Next Stop: Zadar

 When we got up it was still cold and still raining, but the forecast for Zadar still said "low 70's and partly cloudy".  With optimism that we'd drive out of the rain, we headed south.  The scenery was lovely and after leaving the park we began to notice a plethora of little stands along the side of the road, in front of homes.  They were selling cheese and honey.  I finally decided to stop at one and buy my parents some honey.  A mom, her daughter, and her six-month old granddaughter were manning their small booth.  The daughter explained that some stands had sheep's milk cheese, but hers was from cows.  She then let me sample some of the honey options.  Since I'd never heard of "Pine Honey" before I decided to try that one.

We continued on and drove through several tunnels, one of which was over 2 miles long (good thing we weren't playing the hold-your-breath-in-a-tunnel game on that one!).  We made it to Hotel Kolovare with no issues and were once again able to check into our room early.  We stowed our stuff and started walking towards the Old Town.  We passed through the Land Gate and quickly decided gelato was in order. 

From there we wandered along past tons of tourist shops, cafés, and clothing boutiques.  The old Roman Forum, the largest in Croatia caught our interest, and the Church of St. Donatus was there as well.  We paid our 20 kunas to get in and see the inside - although not that much is left of the 9th Century church.  

The architecture of these old stone churches and buildings, the narrow stone pathways - we love it - a feast for the eyes.

We continued on to the water for a visit to the famous sea organ.  We enjoyed the somewhat random, but harmonic, sounds the Zadar Sea Organ on the city's waterfront.  It plays music by way of sea waves and tubes located underneath a set of large marble steps.  By 3:30pm I decided we should get a late lunch (or early dinner, take your pick), so we wandered until we found a spot with food from the Dalmatian Coast that included people watching opportunities.  Skala Restaurant fit the bill perfectly and I enjoyed a tasty Dalmatian stew with gnocchi before we wandered back to our hotel.

We settled in by the pool for a bit, and since it is Sunday I listened to my church service back home on YouTube.  By 6:30pm we decided warmer clothes and a walk along the water were in order.  Too cloudy for an actual sunset, we still immensely enjoyed the views, and got some nice photos of the sun peaking through the clouds as it sunk below the horizon.