Split, Croatia Sept. 18 &19, 2018

We left our Plitvice NP accommodation at the 10 AM check out time and drove to Split about three hours away, mostly on the tollway.  Another nice apartment in Split, about a ten minute walk to the historic old part of town and the Dioscecan palace.  The Diocesan palace dates to the 4th century and was the retirement home for the Roman Emperor right before Constantine.  The usual great powerful Roman emperor, who had the palace built in 12 years (fast for the size of the place) at the cost of only about 2000 lives.  The palace has definitely been turned over to the masses now, as there is commerce everywhere within the palace walls now. people even live in small apartments within the palace walls.  We walked around mostly in the evening the first day, so not too bad for crowds..we did venture back in around noon the second day and it was a total zoo, so we headed to the edge of the old city and hiked up to the top of the nearby park (around 540 feet of elevation gain), for some great views of the city and surrounding area.  Had a late afternoon dinner at our place both days, avoiding the hottest part of the day (our apartment was air conditioned) before venturing out in the evening for strolling on the promenade, and getting ice cream at Rick Steves favorite ice cream shop in town (and it was indeed very yummy).  Split is the second most populous city in Croatia after Zagreb, the capital (we're not going there), and is definitely on the tourist circuit, but we enjoyed our time here; although we definitely liked Rovinj and Piran better.

 Tourist hordes at noon in Diosecan palace