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Published: October 30th 2007
crtia1
excuse fingers....looking down Dubrovnik main old town main st.Well guys and gals, thanks for tuning in and reading our blog.....thanks for all the messages and the contact from back home...This is our final entry from our Eastern European trip and relates to our last couple of weeks in Croatia and Slovenia.
We are now at home but thought we would finish the blog as part of our memories and to complete the story. Its actually pretty depressing writing it all as we sort of want to still be away....its wierd being home and not having to worry about our next place to stay, or buying in for the day or looking for dogs/randoms to avoid!!
Croatia started as Montenegro finished, cracking scenery and coastal roads with mountains down to the sea, and all the towns had a "stari grad" (old town), walled, with narrow streets and marbled floor, slippy when wet. The first place was the biggy...Dubrovnik. We knew it was pretty impressive as everyone talks it up and the guide books rave about it. Yeah it was very impressive. A bigger version of what we had seen in many of the towns in Montenegro. The city walls were great and we spent a few hours wandering
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crazy city walls are huge and straight on top of cliffs at some points around taking in the many views of the town below. Many of the old towns were rebuilt in since earthquakes in 1979 destroyed quite a few but in Dubrovnik it was rebuilt more recent due to a seige in the Balkans conflict where atrociously this world heritage site was shelled from sea and air.
Quite a poignent memorial exhibition put this into perspective with film footage and old photos showing the extent of the damage. Without being told of these things happening it would have been difficult to imagine it had in such a vibrant hub of tourism and THE destination place around here.
Cycling north, the plan was to visit some of the islands but we had to sort out the ferrys. There are regular ferrys to each island from the mainland but actually rare ones hopscotching between islands so we had to play it by ear a bit to which islands we could visit feasibly, it actually worked out perfectly but could have been a nightmare.
The hilly Peljesar (please excuse spellings) peninsular juts out North West from the Dalmation Coast and was pretty tough going.
Stopping to oil our chains (it had been
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looking back over Dubrovnik "StariGrad" from the high point of the city walls. raining all day and just started to dry out giving that familair squeeky dry chain) a chappy started to chat to us asking us the usual, where from, where to..etc etc...he was telling us about the village down to our left, we had done our quota for the day so was asking him there was accomodation. It was 3 miles down hill one way so didnt want to have to back track...he actually owned an appartment for rent and we struck a bit of a diamond with it. Down a steep gorge into a beautiful quiet sea front village. The accomodation was cheap and massive, we had a big kitchen, 2 bathrooms and 3 bed rooms all to our selves...the veranda openened straight onto a small beach.
The next day opened with blue skys and it wasnt difficult to decide to take another day here in Zuljana...i did some running repairs on the bikes on the veranda and we went over the headland to a stunning beach. Views across to island of Korcula. So quiet. Amazing sea....i think we will be back here sometime...
A german couple we had noticed at the bar the prev night turned up mid afternoon
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big ship docks..tourists disembark...tourists wander dubrovnik...tourist boards big ship...big ship leaves.. on the beach quite away from us in a corner and after a while it was like.."ermm are they naked"..."ermm yes they are"..." oh"..
we had heard that there are a few naturist beaches and even nudist campsites ..dunno if this was one but they didnt mind...ooh we are so prudish in the uk!!
The naked germans as we called them must have thought we were stalking them as we saw them quite a few times after that...one about 3 days later in a ferry office and on the ferry!!
The next few days were a bit of a blur on the senses...a ferry to Korcula and korcula town with old walled town complete with Tintaretto frescos in the church. Impressive. Aparently some guy called Marco was born here who invented the mint and discovered Italy...
Next was the ferry on to Hvar island..another bash on the senses and and another old town. Hvar town was a little bit bigger than Korcula and had quite a few tourists but such a quaint harbour and cafes and shops. These islands were part of the Venetian State in the 14 and 1500s and so a lot of similar architecture to
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looking down the pass to our village Zuljana venice.
Next day was a ferry to split and we had previously decided to head up the coast as we were a bit 'towned' out by now but at the last we had a look at the Roman remains here and got offered some cheap central accomodation and stayed a night...really glad we did as its an impressive place. The old roman palace walls still stand and bits and bobs of the ruins inside interpsersed with 16th 17th and 18th century buildings which makes it rather impressive...
coming to the end of the tour now and with a few half days done we had to buckle down and the next four days we rattled off a good 220 miles up the coast via Sibenik and a fleeting visit to Zadar and a few more roman ruins and a cool sea organ (the waves push air through holes to create whale like music!!) - then a tough ride up the Isle of Pag and a small ferry to the mainland and a real battle into the cold north wind to Crikvenica.
