Little Coastal Town of Vinjerac

On our way back to Rijeka we stopped for the night at the most delightful little town close to Zadar. The town closes down in the winter and only had 16 residents. The building had been bombed during the war.

The Great Wall of Mali Ston

Another little treasure in southern Croatia is the great wall of Mali Ston. The picture really doesn't do it justice but it does give some sense of scale.

Here is a closer look from the other side of the hill. It is the longest wall in all of Europe.

Dubrovnik

This is the other side of Dubrovnik. I like the little guard towers.

An incredible amount of damage was done to the buildings within Dubrovnik. This is one of the few that survived.

All these dots on this map show the hundreds of bombs that fell on the city. They really did an incredible restoration job.

Dubrovnik

At the southern end of Croatia is Dubrovnik, another walled in city. More on Dubrovnik

Split and Diocletians Palace

In the center of Split is Diocletians Palace which is a walled off section (9.5 acres) of the city that the Roman Emperor built in the year 305 as his retirement home.To the left is his mausoleum that was converted into a church. We were very impressed with this little church.

More on Split

This is one of the more ornate stone sarcophagi surrounding Diocletians Mausoleum.

We walked under this structure into the undergound caverns.

Zadar in the Rain

On the way to Zadar we were faced with some of the reality of their recent war: "Do not approach. In this area is a great danger of mines." This area was extremely hard hit. We did see some bombed out buildings, but you could tell that how extensive the damage was from the number of new tile roofs.

As you can see from the Josie pose, we got to experience the "Sea Organ", which is a series of pipes that run up to the holes in the steps and are activated by the waves. The sound is loudest when a ship comes by. We were there for about 10 minutes just listening to the symphony made by the sea. More info on the Sea Organ

The foundation of St. Donatus church, 9th century. I was sad to see how they used the beautiful Roman columns for their foundation. Link to Church Donatus of Zadar

Carnival in Rijeka

Very impressive Carnival parade downtown Rijeka. We had heard that  Rijeka had one of the largest Carnival celebrations in Europe and the kids weren't disappointed!

I think these are another variation of the bell ringers from another area of Croatia.

More Bell Ringers

The bell ringers had some fun with the kids and some would run up with their scary masks to frighten our littlest one but then would high five.

Carnival Bell Ringers

We went to a little town on the outskirts of Rijeka called Matulji to see the bell ringers during carnival. They have a large bell tied around their waist that they bang with their backside. It is an impressive sight seeing them come down the street then forming a line into a circle to bang their sheep/cow bells against each other. The sound is quite deafening. I found out that this is a Croatian  Protected Cultural Phenomena by UNESCO and is called the festival of St. Blaise which is a festival tradition that is over a thousand years old.

 These outfits are passed down from father to son for generations.

Here are some young bell ringers from the west that have smaller bells around their waists.(krabujosnica). 

It is the bell ringers from the east that wear the larger (teriomorph) masks and one large bell.

Porec, Istria

We went with Kathy's sister, Karen and her husband on a tour of the Istrian peninsula and even ended up taking them to dinner in Italy.
Along the way we visited Porec, which is another one of those wonderful old Roman towns in Istria. The Basilica of Euphrasius (6th century) had some beautiful examples of gold tile along with some columns with each having a different cap. Even our 5 year old, Audrey knows the difference between Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns!

Even the arches had differing designs.I think I will add this photo to my Shades collection on the right. I like how the window arches add counterpoint to the main arches.

An ancient baptismal font.
For more on Porec:
Porec-Istria-Croatia
For some professional shots of the Basilica, visit our friend Willies' site at:
Willie Osterman

Gondolas

Gondolas are flat bottomed boats that are rowed not poled as many believe, as the waters in Venice are too deep. The prices are about 80 to 100 euros ($136) for 40 minutes, which was A LITTLE steep for us. We decided that we had to try the experience though and took an older gondola ( paint peeling, etc) that is used by the locals to cross the canals. It only cost a couple of euros for the whole family. Of course, we had to stand up like the locals which made me a little nervous for the little ones but it was amazingly stable.

I always wondered about the distinctive design (ok...maybe not always-Kathy wants me to remove anything slightly not quite true/interesting  from future posts) of the gondolas. They evolved over the centuries and the final design and color was finalized and regulated by law in the mid 20th century.

At the front of the boat is the ferro, which means iron and is used as a counterweight for the gondolier who stands at the opposite end of the boat.  The design of the ferro has slots cut into it to represent the different districts of Venice.

For more info on Gondolas

Venetian Lions

The rule is that every kid who comes to San Marco Square has to ride the lions. In the summer there is a lineup to get on them. These ones are not the  Winged lions of St Marc but instead were brought back from some Venetian conquest.
The kids started a little game that I found out was a popular one and they counted 40 lions throughout Venice. An interesting tidbit:
"One secret the lions tell is whether Venice was at war or peace when the lion was put there. If the book in his paw is open, Venice was at peace. When the book is closed, Venice was at war. Finding closed books in the city of Venice gets extra points."
Counting Lions

Here is the Apostle Marc and his symbol the winged lion. I will have to keep my eyes open for more examples of the winged lion as Croatia used to be under the influence of Venice. Many of the lions were destroyed after Venice fell.

Apparently at one time some of the Venetians revered the lion so much that they had live lions in their gardens and even had one in a golden cage in St Marc's Square. He died apparently from being poisoned from licking the bars of his cage. Thereafter, for several centuries, the rulers barred people from owning captive lions.

Venice and the Doge's Palace

View from the water side of St Mark's Square with the dome of the Basilica and the Doges Palace on the right. The Doge is Venetian for Duke.
Wikipedia - Doge_of_Venice

This is the Bridge of Sighs and was where prisoners of the Doge got their last look at the outside world. They would cross from the Doges palace to the dungeons. Unfortunately, while we were there a lot of restoration work was going on and most of the surrounding buildings were covered.
Wikipedia - Bridge of Sighs