Croatia & Other Balkan Travels

Kotor

Montenegro

A short drive south from Dubrovnik is another ancient walled city, Kotor, across the border in Montenegro

This small town on a fjord-like bay is dwarfed by the cruise ships that dock here

The defensive Klis Fortress guarding Split from the mountain pass since 9 AD

Italian Renaissance tower and Roman Temple in Pula

Reconstructed Ottoman Bridge “Stari Most” 1566. The original was destroyed during the war in 1993

Mostar

Bosnia-Herzegovina

I decided not to take a lot of pictures in Mostar because so much of the architecture was still devastated by the war. Each time I was there, usually passing through, I just didn’t have the heart

9th century Church

Nin, Croatia

A bullet and mortar riddled building near a newer restaurant in Mostar. Ruins are everywhere and part of daily life much like in Sarajevo

Split

Outside the palace walls

Split

Croatia

Solana Nin

Sea salt production for 1500 years

Split is a fascinating and beautiful port city on the Adriatic. Roman Emperor Diocletian’s walled palace (305 AD) still thrums with life and tourists while the active industrial port shuffles tankers, cruise ships and ferries. Art galleries, museums, parks and Roman ruins, elegant but decaying art nouveau and deco homes, snuggle against communist-era apartment blocks.

The ancient walled city of Dubrovnik dating back to the 7th century

On the Adriatic Sea

Croatia

More Balkan Travels

Basketball court with an Adriatic view inside the walled city and another seen from the fortified wall.

View from the Park Suma Marjan (3rd century AD)

Inside the Walls

A hike up the fortified wall to the remains of the citadel

A tiny chapel accessible from a window in the wall

Roman Coliseum

Pula, Croatia

Life Guard Chair

Near Pula

Diocletian’s torso

The ruins of the Roman city of Solana

with sarcophagi recently dredged from the river.

While the historic city is usually inundated by tourists, people actually still live inside the walls. Their hanging laundry a testament to the persistence of normal, everyday life for nearly 2 thousand years

Fresh white undies

drying in the Adriatic sunshine