Hurray We Have Arrived in Croatia

After some wonderful time in France, great fun in Paris with the Taymacs
Lunch at Musee D'Or

Then onto Le Mans, where we stayed in a picturesque Cottage owned by our friend Annie
So beautiful

After a big last night at La Rochelle, our start to the boat trip was first….a mad dash to Le Mans for Le TGV. (It seemed that we were so slow to get ready) and then poor Annie our fabulous Chauffeur and Hostess, had to drive like the clappers to get us there…it worked, there was plenty of time.
The French are very efficient and it is very easy to find your coach. The TGV’s are very long and you don’t want to be at the wrong end, as happened to us in Amsterdam.

So, you find your coach number on the electronic board, and there you stay.
Sure enough the train pulls up right there. This time it was easy to find room for the luggage and off to CDG Aerogare.
A few hassles with our tickets but sorted reasonably quickly, and we finally got to our aircraft with only just enough time.
Forgot how many people have to pass through immigration and then security…first class, or not…too bad.
Dale, of course, thinks he is special and tries to get to front of queues leaving me to go around the snake. I suppose someone has to do it and it seems to be me. Dale in his haziness had forgotten to empty his water bottle….and there was no receptacle for liquids, so he was getting pretty stressed by the time we found our gate. We made it.
Flight to Zagreb about 1 hour 50, they served a light meal and wine etc. Not too bad. Off and through Customs and change money. Kuna is the currency there is some Euro use but most like the local dolla!
Hey found a white elephant… There is a Diners Club Lounge in Zagreb. I didn’t think anyone used Diners anymore. I was going to take a shot, but by the time I had been to the toilet, changed money etc… my traveling companion was getting grumpier by the minute. Not helped I think by the large amount of wine he had consumed with Brian the previous night (more about that in another post).
So I left that and we went to board.
It was sunny and warm only a 30 minutes fight to Split
and a nice Taxi Driver and finally Domus Maritima, our little hotel in Trogir.
n.b. had my first stinky garlic breath and BO during this trip, but there has been no more thank God.
Laurian and Geoff greeted us. She had organised the accommodation and we are much pleased.

 

Right on the waterfront which is a Marina, 100 metre walk to the bridge and straight into the old town. So pretty. Full of restaurants and bars all in meandering streets, just one charming alley after another, you can see how people got lost in the old days. A Maze.

Trogir across to the Old Town...If you squint it could almost be Gulf Harbour!!!

Our hotel had a lovely Cabana, for the guests to utilize, so we unpacked and joined Geoff & Laurian for a nice cold beer, whilst we set out our plan for the night.

We wandered into town, most places have their menus outside. Same food everywhere. Italian based.
Laurian and I had scampi and the boys Spag Bol., all washed down with House rough red. Even though we were stuffed we drank another bottle of red in the cabana before retiring. I was having mad dreams and woke at 1am took a sleeping pill and slept thru till 7.30.Of course now I have Le Coff and it is driving me and everyone else mad.
Well we may have lost Mr Grumpy as Mary H said “he has smelt the sea and it worked.” Hooray.
He got early and got us a hire car.
We had a nice little breakfast, juice, ham cheese and bread, scrambled eggs, coffee, all for 7E each not bad.
So we drove into Split, like most European cities, great mixture of old and new.
Loved this boadwalk

In this case Split is very old. Charming. The driving was interesting from mon mari…this developed a very front seat, back street driver (moi). It was scary. I gasped and complained a lot as we narrowly escaped hitting parked vehicles on my side of the car in fact the wing mirror did nab one.
Poor G & L, would have been rolling their eyes in wonderment at this nagging slattern, if they were able to keep them open, but I think they were tightly closed from sheer fright. But we made it.
Had lunch, salad, fresh but not brilliant.
Found the VIP Vodafone shop and got me a pre-paid Vodem stick for local use.
So back to Hotel, got the emails, changed, then joined the others for a wine in the Cabana, before dining.
Went to a restaurant that had taken our fancy the night before. Got a sweet little waiter, G always trying the get us a discount. Waiter a little confused but laughing.

Food was good. I had Pizza, D lasagne. L Risotto and G steak and frites. All enjoyed our food. We finally got a freebie, the staff asked if we would move to fit in some other people and recompensed us with Grappa for the boys and some kinda banana liqueur for the ladies.

 After the 2nd Grappa it was home time.

 Ladies went straight to bed. Chaps The Cabana. And it is just as well they did. As they sat there, some pissed men arrived and one was having difficulties…he fell. Old Sir Galahad Geoff went to help and picked him up and helped him onto his boat.
According to Dale the guy was a very pissed German who was obviously gay and was trying to procure G onto the boat, full of other mad, gay, Czech people…this was a dastardly plan to sail off with Geoff. But G escaped and then Dale went to bed.
This is the story I was told by Dale on his very loud return to our room.
In the morning I gathered, that the only true bit , was the German was pissed and fell over and G assisted.
But Geoff did stay up and get ensconced with 2 spies 1 UK and 1 French.
Yeah right!!! They talked till 3am.
Do we really leave these two together for too long?

Saturday morning
Boys unwell - earlyish start, market shopping for girls, and take the baggage to the boat for the boys. We got lots of lovely fruit and vege. Then Supermarche. Interestingly enough Croatia is not part of the EU, so there is not a lot of recognisable products, as you would get in France etc.
Took us a bit of time to buy the goods we needed. We did well.

Back to the boat, the Good Ship Viktoria, had a beer, so hot. Meanwhile the storm clouds were gathering, not to be deterred, the boys were releasing the lines when one of the Charter people came down. “Stop you must not go out. Big storm coming.”
It had been so sunny and hot just 30 minutes previously. So reluctantly
They tied up again. Just in time. It blew big time.
Good news, was it gave us time to find out problems on the boat.
There were a few. Battery rapidly draining. Shore power not working, couldn’t get electric head to flush…couldn’t get oven to work, no matches, just a few things, but fairly important. The Charter people are very helpful unlike “The Moorings” in Tonga and our problems were all fixed. So it was lucky, we could first, have been stuck in major storm and second, with fairly important parts not operating.
So gave us time to catch up with Larry, who with Debbie and Ashley have arrived for their summer sojourn, on their boat kept permanently here, in Split Kastella Marina. It was wine time. Lots of good info from Larry and Debbie
Had steak and vege dinner then bed.
It was really raining hard, we thought we might even be stuck for several days.
Morning came, rain went, sun came out. It’s gorgeous. We shopped for extras that we had forgotten the day before, and back to boat, stowed and off we went. A great 16 knot breeze, eased sheets, gently sailing off to who knows where, wine in hand.
Pretty good, so far By the way Dale has the language sussed.

Thank you - Hvala pronounced Gwala...Dale says Koala, so there ya go. Never have any problems in a strange and foreign land with Dale around