June 14 - Korcula

Korcula's claim to fame is that it is Marco Polo's home town.  

Woke up this morning and decided to hit the old town first and then perhaps head down to a village with a sandy beach and lighthouse.  So we hit the local bakery for some breakfast and found a great pastry that had a flaky pastry rolled like a cinammon roll, with the walnut filling that you would find in povitica.  It was delicious.  Next, we wandered around the old town;  saw the churches, cathedrals and a few towers.  It's a pretty small little area, so it probably only takes about an hour to see the whole thing.  The alleys are different from Dubrovnik, which is set up in a grid, for the most part.  Since Korcula is a semi-circle on a hill, with the cathedral in the center, it is laid out more like a sunflower, with all of the alleys leading to the center.  Kinda fun.  Also not as steep as Dubrovnik, which made it much easier to wander wherever.  We also spent some time in a jewelry shop looking for some beautiful earrings for Braden and Tanner.  Can't wait to see if they like them.

Then a storm rolled in.  Now we felt like home.  Everyone was scattering for shelter.  We just walked right down the middle of the path.  If Jen didn't have on a white shirt, we would have just stayed out in the rain. Instead, we decided to stop by the store and get some groceries for lunch.  Then we headed back to our balcony for a bite to eat. We were glad we hadn't rented a scooter to go ride around the island or hit the beach.  The rain would've likely spoiled the trip.   So instead, we spent the day relaxing around Korcula.

View from our window, close up of old town Korcula

Cool beetle we found on the walk this morning

To the left of our room is the local school.  Had to get a shot of that.

The cannon on the right is pointing to our room.   It's about the third roof/building from the cannon.  Just before the highest building right in the middle of the pic.

Our lunch.  The cheese at the bottom was a Dalmation coast variety of cheese.  Jen loved it.  I couldn't decide between that or the gouda.  Good thing we got both.

Can you see the men playing on the sport court at the school?  Baby soccer, just like in Chile.  

Actual view from our room, no zoom.  Now you can see why we were content to sit on our balcony and have lunch.

Today we were in the right place at the right time often.  We had just walked to the end of the pier when these guys sped by.  We by chance arrived at the bakery tonight to buy tomorrow's breakfast just as they were closing.  We walked through the old town this afternoon just in time to enjoy watching a wedding party and listen to some traditional music being played.  Lucky day for us.

We tried a selfie again.  Made tricky because of some strong wind at the time.  Don't worry, there's a few in the camera with some eyes closed....

Dinner - Four cheese gnocchi and a nice salad with feta cheese.  We shared this and could barely finish.

Found a few more glow worms tonight.  This one was out of the wall and on the ground, so we got a better view of it.

Here's the little guy with some light on him.

So that was our relaxing day in Korcula.  Tomorrow we catch a 6 am catamaran back to the mainland, where we will spend a day in the city of Split.  Home of Diocletian's Palace - a large Roman Palace.  Should be a fun day.