Croatia's third-largest city is an ancient port town with a turbulent past. The Liburnians, Celts, Romans, Ostrogoths, and Byzantines, just to name a few, attacked and occupied Rijeka (pronounced Reeyaycka) until the Habsburgs' reign began in the 15th century and ended 450 years later. It is often considered the gateway to other Croatian cities. We got into port around 9:00 am and we were not impressed. One fellow said he didn't think he'd even ge...

When we first woke up this morning, it was raining and I thought I had jinxed ourselves by saying how lucky we've been yesterday. But it was only enough to be irritating and stopped after an hour or so and turned out to be a beautiful day. For six centuries Dubrovnik was an independent republic - an oligarchy ruled by patrician families. The Republic was overthrown by Napoleon in 1808. We opted out of organized shore excursions today. We boarded a local bus ...

We arrived at Split, Croatia at 7:00 am. After a shower and breakfast we left the ship to see what Split had to offer. Split (pronounced exactly as it looks) is the second-largest city of Croatia and the largest city of the region of Dalmatia.  It lies on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, and is spread over a central peninsula. Split's greater area includes the neighboring seaside towns as well. Split is one of the oldest cities in the area. Split (Spa...