The Swantek Family: Croatia

A few years ago, Scotty and I decided that Croatia was next on our list of adventures. People kept asking us: Why Croatia? We had heard that it was a fabulous European destination known for it's walled/fortified cities and fabulous beaches, and it was on the brink of being very touristy...so to go before the crowds get crazy. So off we went!

Our first stop was Split. A Roman Emperor named Diocletian built his 'retirement home' in Split in 300AD. Hundreds of years later, when they needed protection, the townspeople moved into the empty palace, built homes, and used the walls as fortifications. It's pretty amazing....

The Belltower at Sunset.

The basement of Diocletian's palace has recently been excavated, and they found these wonderful Roman arches everywhere.

Columns around the old church.

Scotty and I started a tradition on our first trip to Italy where we climbed every Duomo/Belltower around. We continued this in Croatia...here we are at the top of the Belltower in Split. More climbing=more gelatto!

Our next destination was a small, quaint island called Hvar.

Croatia is on the Adriatic Sea (directly across from Italy), so while the water was chilly when we were there I'm told it's like bathwater later in the summer. It's also amazingly blue! We swam in it a few times.

Hvar is known as a destination for the rich and famous. We were able to watch the yachts roll in and out from our hotel room. Hvar is also known for their seafood, and while yachting is out of our league, mussels are not.

Enjoying a stroll around town. Hvar has a fort high up on a hill...so of course we climbed up there. Not sure why but we don't have any good pictures of it.

Our next stop was Dubrovnik, where we spent most of our time. Known as the 'Pearl of the Adriatic', Dubrovnik is an amazing walled city with interesting architecture.

The Stradum, the main street in the old city. Someone told us that getting a glass of wine on the Stradum is the best money you can spend in Croatia, and I couldn't agree more: good wine, great gelatto, and even better people watching!

Scotty and I on the 'wall tour'.

The wall juts up from the sea. Beautiful.

Can you tell we were enamored with the walls?

More wall pictures. You can also see some of the red tiled roofs in this picture.

Dubrovnik was hit hard in the war with Yugoslavia in 1991. We found it amazing that there are no traces of any destruction, except for one: while all of the buildings are quite old, all of the roofs are brand new.

We splurged and stayed in a swanky hotel in Dubrovnik (although we got a great deal since it was offseason). They took our passports when we checked in, and apparently realized that it was my birthday. I came home from a morning of wandering around town to find a cake. Chocolate cake! Scotty should have claimed responsibility.

Enjoying my birthday glass of wine, and my birthday earrings (which Scott DID claim responsibility for.)

Dubrovnik was once ruled by the Venetians, and it shows in their architecture.

The entrance to the old city.

Cute narrow cobblestone streets.

We took a day trip from Croatia to Montenegro, the neighboring country (never heard of it? Neither had I. It became a country in 2006). Montenegro, like Croatia, was part of the former Yugoslavia. However, while Croatia remained quaint, Montenegro for the most part seems...communist-ish. There's definitely some nice parts, like this little church on an island.

The town of Kotor in Montenegro is like a mini-Dubrovnik, with a lovely walled city. This church has one nice belltower. Apparently they ran out money to build the second one...so it's just a hole.

Unlike Dubrovnik, Kotor's walls snake up high on the hill. Again, Scotty and I felt the need to climb to the top.

It was tough! We were pretty sweaty. Thank goodness for gelatto.

Wow, we climbed up that?

The view from the top.

Many of Montenegro's hotels look like this...more like a ward than a hotel! We were pretty happy that we just took a day trip.

Our little rental car. It makes me giggle because, as you can kind of see from the tires, it was a Mercedes. Never thought I'd see Scotty driving one of those!

On our drive home from Dubrovnik to Split, our travel book recommended stopping in Ston, known for....yep, their fortified old city. One more wall to climb! However, we arrived at the beginning of a festival where all of the nearby towns have a parade in their traditional attire. You can see there were costumes as far as the eye could see (the water in front is a salt field, which is the other thing that Ston is known for).