May, 2018
Old Town Split
We started and finished our bike trip in the town of Split, literally built inside Diocletian's retirement palace. He built his palace in 300AD and when things got dodgy when the Roman Empire collapsed, the locals took shelter in there and never left!
Ready to board!
Diocletian's palace walls that surround the old town of Split. It was quick work building this palace; only 10 years. Pretty good workmanship from something still standing 1,700 years on.
Diocletian was the first Roman emperor to decide to abdicate before being taken out by wars or enemies. Once his palace was finished in 305AD, he retired there to grow cabbages and never looked back, revelling in his cabbages for six years before dying of natural causes, unlike his most of his predecessors and successors who succumbed to the classic career-ending fates of assassination or battles.
Diocletian was pretty confident that things would proceed smoothly when he retired because he had developed perfect Tetrarchy power-sharing system, the rule of four, to stop the constant civil wars over succession. There were two senior emperors with Diocletian in the east and Maximian in the west who each had a junior emperor under them. Constantius was Diocletian junior who stepped up when Doicletian stepped down, eliminating the risk of a vacuum. Sadly, Constantius died in battle a year later and his troops put in his son Constantine as successor instead of Severus, the next in line. Needless to say, everything went downhill from there and it took 20 years for it all to get sorted out, ironically by Constantine, who reunited the empire.
Walking around the old town in Split, ice cream in hand, with one of our wonderful Pedal and Sea Adventures guides, Antonio.
Lovely bottle of local red in a restaurant tucked in the palace walls.
Goodnight from Split.
Marjan Hill
Our last day of the bike riding portion of our Croatian adventure. Lovely bike ride up to Marjan Hill, where the people of Split take refuge from the hustle and bustle of the city.
In case you forgot where we are...
Day six.
You know how when you get off a boat and you feel the ground still moving? Feels kinda like that when I get off the bike!
Afternoon snacks on the boat. Here’s a hot tip...drizzle pecorino with truffle olive oil.