Day 45 (Tuesday) Crikvenica to Split

As said before, no two days are the same!! Think we were about the only guests at the "Grand Hotel" as breakfast was pretty sparce and we were outnumbered by staff members - their season is almost over apparently. Woke to heavy rain but it settled down as we set off and we just had occasional drizzle and later one good shower before we arrived in Split. Would have been great to have bright sunshine for our drive down the coast but it was still incredible.

The coast road of Croatia must be one of the great drives of the world. Massive and multiple mountain ranges hug the coast so the road sits on high cliffs with views acrosss the Adriatic  to similar mountainous islands (with wonderful names like KRK) -also with verticle cliffs. Its a bit like the Great Ocean Road on steroids! The islands are often connected to each other by massive bridges.

In the inlets are little fishing villages, some of which appear way below the roadway while for others you drive down and through - just the most beautiful trip imagineable. Unfortunately the coast road from Zadar south to split appears to have been replaced by a motorway (more tolls) so we couldn't do the last 100k right along the coast - got sent on a boring motorway, but although the scenery was comaratively ordinary there was some fun as the speed limit is 130kph!! Where is the Passat when you are allowed to enjoy such travel - and not a policemen or speed camera in sight!!!  ...........and me in a non turbo diesel Fiat.

Into Split by about 4. Our hotel is actually within the walls of Diocletian's old palace walls which is a Unesco heritage listed site (no cars) so we had to park outside the heritage area and notify the hotel who sent and electric cart to pick us up. Had abit of trouble finding the spot in the myriad of tiny narrow streets but it was worth getting here - Split is just beautiful. We are here for 3 days so you will hear more about it, but we had a wander around the palace and waterfront and it is VERY impressive in every sense of the word. Croatian waiters have a lot to learn if they are going to seriously challenge on the tourism front - some a really rude so we've already worked out where we are NOT going!

Our hotel is, however the best yet - beautiful room, all beautifully appointed and great staff. Think we'll be OK. On the recommendation of  Marija the hotel manager, we went to a small family run fish restaurant for dinner - lovely fresh tuna.

trivia: Last one on Venice - there are an amazing166 islands making up Venice. The flooding which occurs on spring tides is not caused by the ocean rising - it is caused by Venice sinking! they found some years ago that the sinking of many wells for water lowered the water table and the city began to sink - since the banning of wells, the sinking has ceased but they still have the problem - huge floating barriers are due for completion in 2014 and this (hopefully)  will help

Pictures:
* Coastal fishing village - Jablanac
*The Dalmacian coast
*entry to the "Palaca Judita" (our hotel)