July 19 Korcula Croatia

 Another first visit. We tendered to this tiny town early in the morning.

The Large Governor's Tower and the Small Governor's Tower. Imaginative naming in the old days.

Revelin Tower and Land Gate.

The main street through town. Not very wide, but fortunately empty this early.

Church of Our Lady, I think.

A side street reeking of commerce

Cathedral of St Mark

St Peter's Church  Mark is apparently the favored saint in this town

Sidewalk cafes on hillside streets require some imaginative furniture.

Outside the city walls, but built up against them are the restaurants and hotels

An attempt at a mathematical clock. Some is very complex (-i^2), others mundane (125/25). But I like the thought.

 

July 18 Split, Croatia

 Another new city == that's why we booked this cruise. Oceania had managed to secure the berth farthest from town, so we had a kilometer walk into town. Split had arranged this spectacle along the way, a recently sunk yacht. Judging from the debris in the water surrounding it, there must have been some sort of explosion. Probably a failure to adequately vent the engine spaces before starting the engines. Or something completely different.

You enter the Diocletian's Palace through the underground chambers

...and go through the Bronze gate (middle back). I think the Church of St Domnius is to the left, and the Palace is to the right.

The Silver gate, for entrance from the east.

Interior buildings

Bell tower of St. Domnius

Side street

Grgur Ninski

Apparently rubbing his big toe brings you good luck.

Street art/water fountain

From the People's Square, a view of the Iron Gate and the Church of Our Lady of the Bell Tower

During all of our wandering around the city of Split I was on the lookout for the special dessert offered here. The jeweler in the gift shops aboard assured me that the Banana Split was created here and widely available. I couldn't find one. I think he was kidding.
 

July 17 Venice Italy

 Venice has a love/hate relationship with tourists. They love the money we bring in, but hate the crowding, noise and litter. I believe they would be happy if we just mailed them the money we were going to spend and then stay away.

In the hate column, even with our small ship (680 guests, 30K tons) we can't dock on Venice island as we used to. We dock over on the mainland. Oceania had arranged a shuttle boat to take us to St. Mark's Square, a ride of about 30 minutes. It could be worse -- some ships dock hours away.

We shuttle to a chaotic public docks slightly east of St. Mark's square. This is a side canal along the way to the square. I guess we could have taken a gondola from here ($$$).

Bridge of Sighs

St. Mark's Square, side view of Basilica

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The tower -- looks just like the one in EPCOT.

Over a basilica doorway

St. Mark's clock tower

We walked through the narrow streets clogged with tourists (just like us) towards the Rialto Bridge. Scenery along the way.

From the Rialto looking north 

From the Rialto looking south. No streets in Venice, so boats do all the work.

The Rialto Bridge

Chiesa di San Salvador, I think

Back to St. Mark's Square, the Doge's Palace

Column of St. Mark, complete with Komodo dragon, I guess. 

Couldn't take anymore fun in Venice so shuttled back where Italian Border Police decided to go through our passports page by page, examining all of the stamps therein. And we have the fat passports because we have traveled to a number of countries since passport issue in 2018. And they did this for everyone, so the line moved VERY SLOWLY.  Should've just mailed them the money.
 

July 16 Koper Slovenia

 Another new city and a new country. This is a tiny city, and will be a short walk to cover most of it.

 Immediately opposite the pier was this futuristic elevator shaft that lifted you about 20 feet up to the level of the old town. A nice feature, and very visible from the boat.

The walk to the center of town is maybe 250 meters over limestone polished by years of people walking over it.

The central square, Titov trg / Plaza Tito. To the right is the Venetian Gothic Loggia Palace, now a restaurant on the ground floor. On the left is a public university in Slovenia.

Main street continuing through the town. It's very narrow in spots. Yet they still have sidewalk cafes along it.

At the southern end of the old city we have Plazza France Preseren and this is the Da Ponte fountain, which mimics a bridge.

Koper is a city of barbershops. In about a half mile of walking from the city center to the southern edge we passed eight barbershops, at least one of which had been open since 7am. The locals must be well groomed.

We stopped at grocery store named Mercator -- I thought they would be selling maps. These stores are tiny compared to US supermarkets -- probably the equivalent of two aisles. One thing they sold that you don't see in the US is shelf-stable milk. No refrigeration. Same thing goes for the eggs.

In a nice little park next to the harbor and marina is this fountain.

And a nice soft concrete hand/chair for you to sit in.

The marina -- your view from the hand.

Tribute to our fallen comrades in WWII, a reminder that this country was part of the USSR.

An old public building near the marina

There was a small beach between the marina and the pier where we were docked. The local library had this "extension" at the beach so you could take a book or return a book here. It's about 6ft high and 8ft long -- more than a tiny library. And the part that I could see was filled with children's books.Very nice.