After assuming nothing could possibly ever top Dubrovnik, we moved on to Korcula. After which I feel safe to say nothing could possibly ever top Korcula.  Our first meal on arrival in town included the local, Dalmatian gnocchi, which we found to be surprisingly tender and not at all spotty. We walked around the town, a local liqueur-and-all-sorts-of things maker got James drunk, sold him too many bottles to take home and tempted him with “liker od visanja”…to keep this friendly for work we’ll leave you to make your own jokes.

We watched the sunsets from our roof, improvised in the rain by replacing a 10km bike ride with mimosas looking over the sea, travelled to Lumbarda to wander through the vines (of Grk which only grown on this island!! So don’t even bother trying…please!), broke a vase and will be back in Korcula the first chance we get!

From Korcula we caught a ferry to Hvar…though not Hvar. Expecting to land in the old town, where we thought we were staying, we in fact landed in the old town which is the new town and not nearly as old as the very old town (Stari Grad) where in fact we were staying. After an additional bus leg to our destination we arrived in said Old Town, which lived up to its reputation in that it appeared very old. As far as stuff ups go, this was a great one! Stari Grad was a beautiful place, allowed us a change of pace, a stay at a beautiful and quirky hotel (cf. Fawlty Towers, but with Basil looking more like Manuel), day trips to the new old town Hvar to climb to the Fort and get told our lunch was taking so long because the kitchen was very busy (…getting ready for dinner…and we shouldn’t be offended because he actually thought we were American), and to nearby Jelsa where we got to not only tick off an elusive ‘J’ on the Z to A, but sample some of the town’s fine moonshine in a setting which totally made up for the quality of the wine. NB: Although the author had to help his sidekick with her moonshine so may not be a reliable source, but feels satisfied that the $3 for 2 glasses had the desired effect.

Our final stop in Dalmatia was in Split, after a spectacular ferry ride. Unfortunately only for one night, but we had a great tour of Diocletian’s palace focussing on the centuries of architecture styles from Roman through medieval, renaissance, gothic, baroque, WWII adjustments and the more recent hipster movement. We loved the palace, had a great dinner (thanks to the Morgans), finally saw a Dalmatian Dalmation and avoided a Split-ing headache to be ready to get in our first car of the trip and head North!