day five - korcula, croatia

This morning we arrived at the island of Korcula (pronounced Korchula), one of the largest islands in the Adriatic.  The main town, also named Korcula, is on an isthmus on the northeast corner of the island.

We met our guide, Nada, and off we went.  We entered through the Land Gate, which was fortified by a huge tower:

Nada explained that the city was built with air conditioning in mind: the narrow streets are arranged in a herringbone pattern off the main street.  To the north, the streets are curved, to lessen the impact of the bora wind, and to the south, the streets are straight, to allow the passage of the mistral into the city.  This charming street is on the south side, allowing the pleasant winds to blow through town:

Korcula hosts a well-regarded Baroque music festival each year, and today was the last day of concerts.  We saw  a stage being erected in one of the smaller city squares:

The central Romanesque-Gothic Cathedral of St. Mark (Katedrala Sv. Marka), built mainly in the 15th century, is undergoing facade renovations, and was covered with green netting:

I especially loved the choir windows, bright with sunlight:

After our tour of the town, we attended a special performance of the Moreska sword dance, which commemorates the clash between Christians and Moors in the attempt to free a gril kidnapped by the infidels.  Unfortunately, my no-flash pictures did not turn out very well, but we lifted one of the short iron swords and appreciated all the heavy lifting being done by the dancers.

On our way back to the ship, I stopped again at a jewelry vendor I had seen going into the Land Gate.  She had interesting looking pieces, silver in color and heavily embellished.  I asked her if she made them  herself and she said no, she got them  from Turkey.  I decided against buying them,, as I felt they were overpriced.  Later, our traveling friend Rita told me she had seen many more vendors selling similar jewelry pieces.  I was glad I had said no.

As we returned to our tender, we saw the Sea Cloud anchored out near our ship.  We chatted with one of their crew, who said that National Geographic and Lindblad Travel charter the ship together for about 4 months a year.  He was most interested to hear about our experiences with Tauck, as he was from  Connecticut.

We returned to the ship where we were entertained by a traditional Croatian male quartet.  Their a capella voices were beautifully matched, but there was no information given about their songs.  Since they were singing in Croatian and we were listening in English, there was a serious disconnect.  Perhaps on future Tauck voyages, someone will explain the meaning of the songs.