Day 7 - Split, Croatia

427K - 265 Miles

Well I have realized, almost, the potential price for my unwillingness to make advance reservations at hotels. First, though, most of the day was just a great trip, much of it along winding roads, through forested areas dense with foliage, the twisty roads we motorcyclists like so much.

For a change I was out of the hotel and on the road by 9:00am. At first I thought Mr. Garmin was taking me all the way to Zagreb, but he didn't. He finally turned me south through the aforementioned scenery.

There is an old maxim in riding motorcycles that if you can see around it, you can get around it. It's a very meaningful maxim, and I've found it to hold very true. If your speed is too high you won't be able to see around the turn and you are in danger of high siding, truly one of the worst things that can happen on a bike.  So, the message is: keep it slow enough to manage the curves; be able to see around them. Today I had a bunch where I had to go down to first gear, to be slow enough, and have sufficient torque, to climb the next section of the road. And that my friends, means you are in beautiful scenery, in mountains, and not worried about the next F.U.T (Functional Unit Test...though it would be inaccurate to say I've over-worried about such things in the past.). This vacation stuff is pretty good.

The change in scenery and weather patterns was quite different between the start of the ride and the end. I began the day in mountainous rain forrests with all the greenery that conjures to mind. Leaving the A2 at Novo Mesto, I began my circuitous journey through the twisties and turns, surrounded by forest. There were several times when my friend, Mr. Garmin was as confused as I as to where we were, and, I'm not sure, but even, at times, where we were going. It seems, on occasion, when he gets tired, he asks for a re-calibration of the touch screen; sort of like the employee who takes a lot of bathroom breaks.  Well, he asked for re-calibration several times during the day, and, seemingly, when we were both our most confused about the route to be taken. Two-lane country road is one thing, but I was expecting to see gravel and clay at any minute.




Betsy taking a short break during the twistie section between the A2 and the A1

We got down to roads like this toward the end of the journey to the A1 highway.  I expected any moment to see dirt road and pea gravel.  And Betsy don't do no pea gravel if she can help it.  It's like roller-skating on ball bearings.

After negotiating the rain forest roads, we made it back to slab, and the main highway south to Split, the A1. After a series of twists and turns, and a bunch of tunnels, we crossed the mountain range that defined the coast. I immediately thought, " I'm in New Mexico.". The terrain became the arid, desert-like country one associates with the southwest: stunted cedars, high, rocky knolls and table-rocks with bare, granite showing white in the sun. The best word to describe it is arid, amazingly, often prevalent near oceans and seas.




Okay...if that doesn't look like south-central New Mexico I'll eat my hat.










See what I mean about Mr. Garmin's relative accuracy...not to mention believability.
Let's see, they say they are accurate to within less than 10 feet.  I expect it's deeper than 10 feet out
there.








A little blue started showing up.  For real, not on the GPS.  You see, that little green triangle icon is supposed to be me and Betsy...but I know for a fact we were on this highway you see here. 

I think I'm supposed to know the name of that town back there, but I don't.

Okay, we've come to the saga of the potential price to be paid for not making hotel reservations in advance. Upon reaching Split, I found a cafe/bar that had Internet. I clicked up my friends at Orbitz and requested a room in Split. Only two showed up, the least expensive being the Villa Katrina at a modest $178/day. Knowing it's the height of the season here, I okay it and book the room. I then enter the address given incorrectly, finding the same street name in Split, and not realizing the hotel is in another town.

That led to the first of several calamities. It took me over thirty minutes to find the address in Split. They are building roads, cleaning up buildings, etc., all the things governments do to spur economic growth during a significant recession.  I find a hotel at this address, but it isn't the one I'm looking for.  The desk clerk points out to me that the name of the town is Trogir and it's something like 30K from Split.  This despite the fact sheet's information on Orbitz stating it's only 9.5K from Split.  I expect that's true if you have a boat or a helicopter.

So, I change the name of the town on the GPS, Mr. Garmin, saying, "Oh, I know where that is," and off we go, a nice thirty kilometer ride through the heart of the industrial district, in heavy, heavy traffic.  But, it's about 5:00pm, the sun is shining brightly, the bay and the surrounding mountains are beautiful so I lean back (when the traffic moves fast enough) and enjoy it.

The GPS takes me right into Trogir to the bridge crossing over to the island in the picture, then turns me uphill to the right, climbing steadily.  A few turns later I am in a rather depressed housing area with apartment buildings left and right, some industry, but no hotels.  In fact, Mr Garmin appears lost again as he keeps taking me to this big parking lot then to a straight-up gravel road toward what looks like the ghetto area of Trogir.  Before taking that road, I see some young ladies walking by (yes that is the speed we're making at this time) and ask if there is a hotel up there.  They say no, confirming what I thought.

