Day 70 RIP Mark Bishop.

Had some very sad news today my very good friend from Pontarddulais Mark Bishop has sadly passed away. We had a great friendship as kids and as adolescents. I remember often going to his house in Water street for a play after primary school. We sat next to each other on the bus to school in Ystalyfera. He came with us on holiday. Etc etc. a very sad sad day. RIP mate I will always remember you.

Having had a great few days we realized it was pointless hiring a car or a boat so we got experiences and culture in different ways. 

We went for a walk around the harbour and came across individual private little harbors where Luke and I decided to have an impromtue swim. As we headed back to Korcula Anna spotted a cafe for the boys to have pancakes.  Cody has been dying for pancakes for the whole time we have been away and has not been up to his usual big breakfasts.  the cafe overlooked the beautiful harbour so it was a great place to sit and do some watching of life go by.

We decided to go and get our togs and then head to the religious cites around Korcula old town. There are 8 in all as well as the birthplace of one Marko Polo. We climbed To the top of the belfry of the tower which gave an awesome view of the outlying islands and the old town itself.  It was a precarious climb that those scared of heights would have struggled with.  eilian told me that it said no children under 10 allowed to go to the top, but up we went and without paying too.  for some reason the guy just let me go.  ?the stairs were so narrow that it was only half the width of your foot.  and that is one thing I don't have that's big and just my luck it's my feet!!   the boys freaked me out as there were plenty of opportunities for them to fall as when you got to the top it was a wire mesh that you could see to the bottom with gaps at the sides.  At the very top you walked around the stone top and had to squeeze around each corner.  Beautiful views but with the kids jumping around it was short!!

Our street.

Anna and Luke looking down from the top of the belfry

View of Korcula town from the top of the cathedral

Paradise

So many beautiful boats and yachts.  this archipelago is a boat lovers dream!

The fortress at the top of this photo is now a bar to which you have cocktails at night.  That is is you don't have children, so that puts us out.  we did climb to the top to see the sunset, up a steep ladder which you certainly wouldn't want to be coming down after a few too many cocktails!

We did go to the pebbly beach near the cafe mentioned before. We did our bit for the environment and made an attempt to clean up the beach as you can see Cody collected all this Glass.

Cody with his collection come on guys.

Cody about to walk the plank Luke was about to help him.

Our street from the bottom.  lovely traditional street in the heart of Korcula town

Anna and I then had some prawn soup and we have teased the recipe out of the waitress.

Then we went to see the singers and sword dancers. Not much was made of the ensemble of kids and young people from the village they were awesome. The leader on the drums kept the whole thing going.

fantastic singing

The sword dance is only performed in Korcula for the last 400 years.  It is a story about a black King stealing a princess from the White King.  Over a period of 7 dances with the swords, the white King (in red) wins out and gets the princess back.  the boys of course were keen to get a sword afterward.  Pop is making them one so the hopes are high.  

Sunset to round off the day.