Croatia part 2: Šipan, Mljet, Korčula
May. 31st, 2026 06:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ilanaramaThis narrative follows on from Croatia part 1.
Early in the morning we left Gruž harbor. I am an early bird (and don't tend to get bad jet lag, since my circadian rhythm gets strongly reset by sunlight) so I was already up and had done my yoga/stretching exercises by the time we pulled away from the dock. (Britt was still snoozing.)
Our first destination was the small island of Šipan, which is administratively part of Dubrovnik, though a few hours away by boat. We landed at the main harbor and rode across the island to the village of Suđurađ, and back, a tremendous journey of...6.7 miles. This was a shake-out tour to see how the bikes fit, and adjust (or swap out) as necessary. Unlike the Italy tour, Britt and I had opted for e-bikes this time, partly because we were both recovering from injuries (I had back issues and Britt had had a knee replacement which had not worked out completely well) and partly because everyone else in the Durango-and-adjacent group had chosen e-bikes. As it turned out, everyone on this tour was using e-bikes (including our guides, Mirta and Srđan) except for a couple from Canada. They managed to keep up, mostly :-)
In Suđurađ we had a little time to explore, which is how Britt and I found Matija, who was selling homemade liqueurs and wine. We bought a bottle of walnut liqueur (Orahovac), which was incredible, and a bottle of wine, which was undrinkable. Then we rode back to the harbor, and Romantica.
We had lunch aboard as we motored toward the island of Mljet, and our "real" ride for the day. From the dock at Pomena we rode first to the small town of Polače, which is named for the ruins of a 1st century Roman fortified villa (or palace, thus "Polače" meaning "palaces").
Then we rode through Mljet National Park, around the lakes which now are connected to the Adriatic and so are saltwater. Lots of hikers and other bikers, unsurprisingly as it's super scenic.
Map of our 22-mile route:
The next morning Romantica motored to the island of Korčula and dropped us and our bikes (and our swimsuits) off at the car ferry terminal for a short-ish ride (about 9.5 miles round trip) to Vela Pržina beach near the town of Lumbarda. The outbound ride climbed about 250', which gave us some great views and also some incentive to go swimming in the chilly Adriatic! (Not near as cold as some Colorado mountain lakes I've been in. But still, cold enough that as soon as I waded back to the beach, rinsed off, and put my clothes back on, I bought a nice hot macchiato from the beachfront bar!)
Our route back stuck to the flats, but it was no less scenic as we pedaled past fields and vineyards and the occasional church. Croatia has lots of churches - this one, Church of the Holy Cross, was actually in the center of a traffic roundabout!
The easy riding got us recovered enough to climb a rather long set of stairs to see another church, the Church of St. Anthony:
The view from the pathway behind the church - so many little islands between Korčula and the mainland!
While we were on our ride, Romantica had moved to the Korčula town dock - or at least was trying to. There were multiple boats coming in at roughly the same time, and only one space for tourist boats, so we had to wait while the first boat tied up, and the second boat rafted to it, and the third boat rafted to that one. Finally Romantica rafted on and we could tromp across the other three boats to go eat lunch! (Fortunately the guides didn't have to pass the bikes across three boats to get them back ton board, as we were staying the night and riding from there the next day. But you'll see photos later of this process on another island...)
After lunch we had time to explore Korčula (town). Like Dubrovnik it's a medieval walled city, though much smaller. It started out as a fortified watchtower, perhaps when Lumbarda was settled by Greeks in the 4th century BCE, and grew into a town. The walls were built beginning in the 13th century, and only some of them still exist, but the town's age is evident in the tiny, narrow, alley-like streets, nearly all of which have stairs, so again like Dubrovnik, very much not ADA compliant :-)
Korčula claims to be the birthplace of Marco Polo; although this doesn't actually seem to be supported by historical evidence, there is nonetheless a "Marco Polo House", a museum about his life. (Yes, he was Venetian; however, Korčula was ruled by Venice off and on between the 10th and 14th century, so according to locals, there is no contradiction!) Another legacy of Venetian rule is the prevalence of Venice's winged lion as an artistic theme in stonework, however, most of these were defaced by Yugoslav and Croatian nationalists in the early 20th century. (The one on Korčula's landward gate survived because it was too high up to reach, I guess!)
