The Ham Nomads

16 Apr 2015. <HR> Pula, Istria —

Yesterday we met a lovely Belgian couple who were cycling through Croatia. They were camped up on the rocky beach — full marks to them!

Back into Pula again today, to touch on the places we missed yesterday. First port of call — down the main shopping street towards the market. Pula has a thriving market, part of it under cover, where upstairs you have a number of restaurants, and downstairs the "green fish" market on one side, and the fresh meat market on the other. Outside, a hubbub of local produce stalls, flower stalls, fruit and vegetables, clothing, and the usual knick-knacks you find in markets!

On our way back, we passed a restaurant which had a rather interesting philosophy: "Hungry? We will feed you. Thirsty? We will get you drunk". We also passed a shopping and business centre with a new slant on English spelling!

We then walked back to the Giardini Square, where there is a 1st century BC arch, Slavoluk Sergijevaca (the Arch of the Sergians), dating back to the 1st century BC. This is really the entrance into the old town, so through it we went. By the Arch are the remnants of the old city gate, and parts of the old city wall are evident at Giardini.

We went through the arch, and noticed in a restaurant just through it, a statue of the Irish wroter James Joyce. Apparently he was a regular visitor to Pula and the nearby islands of Brijuni (which we will be visiting tomorrow).

We then took a left turn, down towards the waterfrrnt, where we found the Kapela sv. Marije Formosa (The Chapel of St Maria Formosa). This is just a remnant of a much larger basilica, but Pula suffered serious bombing by the allies during WWII, as it was being used by the Germans as a submarine base. It's amazing that as much remains, but it is sad that the stupidity of Man has destroyed so much of the world's heritage — and that this continues today in Syria and other areas controlled by ISIS!

From here, we walked around to an old Roman mosaic that is on open display. Part of it portrays "The punishment of Dirce". We were rather taken aback at its lack of publicity — when we were at Chetworth near Gloucester, they were so excited at having just found a mosaic that is just a patch on this one, that we were disappointed that the Chetworth crowd didn't have any say in the Pula mosaic! Nevertheless, we appreciated it for what it was.

We then continued up the hill to the Venetian Citadel that now contains the Historical and Maritime Museum of Istria (Povijesni i pomorski muzej Istre). Must comment that Suzie found the stairs up to it quite exhilarating. The fortress was placed on the hill where the Histri had put their hill-fort, the Ronans their Castrum and the feudal lords their Medieval Castle. The Venetian Fortress was still functional into WWII, but today has been turned to more peaceful purposes. In the museum are displays relating to the Baron Gautsch, the first vessel sunk near Istria in the Great War (WWI) in 1914. Divers have retrieved numerous relics from the wreck, and these were on display. Another exhibition was of roller skating, which was apparently all the vogue in Pula in the early 20th century. And there was an Austrian apothecary's shop set up there. Loved the motto on display: In domi parce, in itineribus consume, in morbo non parce — 'Save at home, spend when travelling, but in ill-health don't skimp'. There was also a boat, the Luigi, which was a fishing boat in the region. Luigi participated in the bridge construction action during the People's Liberation War in 1943 on the estuary of the Rover Mirna.

The views from the Citadel are quite spectacular, down across to the Amphitheatre, and across to the wharves.

Then we went down to the 13-14th century Church and Monastery of St Francis. This monastery is still in full use, and when we got there, it seemed to be closed up. We got into conversation with a Canadian couple who had come there, and while we were talking, a friar came up to go in. Warren (who has no Croatian) asked him in Italian "Chiuso o aperto?", and he obligingly took his keys and opened the place up for us all. Inside there was a basket, with a request for a donation of 7 Kuna (about $1.30) from each visitor — we dropped in 10 Kuna each. The cloister inside is justifiably well-renowned. The lower arcade has identical columns all the way round, while in the upper arcade every column is different. We had to chuckle, as there were clothes-lines strung up in the upper cloister — but, after all, these are signs of life, of an active and functioning monastery!

We went into the Gothic presbytery, which is typically Franciscan — almost devoid of decoration. But there is a magnificent altar-piece, a gilt wooden polyptych in Gothic style, given by the Pula congregation to their Blessed Otto of Pula.

From the Franciscan Monastery, we walked around past the Orthodox Church — unfortunately closed — and down past the Archaeological Museum of Istria. This time we decided not to go in, but we did take note of the Twin Gate (Dvojna vrata just outside. As we've commented before, there are a quite a few work projects going on in Croatia right now, before the tourist season gets under way, so there was a bit going on in front of this gate!

From here, we went back to the campsite, past our little bay, for another quiet night.

Distance driven — today, nil; to date, 18,113 miles ( 29,150 km )