We drove into Split with the intention of spending the day walking around and seeing some of the sights. We followed signs to the old town and were amazed by the number of cars about. Parking was super scarce and it took about 15-20 minutes to finally locate a spot which really was a stroke of luck. Holly and I went into the basement remnants of the Diocletian Palace, a massive Roman building built back in fourth century. It was easy to see from the natural harbour and surrounding mountains why the Romans had decided to build a city here. We then checked out a Christian church and paid the equivalent of a couple of Canadian dollars to climb the stairs of its clock tower. Nice view of Split from there and well worth the price admission although the narrow stairs did cause the odd human traffic jam. We walked around a bit more of the old city before meeting up with Garth for some lunch, and then it was time to split Split.
Arriving in Split, with next to no parking:
In the basement of the Diocletian Palace:
Diocletian himself:
There was this strange little podium setup in one wing of the basement, I couldn't help but stand on it to pose for this picture but then some kind of alarm went off and a guy came to check on it but didn't mind...but the alarm kept going long after we left:
Outside the church:
The belltower stairs:
The view from the tower:
A beautiful square:
Holly rubbing the toe of a statue of Grgur Ninski, it's supposed to give you good luck:
Posing with Grgur:
Getting out of town proved to be easier than first thought and we were soon on the highway heading north. Rain started to pour down a few hours into the travel and we actually climbed a bit into the mountains so it was slightly foggy too. We thought that we wouldn’t see the sun again but sure enough, as we neared the coast the sky opened up (in a good way). Just leaving the toll highway I noticed that Betty’s brakes seemed soft again...damn, our fix in Kotor didn’t do the trick. I nursed the vehicle down a 3-400 meter hill using the engine for most of the braking. There was a convoy of 10-15 cars behind us but too bad so sad. We stopped briefly to put some more brake fluid in the campervan and that did help some 5-10 minutes later. We paid a toll to get over to the island of Ortuk Krk just south of the city of Rijeka. We found a campsite on the shore and decided to head into a nearby town for dinner before setting up camp. After an okay dinner, the wind was howling at the campsite and it was questionable whether “Tammy the Tent” (Garth and Holly’s abode) would survive the gusts. We tried positioning Betty to give them a windbreak but it became pretty obvious that a cheap tent wasn’t going to cut it in this weather. I offered to them that we could all sleep in Betty (a first by the way) and they reluctantly agreed. It turned out to work fairly well and we all had decent sleeps. Betty has shown a new side...
Working on Betty's brakes:
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