Split

Friday 16th June

Split

Today began far too early, necessitating a 5.30 alarm. We were collecting our picnic breakfasts at 6.30, and at Zagreb station not long after 7. For such a big town (1 million people) it has a rather small station, and because there are no lifts, you are allowed to walk across the tracks, as at Bled. In this case, because there is also an underpass with lots of steps, there is a gate between the tracks preventing you walking right across, but a man will unlock it for you. Or at least, he will if your Tour Manager explains that she has thirty elderly people with heavy suitcases who will undoubtedly drop dead in the heat if they have to heave the suitcases up and down lots of stairs.

The train from Zagreb to Split is supposed to take 6 hours, but ours took more than 6 and a half. It began by crossing the plain to the south of Zagreb and, as the scenery wasn't all that interesting, I fell asleep.

When I woke up, we were in the mountains and the surroundings were more interesting. The land was wild and often completely empty. We passed many small settlements which seemed to consist entirely of derelict buildings. The soil in many places was obviously poor as it was very rocky and only scrubby bushes grew. You could see that the land had once been worked because it was often divided up by dry stone walls around fields with no crops or animals in them, and empty houses, if there were any at all. The train made many stops at tiny stations where nobody got off or on, and the only person we ever saw was the station master. Goodness knows what had happened to all of the people. Our guide round Zagreb had told us that people no longer wanted to work the land, and preferred to come into the towns, and I suppose this is the result.

A coach collected us to take us to our hotel, and we checked in. Paul went out to find a bus stop for a bus into town while I put my feet up - my feet were very swollen by the journey - and came back to say that the bus stop was a 20 minute walk away up a steep hill. So on balance I decided to take a day of rest and allow my poor swollen feet and ankles time to recover. So we visited the swimming pool instead of going out.

You can see the pool in my photo, in fact my photo shows the view from the balcony of our room. So an afternoon of rest was no hardship!