One to print

I've been trawling through my photo library looking for images that are suitable to print. I want them for an exhibition my church photography group will be holding on May Bank Holiday weekend, to coincide with Saltaire's revived and revamped Arts Trail this year. I came across this shot, taken last year in Croatia (in the World Heritage Site of Trogir, to be precise). It's one I'd overlooked at first but some careful work in Lightroom has, I think, brought out the best of it. There's lots of detail there. I think I might get it printed and see how it looks.

Fortress

Another Spiritual Sundays quotation - one of the prayer cards I made for our church Healing Prayer Team.

I took the photo when I was on holiday in Croatia, inside the fortress overlooking Dubrovnik, which was a stronghold of the local resistance during the Balkan wars in the early 1990s.

A yacht to match my outfit

I was sitting in a café on the harbourside in the historic town of Trogir, Croatia (another World Heritage Site) when this yacht berthed alongside. They had clearly sent me the one to match my outfit (blue & white striped shirt that day) but, after some thought, I decided I was having too much fun on the tour, so I told them I'd go back on the bus.

Seriously, I know some of you (like Malyss in the south of France) are used to seeing these ships but I watched in awe... There were more than half a dozen crew, all uniformed - and that was just those involved in mooring the huge thing. How many others were cleaning, making beds, cooking and serving drinks? I waited to see if anyone famous would emerge but no-one did.  I've found out since (hurrah for Google) that it is a charter yacht, the Barents Sea. It costs (from!) £98,000 (€120000; $164000) a week plus expenses to hire it!  Some serious money there....

Anyway, that's next year's holiday sorted...

Pot shot

I hope you don't mind so many holiday photos... The weather here has not been very conducive to photography since I got back and I haven't had much free time to wander either.

I spent a few days in the north of Croatia, near Split, touring round the area and then a few days in Dubrovnik. I saw lots but the downside of such trips is that a fair bit of time is spent travelling - and on a coach you can't just ask for a photo stop! I occasionally took a pot shot out of the window. Croatia is famed for its sunsets out across the Adriatic Sea but this was the nearest I got to one... still, an atmospheric sky.

(Sorry about the intrusive watermark. I have my computer set up to add one automatically now, when I upload pics for my blog, but on this photo it's in the wrong place really.)

Those clever Romans

The lowest level of Diocletian's original Roman palace is very well-preserved, largely due to the fact that over the centuries people threw their rubbish into it! It has been carefully excavated in parts so that the original brickwork with its soaring vaults and arches can be explored and wondered at. I thought it was really stunning. You can easily join a guided tour through these areas and venture into the various temples and the Cathedral, which was originally Diocletian's mausoleum and is now a glorious mixture of orthodox Catholicism and Roman splendour.

The Palace was built of locally made bricks, white limestone and marble from the nearby island of Brac. It was also decorated with items plundered from other historic sites, such as 3500 year old sphinxes from Egypt, of which just three have survived.

Split

Split, in northern Croatia, is an astonishing place and quite rightly designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The old part of the city clusters in and around the Roman Emperor Diocletian's Palace, built in 305BC. After Diocletian's death, the palace lay empty but, being heavily fortified, it was later occupied by the area's local inhabitants as a place of refuge. Over the years the main structures within the walls have been adapted and many more buildings constructed within the fortress.

Compare the photo above with the drawing below. The photo is of the facade which now faces Split's harbour with its wide promenade of pavement cafés, perfect for sipping cappucino and watching the world go by. Originally this was the outer sea wall of the palace. Look closely and you can see how the original Roman arches and columns have gradually been infilled.

I would have loved to spend more time in this city. It's a fascinating mixture of ancient, awe-inspiring architecture (that inspired the architect Robert Adam) and historic sites (like the Peristyle, the Cathedral of St Domnius) coupled with a really vibrant, modern atmosphere - markets, shops, cafés, tourists and locals all mingling delightfully.

Krka National Park

My holiday wasn't (quite) all about wandering ancient walled towns. We also visited the Krka National Park in Croatia - a spectacular gorge with turquoise waterfalls, where the River Krka cascades over travertine (limestone) terraces in a series of rapids and pools. We explored the area around Skradinski buk, where there are wooden walkways above the pools and some interesting old watermills now housing museum exhibits, craft shops and cafés. It was well worth a visit. The lack of warm sunshine meant less sparkle on my photos. On the plus side there weren't so many people around that it felt uncomfortably crowded, which I imagine might be the case in high summer. It's one of those places that would reward an early morning visitor, who might see many more of the birds, beasts and reptiles than were apparent later in the day... frightened into hiding, no doubt, by the day trippers.

