July 20 Scenes of Novigrad (Day 297)
After breakfast we walked down the hill to town before it got too hot! Our first stop was the church which looked like it had some renovations ongoing.
The church looked modest from the outside, but the big chandelier, spiral staircase and extensive frescoes belied its simplicity! The frescoes around the door with the round window above give the appearance of opulent drapery!
We then started the climb up to the fortification ruins on the hilltop above town.
We had the ‘castle’ ruins to ourselves this morning.
The panorama from the top, looking down on the main town and the harbor which is the tail end of a huge bay penetrating into the Dalmatian coast called the ‘Karinsko more’ or Carina sea.
Another view looks down on the sweep of the bay opening into the Carina sea, in the distance there’s a bridge over the inlet from the Adriatic into the bay.
With the sky clouding over we started our hike down from the heights into town.
In town we visited the ‘Tower Buta’, originally a guard tower at the city’s great gate, which is now a visitor center. Inside was an exhibit of pictures of people from the Novigrad area that emigrated to America in the late 19th century. They sent pictures back from St. Louis, Missouri, Texas and California, the 3 main areas they emigrated to. The docent described a recent visit by descendants of one of those immigrants! Just then the storm gathered force and the wind started blowing. The docent had to get home and suggested we get going too! We hoofed it back up the hill, grateful for the wind and the expectation that the heat wave might break! We made it back to the Airbnb before the rain and small hail storm! We had a nice break for lunch and a nap, then we headed back out for an early evening walk!
The wind quieted down, but it was still hot!
We made it around the bay to the beach and watched the families enjoying a Saturday evening swimming, sunbathing and picnicking. We found the beachside bar and had our first Croatian beers!
Back at the Airbnb we enjoyed watching the sunset from the top floor balcony of our apartment in the house at the head of a little valley looking toward town.