Croatia Day 7 - Spanjola, the Fortress of Hvar

Sadly, this was our last morning on the lovely island of Hvar.  We reluctantly packed our bags and checked out of our room, then began driving around looking for ways to prolong our stay.  We ended up at the castle that overlooks Hvar Town.

It's really more of a fortification than a castle.  Back in the 16th century, it saved the lives of nearly all the townspeople when the Turks attacked, and the site has actually housed fortifications as far back as the 1st millennium BC, when it protected an Illyrian settlement.  The current structure was built between 1282 and 1551, but was abandoned during the 19th century. 

Inside the fortification, there's really not much to see.  There's a room with a collection of amphora (big clay pots) that were salvaged from a shipwreck off the coast of Hvar as well as a section of the prison that's open to visitors, but other than that the main draw is the view of town and the ocean.  Oh, and the big cannons were pretty cool too.

By this point, we were about to get rained on, so we hopped back in the car and drove to the other side of the island to catch the ferry back to the mainland. 

Croatia Day 4 - Ferry Ride and Beach Life

Today marked the beginning of the part of the trip Donovan and I have been looking forward to the most.  We headed out to Hvar, one of Croatia's most beautiful islands, for several days of beach time.  While Hvar is known for being one of the more popular party beaches in the world, we found a lovely hotel that was more secluded and separated from the chaos of town. 

But first, we had to get there.  While I drove the car in circles around a parking lot because there weren't any open spots, Donovan procured us tickets on the car ferry. 

We then commenced to wait two hours until our ferry boarded.

Thankfully we had an excellent view of Diocletian's Palace to entertain us.

For being built in the fourth century, I'd say it's doing pretty well.  It would have been interesting to go inside and have a look around, but we were in a bit of a time crunch and downtown Split is kind of a mad house.  We tried to get out of there as fast as we could. 

The ferry ride took about two hours, and then we were driving through the rolling hills of Hvar.

Hvar Town is a picturesque port town that, as Donovan describes it, has a very "pirate-ish" feel to it.  Maybe it was the style of the buildings, perhaps it was the castle overlooking town.  Whatever it was, there were times when we felt like we should be on a movie set.  But more on that later...for now we're simply checking into our hotel.

If you ever go to Hvar, this is the place to stay.  It was amazing.

Donovan certainly approved.