When the alarm blasted our eardrums in the middle of the night – that is, 2.30am – I awoke with a start and it took a few minutes to realise we weren’t in our own bed at home. That is because we’d driven down to Gatwick Airport from Durham the day before, and were now comfortably ensconsed in our room at the Gatwick White House Hotel. 🙂
Yes! This morning we were due to fly out to Split, Croatia, for a seven-night cruise around the Croatian islands. Our Easyjet flight was at 05:50am, hence the very early start, and our taxi would be coming at 03:15am to take us to the North Terminal to check in for our flight.
Regular readers of this blog will know that we spent a fabulous week last year on a land-based tour of Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia, and the Adriatic is a destination we would recommend without hesitation. When we were there last year, we remembered seeing all the pleasure cruisers and chartered yachts, and we decided we’d have to come back to give it a try – so this is exactly what we were going to do. 🙂
We didn’t have any breakfast as we had booked passes into the No.1 Lounge at Gatwick and knew we’d get something to eat then. We just made do with half a cup of coffee each before making our way to the silent, dimly-lit hotel reception and depositing our room key in the box designated for that purpose, before we looked out into the darkness for the approaching headlights that would tell us our RoadRunners taxi had arrived.
The taxi was bang on time and it only took about 10 minutes to get to the terminal. Taking the moving walkway/escalator up one level, we spotted the Easyjet check-in desks immediately in front of us. It didn’t take us long to check in at all and going through security was an absolute breeze; one of the fastest we’d done. It was now time to make our way to the exec lounge and relax in the happy anticipation of our exciting holiday to come. 🙂
We had a wait of about 10 minutes before the No.1 Lounge opened at 04.00am, and a small queue had already started to form. Soon, however, we’d checked in and headed straight for the hot breakfast buffet, where we enjoyed bacon, sausage, egg and beans. As we were now officially on holiday (!!), we washed it down with a Screwdriver (orange juice and vodka). We kept hearing the popping of corks and several people were leaving the bar with flutes full of cold, bubbly prosecco, so we decided to take a leaf out of their book. Looking at my watch, it was 04:27am – was this too early for a glass of fizz? No, of course it wasn’t. 🙂
We enjoyed one glass more each before the departures board advised us that our flight was now boarding at Gate 55E. It was almost sunrise now and we could see our aircraft, a A319, sitting waiting for us on the tarmac, airbridge in position. 🙂
Like many of these ‘no frills’ airlines, Trevor and I had not been allocated seats next to each other; he was in seat 4E while I was three rows back in 7C. It would only be a short flight however, around two hours 40 minutes, and we’d probably doze most of the way after being woken at such an unearthly hour.
We were pushed back after only a few minutes delay, and it was quite a long taxi to the runway. Then the engines gained momentum, the aircraft surged forward, increasing rapidly in speed, and soon we were airborne. Croatia, here we come! 🙂
I spent the time reading, napping and enjoyed a cup of hot coffee as well as another glass of prosecco. Then the “fasten seatbelts” sign was switched on and we heard the words “cabin crew prepare for landing” as we watched the terra firma below us getting closer and closer. Our pilot made a lovely smooth landing and, as we taxiied to the terminal building, I looked outside to see what the weather was like; cloudy and dull, and only 17°C. I had checked the weather forecast for Split before we left home and it was not particularly encouraging; rain and high winds were to be expected in the next few days. We hoped that would turn out not to be the case.
Once we’d proceeded through Arrivals and had our passports stamped, we went to the luggage carousel where it only took a few minutes to pick up our cases. Then we made our way to the exit and looked around for the Mercury Holidays rep. Finding him, we were surprised that there was only another two ladies as well as us; we’d imagined, on a 38-passenger yacht, there would be several passengers on our flight doing the same trip as us. Maybe there’d be people from other holiday companies, and even other nationalities to make it more interesting. 🙂
It only took 10 minutes to get to the pretty little seaside resort of Trogir. Looking at the shabby-chic buildings with the distinctive varied architecture, including the Venetian influence, we could tell straight away we were in Croatia. Soon we spotted all the mega-yachts moored up, and we wondered, with eager anticipation, which one was ours. 🙂
Our taxi driver dropped us off at the quayside, where we could see rows of suitcases lined up ready to be taken on board. A guy with a clipboard waited at a portable podium and we gave him our names. “Ah, you’re on the Solaris” he advised us. “It won’t be ready for a couple of hours, but you can leave your bags here while you go and explore”.
