We had hoped to catch up with Ian and Jackie on Nova Jean as they headed north and we headed south. Sure enough, they got to Pula and gave a favorable report, so we headed down.

Pula is a massive bay with a large ship building presence. But once you pass beyond the industrial part, you come into a nice large anchorage with a view of an ancient ampitheater smack dab in the middle of town!

The weather wasn’t great, and Ian was kind enough to pop over in his tender to pick us up for sundowners on their boat. We had a great couple of hours catching up before the rain drove us home.

The next day was rain storm after rain storm. We finally made a dash for town late in the afternoon only for my meteorological skills to fail and get poured on mid-dinghy ride. We dried out with a cappuccino in a little cafe and then wandered around town.

Pula has shown signs of inhabitation since a million years ago. But the Romans probably left the biggest architectural mark on the city with the Temple of Augustus (bombed to oblivion in WWII and later rebuilt) and the amphitheater, built in ~45 BC. The arena is in amazing shape and was fun to walk around and under. Capable of seating 23,000 spectators, the arena was the scene of many a gladiator fight.

Maybe bot as exciting, but interesting nonetheless, were the zerostrasse, the tunnels, built during WWI to provide shelter in the event of air raids. On top of those tunnels sits the Kastel, the Austro-Hungarian fortress.