March 14th, 2026

Today we had our first ship’s tour of this cruise. We have been to Zadar before and done the included walking tour so this time we opted for a drive to one of the many islands that make up Croatia and a tour of a cheese factory.

The island we were driving to is called Pag and is connected to the mainland by a bridge. In the summertime it is very active with lots of vacationers but right now not much is happening.

The drive to Pag was an hour and the landscape is pretty barren. Lots of rocks so hard for anything to grow.

We walked around a coastal town for an hour but not much to see.

After our visit to the town we drove another 30 minutes to the cheese factory. The cheese factory uses sheep’s milk and the sheep are hand milked twice a day by the locals. We had to wear shoe covers, hair covers and a covering over our clothes.

Racks of cheese aging and our cheese sample plate. The cheese was good, not great but good. Of course there was a gift shop on your way out that had olive oil, cheese and wine. We did not buy anything.

When we got back to port we had an hour before all on board and we walked along the waterfront. It was quite windy which made it really chilly.

Zadar has a huge promenade that goes along the waterfront. It also has steps where you can sit. The port has a unique, award-winning sound installation powered by the sea that produces music on the waterfront through pipes built into the promenade.

We had dinner in the world cafe with Linda and Michael.

Our next port is the only port on this itinerary that we have not been to Koper, Slovenia.