Not Capri's Famous Blue Grotto but . .

Wednesday morning, we got moving a little earlier and were at Il Porto (our new favourite hangout) for breakfast – you can’t beat 45 HRK (or about $9) for bacon, eggs, juice, toast and tea.  Next, we headed to the harbour for our 10:30 boat trip to the green and blue caves plus visits to a cove and Palmizana, a beach resort on another island.  The weather was lovely and we set off from the harbour, stopped to pick up 17 more people (from India or at least Indian) from a large hotel just outside the harbour. 

 

Leaving Hvar Harbour

View of our apartment - the lower right building.  You can see our balcony 

Galisnik Island - I think as names are tough here!

Then we sped along for about ½ hour to the first of the two caves we were to visit.  This one was the “Green Cave” and the light from an oculus in the roof of the cave shone a spot on the water that made it all look green.  There was an opportunity to swim here – neither Linda nor I partook but most of the Indian family did and the little girl with them particularly enjoyed it.  Apparently, the local myth is that if you swim through the ray of light coming through the hole, you will live to be 100!  Many of them did just that.

 

Just outside the Green Cave

Inside the cave and you can see the oculus in the roof which shines the beams of light in

 

 

Outside the cave

Next up was the “Blue Cave” which required changing boats.  For an additional 50 HRK ($10) we transferred to a smaller boat, were taken around a point and, ducked our heads to get into this cave.  It was amazing – the cave was lit from the sun reflecting from the outside up through a hole in the rocks.  There was also a natural rock bridge that you could see under the water.  I didn’t get to the Blue Grotto on Capri last year but I cannot believe it would have been more impressive than this! 

 

 

 

Inside the cave looking out

The natural stone bridge under the water

Amazing colours!

 

Some of the other boats in the cave

Our next stop was Stiniva Bay, a small cove which was apparently voted the best beach location in Europe last year.  The narrow entrance to the beach was formed when a cave collapsed.  Some of the rock inside the cove Linda thought looked like sheet music and I totally agreed.  As an aside, the rock formations around here are, not only amazing, but also very similar to the ones around other parts of the Mediterranean like Capri in Italy and La Ciotat in the south of France. 

 

 



Rock formations looking a bit like sheet music

 

 

 

 

 

 

We continued seeing amazing scenery and reached Palmizana, a small resort and beach on the island of Sveti Klement.  We had a 3 hour – too long – stop here for lunch and a beach swim for anyone who wanted to.  Linda and I chose Laganini Fish House for our lunch and it turned out to be a very expensive restaurant.  A restaurant had been recommended to everyone but clearly we went to the wrong one.  The fish dishes were all over $50 with some closer to $100.  I settled for an Italian dessert and a couple of glasses of rose and even just those were $50!  Ridiculous!  We then just hung around the dock listening to the pounding techno-music coming from the restaurant’s beach bar until it was time to get back on the boat and return to Hvar about 20 minutes away.  While we were waiting we noticed the sea urchins on the sea floor.  Toni (the boat driver) picked one so we could take a closer look at it.  I also had chatted with a Brit from Cheltenham while we were waiting.  Croatia seems to be a very popular destination spot for them as we have met many and English accents on the streets are almost more prevalent than local ones.  

Aerial view of Palmizana (from the Internet)

 

"Our boat"

We got back around 5:30 and stopped at Il Porto for dinner.  I had shrimp (scampi in my world) and, while they were good but they didn’t compare to the ones I had yesterday.  We walked back to the apartment and spent the rest of the evening on the balcony.  The sunset in the evening was absolutely stunning!  Wow – what an amazing place!