Zadar is the shortest portion of our trip as we are only staying for one night. I squeezed it in as an afterthought when I was planning the trip….and I’m SO glad I did! Zadar is a small, compact, super cool and interesting city. It oozes history and a lot of character. You get into the city via a bridge through an arch in the town walls. The first pic is a view of the bridge from our sweet Airbnb balcony.
We started in the center of Zadar with its Forum. Yes- there is an ancient Roman Forum in downtown Zadar surrounded by the circular St. Donatus’ Church, the Benedictine St. Mary’s Church, and the ancient basilica St. Anastasia’s Cathedral. They sure like their saints in Zadar.
I had been denied access inside St. Mary’s because my shorts were too short (!?!) so it only made sense to visit the Pillar of Shame next.
There is a gorgeous promenade that trails all the way around the city peninsula and makes for a stunning stroll.
As we strolled along the promenade we ambled upon Nikola Basic’s award winning art installation, The Sea Organ. The large marble steps leading into the ocean have been cut to create an organ that makes beautiful, haunting sounds as the sea laps into it. My video really does not do the sound justice.
Right next to The Sea Organ is Basic’s second art piece, Greeting to the Sun. As the title evokes, this piece of work really comes alive at sunset. More on that later!
As we had reached the tip of the peninsula, we turned around and started meandering towards the other side of the town. On our way we came across more churches, a park full of historic looking heads and, of course, a playground.
My favorite part of Zadar was at the other end of the city. Five Wells Square has a cool vibe that invites you to slow down and take in all the cool views.
The Square leads to a funky little park that contains an outdoor bar and lounge with music that the kids (and Wyatt) did the robot dance to.
But the real magic of Zadar lies in the evening time. Unless it’s our weekly Friday night pizza-dance party at friends’ houses, we are religious about bed time for our kids. Zadar was the exception to the rule. Sunset was at 8.13pm that evening, and we took the two littles back down to Greeting to the Sun as an extra special treat. As this is Zadar’s main attraction, it was thronged with people. Wyatt told the kids the lights would only turn on if they jumped on the installation. We watched the sun seep down on the horizon as our kids chased around like maniacs with the hundreds of other kids that had arrived on a bus. It was an awesome evening!
Next up- Split!
Wandering Teacher 