1537, Klis fell under Turkish rule which meant the loss of the most powerful Croatian fortification in Dalmatia.

For 111 years the Jadro River was the border between the Turkish Klis (Kliški Sandžak) and the Venetian controlled Split. During one of the attempts to liberate Klis, the Croats led by Split noblemen Ivan Alberti and Nikola Cindro utilized the element of surprise and managed to take over the fortress in April 1596.

However the Turks conquered it again by the end of May, thus defeating Croatian general Juraj Lenkovic who came to the aid of the defenders. As late as March 31, 1648 the Venetian army led by general Leonardo Foscolo, joined by the numerous Croatian locals, managed to liberate Klis from the Turks after 10 days of hard-fought battles and achieved its greatest success during the Cretan War. The area of Klis was organized as a special military and administrative area ruled by the provider based in Klis.

Views of the countryside around the fortress –

The Klis fortress, completely restored and significantly enlarged, remained under the flag of Venice until 1797 when it was taken over by the Austrians. From 1805 until 1813 it was shortly ruled by the French. The period of the second Austrian administration lasted until the end of World War I in 1918, when, with the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Klis, together with the remaining parts of Croatia shared the same fate of all Croatian lands within the borders of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and afterwards Yugoslavia.

During World War II, from April 1941 until October 1944, the Klis fortress was for the last time used for military purposes, mainly as the stronghold of Italian and German occupation forces. Finally in 1990 the flag of the sovereign Republic of Croatia was placed on it.

From Klis we travelled north and east and in the countryside on the other side of the mountains from the coast, the dark side of the most recent conflict is more noticeable than in places on the coast. You noticed empty villages a little way off the main highway with winding neglected side roads connecting them to the highway, rarely used now as no one lives there any more and all the houses had no glass in the windows. These were abandoned Serb villages and houses and I wondered did they all run away or were some still there, buried. The trees screening the villages from the main highway must have hidden some horrible sights during the war.

For it was actually, this most beautiful place, Plitvice Lakes where we were heading that the first shot and the first death occurred in the Serbian-Croatian conflict of the most recent Balkan Wars. A Serb soldier shot a Croatian policeman who was wearing the new uniform of the Croatian police, a uniform similar to that of the Ustaše, a Croatian organisation in World War II that collaborated with the Nazis. The Ustaše enacted race laws patterned after those of the Third Reich, which were aimed against Jews and Roma, but predominately Serbs, who were collectively declared enemies of the Croatian people.

Serbs, Jews, Roma and Croatian anti-fascists, including some Communist Croats and dissident Croat Byzantine Catholic priests, were interned in concentration camps, the largest of which was the Jasenovac complex, and then most often brutally murdered there by the Ustaše militia.

The Ustaše gangs ravaged villages across the Dinaric Alps to the extent that the Italians and the Germans started expressing their horror. By 1942, General Edmund Glaise von Horstenau had written several reports to his Wehrmacht commanders in which he expressed his dismay at the extent of the Ustaše atrocities, which actually preceded the Final Solution. These were corroborated by those of Field Marshal Wilhelm List.

The Italians also became disinclined to cooperate with the Ustaše and would soon come to cooperate with the Chetniks in the southern areas that they controlled. Although Hitler insisted that Mussolini should have his forces work with the Ustaše, the Italian general Mario Roatta, among others in the field, ignored those orders.
By the end of 1942, the news about the Ustaše atrocities in Jasenovac and elsewhere had also spread among the Croatian population. Noted writers Vladimir Nazor and Ivan Goran Kovačić escaped from the Ustaše-held territory to join the Partisans, and were followed by others.

Exact numbers of victims are not known, only estimates exist. The number of murdered Jews is fairly reliable: around 32,000 Jews were killed here. Gypsies (Yugoslav Roma) numbered around 40,000 fewer after the war. The numbers of murdered Serbs are much larger, and estimates tend to vary between at least 300,000 and 700,000.

So underneath the seeming beauty of the countryside and the Plitvice Lakes lies horror, black and dreadful. It was rather unsettling.

Click here to go to Plitvice, Land of the Falling Lakes

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Day 5 – More Split & the Fortress of Klis

I was glad to quit the horror of the ashtray room. Thank God it was only for one night, we had a guided tour of Diocletian’s palace in the morning and some free time to wander around Split till the early afternoon and then we were off inland to the Plitvice Lakes in the afternoon.
After the visit below ground of some of the remaining truly Roman ruins of Diocletian’s palace we then went above ground to visit the Cathedral and the Baptistry.

In 1757, the Palace was visited by the Scottish architect Robert Adam and his draftsmen. Adam published the results of their work in 1764. His book is the first thorough study of the Palace. It is important not only because it contains the earliest detailed drawings and surveys, showing how the building appeared in the eighteenth century, but also because it attracted the attention of a wide public, including scholars throughout Europe.

