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To help you find a good vacation ...
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There are 1,185 islands off Croatia and I visited the long and the short of
them. Hvar, the longest, which, with it's seemingly endless sunshine, has been called the 'Croatian Madeira,' and, by contrast the smallest is Lokrum, a ten minute boat ride from Dubrovnik.
Either
is easily visited using a package holiday or travelling independently. As
to the others, a ferry pass that costs around £50 will give you unlimited
Island hopping. You can also take a sailing holiday and surround yourself
with them.
We drove down the Dalmatian Rivera and, before catching the ferry, stopped
overnight at Maksara. We joined the locals at the outdoor cafés and watched
fashion conscious young people promenading and posing. Their chatter and laughter
echoed, like noisy starlings, around the square. To be fair, they really did
look good, like a new breed of super models. Tall willowy girls trod the polished
stone piazza as though it were a catwalk.
Of course the only time the glorious white stone pavements get really quiet
is when the sun shines hot and the afternoon siesta kicks in.
When I woke in the morning I opened the window at the Hotel Biokovo and watched
a flotilla of boats leaving harbour and move round the headland towards the
outlying islands.
At Drvenik, (the place names looked like a bad hand at scrabble!) We took
our ferry for the short crossing to Hvar.
The narrow road climbed up through hillsides covered with lavender, fig trees
and olive groves.
In the stone terraces on the steep slopes, a man working his vines while his
donkey munched thistles.
Occasionally below us as the road twisted through the trees we caught a glimpse
of beautiful bays and flotilla yachts on glassy clear blue water.
Hvar town, lies at the end of the long island and most of the twenty thousand
visitors who swell the population in the summer come by ferry either from
Split or Dubrovnik.
In the autumn sunshine we were bowled over by the magnificent Venetian architecture.
It was noon and Hvar's huge square was empty. A lone tourist looked out from
the great long balcony, like a misplaced Evita, and the silence of the siesta-laden
afternoon was briefly shattered by the sound of a scooter. It was ridden by
a granddad with an infant on knee, no doubt bound for the land of nod.
The clang of a bell-chiming noon echoed around and it seemed that little had
changed since the days when Venetian fleet spent the winter there. Their rope
marks are still worn into the ancient stone bollards but now it's holiday
yachts that tie up at Europe's oldest working wharf.
It seemed appropriate to find a clock that went backwards, nothing to do with
time travel, it just 'worked backwards.' It was in the museum of 15th century
Franciscan Monastery, which also contains a massive wall size painting of
The Last Supper, painted in 1585 and donated by one of the commanders of the
Venetian fleet.
A visit costs 10 Kuna and its worth that just to sit under the huge Cyprus
tree. It's the 4th largest in the Adriatic and it acts as a massive umbrella
practically shading the whole of the monastery garden. You can look out from
there to Hellas island where the Venetians once collected resin from pine
trees to build their ships.
There is an archipelago of islands just off Hvar town and if 'the land of
beyond' draws you, a boatman can take you out and collect you or you can hire
a little motorboat for the day for about £20. It's easy to find a tiny little
bay all to yourself.
At Hvar I walked along the coastal path by the pine trees that line the coast.
People lay in the sun or slid from the rock slabs to swim in the still warm
water. A grinning boy came up from the sea with a fish on a harpoon in one
hand and a wriggling squid in the other. His sister hurried to meet him with
a kitten in her arms. They all seemed happy, especially the kitten.
At night we explored the warren of little lanes that climbed the hill below
the fort. I checked out the cafés and set about developing a taste for Ožujsko
the very reasonably priced local beer. I took a sip and without any warning
the room was filled with the most beautiful music as six men harmonised and
sang traditional 'clappa' songs.
It was all very atmospheric although, the next morning, I could have wished
for lerss when the bell on the 15th century clock tower outside my balcony
clanged into life. The hotel had been a palace that served once as courthouse
of Venice Republic.
Major ferries run to the island from Split and Dubrovnik and the smaller ones
also call at Starigrad, which seems a perfect place to own a little boat.
Many lined the waters edge, white and bright in the sun, as we explored the
shady and labyrinth of passages that lead back from the quayside
The sound of our feet echoed and broke the silence, occasionally we paused
as once when the sound of the music of La Boheme swelled through a brown shuttered
window above our heads, it added a touch of magic.
By contrast it was 'Heavy Metal' that was playing from a house near the pavement
café where we were joined lunch for by three locals, a couple of cats and
an old dog called Rocky. They gave us a great welcome and seem to enjoy helping
us deal with a large plate of fish, but they quickly disappeared when the
food was finished.
Well worth a visit is the building that once was the summer home Petra Hektotovica,
a famous 16th century Croatian poet.
It is plain on the outside and the only clue that something rather grand my
lay beyond its walls was the channel full of small fish that swam in from
the sea.
They emerged in the garden in and elegant colonnaded pool where they stay
to be fed and grow too large to return to the sea.
The water in the pond is a mixture of spring water and water from the sea
and the mullet thrive now just as they did five-hundred years ago.
There are doves in the garden which is heady with the scent of plants.
There are trees collected from around the world and carved inscriptions from
the poet's work are carved I stone.
A leaflet helps you translate and you learn that Heu Fugiunt Fluxu Non Redunte
Dies means
"Alas the days flow by like the waves and do not return"
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Report by Allan Rogers
Fact File
Croatian National Tourist Board www.croatia.hr
Tel UK 020 8563 7979
Web Cams http://webcamworld.com/directory/Europe/Croatia/
A number of tour operators feature holiday packages to Hvar including Holiday
Options - 0870 0130 450 and Transun 0870 444 4747
A 10 day unlimited ferry crossing pass cost approximately £56 per person and
is valid for any Jadrolinija ferry service within Croatia.
Ferry Schedule
http://web.idirect.com/~zemunik/ferry.html
