We packed a lot into today, so this post is going to be a lot of photos š By the way, I am not cropping or editing any photos – you are just getting a selection from my phone. It takes long enough to pick them, get them to my laptop and reduce their size (they are low res for website)…so I’m not editing too!
Today started with another morning of cruising along the coast and around islands as we made our way south, with the mandatory swim stop in a calm bay. There are pool noodles and inflatables to use, and some keen people will swim to land if we’re allowed to (sometimes the currents are too strong and the captain says to stay near the ship). The crew supervise, but are not allowed to swim themselves – pretty much ever unless they are on shore leave/break.
It was really, really windy in KorÄula – it’s a wind surfing and kite surfing mecca apparently – a channel between the island and the mainland. We came into the town of KorÄula (Kor-chula – on the island of KorÄula) in the afternoon in a large convey of small cruise ships. Overnight there were nine roped together in our row (we were first on dock = Adriatica), and another row of about 7 in front of us. Passengers have to walk through all the ships to get to and from shore. As we progress farther south there are less ports to choose from, so we all end up travelling in a pack (flotilla?). Watching them all rope up together is a fascinating activity – and doesn’t get boring, especially on a windy day.
We had our usual town/city tour – though this time with a local guide rather than our cruise manager (who knows everything, lots of random facts, and he speaks Croatian (native), English, German and Norwegian). KorÄula (the town) is ‘probably’ the birthplace of Marko Polo (though Venice also claims him), and is a beautifully preserved medieval town. Big city walls, and eight towers in different styles, a cathedral and churches – the usual mix of Greek, Roman, Venetian, Italian etc historical influences. There are also still three operating Catholic fraternities (brotherhoods) who preserve the religious traditions and cultural heritage, and do community projects (men only though). Croatia is Catholic country, lots of churches!
I walked up the bell tower of St Mark’s Cathedral, which was an adventure for many reasons. It gives a fantastic view over the town and island, but required climbing up a narrow winding (slippery – polished stone due to do many footsteps over centuries) staircase, and then more narrow stairs and then out onto the top – with people coming up and down the same path keeping it exciting. And it was WINDY. So, so windy, and the whole tower was a wind tunnel inside and outside. We held very tight to our phones/cameras as the wind would have loved to blow them away!
KorÄula also offered a sunset almost over the water, so a group of us wandered along the coast to take some sunset photos. We have mostly had blue skies and sunshine, very lucky!