For some of these drawings of Split or Spalato and Diocletian’s Palace which show how it would look in Stephen and Jack’s time click on this link to Ruins of the palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia – Adam, Robert (1728-1792)

The construction of Diocletian’s Palace commenced around 295 when the Roman emperor, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus decided to build a grand villa on the bay of Split, near his birth place of Salona. In 305, at the age of 59, after a severe illness, Diocletian retired to his palace in Dalmatia, taking up his hobby of growing cabbages as well as bathing in the sulphur and thermal springs of the area to treat his rheumatism. When solicited at a later date to resume the honours which he had voluntarily resigned, his reply was, “If only you could see the vegetables planted by my hands at Salona, you would then never think of urging such an attempt”. He was the first Roman Emperor to voluntarily remove himself from office; all previous holders of the title either died of natural causes or were removed by force.

Emperor’s palace occupied an area of about 30 000 square meters. It was rectangular and was originally fortified by 16 towers. It was rather ironic that the mausoleum of Diocletian, one of the chief persecutors of the Christians was transformed in the 7th Century by Bishop John of Ravenna into a cathedral dedicated to the assumption of the virgin.
For more information on Split and Diocletian’s Palace go to this site –
The “Palace” Of Diocletian at Split
They wouldn’t let you take pictures inside the cathedral (Diocletian’s Mausoleum), so here are pics of the Cathedral and Bell Tower and the Peristyle in daylight –



The baptistery, originally built as the Temple of Jupiter. This is the font, it was covered with stone plates in the 19th century, decorated with “pleter” – interlacery ornamentation –

At the rear of the baptistery is a statue of St John the Baptist by the Croatian sculptor, Ivan Meštrović –

For more information on Ivan Meštrović, click here –
Wikipedia Entry – Ivan Meštrović
Ivan Meštrović also sculpted this statue of Gregorius of Nin, sounds like something out of Tolkien and he certainly looks like a LOTR character –

Gregorius of Nin was a 10th-century bishop who has been honoured for centuries in Croatia for asserting the right against the Vatican to say mass in Croatian rather than Latin. Rubbing the statue’s toe is said to bring good luck. The toe has been worn smooth and shiny as a result. I sat in the shade of the old city walls to eat pizza with Noel and the New Zealand couple again, contemplating the statue. Quite close to the statue outside the old town walls is what looks like a re-creation of one of Diocletian’s Palace Corner Towers –

We ducked back into the old city to have a coffee in the main square before going back to the hotel. This is a picture of an old Clock Tower on the square –

We went back to the hotel and boarded the bus to go to Plitvice. Our road took us to the east and inland and to the other side of the mountain range through the pass protected by the Fortress of Klis, the word Klis means “key” –

The Klis fortress, one of the most significant fortifications in Croatia, due to its strategic importance had a significant defence position. From the 2nd century BC this area was inhabited by the Illyrian tribe of Delmati, while the first records about the fortress from the 10th century speak of the Roman fortress Kleisa being besieged by the Avars and Slavs which hastened the conquering of Salona in the first half of the 7th century at the time of arrival of the Croats.

Here is a view of Split from the battlements of the fortress –

The end of the 11th century was marked by the end of the Croatian national dynasty and Klis fell under the rule of the Hungaro-Croatian kings. One of them, Bela IV and his family used the Klis fortress as shelter during the Tatar siege in 1242, at which time his daughter Margita was born. Nowadays she is celebrated as St. Margita of Klis.

The most turbulent time of the history of Klis was the beginning of the 16th century, the time of the greatest Turkish invasion to these areas. An important role in its defence was played by Petar Kružiæ, captain and town duke, who together with his warriors Uskoks managed for two and a half decades to resist Turkish attacks and besieges. With his death on March 12, 1537, Klis fell under Turkish rule which meant the loss of the most powerful Croatian fortification in Dalmatia.

For 111 years the Jadro River was the border between the Turkish Klis (Kliški Sandžak) and the Venetian controlled Split. During one of the attempts to liberate Klis, the Croats led by Split noblemen Ivan Alberti and Nikola Cindro utilized the element of surprise and managed to take over the fortress in April 1596.

However the Turks conquered it again by the end of May, thus defeating Croatian general Juraj Lenkovic who came to the aid of the defenders. As late as March 31, 1648 the Venetian army led by general Leonardo Foscolo, joined by the numerous Croatian locals, managed to liberate Klis from the Turks after 10 days of hard-fought battles and achieved its greatest success during the Cretan War. The area of Klis was organized as a special military and administrative area ruled by the provider based in Klis.

