Hvar

Hvar habour

The statue of Ivan Vucetic and the fingerprint mosaic.

St Stephen's Cathedral and...

part of the ceiling inside.

15th century Franciscan Monastery

The Last Supper painting inside the monastery.

The Renaissance era cloister.

A beautiful side street.

Local kids performing at the St Stephen's festival.

We climbed up to the Venetian fort above the town.

The interior of the fort.

The view of Hvar from the fort.

Sandra, Phil, Lorraine and Terry.

We had fun pushing Shayna.

Cool, but a great pool.

The night entertainment and the fort up above.

 Tuesday, October 2nd.

This morning we had a local guide, Diane, for a walking tour through narrow streets to the 15th century Franciscan Monastery which housed a beautiful large painting of the last supper with Jesus and his disciples as Judah was about to betray him. Diane walked us through the narrow streets of town explaining the origin and significance of many of the buildings. We also visited St Stephen's Cathedral on the main square and saw many beautiful paintings within.

We had a group lunch at a little restaurant nestled in the middle of the town on a quiet narrow street. There was a pomegranate tree there. The afternoon was free for us to explore. A group of us hiked up the staircase and winding path 100 metres to the massive Venetian castle that overlooks and protects the harbour. Hvar was an important port for centuries situated along important trade routes. It changed hands many times with the coming and going of different empires and nations. Then we walked back down and around the harbour again and continued around the headland to a pebble beach where we saw a few people swimming in the rough water. From there it was a steep climb back up to our hotel. Although the weather had cooled I went for a quick swim because I couldn’t resist the beautiful, cool hotel pool.

At 6 Terry and Lorraine, Reg and Brenda, Phil and Sanda and Shanya and I walked back down to and around the harbour well past the Monastery to a little restaurant where we had a light meal and drinks. The four women sat at one end of the table and drank water with their meal and the four men at the other end and had a couple of beer. The conversations were very lively as we know each other well by now and have fun. The usual ugly topic of tipping the guide came up with all of the complaints and comments I have heard on every tour I’ve been on. But eventually the women got into several hilarious conversations and one would have thought they were the ones drinking and they were loud and laughing uncontrollably. Altogether a very enjoyable night to end an excellent day.