A glorious day! The sky is deep blue and the sun shines brightly (although the chilly wind is still blowing in full force), so it is a perfect day to ride up the coast the 150 km between Split and Zadar. This is a particularly lovely stretch of the Dalmatian coast, with plenty of small vacation hamlets, marinas, and lots of sailboats (all tightly shut for the winter). This reminds me that the island that I visited yesterday is a bicycling paradise, with all sorts of routes around and over the island. The same is true for the coast I am following today; I think they need to invent "The Route of the Adriatic" and compete with the Camino de Santiago or the Florida Keys for "pilgrims".
Kept seeing the remains of tumuli, platforms, and ancient walls (now piles of limestone rubble) scattered all over the hills. I really should read more about Dalmatian archaeology, and normally I would learn that by visiting the local museums. They are good museums, and most of them have entries in both Croatian and English, but I am having difficulties navigating between the different museums because I am on foot, depend on public transportation, and the street signs are not very informative.
Zadar is very beautiful, in both its old and new portions. The commercial part of new Zadar is built around two bays that have been highly modified by extensive keys where a fabulous number of yachts are moored. Ah, to be a millionaire! The many commercial buildings look like corporate headquarters. But I am going to leave the visit to the new city until tomorrow, because today I was busy navigating the old city, which is in an "island" that separates the two bays. It is a fortified city, and for once I booked a room right in the middle of it. I have been spoiled by the fact that over the last few days I have had apartment buildings for my own, but I have to say my blinding white single room is very nice and roomy (and after I struggled with a hidden key switch I managed to get the AC going and warm it up). Once I was settled I went out exploring, got lost between narrow alleys and small plazas, but eventually made it to the east waterfront, which was recently renovated and is as fine a promenade as you could wish. Toward the end of the "island" there is a set of stairs that go down to the water, and a weird "water organ" that creates an unearthly music as the waves lap unto the steps. On the platform behind this "water organ" there is a model of the Solar System, embedded on the step stones of the promenade (but the Sun is way too small), so you can enjoy a bit of space travel as you enjoy the sunset.
But then again, as soon as the Sun sets down the temperature drops like a stone and it was time to hurry back to my warm room.
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