Laundry rules

Somehow, even lines of washing take on a certain charm hanging in medieval streets of pretty, weathered houses. In Titus Salt's day in my home village of Saltaire, no-one was allowed to hang out washing at all. If you did you could be evicted from your house. I think there is a similar ruling in Croatia that forbids anyone to hang out lines of multi-coloured washing. I never saw any! They were all most tastefully colour-coded.

Talking of laundry, I can't hang any out at the moment either.... no washing line, as the house is surrounded by scaffolding. The good news is that my 114 year old house has a cosy new roof. It still has the old slates but now sports a waterproof, breathable membrane. Hopefully leaks will become a thing of the past. Hooray!

Music while you walk

One unexpected aspect of exploring both Dubrovnik and the more northerly city of Split in Croatia, was coming across groups of singers and musicians performing. The stone walls and floors and enclosed spaces of the old cities gave wonderful acoustics. I couldn't, of course, understand the words of the traditional Dalmatian songs they were singing but the harmonies they made were spine-tinglingly lovely, even to a deafened person like me. I bought a CD of the traditional klapa music I heard in Split. That music is a capella (without instruments) but this group of young musicians in Dubrovnik were terrific both as singers and instrumentalists.

Sea tales

Dubrovnik's Old Port, cradled by the city walls and guarded against pirates and other enemy invaders by the bulk of St John's Fort, is wonderfully atmospheric. It is protected by two old breakwaters and they say that chains used to be strung across the entrance for extra security. These days the ships going in and out are glass-bottomed tourist boats and small ferries sailing to the nearby islands (like Lokrum in the background, now a nature reserve and botanic garden). In the past it must have been an amazing, noisy, bustling place filled with trading ships and galleons. The port was also where ships were built, in the Arsenal, now a restaurant.

Thankfully there is now another much larger port at the other side of the city and that is where the massive, modern cruise ships dock, those floating palaces. There were two or three moored there most days. You quickly learn to time your visits to the narrow streets of the Old City for before or after the peak for the cruise ships' tours (and - if you're me - you soon feel thankful not to be in a huge group all made to wear the same orange or pink baseball cap!)  I'd far rather be a make-believe pirate on the galleon out there than a passenger on a cruise ship. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

Night and day

Despite the drizzle, I ventured down into the old city of Dubrovnik one evening to savour the atmosphere and try a few experimental photos. I had decided at the last minute not to pack a tripod (too bulky and heavy) so relied on bumping up the ISO and bracing myself wherever possible against a wall or something else solid. The end results are not too bad, though the high ISO does make the images rather grainy. This is the old Bell Tower, now enhanced by a digital display though I'm not quite sure what it says! The bell still chimes and you can see the original patinated bronze 'jacks' (men called Maro and Baro) in the Rector's Palace. The ones in the tower now are replicas. The tower, first constructed in 1444, has been restored and rebuilt many times over the years, notably in 1929 after damage by earthquakes.

Hover your mouse over the picture and you can see a daytime view of more or less the same scene - though it does give the impression that the tower shrinks during the day! Something to do with the angle of the camera and the lens I used I think.

Sun!

Ha, the sun came out - finally - at 2pm on my final day in Dubrovnik. And what a difference it made! The pale limestone and red clay-tiled roofs look lovely against a bright blue sky. This is Dubrovnik's main square, at the eastern end of Stradun, the wide central boulevard that bisects the old walled city. In the centre, Orlando's Column portrays an image of the knight Orlando. Dating back to 1419, it is a symbol of the city's sovereignty and freedom. The Renaissance-Gothic building with the arched colonnade is the Sponza Palace, formerly the customs house and treasury of the Republic, now a museum housing the Dubrovnik State archives.

Holidays!

Hmm... last week probably wasn't the best week to choose to visit the Balkans... London 24ºC and sunny, Dubrovnik 16ºC and rainy! Nevertheless I had an enjoyable holiday, visiting five UNESCO World Heritage Sites in as many days. The jewel in the crown, of course, is the old walled city of Dubrovnik, in Croatia, whose incredible story is made even more poignant by memories of the 'Homeland War'. Little over twenty years ago, in 1991, the city was under siege and heavily bombarded by artillery. The bright new roofs hint at the history, though otherwise the casual observer might never know of the tragedy, so carefully has the city been restored and so brave is its demeanour.

I rode the cable car up to the Imperial Fortress, from where the city can be viewed 'as if on the palm of a hand'.

Expect a few more holiday photos... though it may take me a few days to sort them out. Apologies too for my infrequent visits and comments on other blogs - I will return!