Šibenik

We left the water long enough to drive about 20 miles south to the "big city" of Šibenik. On the way we stopped at the bridge over the mouth of the Krka River, where the Adriatic extends miles inland to meet the river in a narrow, brackish gorge.  The bridge has alternating signs allowing bungee jumping, and little memorials and flowers - we decided against jumping...

Šibenik is an ancient port with a nice harbor and narrow, winding canyon-like alleys.  It sounds like this was done so that the buildings would shade each other and the alleys are curved to slow the ever blowing coastal winds. As with most cities of the time it is built on the hillsides surrounding a fort and cathedral.  Most of buildings are limestone block and red clay roofs, and the city is dense and tall, I'm guessing to fit inside the city walls.   Cargo ships can be seen navigating the narrow passages between the islands offshore to reach the port. 

It was still the end of the high season for tourists so the waterfront area still looked like a big swapmeet with vendors selling every kind of souvenir.  For the locals, farmers from throughout the region were selling vegetables at a permanent farmer's market.  It's obviously a good growing region, I've never seen such good produce. 

It's a beautiful place.  Everything has been kept up or restored over the years, and the narrow streets of the old city are too steep and narrow for cars.  If it were larger, you could get lost in the maze of narrow passages and stairways twisting through the tall, close packed stone buildings.  The only down side is the newer parts of town where heavy traffic clogs the narrow streets.  We stayed long enough to see the sights and get some supplies, but quickly headed home to our beloved beach and ocean.

I had mentioned something about liking watermelon, so Zvonka went on a mission to find one on the way home. We visited markets, grocery stores, fruit sellers- I was going to have that watermelon, she's very persistent! We finally found one at a German grocery chain and had our watermelon for lunch.