Crikvenica was a bit slow but was ok...as our waiter that night said ..a lot of aged
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just incredibly clear water - off the Peljesac Peninsular hockey players (old people with sticks!!) We had been staying in guest house or private rooms up until now and mainly not hard to push to hard to find accomodation as owners of these private rooms come out looking for custom..mainly they were nice but we had a couple of incidents with them when they were too pushy...i had a shouting match with one old dear as she wouldnt get out of jennys way when we were getting off the ferry and then she stood in front of me to make me stop and gave me the same "sobe, room, zimmer, camero"...no move...move..move ...move ...move....
she wouldnt move and kept saying it to me like i was going to change my mind, i wouldnt mind but we were still on the ferry ramp..annoyed me a lot..seemed very desperate..
another instance in hvar we had a couple of them stood next to us both speaking in english in one word sentances how good their room was...
woman 1 "very nice room, balcony, view, 5 minutes, room, bathroom, 5 minutes, 200 kc, room, balcony, beautiful, kitchen, bathroo, 5 minutes....etc etc
woman 2 " very nice room, kitchen, 7 minutes, its very nice,
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view from our beach appartment...you can see why another nights stay was in order!! bathroom, kitchen, balcony, 7 minutes, very nice room.....etc...etc..."
like repeating themselves would make us decide ...brilliant they should work in sales!!...actually in marketing as when we went to the room (7 minutes away and cheaper!!) it didnt have half the stuff she said haha!! didnt really care as it was nice enough
another little village , jablanad, we had another wierdo...we had decended 3 miles to the coast as it was pretty sparse on the main road inland and we didnt really want to have to ride back up the climb that night...we had tried a few places advertising accomodation but it was well and truly out of season now so there was no answer. We then found ourselves on the front and a woman come over and spoke to us and although we didnt understand her we knew what she was was asking us...ok we thought, may as well have a look..so jenny went with her to see the room and wasnt entirely happy with it and consumers rights we wanted to look around but this first woman wouldnt leave us alone and ended up having a slanging match with another woman who we asked about staying at hers....in
the end the first woman changed her price quite a lot lower so we went for it (maybe a trick worth trying ?)...but she was a bit tapped and followed us to the pub later on..hmmm....
ever heard of a wind called Bura?
no neither had we...anyway its a seasonal wind in croatia which happens when the inland alps get the first bad weather and the coast is still nice and creates this mega freezing cold wind from the west. Our friendly waiter in Crikvenica (who had never seen any english people there all year and was really happy to chat to us!!) told us it gets to 150kmh and -20 wind chill and then close all the roads!!..happens late october bummer was the next day it starter early and we had to ride all day inland into the mountains into an epic wind. dont think it was quite 150 kmh but it blew us to a standstill and into the gutter a few times...then the rain starter...then the rain turned to snow and we got a blizzard and got quite worried we wouldnt make it over the mountains...we struggled into a small town and stopped and found a
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pretty hilly along the coast, probably some of the toughest cycling we have done 5km up and 5km down all the time. hotel as we were absoloutely frozen...numb hands and feet which actually hurt when they came back around...
next day came and it had snowed all night so there was no chance of getting to ljublanje on the bike ..bit worried as our flight was the next day..the day ended up an epic but we made it to ljublanje via two trains, long delays at 2 stations, a closed line and a mad scramble to get the bikes in the replacement coaches. 12 hours..we made it about a 4 hour bike ride if we had ridden direct in decent weather..just a reminder kids how fickle the mountain weather can be and let that be a lesson to you!!
we wound down eastern europe in ljublanje - initial plans were to tour around slovenia but this will have to wait for another trip now..
big shout out to mikey-mike-sorry-sorry-mike who picked us up from airport, gave us spendid accomodation in Reading and bought us a cracking Thia meal and showed us which side of the road to ride on...
great times on hol...missing them already
roll on south america and beyond next year
Ian and Jenny signing
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Ian happy descending on one of the many fast descents on Peljisar...Korcula island in background out...
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Elisa Pasquali
non-member comment
Hello fellow cyclists!
Hi, Jenny and Ian, Thanks for visiting my blog. I have read yours and was delighted looking at your fantastic pictures, but especially, seeing how though a bit spread in time we cycled some of the same roads (and probably met the same dogs I'm sure)! Looking forward to reading about your trip in South America, and receive all happy greetings from your fellow cyclotourist. See you on the road! -Elisa.