I return to the big parking lot and get out the iPad and call up the last page of the browser, the one that has the hotel data from Orbitz.  On it is a direction comment which says the hotel is actually on the island, located at a place called Okrug Gornji.  The comment says you have to cross the first bridge in the town of Trogir to get to the island, then take the second bridge.  It does not specify a direction after that bridge so logical thinking me assumes the direction is straight, and there will be signs,  and what have you.  Wrong, Gornji-breath.  After the second bridge you must turn either right or left, giving a 50-50 chance to be right, or wrong.  I chose left...I don't know why, perhaps because I'm left handed; perhaps because Mercury was aligned with Venus...I don't know...I just did.  Wrong, again, but it will be an hour before I know that for sure.

First, you have to understand what the traffic is like.  It's a small island, with those quaint little streets designed for one-horse carts, not modern automobiles.  It's also the height of the tourist season and I never saw so many women and children and guys in beachwear, even in Miami Beach.  They are everywhere.  And mostly, they drove to get here.  Traffic is going nowhere.  But, Betsy finally, now out of desperation, gets the hang of this lane-splitting thing that is so prevalent over here, and we get through at about 5-10 mph most of the time.  I look at every sign.  I see nothing.  Finally, about halfway around the island I spot a sign that says, "Okjug Gornji" and points back into the island.  I take it.  It's a great ride on a bike.  More of those twisties Betsy and I like so much; only I'm not in a liking mood at this time, I'm in a I'm-hungry-I-want-a-beer-and-a-hotel-room mood.  But we persevered and got to this town.  Again, with the busy little streets, all layered like Chinese rice fields going up the mountain.  I ride around for another twenty minutes trying to find a sign or something and finally ask for the police station figuring they'd know.  I find the area with the police station, but never see it (and even I know policiajna, or what ever means police).  So I say I have to have a drink and I'll try the internet with my phone so I go into this little restaurant and order a coke while I google up the Hotel Katrina.

The actual hotel site has a better set of directions.  Better in that they tell me to turn right off that bridge, not left, to go around the island to Okjug Gornji.  It then says after seeing the beach in OG (can we call it that now?), near school, turn right.  The hotel will be on the left.  Good luck with that set of directions, too.

So, I finally find the hotel.  After 2 1/2 hours of looking.  I'm hot, tired, sweaty, and my attitude's just not that good.  You know what I mean?  Imagine my surprise when the manager's (it turned out) boyfriend, husband, brother, you just don't know any more, told me he had no reservation for me and the hotel was totally booked.

I immediately brought up the old iPad and showed him the reservation on Orbitz, complete with reservation number.  A few minutes later the manager joined us.  They were quite pleasant, although at first expecting me to just say, "Okay..no room," and just go away, I guess.  They got their "agent" on the phone, the guy who set up the account with Orbitz, and were talking to him.  I explained to all of them that I didn't have a problem, they did.  I pointed out the review with Orbitz was going to look very good when I described turning away a 65-year-old man with no rooms available anywhere on the Dalmation Coast.  The boyfriend-cum-husband, whatever, then made a call.  It seems the place right next door is owned by his uncle and he was able to get me a room there.  Now, this isn't a hotel, but it's some kind of villa they rent rooms in during the high season.  So...I got a room.  No internet.  Towels you could use to sandpaper a church pew for refinishing...but I got a room.  And I stayed there.

Their agent and I didn't hit it off real good on the phone because one of his first responses to me was that, "Well, you didn't book until after 5:00."  I told him I didn't care, I had a confirmed reservation and if he hadn't worked out last minute logistics, it wasn't my problem.  Then I told him his directions in Orbitz sucked shit through a dirty sock.   I think it's safe to say I have an enemy in Croatia now.  It's also safe to say I don't give a ferret's fundament.

But, when it comes time to rate the place for Orbitz, I'll be good.  The place is really beautiful.  Has a great view down to the bay and across.  The people who run it are nice, though their agent draws a vacuum, and they worked to get me a room.  To help them, before I left I jotted down the actual GPS coordinates for the place and told them they should 1) change the directions commentary (i.e., get some help with English), and 2) publish the actual coordinates.  If the customer has a GPS he can't miss them with those.

A word of caution, however: do not, repeat, do not plan to go anywhere in a car.  It is gridlock city in that place during high season.

From the terrace at night

At morning

This was the uncle's terrace.  I was in the room adjacent to the railing. As I said, it was nice, but you were expected to bring your own towels.

The real Villa Katarina.









So...did I learn my lesson and will, in the future, make advance reservations?  In a word, No.   The main reason is I'm not all that sure how far, or even where, I'm going to go in a given day.  I like it like that.  I will concede that I should be able to make them early in the morning, or the night before if I've made up my mind at what place I would like to stay.  Plus, this late booking thing can find you some pretty nice rooms at nice hotels, at some pretty steep discounts.  I got no problem with that either.