Today was yet one more travel day.
We boarded a bus in Trogir for the ride to Split where we would take a ferry to the island of Brac (pronounced "brach").
Our tour guides met us in the morning: Mario (on the left) and Matej (I don't not how to make accents so it's pronounced Ma-tay). Here they are giving us the warm-up ride and safety clinic the next day.
We took a large bus to the ferry in Split and Matej gave us a walking tour of Split on the way to the dock. He is also a certified tour guide.
We saw a castle that had people living in it and shops on the ground floor. Here's the entrance. There are two doors, the logic being that if invaders breeched the first wall, they could pour boiling water or oil on them. This is the inner gateway.
This is the outer entrance.
We got on the ferry, crossed over the Brac and took the VBT van up to our hotel. We unpacked, I walked to the grocery store to get lunch.
We got together at 3:00 for a bike safety clinic and bike fitting. The road bikes were Fuji sportif Le with 105 components. I used my thermal bottle with ice for our warm-up ride.
The ride was a short out-and-back: https://ridewithgps.com/events/28928-vbt-croatia-the-dalmatian-islands#routes/18377416/preview
We did it twice and on the way up, we passed this guy. I stopped, went back and asked him if I could take his picture.
Because it was such a short ride, we took a couple of additional detours. Mike and I went up a road that can only be described as a pathway with a ridged cement surface. It ended with a nice view.
On the return, we saw this old barn.
We did another short detour and Stu never made it to the top. We didn't see him until we got back to the hotel and it turns out his brake hood slipped while he was starting to climb and he went down. Fortunately, he wasn't going very fast but it still drew blood.
At the end of the day, the tour guides rack the bikes on a trailer. I can't decide which of these two pictures I like better. You decide.
Dinner was arranged by VBT at an old restaurant in a private room that used to be a cistern. The atmosphere was great but the room was dark and the hard stone walls made it incredibly difficult to hear.
Here is Matej giving a demonstration of Croatian alcohol. Some of it would put hair on your chest.
One of the dishes was a traditional Croatian dish called peka. It was a large pot with many ingredients and covered with a domed top and then the entire cookware covered with coals. Here is the cook working the embers.
This one was octopus. It was for another group of guests since we didn't have the minimum of four people ordering it. We did have one with meat. I had a taste and it was delicious.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1039519497
Summary: 11.7 miles, 1495' of climbing.
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