Trogir: Not Just Another Croatian Robot’s Name

Trogir is another UNESCO site – a tiny walled city with many Reformation and Renaissance buildings. What made it my favorite place of our entire visit to Croatia was our great location in Seget- a two km bike or water taxi into the town. Our campsite was cozy and well appointed with a terrific swimming beach, well equipped store open from 7 am to 9 pm, charming nearby town and so much more. On another trip, I would likely skip Istria and Kvarner – both of which we enjoyed- fly into Zagreb, speed to the Coast at Zadar and spend the bulk of my time in Dalmatia before visiting Dubrovnik, which we could not fit in this time around. The water is warmer, the islands lovely and oh- so- plentiful, and we have enjoyed this area the most.

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Kornati Islands National Park

Splashed out on excursion package out to these islands. Beautiful, but a really long day. We did this out of Zadar but later, looking at the map, there were closer jumping off points like Murter island or even here in Trogir. We swam in the amazing lagoon you see below, then hiked up the hill to get these photos before retiring to a tree-shaded Konoba (tavern.)

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Zadar is Spectacular

Third night in this lovely Dalmation city where the entire old town is pedestrianized and there are giant interactive public sculptures like the world’s only Sea Organ and the all night light show of the Sun Salutation. Other delights to be sampled include the Roman ruins sprinkled about. And the free wifi zone in the city centre. Not that it is doing me much good since my email is so finicky… First I could receive but not send. Now I’m not able to do either. Facebook and WordPress apps work great though. So if you are wondering about not hearing directly from us in a while – try us on Facebook. C’mon, Mom! Accept me as a friend already!

Here’s Zadar…

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Plitvice Lakes

Boorish tourists or clever wags? My crew had a hard time remembering the name of this National Park – an astonishingly beautiful UNESCO world heritage site. So they referred to them as Netflix Lakes. Didn’t stop them from appreciating the splendor. We tried to arrive early and managed to arrive early-ish. We found it a bit overrun but still very glad we detoured inland to see this. Apparently in August it is wall to wall and if you were thinking of going then, you might be better to just look at these pictures.

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Cres town

Planned to visit the island joined to Cres – Mali Losinj – but the narrow winding roads dampened our enthusiasm so when we left Beli, we went to Cres town. This is meant to be much quieter than the large town further south. We found it quite touristy enough, so glad we didn’t drive further. Pretty place. Had a nice Italian meal on the harbor – which I apparently didn’t photograph. Next day we left Cres on the ferry.

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Recalculating!

That’s what Millie, our GPS, has been saying a lot lately. We knew she wasn’t much of a Croatia expert, but what is maddening is that she doesn’t know it and keeps trying to send us off in the wrong direction.

When we left Rovinj for the ferry port of Brestova we anticipated a short jaunt on a toll road followed by another short jaunt on a secondary road. Didn’t pan out.

Did catch the ferry to Cres though and then had a hair raising journey on crazy roads to the village of Beli – inhabited for 4000 years -and a still more hair-raising trip down a single track 17% grade to camping Bradji on a beautiful cove. It was a bit of a hippie place reminiscent of Kokkari, Samos and some other unknown places I came across in my wild backpacking days. Except for the 2-3 tour boats of day-trippers who arrived each afternoon around 2. Oh, and the “market priced” fresh fish which worked out to 52 euros per kilogram! Still, enjoy the beach in the morning and avoid the seafood and this place was close to paradise.

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Salzburg, Hallein, Aquilea…Croatia!

Quick catch up: parked outside Salzburg and rode in along the river for cheeseburgers, a walk up to the castle and ride down the funicular railway, then a beer at the Felsenkellar- funky cave bar I remembered fondly from my backpacking days. Rode back to our free parking spot and headed out to Hallein, roughly 15 km south and camped. Lu and I rode around the town that evening until dark. Next day, salt mine tour, Celtic museum in Hallein, first big family dust-up followed by make-up snitzel prepared by a lovely Indian family, then drove two hours to Italian border and camped. Next day, awesome roman ruins at Aquilea, watermelon(see photo), and camping at a huge, weird resort campground at Grado, near Trieste. Yesterday we entered Croatia, toured the old hilltop town of , and then came to Rovinj where we have settled into a beautiful terraced campsite 700 m from the very beautiful town. Wandered for hours last night after stuffing ourselves with mixed grill called Mesna (?) – pork, chicken and beef, fries, ratatouille made with an arborio style rice plus a paprika flavored dipping sauce and piles of sliced sweet onion. Yum.

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Charlotte and Jenny

These are the names our kids gave to the second-hand bikes we bought within an hour of picking up our RV. Charlotte because “she shines in the light and also in the dark” (Per Bu) and Jenny for Forest Gump’s Jenny – so pls pronounce Jenn-ay. Might seem like an extravagance but we know from past experience we will use them every day. If we rented – minimum 10 Euros per bike per day, plus the hassle of finding rental outlets. Hope to sell them on to other RVers near the end of our trip, but no guarantees of course

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Cottage on Wheels

Picked it up yesterday. Usual delays and hassles. Didn’t get off the lot until 430 (pick up time was 2) so had to scrap Dachau which was near by but closed at 5. Got groceries in an exhaustingly large store and started driving towards Salzburg when darkness and fatigue threatened to overtake us. So we slept with a lot of truck drivers at a pull-out by the side of the road. Today was much better…

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Twists and Turms

Turm, as in tower. I assumed we’d have to climb all 86 meters of the Frauenkirche tower, but after circling dizzily upwards for about 4 stories we came upon a lovely elevator. Great views of the city and especially the pedestrian centre and Marienplatz. Had a great dinner at Augustiner Brauerstuben last night: Peppercorn steak for Randy, 3 big plates of snitzel and fries for the boys and me plus 3 half liter beer, two cokes, warm apple strudel and to-die for apple beignets with cream and a free schnapps – 62 € and worth every penny. Picking up our RV this afternoon after which we will be self-catering. Let the sandwich parade begin!

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