A Day in Hvar - Day 10

A Day in Hvar - Day 10
We took a walk around Hvar to see this city. It is a small town, but the largest on the island. Note that both the town and the island are named Hvar. The derivation is from the Greek name of the town, Pharos, and is actually pronounced in the local dialect as "for". The town was ruled by the Greeks, the Romans, the Venetians, the Hapsburgs, etc, similar to the rest of this area. The architecture is typical in limestone and small narrow streets. We saw an old church of St. Mark, with an old painting of the Last Supper. This is an overwhelmingly Catholic country, and there are lots of churches and shrines. We continues on to the central square, with the Cathedral of St. Stephen.
We got into the bus to go to the old city of the island, Stari Grad, which is Croatian for Old City. This was the original town of the island, but the Venetians moved the main city and port to Hvar on the south for a better view of the Adriatic. Stari Grad lies at the end of a long harbor which made it very well protected. On the north side of the harbor is the old Roman city of Salona, which was destroyed in the 8th century. The newer town was built next to it. The south end of the town is a huge agricultural area.
THe bus trip from Hvar to Stari Grad was via the scenic route over the mountain. Our bus traversed the loop backs to climb and descend the hills, but the road was barely wide enough for traffic. More than once, we had to back up 500' or more to a slightly wider section of the road to let another bus or truck get by.
We came back via the modern road and tunnel for lunch in our hotel. The afternoon was our own.
I chose to climb to the fortress overlooking the town, climbing about 1000 steps (at least it seemed that way) and up the ramp to the fortress itself. This overlooks the city and the harbor with a wonderful view. There was not a lot to see in the fortress itself, but there was a collection of old amphorae from a ship that had sunk in Roman times. There were dungeons which reminded me of Game of Thrones. The original fortress dated to the 1200s, but was destroyed in 1579 when the munitions storage was struck by lightening and blew up. The rebuilt fortress is called Xxx, supposedly because of the Spanish workers or the architect. No one is quite sure, but it is known that the Spanish never ruled here.
We had dinner at a restaurant named Fig. This is not related to the similarly named restaurant in Charleston, but is run by a guy named Jeff from San Diego. Our waitress was named Marta, and we had an uproarious fun time. The other couples we were with (Jeff and Jan, Jim and Harriet, Mike and Billie) were in stitches laughing throughout dinner. Of course, alcohol was involved. We involved an English family at the next table with 3 daughters, one of whom was a sullen 13 year old. We tried to encourage her to smile and eat with her family, but to little avail. Our meal itself was delicious, starting with spicy Margueritas and wine, a fig and feta flat bread, brochettes, and chicken and avocado tacos. The whole meal came to 300 kuna per couple, or $45 with an American sized tip to Marta who was a great sport dealing with us and giving back as much crap as we gave her.

Ann's notes

Our two and a half days on the island of Hvar have been wonderful, with amazing scenery. The island is mainly a tourist island, with the locals, as they are called, principally working in the tourist industry eight to nine months each year, with practically all of the hotels, restaurants and shops closed during the winter months. There are approximately 140,000 olive trees on the island and each local family has their own olive trees and vineyard. Olives are are harvested by hand, with field work being done in the off season.
Apart from olive oil, wine and tomatoes, lavender and herbs, most other food and merchandise is brought onto the island. Families own their homes, with multi generations occupying the same property. Our morning guide Nikol grew up on the island and returned after university to follow her parents into the tourism industry.

I have surprised myself at the amount of walking and hiking I have been able to comfortably do. I hiked to the highest point in Split for spectacular views of the city, and hiked up to the top of Hvar early this morning for more terrific views. I was only slightly concerned this morning on my walk as I was the only one hiking at 7:30am, but I wasn't too concerned because I was sure Steve knew where I had gone. But, when I got back I found out that Steve really had no idea where I had gone. He thought I had taken a walk around the hotel.