Winter Is Coming - Trogir to Split

​We leave Trogir in a light rain with some steady rain and high winds expected. 

The rain comes as scheduled as does a very strong head wind. Not many pictures were taken on this ride for that reason. There were some torn up roads with mud puddles and heavy equipment, some roads with some heavy traffic as well. 

However, we did have several miles right on the seas edge which was a mixed blessing. It was quite the rush actually getting sprayed by the crashing waves but there was nothing to obstruct the strong head wind.  

When nearing Split, we edged inland to see a large archeological site which spread for many acres.  It’s name was Solin.

Now we were on the city limits and I must say the last few miles to Split were on some of the least bike friendly roads I have ever been on.  Not a bicycle path to speak of and when there was an occasional side walk there was rarely a curb cut to get on and off the eight inch high or so curbs. 

Anyway, we survived and were happy to get to our Airbnb which was inside Diocletian’s palace.   The host was very welcoming and this was one of the best rental apartment experiences we have ever had. It was a small studio but with an amazing view of the palace    The whole front of the apartment was glass and there was also a private terrace with beautiful potted succulents.  Also the owner had a cat who was a frequent visitor to the garden. 

We met up with Al and Diane who had already been in the city for the past three days for drinks on rather deck and exploration of the city.  

The reference in the title to Game of Thrones is because Split is the set for many scenes where Daenerys trained her dragons.  These scenes all took place  within the walls of Diocletian’s palace . This is where the dragon dungeon was.  

Just a few shots around the city. 

We did a hike one day above the city. There was some amazing pedestrian accessible green spaces right adjacent to the city. 

The wildflowers were beautiful. 

We came upon this large statue.  

The statue was erected in 1929 to commemorate the 1000th year anniversary of Bishop Gregory Bin’s brave opposition against the official rulings of the Catholic Church.  Rather than perform mass in Latin as was required, he brought the mass to the people in the Croatian language.  What was interesting is that as people walked by this statue they would rub his enormous toe.  Apparently, this brings you good luck. 

On our final full day in Split, Al and Diane had acquired their rental bikes for our upcoming tour to the islands. We ventured out for a loop ride from the city out into the mountains nearby.  We got about ten miles into the ride and we see Al behind us turning back in a hurry towards Split.  It turns out that the bag on the back of the rental bike had fallen off which contained Al’s passport, wallet and phone. Much panic anxiety ensued which quickly spread to all of us.  Al was the only one in the group who had not shared his location so we were concerned Al and Diane were going to be spending the next few days going to the American embassy in Croatia.  Diane remembered that she had put the find my phone option on her phone to find Al’s phone many years ago.   Al and Jim had raced off retracing our path. Diane sent a dropped pin for where the phone  appeared to be.  Unfortunately, the pin was a bit inaccurate.  Jim tracked the pin to a parking area at which a girl was there.  Jim explained the situation to her that this pin was on that car right there. She says that is my car but she did not seem to be the criminal type. Anyway, Jim stays at the location to keep an eye on the “suspect”.  We have lots of failed communications due to poor signal and the fact that we were all desperately peddling and searching so tensions were rising.  

We finally track the bag to the find my phone location and to our incredible disbelief it is there, intact.  Not only that some kind honest soul had placed the bag on top of a rock wall to get it off the road.  We finally get a hold of Jim who is still at the bad pin location we sent him to.  We are all pretty spent from our pursuit, however, Jim is determined to do the ride we all set out to do so he forges on while the three of us head back to Split. 

Jim enjoyed the ride.  He saw some lovely countryside that we only saw from afar!

Disaster averted and we all are grateful for that unknown Good Samaritan.  

Overall, Split is a wonderful city.  We enjoyed some exceptional meals and exploration.  We will certainly miss our apartment view.