Sunday was a quiet day for us on the ship. We wrote and uploaded pictures in the morning with a lovely view of the city of Hvar from the ship. Most others did rides with intense climbs to spectacular views, or so we are told. Which is what made it so quiet onboard. Of course what goes up must come down, so there were plenty of stories of dramatic descents (a few with burning caliper brakes or warping disk brakes) when they returned. End of quiet time in the lounges. During lunch, the ship sailed to the island of Vis. Again intrepid riders set our for the mountains. We, on the other hand, napped in the afternoon, sun-deck yoga for me, and a typical Croatian dinner in the dining room.
Yesterday, we were off the boat at 7:30 AM with everyone in a tiny town called Primosten. Mandatory group photo, then we set off on our 21 mile ride for the day to the historic city of Trogir. Bill, ever the minimizer, called this ride "flat." This means 863 vertical feet total, a new record for us. Huff, puff. But we made it, ending in the lovely ancient port town of Trogir, a UNESCO World Heritage site. We watched the ship arrive and snuggle in to the tiny harbor (one of many "firsts" for this ship and its Croatian captain), then I took a walking tour of the old city while Joe walked, sat people watching and making friends with a touring couple from Denmark. Bikes and people then piled back on the boat for lunch. During the two and a half hour trip to Split, we rested, and I did yoga again on the top deck. I'm so grateful to the two women who have volunteered to lead those classes most days. It's a glorious way to get my stretching in while gazing at islands, blue sea and cloudless sky.
We got into Split at around 4:30 and were herded off the boat to the waiting tour guides. The old city, built over 2,000 years inside the Roman Emperor Diocletian's palace, is fascinating. We had visited and even stayed in a hotel inside the palace walls when were were here years ago, but it was good to see how the Croatians are upgrading as they build their all-important tourist trade. We ended the evening with a lovely dinner of fresh fish in a restaurant accompanied by our new good friends from Vancouver, Rob and Debra.
As I said in my most recent Facebook post, today (Tuesday) we are staying on board with maybe six other couples, missing a 12-hour day that offers a short ride of 42 miles, a medium choice of 50 and an "epic" choice of 80 miles thorough a national park with spectacular waterfalls, across and/or around two islands connected by two ferries (got to get the timing just right to catch those ferries, or ELSE!). Oh, yeah, and maybe some elevation........like up to 3,000 feet (remember our new record is 863). Some of our fellow stay-backs have used words like, "insane," "chaotic," or "crazy," to describe the day we are choosing to skip. We are just not trained/ready for those kinds of rides, knew this going in and expected to spend some riding days on the boat.
So, REAL TALK: Speaking only for myself (Barb) there is a real anxiety element on this trip. Just thinking about some of those rides (especially after the ride of Agony), brings up something approaching real fear. For me, the jury is still out if I want to try to work on training to be able to do those kind of rides. It will be interesting to see how our normal rides feel when we get home and how it feels when we get back to doing rides with some more challenging climbs. One other element that I'm finding less than idyllic on this particular tour is all the hubbub of getting 100 bikes off and on the boat, 200 people in biking clothes everywhere (visually, those colorful jerseys can get to be just too much for me after awhile), and especially lots and lots of techie bike, riding horror stories and GPS talk, which I find especially annoying while trying to focus on the yoga instructions while (mostly men, I gotta say) stand around on the sun deck right around 12 of us doing our down-dogs, talking loudly about gears and Garmins.
GOOD STUFF: As we keep meeting and talking with more and more people at different meals, of course everyone has an interesting story, and everyone is friendly and open. The ship is absolutely lovely and the crew unfailingly friendly and helpful. Yesterday, after we were all aboard in Trogir, the Captain had a surprise for us. He is from that town and when he was on shore for a coffee ran into a group of his friends who are Klapar (sp?) singers. So the four men in their suits and red cumberbunds came on board and gave us a private 15 minute concert of traditional Croatian music in this style. It reminded me of the best barbershop quartet singers I have heard. Then, later that evening in Split, there was another group in one of the atria of the old palace, singing like that for tourists. Just lovely. And of course, the scenery. Even if we never got off the boat, the Adriatic itself and the islands we pass everywhere are more than worth the price of admission.
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