This morning we decided to pull up the anchor and motor over to the inner harbor of Split. This harbor is where all the action is - ferries, gullets (floating hotels), charter boats, sightseeing boats, marina activity, all of it. But is also right where Diocletian's Palace is. So we decided we would check it out up close.

I gotta tell ya Split is pretty cool. They have a huge, waterfront promenade that has a very expansive feel. The Palace used to be right up to the water, but now the promenade buffers it from the water. The promenade has mostly restaurants, bars, gelato shops, and the like. On this particular Friday afternoon Caffe Bar St Riva was banging out some hard-driving modern music (I am not sure what to call it, but it had a hard beat and was good to dance to!). Anyway, as I emerged from the Palace there was a crowd gathered out front. It turns out a bar DJ was pulling people out of the crowd to do some street dancing! Did you see Flashdance? A little break dance. A little robo-man. A little funk. It was all entertainment!! They even had a kid about 8 years old come out and do some break dancing. In the middle of his dance he got his t-shirt off, pulled it in a bunch and ended up doing a no-hands, spinning, head stand on the t-shirt!! The crowd went wild with that one!!

But I digress. Back to the Palace. It was built 295-305 AD by Roman Emperor Diocletian. This was the time when Maximilian was also in power. (I'm not sure how all that worked out, but maybe it was after the empire was broken up into east and west.) Anyway, you enter through the basement, which shows the huge foundation given to the palace. When I think of 'palace', I think of a fancy place where one guy lives with his family and servants. Not so here. This was a mini-town. I am pretty sure not everyone living in the palace served the emperor directly. But this palace served as the economic, religious, and political center of the area.

When we emerged from the basement, we climbed some 1800-year-old marble steps that were rounded from all the foot traffic and emerged into a beautiful marble courtyard with structures of indescribable architecture! We did get pics of these and we'll get them posted as soon as we have good wifi. (That might be awhile - the Croats are pretty protective of their wifi access!!) In any case, these monolithic structures rise so far up in the air, and are so intricately detailed. It is really hard to convey in words - you just have to be there!

We couldn't take any pictures in the cathedral just off the main piazza, but it was amazingly ornate inside and rich with gold leaf, stone carvings, wood carving, and so much intricate detail in everything it was really quite overwhelming. It was interesting that the dome on the cathedral was not decorated at all. It was plain and stood in stark contrast to the lower section.

In this cathedral, the altar was in the middle of the church. Behind the altar was where the choir sang. In front of the cathedral is where the folks stood. (I am not sure of this, but it was such a small space I couldn't imagine building such a beautifully decorated structure so seat 30 people! So it must have been SRO. The priest delivers his sermon from a raised pulpit about 10' in the air with a cupola roof - all of which was ornate to the max. On the floor of the cathedral stood the grave stones of several prominent folk and presumably the corpses are still under the stones.

We checked out Jupiter's temple as well. Jupiter was the god of everything that the Romans borrowed from the Greeks and renamed from Zeus. The rest of the palace is full of buildings of various age. Some are original and some are supported. Others are newer. All the streets are marble and wind around. There are no cars or carts that we saw. The Palace is at the center of Split. It is really quite a remarkable piece of architecture.

The Finn Europeans started today on the heels of the World Masters that ended yesterday. I walked over to the marina and managed to check out the boat owned by the guy who won the Masters yesterday. (I gave him a few pointers on rigging his boat...just in case! ) That was fun - getting close to "the game" again. After that it was back to the boat. That inner harbor just got too rolly this afternoon so we upped anchor and came back to our original anchorage. But before we got there we checked out one of several castles built along the shore. This one was built literally on the water. It looked pretty run down - it was no palace! But you just don't get those scenes anywhere else. I got a good sense of Venetian influence in its architecture.