Tuesday 24 September

 We wake to pouring rain, thunder and lightning. We have a walking tour at 9 am! Tomas our tour director tells us at breakfast that the rain will clear and we might experience some light rain. Only Ross and I decide to go on the tour. By the time we leave the sun is out and the rain has gone.

Our guide today is full of interesting information. Sibenik was only founded 1000 years ago and was not subjected to invasion by the Ottoman, Romans or Venetians. It is hard to believe that none of those nations discovered the harbour.  Their population was once in the 40000s but the plague devestated the city and it was down to 16000, but has now climbed back up to 35000. Schools have one week of morning teaching and then one week in the afternoon. Similarly workers can choose to work from 6 to 2 or 2 to 10. Lunch is their main meal and dinner is leftovers from lunch and cold cuts of meat and cheese.

The city layout is much like the other places we have visited. With such beautiful places on the water it is no wonder there are so many boats and yachts around.

We enter a square and there is an unusual water fountain. It is a water clock. The water jets on the outside signify the seconds and the longer stream from the middle the hour and the shorter the minutes. It is now quite sunny and getting warm. 

Back on board our tour director Tomas advises us the captain is worried by forecast high winds from tomorrow night. The harbour at Rab where we were to dock is not protected from southerly winds so he has decided to proceed to Rijeka but will stop at Rab for a short tour on the island. 

We are now sailing to Zadar and the temperature is 25 degrees. Zadar is quite a large city and we pass two cruise liners moored at docks just outside the main entrance, one is the Queen Victoria. We have a walking tour from 5 pm and then free time and dining in town. Our guide once again is great, there are many impressive buildings and ancient ruins and of course another city wall! She tells us towards the end of the tour she has a surprise for us. In the meantime she takes us down the Main Street and tells us of a tradition where single men would walk down one side and single women would walk on the opposite, the right side because women are always right. As they passed each other they would check to see if anyone was interesting enough to warrant an approach. Our guide Martina tells us that was how her parents met with her mother giving her father a wink to let him know she was interested. It does not occur as much these days as most hook ups occur over the internet. She also told us that those not single would parade down the centre of the street to show off their new clothes.

We move onto the surprise, which is on the waterfront. There is a large blue circle which looks like solar panels. This represents the sun. Then trailing away is a number of smaller circles, these represent the planets and are placed in relation to their distance from the sun on a similar scale! Also the sun is an array of solar panels which stores the energy and then produces a light show at night. We have another surprise as we walk a little further where hundreds of people are just sitting on the steps staring out over the water. We hear a beautiful humming musical sound. They are a sea organ as in a pipe organ. The tide and waves enter pipes set under the sea to create this amazing sound. There are holes in the ground where the air and sound escape and create the music. It is so peaceful and soothing, no wonder there are so many people there. It is also a great place to watch the sunset. The tour ends here.

We then move on to a restaurant recommended by one of crew onboard - his cousin’s restaurant and he has promised us 15% off. It is a lovely setting in an open air garden. We order three burgers and the girls have three Caesar salads. The girls have broken away for our ordering technique!

After a lovely dinner we head back to the waterfront for the light show and another listen to the sea pipes.

Another guuud day!

Photos to follow.