Croatia and Dalmatian Coast - August 2021

Throughout our time here in Croatia, we have been sampling the local wines whenever possible. Though we didn't come anywhere close to arriving at a full understanding of the depth and breadth of Croatian wines, we did learn a few things that I want to remember the next time we come here. We all had a general sense that most Croatian wines are not produced at enough volume that we could find them in the United States. We had all heard that the most famous wine that originates from Croatia is Zinfandel. Apart from that, I was not familiar Croatian White Wines (that we tried) . . . . . Posip On our first night in Dubrovnik, we had dinner at the Excelsior Hotel. With our appetizer course, we ordered a Croatian white wine that originated on the island of Korcula -- a place we would visit later in the trip. The grape is called ' Posip ' and though it originated on the island of Korcula , it is now grown all over the Dalmatian region. Throughout our trip we ordered many different

 Here's a map of Croatia to help orient us on where we have been . . . We have been focused on the Dalmatian Coast, which, as you can see above is the southern-most region of Croatia. We started in Dubrovnik and have been gradually making our way to Split, our final destination. Croatia has more than 1,100 islands. Here is a map that is more focused on the Southern Dalmatian Coast from Dubrovnik up to Split: On our way up the coast we have stopped at several fairly large islands including Sipan, Miljet, Korcula, Hvar, and Trogir. But there are hundreds of small islands that we can see from the boat nearly all the time. As we look at the coastline from the boat we can see mountains and shrubs and small forests. The sound of the cicadas are everywhere this time of year. Here is a view of our boat, the Sunliner X from the town of Primosten . We took the speedboat to this small town and did some walking around and shopping. The small island behind the boat looks like so many of the sma

On Thursday morning most of us got up and went for a swim around the boat or a stand-up-paddle.  After breakfast we headed up the coast to the Krka River. The plan for this day was to cruise up the river to the Krka National Park and meet up with a guide there. The guide would take us on about a 2 hour hike up to the waterfalls. This is one of the most popular tourist destinations in all of Dalmatia.  We were lucky to have a gorgeous, sunny and warm day as we cruised gently up the Krka River. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking. We learned that the Krka River is brackish in that it has a mixture of salt water and fresh water. The reason for this is that the ocean tides travel as far as 10 miles up the river. There were portions of the river where we could see oyster and mussel farms along the shore. I have heard that this water is ideal for farming high quality oysters and mussels. Lunch on the Boat Prior to our Hike to the Krka Waterfalls We have been so fortunate to have such g

 On Tuesday morning we had a quick breakfast and headed out for a morning hike in Korcula. Susan and I headed up into the hills above the town and through a small park. It felt great to get some exercise and fresh air to start the day . . . After our hike, we got back to the boat and departed for Hvar . Our Captain calls Hvar 'The St. Tropez of Croatia,' so we were excited to see it.  On the way to Hvar we had some white wine and local Oysters . . .  We arrived in Hvar in the late afternoon and decided to go walk around the town. It was very busy and there were LOTS of other yachts parked in the marina. It really did feel a bit like St. Tropez as there were lots of fancy restaurants and gift shops. The next morning we got up and went for a long walk along the Hvar waterfront.

On Monday morning we left Miljet for Korcula . After a few hours of sailing we arrived at the marina in Korcula and met up with a driver who was to take us to a restaurant about 30 minutes outside of town. The restaurant was called ' Konoba Maha ,' a beautiful place located in the hills above Korcula. The signature dish at this restaurant is a traditional Dalmatian dish called ' Peka .' The dish is cooked in a fireplace under an iron bell and it contains meat and potatoes cooked at the same time, which makes them quite tender. Since it takes a few hours to cook, you must request it hours in advance. Fortunately for us, our captain had done just that, so the dish was ready only about an hour after we arrived. After dinner, we headed back to the boat and called it a night . . . 

 Visit to Miljet, Veliko Jezero Lake and the Benedictine Monastery on St. Mary's Island The next morning, we woke up to beautiful sunshine and spent a few hours swimming, Stand-Up-Paddling and relaxing in the beautiful bay off of the island of Miljet. After breakfast we took the speedboat onto the island of Miljet to the town of Polace, where we had rented bikes to ride around a small lake on the island. This was really a highlight as the weather was perfect and the island is just gorgeous. We took a short boat ride on the tender to the town of  Polace  on the shore of Miljet. The plan for our bike ride was to ride all the way around Veliko Jezero Lake, which was only about 8 miles. After our ride, we took the ferry to St. Mary's Island to visit  The Church and Benedictine Monsastery . The ferry ride was short and beautiful. It turns out that the Monastery is one of the oldest church complexes in the Adriatic. The owner of the bike rental company was really a character -- his n