On to the Adriatic, Day 7, 8/29/26, Zadar, Croatia

Sunny, Gray Smoky Skies
Hi Temp 91 (again, and just as humid);
Sunrise 6:17, Sunset 7:46

Figured we’d do enough walking today that adding laps on the deck would be superfluous.
So we were up at a more civilized hour and enjoyed a nice breakfast on the back deck at the buffet before meeting our group ashore at 9:30.

On the bus our guide ran the requisite ‘Quiet Vox check’ and we were off on the 75 minute drive to Krka National Park.
Krka is a full scale national park with varied wildlife, historical sites, “ethno presentations”, an archaeological site, and (most popular) a series of water falls created by the buildup of tufa barriers to create lakes, pools, and falls along the course of the Krka River.

Tufa is a type of travertine created when minerals precipitate out of cold water. It is similar to the deposits when minerals precipitate out of hot water – such as in Yellowstone park, but is more porous. It provides an excellent base for mosses to take hold. Our guide said to think of the foam florists use.

We arrived at the bus parking lot and after a comfort stop began our guided tour of the park.
Historically the falls have been used for hydro-electric generartion and grain milling.

After she explained the grain milling process (I’m trying to remember that not everyone knows this.) we proceeded.
She frequently mentioned that they have not had rain since April so the river is running about 3 meters lower than normal. Thus much of what we saw as dry land would normally be covered with water, and water falls.
Still we got some good shots.

Back on the bus we headed to our next stop – Lunch.
It was served in a beautiful ballroom at a nereby hotel. I say ‘beautiful’ because the room was set for a wedding happening later that afternoon. So we were careful not to burble on the white tablecloths. Lunch was a 4 course affair, starting with a meat and cheese plate (that would have been a whole meal, really) and followed by salad, chicken breasts, and apple cake for dessert, all topped off by regional wines. If the walk in the park didn’t put us to sleep the lunch cerainly would have.
But we had one more stop, the town of Skradin. I’m not sure why we stopped there, other than to give us a chance to support the local economy (I’ve realized that giving us an opportunity to leave some money in the places we visit is part of the funding model for these excursions. Interesting.)
Anyway we had a short walking tour of the town and then were given some time to spread the wealth before it was time to get back on the bus and do some serious napping on our way back to Zadar.

We arrived at the port at about 3:50.
On-board time was 4:00.

So we used our few spare minutes to walk a several meters down the shoreline to the Sea Organ.
It’s an architectural sound art installation that turns sea waves into random music.

Here’s a sample of the sound.

Between the organ and our ship is a large round solar panel.

Back on board we headed to the port talk:

We have nothing scheduled for tomorrow, having taken viking seriously when they labeled the National Park visit as “Difficult”, and it will be ‘packing day’ and such, but we wanted to hear what Bruce had to say about the town and the country.

Back in the room we watched the video of Friday’s lecture.

It’s the fascinating story of the crusade that started out OK but ran into trouble when they decided to get Venice involved and ended up sacking (Christian) Constantinople before going home without ever making it to the Holy Land.

The trivia topic tonight was ‘General Information’ and we did reasonably well.

Then it was back to the room to read and blog.
Tomorrow in Koper Slovenia will be a less structured day, though no less busy.
At least we can sleep in (a little).

Till then,
R