It was definitely a 'not happy Jan' morning – see pic. The weather forecast was for not such good weather and referring to the Yahoo weather’s hour by hour description of what the day would bring, it looked spot on – ie rain in the morning (not too heavy), some sun after lunch then thunderstorms and rain later. It turned out to all be true.

So I dressed for the weather and found that my runners, jeans, several layers of tops, coat, scarf and hat were all very useful to start with and then by shedding layers I was comfortable all day. Armed with the marked up map given to us by our hosts with all sorts of scribbles indicating restaurants and roads to take (remember this map, it is a key part of an important quote later in the day), we set off in Alison Astra down the hill into the newer bit of the harbour area, then a lovely drive around the harbour foreshore to park across the bay from the Old Town.

A bit of history - Zadar is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Croatia, the centre of Zadar County and the wider northern Dalmatian region. With a population of 75,000 it is the fifth largest city in Croatia and a historical center of Dalmatia as well as the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Zadar: it has a rich history dating from prehistoric times. Zadar faces the islands of Ugljan and Pašman, from which it is separated by the narrow Zadar Strait. The promontory on which the old city stands used to be separated from the mainland by a deep moat which has since become landfilled. The harbor, to the north-east of the town, is regarded as ‘safe and spacious’ (and from what I saw, full of very, very expensive boats – sailing and other).

Having parked Alison safely in a HKR 3 per hour spot for 4 hours, we made our way across a bridge to the old city promontory (see pic of main gate from this perspective and the streets beyond). The city did not disappoint and having enjoyed Split and Dubrovnik so much we took great delight in exploring the city and its major thoroughfares and seemingly endless side streets. We kicked off our self-directed tour with a walk along Jurja Barakovica across the square flanked by the City Hall and the Palace Chiradini (you will have to look them up, we simply looked and were impressed at this stage) and turned right to head towards the Forum, where the St Donatus’ Church, St Anastasia’s Cathedral and the St Mary’s Church are located, along with a considerable area of Roman foundations / ruins. (see pic of me among several of these buildings – and yes, that is a shopping bag containing my new hand bag (a replacement for one at home which is destined for the bin) – my first indulgence of the trip – other than just being here).

The Church of St Donatus (the one in the pics that looks like a blobb-ish building with a nob on top) was constructed in the 9th century on the northeastern part of the Roman forum. Originally named Church of the Holy Trinity, in the 15th century it was re-dedicated to St. Donatus and is the largest pre-Romanesque building in Croatia.

Enough about churches – we next headed to the very famous and well recommended (thanks to those who did) musical Sea Organ (yes, I know this is unusual but its an accurate description) which is the world’s first musical pipe organs (see pic, there isn’t really much to see but being a windy sort of choppy-sea day there was plenty to hear) that is played by the sea. Simple and elegant steps, carved in white stone, were built on the quayside while underneath there are 35 musically tuned tubes with whistle openings above. The movement of the sea pushes air through, and – depending on the size and speed of the wave – musical chords are played. The waves create random harmonic sounds which we very much enjoyed – it’s a kind of earie experience, a bit like listening (I imagine) a sea creature.

This masterpiece was created by expert Dalmatian stone carvers and architect Nikola Basic in 2005, who recently received the European Prize for Urban Public Space for this project. The space is a popular tourist spot, especially at sunset (which was not going to happen for us given the rain L). In case you are easily impressed ‘Alfred Hitchcock said that the most beautiful sunset in the world can be seen from precisely this spot on the Zadar quay’ (oh well, we missed that one).

Adjacent to the Sea Organ is the ‘Greeting to the Sun’, which consists of three hundred multi-layered glass plates placed on the same level with the stone-paved waterfront in the shape of a 22-meter diameter circle. Under the glass conduction plates there are photo-voltage solar modules through which ‘symbolic communication with nature’ is made (I am not sure about this sentiment), with the aim of communicating with light, just like the Sea Organs do with sound (mmmmmm – not sure about this either).

Simultaneously with the ‘most beautiful sunset in the world" the lighting elements installed in a circle turn on, and, following a particularly programmed scenario, they apparently produce an impressive show of light in the rhythm of the waves and the sounds of the Sea organs.

If those of you who saw it when you were here could perhaps comment that would be great, as I am writing this pre-sunset, with clouds blocking the view of the horizon, so I am unfortunately going to miss this experience. However it is on my list of reasons to return (a list which is growing by the day).

 Next port of call was the very very good Archeological Museum – on 3 levels starting with the early stuff (see pic) which made me feel very mortal, a tiny dot on the continuum of time, the top floor, Antiquita on the 2nd floor covering ‘living civilisation’ and a very nice area on the ground floor used for school groups with appropriate activities. As someone involved with the Schoolhouse Museum in Canberra I am always on the lookout for ideas for our school group visits and I picked some up from here … for another time.

