We arose in our London hotel at 4:45 am on Friday morning to begin an epic travel day. Took the Underground to Heathrow terminal 1 and arrived well in advance of our 9:00 am flight, so we enjoyed some quiet down time and breakfast.
We then flew to Frankfurt and changed planes - and terminals - to fly to Split. I know Heathrow has a reputation for being sprawling and confusing, but that was totally eclipsed by our experience in the Frankfurt Airport. The planes land and park on the tarmac - you deplane and board a transfer bus to the terminal, which takes quite a long and circuitous route. We alighted in Concourse A needing to go to gate B30. I am not exaggerating to say the walk took at least 20 minutes and involved a second security checkpoint. We were grateful to not have a close connection, luggage or any infirmities!
Everything was smooth and on time, and I had my very first experience actually seeing my name held up on a paper sign for our car transfer to Split (a Dr. Galazkiewicz experience, for those who remember the 1995 Bud Light commercial!). After a 17k ride we arrived at the old walls of the former Diocletian palace, and after some casting about we found our lodgings (I suggest Googling Apartment Salvenzani for some good photos of the place). Our apartment is built into the palace walls and oozes history and charm. Hostess Irina is also charming! Our process of finding her and our lodgings is a whole blog unto itself...
Ok, so I'm not really Mrs. Wheeler - close enough!
We then successfully rendezvoused with 1/2 of our bike traveling reunion pals (Lee and Carolyn Savage of Santa Barbara, CA) and went out for a delicious dinner.
I admit to extreme fatigue from sketchy sleep and awoke this morning at 9:45am. Those who know me well will likely fall off their chairs at that admission! We had coffee and croissants at the local cafe and then did a lot of walking, first up to a wonderful overlook just NW of old Split, and then to a sculpture museum dedicated entirely to the works of Ivan Meštrović. A highlight was the gorgeous terrace cafe at the museum entrance which overlooks the Split harbor area and the Adriatic.
Peter went off to sketch and came flying back to the apartment to let me know that a traditional Croatian acapella singing group was performing very close by and to hurry over! They were fantastic and very reminiscent of the Corsican singing we loved on our 2006 trip there. We bought a CD and I used my iPad to video them - hoping to successfully post that to Facebook if the blog doesn't like videos.
The day was topped off in fine fashion with dinner at Konoba Matejuska - thanks to the wonderful contributors at Trip Advisor we made reservations and had an incredible meal of locally caught fish - our group of 7 (we hooked up with our other two bike pals, Nancy and Bill Hull) ate family style and enjoyed five varieties of fish, appetizers of fried shrimp and smelt, wonderful salad and zucchini plus good white wine and dessert. It was also astoundingly inexpensive, even with a generous tip! What more could anyone want - except biking! Tomorrow starts the tour - shuttle picks us up at 9 am, we are ready to roll!
Let the bike tour begin!
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