The Cathedral of St. Mark (various details):
Dinner in Korčula was on our own; Britt and I went looking for a quiet seafood restaurant and ended up at Adio Mare, where we had a very delicious charcoal-grilled fish (we could have picked it out from the ice case in the front, but we just asked for something of appropriate weight for us to split) in a room with old ship-building tools on the walls, and a window in the floor to the water:
By the time we got back to the boat, a fifth boat had rafted on! Supposedly during the peak tourist season there may be as many as 10 rafted boats, which seems a bit unwieldy to me...
In the morning after breakfast we tromped across the dockward 3 boats and got on our bikes. The first thing we did was head in off the peninsula that the town is on, where we got a nice view of the walls. Then the road turned uphill and we did too - we climbed over 1000' over about 6 miles, but hey, that's why we had e-bikes, right? Also we got some good views.
Then we crossed the spine of the island and headed down the other side to the village of Brna, on a pretty little bay. Britt took another swim; I took a walk instead and bought some snacks at the small grocery store. We didn't have a formal lunch stop on this ride, so salami and cheese and tangerines and cookies had to do.
Our ride continued along the south coast of Korčula and then turned uphill again, where we stopped again at another grocery store in the town of Blato (which inspired many drunkeness jokes) before continuing the rest of the way to Vela Luka, the harbor on Korčula's west end where Romantica was waiting for us. (I am quite proud of myself for figuring out, based on various signs and place names, that "Luka" in Croatian means "harbor".)
Here's the map of our ride from Strava, over 38 miles and a net gain of nearly 2900'! (Also, "Strava" in Croatian means "horror".) (I did not figure this out on my own - I learned it from a DW friend who is alas no longer on DW.)
After we got to the boat to leave our bikes, some of us hiked up a trail behind the harbor to Vela Spila cave ("Vela" in Croatian means "big"; "Spila" in Croatian means "cave"). This is an archaeological site that was inhabited continuously up to the Bronze Age, and it's still being excavated. Unfortunately, there was an admission fee, and we were told that this basically only got us closer to what we could see from the entrance, so we didn't go in. (In other words, it was not all that vela.) However, the view of the harbor from there was really nice!
After the long ride and short hike (it was only a little over 1 mile each way, but a 370' climb!) we were ready for a relaxing evening. The next morning would bring another island, and another ride.
Early in the morning we left Gruž harbor. I am an early bird (and don't tend to get bad jet lag, since my circadian rhythm gets strongly reset by sunlight) so I was already up and had done my yoga/stretching exercises by the time we pulled away from the dock. (Britt was still snoozing.)
Our first destination was the small island of Šipan, which is administratively part of Dubrovnik, though a few hours away by boat. We landed at the main harbor and rode across the island to the village of Suđurađ, and back, a tremendous journey of...6.7 miles. This was a shake-out tour to see how the bikes fit, and adjust (or swap out) as necessary. Unlike the Italy tour, Britt and I had opted for e-bikes this time, partly because we were both recovering from injuries (I had back issues and Britt had had a knee replacement which had not worked out completely well) and partly because everyone else in the Durango-and-adjacent group had chosen e-bikes. As it turned out, everyone on this tour was using e-bikes (including our guides, Mirta and Srđan) except for a couple from Canada. They managed to keep up, mostly :-)
In Suđurađ we had a little time to explore, which is how Britt and I found Matija, who was selling homemade liqueurs and wine. We bought a bottle of walnut liqueur (Orahovac), which was incredible, and a bottle of wine, which was undrinkable. Then we rode back to the harbor, and Romantica.
We had lunch aboard as we motored toward the island of Mljet, and our "real" ride for the day. From the dock at Pomena we rode first to the small town of Polače, which is named for the ruins of a 1st century Roman fortified villa (or palace, thus "Polače" meaning "palaces").
Then we rode through Mljet National Park, around the lakes which now are connected to the Adriatic and so are saltwater. Lots of hikers and other bikers, unsurprisingly as it's super scenic.
Map of our 22-mile route:
The next morning Romantica motored to the island of Korčula and dropped us and our bikes (and our swimsuits) off at the car ferry terminal for a short-ish ride (about 9.5 miles round trip) to Vela Pržina beach near the town of Lumbarda. The outbound ride climbed about 250', which gave us some great views and also some incentive to go swimming in the chilly Adriatic! (Not near as cold as some Colorado mountain lakes I've been in. But still, cold enough that as soon as I waded back to the beach, rinsed off, and put my clothes back on, I bought a nice hot macchiato from the beachfront bar!)
