Hvar, Croatia 9/14

 The ship's WiFi  was not working most of the afternoon and evening yesterday, so wasn't able to bring you up to date on our travels. This morning it's back to its normal moderately slow self.

We anchored off Hvar this morning and took a lighter to the pier. The lighters are the ship's lifeboats that are used on a rotating basis as lighters. This provides ongoing maintenance and use of each lifeboat plus it gives the boat operators refresher experience in operating their boats.

Hvar is an island itself with other smaller islands to seaward. It seems to be a popular place to visit so their are larger sailboats and yachts anchored in the available coves and protected areas. Then there are the sightseeing boats that take tourists for a ride around the area, the locals who commute from one island to the other, fishermen and assorted others who make it a busy area for boats.

This is the lighter that brought us ashore. Four of them made round trips all day carrying passengers back and forth to the pier.

Two streets up the hill from the main tourist street was this nice produce market. Again, there was lots of local produce. Iko bought some vine ripened grapes and I bought half a kilo of almonds. The grapes were small but very sweet. The almonds were the usual but more tasty because they cost only about a dollar for a little over a pound. 

More back streets and old buildings.

The old fortress and walls were effective against the Turks, but not so effective against bombs in WWII.

Handmade steps of limestone.

Happened to catch another sunset after dinner.