Jelsa & Hvar, Croatia

Our first port of call was on the island of Hvar (Ha-var), in a little town called Jelsa (Yel-sah). We had lunch on the boat and then an hour or so of free time in the town. Then we were off to Hvar (the city of) for a tour and more free time.

Jelsa was very quiet, so we bought a little raft and I went swimming at a little beach near the boat. Keith opted to stay dry and enjoy a beer in the shade. At 2:00 we headed to Hvar, a 30 minute drive to the west side of the island. We were a bit surprised, Hvar was not small. The bay was very large and full of cruise ships, charter boats, and pleasure crafts. This also meant there were lots of people everywhere, and did I say how hot it was.

We took the tour with everyone. This castle set high up on the hill and it was only 180 steps to climb up. You could also rent a taxi for $20 to take you up.

There is a group of nine cloistered nuns living in a convent and they make lace from the strands of agave plants.

They take the dead frons as you see here, they soak them for 7 days to make them white and then they weave them into beautiful pieces of art. It was fascinating.

We had shared with our boat mates that we had been touring for almost three months and on this trip, we wanted to do something different, to rest and enjoy the water… and that's what we did.

We finished up the day back in Jelsa to find many more cruise ships had arrived and there were people everywhere. A lot of them were also locals as the kids were all running and playing in the cool of the evening. It was delightful.