Views of the countryside around the fortress –

The Klis fortress, completely restored and significantly enlarged, remained under the flag of Venice until 1797 when it was taken over by the Austrians. From 1805 until 1813 it was shortly ruled by the French. The period of the second Austrian administration lasted until the end of World War I in 1918, when, with the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Klis, together with the remaining parts of Croatia shared the same fate of all Croatian lands within the borders of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and afterwards Yugoslavia.

During World War II, from April 1941 until October 1944, the Klis fortress was for the last time used for military purposes, mainly as the stronghold of Italian and German occupation forces. Finally in 1990 the flag of the sovereign Republic of Croatia was placed on it.

From Klis we travelled north and east and in the countryside on the other side of the mountains from the coast, the dark side of the most recent conflict is more noticeable than in places on the coast. You noticed empty villages a little way off the main highway with winding neglected side roads connecting them to the highway, rarely used now as no one lives there any more and all the houses had no glass in the windows. These were abandoned Serb villages and houses and I wondered did they all run away or were some still there, buried. The trees screening the villages from the main highway must have hidden some horrible sights during the war.

For it was actually, this most beautiful place, Plitvice Lakes where we were heading that the first shot and the first death occurred in the Serbian-Croatian conflict of the most recent Balkan Wars. A Serb soldier shot a Croatian policeman who was wearing the new uniform of the Croatian police, a uniform similar to that of the Ustaše, a Croatian organisation in World War II that collaborated with the Nazis. The Ustaše enacted race laws patterned after those of the Third Reich, which were aimed against Jews and Roma, but predominately Serbs, who were collectively declared enemies of the Croatian people.

Serbs, Jews, Roma and Croatian anti-fascists, including some Communist Croats and dissident Croat Byzantine Catholic priests, were interned in concentration camps, the largest of which was the Jasenovac complex, and then most often brutally murdered there by the Ustaše militia.

The Ustaše gangs ravaged villages across the Dinaric Alps to the extent that the Italians and the Germans started expressing their horror. By 1942, General Edmund Glaise von Horstenau had written several reports to his Wehrmacht commanders in which he expressed his dismay at the extent of the Ustaše atrocities, which actually preceded the Final Solution. These were corroborated by those of Field Marshal Wilhelm List.

The Italians also became disinclined to cooperate with the Ustaše and would soon come to cooperate with the Chetniks in the southern areas that they controlled. Although Hitler insisted that Mussolini should have his forces work with the Ustaše, the Italian general Mario Roatta, among others in the field, ignored those orders.
By the end of 1942, the news about the Ustaše atrocities in Jasenovac and elsewhere had also spread among the Croatian population. Noted writers Vladimir Nazor and Ivan Goran Kovačić escaped from the Ustaše-held territory to join the Partisans, and were followed by others.

Exact numbers of victims are not known, only estimates exist. The number of murdered Jews is fairly reliable: around 32,000 Jews were killed here. Gypsies (Yugoslav Roma) numbered around 40,000 fewer after the war. The numbers of murdered Serbs are much larger, and estimates tend to vary between at least 300,000 and 700,000.

So underneath the seeming beauty of the countryside and the Plitvice Lakes lies horror, black and dreadful. It was rather unsettling.

Click here to go to Plitvice, Land of the Falling Lakes

Read Full Post »

As I couldn’t sleep or rather stay asleep, I got up earlier than usual for a weekend, and got stuck into the laundry and wandered up the street for the Saturday paper and something for breakfast from the bakery to have with my coffee. I then did the vaccuuming and looked up the paper and saw that if I put my skates on and walked really fast I could catch the only session of Miss Potter showing up at the Palace Theatre on Norton Street. Got there when the ads were playing, hot and sweaty. The humidity today is like 100% and there is not the usual sea breeze to make it bearable. A kind of day perfect for sitting in the cinema in the air conditioning.

I really enjoyed the film. It is an old fashioned bio-pic and Renee Zellwegger usually annoys me but she played the part of Miss Potter very well. I never read the Beatrix Potter books as a child but I’d seen a preview of the film a while ago and thought it might be a nice light and pleasant movie to see. Magnificent scenery. I should have gone to the Lake District when I went to England. It is incredibly beautiful. I would want to wander among the hills and lakes for days. I shall definitely arrange some time there next time I visit England. So many places yet to see.

I did some grocery shopping and decided that walking back at noon on such a stifling day with a week’s worth of groceries would not do so caught the bus. I have to be careful these days with my left arm and carrying heavy bags. The tumour must have destroyed a number of lymph nodes in my breast and I have had (for months) annoying but noticeable oedema in my left arm and hand.

I left the window closed to keep the hot stifling air out and turned on the fan as soon as I got home, turned on the PC to check e-mail & lj, had some lunch and now I think I shall have an afternoon nap.

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