Day 9

Day 9 No sunscreen needed☹ We have been so fortunate. Even the first few days we were here it rained but didn’t disrupt anything. Well we wake to the clouds rolling in and they were not alone. Packed and went into Hvar to shop and have breakfast. Ended up at a street side café having a great 2-hour breakfast watching the boats in the harbor bob and jive around and listening to the thunder roll. Thought we caught a little break. Definitive word there being thought. Quick to the bank for Kuna, the local market for a chocolate croissant for me and almonds for Kathie, the market for a Coke and we have lunch on the ferry covered. We have only been in Croatia twice now, ’73 and 2014, and both times witness two amazing lightening and thunderstorms. It would be OK if it stops before we board the ferry to Split. Writing while waiting in the car for the ferry. So much for waiting for the ferry ride to eat the croissant. Hope you get your swim in today Sarah. We sort of got ours in while shopping and didn’t even need to step off the dock to do it. Starting to get a little concerned. Seems a little bit coincidental that two Internet systems I have been on have gone down. Sort of 3-on-a–match kind of stuff. Hope no one is tracking me. I guess we will find out if the system goes down while I am checking on the Oregon game. For the weekend: go Ducks, M’s, and Seahawks. Wish me luck as well. Going out to buy an umbrella if there is one left in Split. Majken just tells me she is following the weather channel and I guess we are having the worst rain in the last 50 years. Great. We did have a great 5 days on the boat.

Hvar is Dubrovnik without the 20,000 tourists, bad wine, mediocre food, ??? waiters, and unfortunately with rain. Made it on the ferry surrounded by trucks, big trucks with trailers this long. Oh that is another bad worn out joke. Made it on the ferry and had a very peaceful crossing to Split. Actually even got a little sleep. Good thing. Needed all our wits about us to do battle with Nuvi over where Villa Diana was. Now Nuvi says go 6.2 K on bla-bla-bla. And we think we are there. So we go round and round the same oval looking to the inside all the time passing the Villa Diana over and over again on the ouside. Sort of Pink Panther-ish. Oh well, all is well that ends well and it did end well. Place is very nice. Would you expect any place Kathie found to be anything but? The rain has continued to hold off so we head out to see the Diocletian Palace. That Diocletian would turn over in his grave if he could see it now. Filled with little stands selling made in China stuff to thousands of tourists form China. Did get a kick out of one souvenir saleswomen telling off a Chinese tourist who was trying to bargain with her. Crappy souvenirs yes. Pushy tourists even more. Put it all together, better in ’73. Back to a nice B&B. Quiet dinner and a good night’s sleep. Worried about the rain and going to Plitvicka National Park. Part of it is closed because of the rain but we will go anyway. Correct decision, but more on that tomorrow. New mantra: if you continue to worry about yesterday, tomorrow will never come. Where the H…. did that come from? Maybe the 1/2liter of house red w