Our route back stuck to the flats, but it was no less scenic as we pedaled past fields and vineyards and the occasional church. Croatia has lots of churches - this one, Church of the Holy Cross, was actually in the center of a traffic roundabout!
The easy riding got us recovered enough to climb a rather long set of stairs to see another church, the Church of St. Anthony:
The view from the pathway behind the church - so many little islands between Korčula and the mainland!
While we were on our ride, Romantica had moved to the Korčula town dock - or at least was trying to. There were multiple boats coming in at roughly the same time, and only one space for tourist boats, so we had to wait while the first boat tied up, and the second boat rafted to it, and the third boat rafted to that one. Finally Romantica rafted on and we could tromp across the other three boats to go eat lunch! (Fortunately the guides didn't have to pass the bikes across three boats to get them back ton board, as we were staying the night and riding from there the next day. But you'll see photos later of this process on another island...)
After lunch we had time to explore Korčula (town). Like Dubrovnik it's a medieval walled city, though much smaller. It started out as a fortified watchtower, perhaps when Lumbarda was settled by Greeks in the 4th century BCE, and grew into a town. The walls were built beginning in the 13th century, and only some of them still exist, but the town's age is evident in the tiny, narrow, alley-like streets, nearly all of which have stairs, so again like Dubrovnik, very much not ADA compliant :-)
Korčula claims to be the birthplace of Marco Polo; although this doesn't actually seem to be supported by historical evidence, there is nonetheless a "Marco Polo House", a museum about his life. (Yes, he was Venetian; however, Korčula was ruled by Venice off and on between the 10th and 14th century, so according to locals, there is no contradiction!) Another legacy of Venetian rule is the prevalence of Venice's winged lion as an artistic theme in stonework, however, most of these were defaced by Yugoslav and Croatian nationalists in the early 20th century. (The one on Korčula's landward gate survived because it was too high up to reach, I guess!)
The Cathedral of St. Mark (various details):
Dinner in Korčula was on our own; Britt and I went looking for a quiet seafood restaurant and ended up at Adio Mare, where we had a very delicious charcoal-grilled fish (we could have picked it out from the ice case in the front, but we just asked for something of appropriate weight for us to split) in a room with old ship-building tools on the walls, and a window in the floor to the water:
By the time we got back to the boat, a fifth boat had rafted on! Supposedly during the peak tourist season there may be as many as 10 rafted boats, which seems a bit unwieldy to me...
In the morning after breakfast we tromped across the dockward 3 boats and got on our bikes. The first thing we did was head in off the peninsula that the town is on, where we got a nice view of the walls. Then the road turned uphill and we did too - we climbed over 1000' over about 6 miles, but hey, that's why we had e-bikes, right? Also we got some good views.
Then we crossed the spine of the island and headed down the other side to the village of Brna, on a pretty little bay. Britt took another swim; I took a walk instead and bought some snacks at the small grocery store. We didn't have a formal lunch stop on this ride, so salami and cheese and tangerines and cookies had to do.
Our ride continued along the south coast of Korčula and then turned uphill again, where we stopped again at another grocery store in the town of Blato (which inspired many drunkeness jokes) before continuing the rest of the way to Vela Luka, the harbor on Korčula's west end where Romantica was waiting for us. (I am quite proud of myself for figuring out, based on various signs and place names, that "Luka" in Croatian means "harbor".)
Here's the map of our ride from Strava, over 38 miles and a net gain of nearly 2900'! (Also, "Strava" in Croatian means "horror".) (I did not figure this out on my own - I learned it from a DW friend who is alas no longer on DW.)
After we got to the boat to leave our bikes, some of us hiked up a trail behind the harbor to Vela Spila cave ("Vela" in Croatian means "big"; "Spila" in Croatian means "cave"). This is an archaeological site that was inhabited continuously up to the Bronze Age, and it's still being excavated. Unfortunately, there was an admission fee, and we were told that this basically only got us closer to what we could see from the entrance, so we didn't go in. (In other words, it was not all that vela.) However, the view of the harbor from there was really nice!
After the long ride and short hike (it was only a little over 1 mile each way, but a 370' climb!) we were ready for a relaxing evening. The next morning would bring another island, and another ride.