Admiring the view in Hvar

We have been told the main harbour on Hvar is rather hectic and awash with superyachts, powerboats, fishing boats and boats like ours. As we sail past the main town, what we have heard looks to be right so we head for a small bay, Vella Garska a little further north. We notice a small restaurant at the western end of the bay and many laid lines for visiting yachts to attach themselves which is safer than anchoring in the narrow inlet. We are approached by a friendly guy in a dinghy who offers to help us tie up. When we ask about the cost he replies that it is free, we just have to eat at his restaurant. That suits us as we have not dined out in Croatia yet! The setting is very pretty on the edge of a national park, where deer and wild pigs are protected and a couple of lonely donkeys are enclosed in a pen. Pine trees and bushes of rosemary grow right down to the waters edge on both sides of the inlet. Rosemary is as lush in Croatia as Oregano is in Greece. It's growing everywhere and often used as a border for gardens or veggie patches.
We enjoy our dinner and peaceful anchorage the first evening so much, that we decide to stay a second night and spend the second day looking around the main town of Hvar. There is a 500 metre goats track that leads out from the restaurant, before becoming a sandy track that leads out of the National Park onto the main road to Hvar. So we decide to take the bikes and only have to push them up the goat track before we are able to ride. It is up hill to the old castle on high, overlooking Hvar town and harbour. We take a look around the castle admiring the wonderful views out to the islands to the west. We enjoy the ride downhill into town but are aware that we have a steep climb out on the way back! Hvar is an attractive town, with a busy waterfront-many day tripper boats coming and going out to the islands and many tourists walking around slurping on ice-creams, which seems to be what one does in Croatia. The ice-cream is delicious though! We cycle around the old town and enjoy riding up the narrow alleyways where there are some beautiful old stone residences with bright coloured bouganvelia growing in the gardens. We visit an old catholic cathedral and are noticing how much less decorative the churches in Croatia are (which are mainly Catholic) compared to the Greek Orthodox churches.

Re-fueled with a take-away toasted sandwich which pales into comparison with the Greek Gyros we are off back up the steep hill and over the top and down again back to the boat. Our second restaurant meal is almost as good as the first night, but more expensive as Bern chooses fish for his main course. For some reason fish seems to be the most expensive item on restaurant menus. Maybe the waters here are over fished and fish is a premium item! Pork, as in Greece is one of the cheaper priced meats above sausages! However, the cooks on board enjoy another night off!