So just very quickly about what I learnt (from my notes and reputable references – which I include because it is unusual to find somewhere that has such a rich history from the ‘beginning of our concept of time – pls skip if you find it boring) – the area of present-day Zadar has been populated since prehistoric times, with the earliest evidence of human life coming from the Late Stone Age, while settlements have been dated as early as the Neolithic. Before the Illyrians, the area was inhabited by an ancient Mediterranean people of a pre-Indo-European culture and who assimilated between the 4th and 2nd millennium BC to become the Liberians. Zadar was a Liberian settlement, laid out in the 9th century BC, built on a small stone islet and embankments where the old city stands and tied to the mainland by a narrow isthmus, which created a natural port in its northern strait.

The Liberians were known as great sailors and merchants, but also had a reputation for piracy. By the 7th century BC, Zadar was an important centre for their trading activities with the Phoenicians, Etruscans, Ancient Greeks and other Mediterranean peoples, with a population of around 2,000. From the 9th to the 6th century there was cultural unity in the Adriatic Sea, with the Liberian’s whose naval supremacy meant both political and economic authority through several centuries.

Skipping now a few hundred years to the middle of the 2nd century BC, when the Romans began to gradually invade the region. By 59 BC it became a Roman colony and there are remains of the Roman Forum in the centre of town.

Key points skipping further forward – Christianity came to Zadar in the 3rd Century, in the Middle Ages it stagnated somewhat and in the 5th and 6th centuries it became poor, many buildings fell into ruin and a major earthquake destroyed a lot. Things picked up a bit then and by the 9th and 10th centuries the city was becoming famous for its trade and growing wealth, was ruled by Venice for a bit, and underwent first independence then invasions through the 1100’s and 1200’s.

But enough history – you must to come here (or use Wiki or another reputable source of history) to find out more. Actually its best that you visit – Croatia is soooo dependent on tourism.

The museum visited, it was time for lunch and we found a very peaceful café for a toasted sandwich (not sure how Croatian that is but it was delicious) and coffee… and very speedy internet which is prolific around the country. This was the fastest connection speed I have experienced – a must for uploading my happy snaps for you.

Then I dashed back to the car to reload the parking fee, then JJ and I had some independent moseying around to check out some more sites (and shops) in depth. I don’t have much more to add to the above from my wanderings other than that I headed to the south end of the peninsula and found the ‘Land Gate’ – it’s a shame the pic is cluttered with the cars, and the University which is housed in buildings on a point which juts out into the sea. The academics and students certainly have an excellent view.

I want to mention a couple of other points related to my time and driving in Croatia. While my driving has gotten us safely our destinations so far, I am still finding it a bit nerve racking (I would to tell you more over red wine with hand gestures) such as getting used to the red-orange-green lights with Croatians taking off on the orange; no traffic lights on the other side of the intersection so craning ones neck to look at the overhead lights is a must; stop signs appear to be advisory only – I am the only one who I have seen stop at one (unless Stop means go faster); ice-cream eating is apparently a national tourist past time and I am determined to go down in Croatian history as a star (see today’s two), which was something I mastered when I was in the Balkans in 2014 and which has lead me to the conclusion that like beer ‘there is no such thing as a bad ice-cream, just that some are better than others’; and the Croatians (as I have mentioned before) drive fast and are not forgiving despite the clear hire car reference on the back of Alison.

After a happy day of wandering we headed back to the car for a nerve wracking drive back to our apartment, not having brought the annoying Gertie Garman with us and we (I) were not entirely sure how to get back to our ‘home’. I mentioned above the marked up map that we had courtesy of our hosts – well somewhere in our meanderings and my hand bag purchase this morning I lost it. I did go back to the Information Centre and get another (the same) map, but obviously it was not marked with restaurants and suggested routes for driving courtesy of our hosts. When we arrived back at the car to return home and were faced with wondering how to do that I was asked by my trusty travelling companion "where is that map you lost" – which I thought was hilarious!

However, all turned out well and after 15 mins of nerve wracking driving (the nerves a result of my multiple driving challenges and no sympathy for my nerves) we pulled into Villa Jelena’s driveway in the right number of pieces (thanks for your map reading and direction confidence JJ)!

The predicted thunderstorm hit about ½ hour after we arrived ‘home’ so after a drink or two (maybe three) we had a bit of a rethink about a venue for dinner and decided that rather than a drive into a busy area, the best option was again the local restaurant just down the hill, so off to Sima we went.

As we did last night we called in to the small local restaurant to stock up on some essential provisions (wine, chocolate and milk for my cornflakes in the morning) …last night we did the same but what I took to be milk was in fact quite runny yoghurt, which did not meet JJ’s criteria for a dash of milk in her cuppa or my requirements for flooding cornflakes – tonights purchase is just fine (but is long life milk – we have found long life milk more common than fresh).

Then to Sima – where we were treated more as regulars than the night before (which was with the ‘less than top customer service’ that we have found in a few places – many stories can be told over wine J), and thoroughly enjoyed our third pizza meal since arriving in Venice (though interspersed with seafood meals as one would expect on the coast) and good, reasonably priced wine (see picsof dinner).

That done, we wandered home and after blogging will head to bed and to try to conjure up some sunshine for tomorrow’s trip to Plitvice Lakes.