Fated Roadie (sorry, this one is out of order!)










Jenny and I decided that we would head to Trogir for the day - this combined with a wine tasting at Kairos Vineyards.

The day was fated.

We bought tickets for the bus to Trogir - it was leaving in 10 minutes and we planted ourselves in front of Peron 1 - and waited. The bus didn't appear, so I went to ask about whether it was late - 'no, it left at 10:30, not before not after'. 'Was it invisible' I asked? We were right there, only the bus didn't pull in to the Peron. Of course we had to pay for a new ticket for the next bus...

We jumped into a taxi from the airport to Trogir - 'sure' he said, 'I can take you to the vineyard, call me 10 minutes before you need to go there'. He even called Kairos Vineyard to get directions.

Jenny and I grabbed some fruit, and wandered into the old town. Only momentarily distracted by a dress shop, we stopped to ask a lady (Dijana) about the significance of the markings on the corners of the buildings (there are so many interesting markings on the buildings that we desperately needed a historian or a catholic who could decipher latin), and she explained very nicely that the taller the column detail on the building, the more money the owner had. Clever.


Then what we had imagined were drips from air conditioning units evolved into rain - and thunder and lightening! Everyone scampered and I stayed chatting to Dijana. Turns out we were in the oldest street in Trogir, and beside the building in which I hunkered was the oldest house - 900C with the Venetian 'triple windows'. Architecturally what followed (in the hunker) in 1400 was the 'two window' variation. Fashion huh? So fickle.


We tried to go into the monastery, (closed), one of the other little chapels (closed) gatecrashed a tour, overing with our ears bent to get some details on the beautiful Logia.

Once again I had come out with shoulders exposed so quickly brought a scarf so that we could go into the cathedral (just a little smug when she pointed out my shoulders and I, like a magician pulled the scarf out of my bag). Like eating the lesser loved food before getting to the favourite, we circled the church - first to the chapel for baptisms, then up the stairs to the bell tower, and finally back down through the magnificent doors and then inside. Pretty damn spectacular, but also maybe a little macabre - check out the guy coming from the rose in the ceiling one side chapel!

Satiated, it was time to go to the vineyard - we called the taxi driver, he said someone would be there in the carpark by Konzum, we waited for the taxi drive, didn't arrive. What to do - called the vineyard - no answer... and at that point, hands in the air, a Croatia shrug of the shoulders, we gave up, and dragged ourselves on the bus back to Split. Sadly, there was a shitty email from the vineyard, saying that this was the first time in five years someone hadn't turned up. Sto raditi - :(

Enjoy the black and white photos!







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The End

Image
 This is it folks, the end of the blogging, this is the last one, and it will be brief - because, well the excursion was brief. Following Rocco's advice, I set off this morning at 8 to go to Ostuni - I jumped online to see the best way to do so. You see, to date, I have relied on trains, and there is no train to Ostuni. 'Rome to Rio' (great travel site) said Bus/ Taxi/ Drive. Unfortunately, the information for the buses was scant - and the more I checked it out, the more I could see that there were three bus companies and no particular 'station' as such. I spotted people with suitcases down the hill from the old town here, spoke to them, a bus pulled up, was going to Fasano and the driver indicated that I should get on. He said I could then take the bus to Ostuni. Arrive in Fasano, sprawling large city- someone pointed me in the direction of a link bus to the train station because it seems that there is a train to Ostuni from Fasano (but no train from Locorotondo t
Read more

Rental Car. Part 1. First Destination.

Image
 Early start to the day. And it was raining.  I had arranged to be at Eurocar rental cars to pick up my Mercedes. Yes, that's right people, a Mercedes, I've (sort of) arrived. Was momentarily disappointed when it was silver, but that was quickly overshadowed by the fact that I had no idea how to drive it. Seems that other cars are more sophisticated than mine - even the car rental guy couldn't work out the gears or the GPS - which were really the only components of the car that were of importance to me as I had no idea (in the world) where I needed to go, except that I wanted to see Rocamadour (First Destination). I drove Really Carefully, sticking to the right hand side of the road, not daring to go the speed limit, and arrived early enough in the day to find a carpark, but not early enough to miss the sweltering heat. The temp gauge in the car said 32. Seriously dripping with perspiration, and that was just was climbing down to the village. Rocamadour is a small
Read more

Back in monopoli

Image
 We stayed here last year and I really enjoyed it, smallish old town, good food, bars, meandering little streets and walkways, surprising things behind big doors. I still like it, totally worth a visit. The weather was cooler again this morning, cool enough to send me back into my room to grab a long sleeved shirt, and even then I felt I needed to shelter from the wind.  Basilica Concattedrale di Maria Santissima della Madia is the name of this beautiful church but there are 18 others to choose from, including one which has depictions of death on the door, mummified administrators in the crypt and is a place to go and pray for those in limbo - it's a purgatory church. Today there were three weddings at the Basilica and honestly, we need to up our game in terms of wedding clothes. The prize went to the couple who both were a deep purple - his suit and her dress. Men were mostly in sneakers with their Italian suits, and it was all sparkle and gold for shoes for the women. It was a fe
Read more