Looking around, we soon spotted the stern of the Solaris, sandwiched between two other yachts. This is a common way of berthing the vessels when shoreside port space is limited; one docks as usual, then the others attach themselves to it. It means you may have to walk through one or two other vessels, stepping across the gap in between them, before you reach your own. 🙂
We decided to have a look around our immediate vicinity, then get some postcards and write them out whilst enjoying a cold beer. We were a bit disappointed in the weather; we had expected blue skies and sunshine, but the sky was overcast with a threat of moisture in the rolling grey cumulo-nimbus clouds and there was a brisk breeze which made it seem colder than it was. Never mind, we were here, on holiday, in a lovely place and we looked forward to what the coming days would bring. 🙂
We wandered around the streets, modern shops and buildings brushing shoulders with the mellow stone of the older architecture. Like many of the places of the Adriatic, the ground was made of smooth, worn stone and I had to be careful, in my flip-flops, not to slip. There were many small boats in the harbour as well as the larger vessels, ferrying their passengers between the many small islands.
We soon spotted a shop selling postcards, and we went in and bought six to send to various people at home. Then we decided to find a bar to write them out, but before that we needed a post office, as the shop didn’t sell stamps. Soon we saw some familiar yellow postboxes outside on the wall of an official-looking building with the word POSTA on the door. It was, by good chance, right opposite an attractive looking little pavement café/bar, so after buying our stamps we took our seats at a table and the smiling proprietor brought us a large, cold beer each. 🙂
We enjoyed it in the bar. People of all nationalities were coming and going and there was an unhurried, laid-back atmosphere. We decided we could use a snack and we ordered a pizza bread starter to share, consisting of freshly made pizza with tomato and melted mozzarella cheese. We washed it down with another drink each; more beer in Trevor’s case while I decided to try the local rosé wine, which was very palatable indeed. 🙂
After we’d finished, we posted our cards then made our way back to the quayside, where we could now board the Solaris! We excitedly made our way up the gangplank, through the vessel to which the Solaris was lashed, and then we set foot on our home for the next seven nights. 🙂
We had been allocated cabin 15, which is on the “promenade deck” on Deck 2 (there are only three decks on Solaris!) We didn’t know quite what we were expecting; we’d imagined a typical yacht-type cabin, with a high-up tiny porthole and nearly all the space being taken up with our bed(s). But this was spacious (for the size of the vessel) and had plenty of daylight; through a glass panel on the door as well as a window, and through a porthole in the bathroom. It looked lovely and comfortable and, after our very early start, it was tempting to crash out straight away, but at the same time we were still eager to explore.
As we were eagerly looking around the vessel, one of the crew came and asked us to go to the salon for the “welcome aboard” drink. While we were there, Solaris started to move out to sea a little, to allow the boat closest to the quayside to move; she then manoevred herself into the vacant position, the lines were made fast and the gangplank put into place. 🙂
Looking around at our fellow passengers, we saw that there were 30 of us altogether; the vast majority appeared to be German or German-speaking. There were only six Brits, and one of the guides came over and welcomed us in English, explained the “dos” and “don’ts” of small-ship cruising (no high heels allowed on board, for example!!!) and let us know what we could expect during our cruise.
The rest of the party were then addressed in German, during which time the bar staff came round and gave us each a shot glass containing a strong spirit called grappa. Apparently it’s a sort of Italian brandy. Whatever it was, it tasted like fire-water! We all raised our glasses and said “cheers” or “prost” depending on what language we were speaking. 🙂
The captain came out and told us we’d be sailing for Split at 2.00pm, so we decided to have a much-needed nap. Before that, however, we decided this was a good time to get some great photos of the Solaris moored up, so that’s exactly what we did.
Back on board, we returned to cabin 15 and settled down for an afternoon sleep; I set the alarm to go off after an hour and a half. We fell asleep quickly; we had Split to look forward to later on… and that’s what I’ll write about in my next blog entry. 🙂