Istria

---

The Croatian coast is the landscape of my dreams. This, for me, is the most beautiful of type of climate and topography: dry, rocky with lavender and brush and pine along the sea. And such a sea! The Adriatic here displays the most dramatic pallette of marine colors, from turquoise green to indigo blue. The water is clear all the way to the bottom and is teaming with fish, crabs and other sea life. There is nothing more exciting to me than swimming off of white rocks into a deep ocean, as we did these days in Rovinj, traveling by bike to various coves and tiny bays south of the town. We explored tide pools and mysterious rock sculptures and I watched all my other plans--traveling to Pula to see Roman ruins, going to mountain towns to see medieval architecture--vanish. The lure of the sea was too much for us. Not coincidentally, it was on this very sea, some hours south of here, that Odysseus drifted off track and ended up a captive of Calypso on the island of Mjlet (Ogygia) for seven years. For us, just a few blissful days.

---

Photos

Rovinj at daybreak
Gabriel and I went out early to see the fishing boats. The light is extraordinary on the coast here--much like California!

St. Euphemia
This church is at the top of the old city of Rovinj, affording spectacular views all around.

In the Adriatic
The boys loved swimming in the clear water. Here we are at a little cove just outside of town.

Tidepool animal sanctuary
The boys spent hours creating a "sanctuary" for crabs and other animals they found.

Mysterious rock sculptures
Out biking one day, we came across a large group of rock sculptures. Some were quite intricate and interesting.

Central arch
The focal point of this field of rock structures seemed to be this arch. Dean and I were reminded of the work of the artist Andy Goldsworthy, who creates ephemeral sculptures in and from nature.

Comments

[Lee]

beautiful
Memories to keep forever