Dalmatia

Our plan was always to spend a week or so at the family house in Dalmatia and unwind. The only problem was after six or seven weeks of travelling, we were worried that a week wouldn't be enough!

I had been to Tucepi before as a fifteen-year-old when we all lived over there for six months back in 1982. The interesting thing for me was going to be how much of it I remembered and how much had changed.

It's a fairly long drive from Venice to Tucepi, so we figured we'd stop somewhere along the way, but thanks to a new motorway that runs inland to only 60km or so from Tucepi, we managed to do the drive in one day. We were pretty lucky that it was mid-week though because the following weekend there were some major traffic problems on the same motorway.

The other reason we didn't want to spend another day on the road is because the house is right on the beach and after visiting all those inland cities and suffering through the heat and humidity we couldn't wait to go for a swim in the beautiful Adriatic Sea.


We stopped just over the border near Rijeka. We just had to do the tourist shot with the Dalamatian islands in the background in the stunning area around Istria.

And here's the magnificent beach at Tucepi. It was some time after 8pm in case you're wondering where all the people are. At the left you can see a set of stairs and right at the top of them (just over the road) is our house.


I just had to put Luka on the pebble beach. He tasted a few, but didn't eat any... that we know of.

Our first swim in the Adriatic. Yes, the water really is that clear.

Here's me and Dad (Dad's on the left). We're sitting at a cafe that is owned by a cousin of ours... actually, most of the cafes are owned by cousins of ours.

This is the view from the cafe. As you can see, it's not much good for surfing.

Luka seemed to like the beach too.

The village by the beach is quite a new settlement. Originally everyone lived up the mountain in a village called Podstup and as you can see it has plenty of Ye Olde Worlde charm.

Sunset on the beach out the front of the house.

My friend Mario and his family have an apartment in a town called Omis (pron. Oh-mish) and we had to go up there for a visit. He took us for a bit of a drive up the mountain for some pretty spectacular views. The statue is of a woman that warned the locals that the Turks were coming.


Omis is an old walled town on the Cetina river. In the good ol' days the local pirates would raid the Venetian vessels going down the coast and then sail back up the river. Pretty clever.

The view from Mirabela, an old fort that overlooks the town.

We left Luka down the bottom as there were quite a few stairs to negotiate up to the fort, so Anna stayed with him. About ten seconds after we left he woke up so she had to entertain him, which wasn't too hard. He loved Mario's boys and always lit up with a huge smile when he saw them.

One of the days we thought we'd take a boat trip out to Korcula (pron. Kor-chew-la), one of the larger islands off the coast. Along the way we passed a number of villages, this particular one is Igrane (pron. Ig-ra-neh) and is where my grandmother on my mum's side was born.

This bloke that looks like a pirate is actually the cook. This is how they lit up the barbie, fantastic!


Luka actually means harbour (or maybe it's port in Croatian), they didn't make this sign up just for our visit.

We went for a bit of a swim as it was a pretty hot day and Sue insisted that we get a gratuitious nudity shot. Hope it means the blog site won't get censored!

Korcula is the name of the city as well as the island. The city is yet another walled city with lots of narrow streets and plenty of steps, just what you need when you're lugging a pram around.

This tourist business is thirsty work, so Luka and I shared yet another beer.

Now we know where Luka gets his hairstyle from!

Our last day on the beach. As you can see the suntan is slightly better and Luka looks right at home in the water. It really is a lovely place and the nice thing is that Sue loved it too. Looks like we'll have to get back there again, but hopefully it won't take 25 years next time!

We left Croatia by ferry from Split, another city with an interesting history including Diocletian's Palace. Diocletian was a Roman emperor and this was his summer retreat. We only had an hour or so before we had to get on the ferry, so it was a lightning tour, some dinner and we were off. Next stop, Tuscany.