Advertisement
Published: October 13th 2011
Edit Blog Post
Day 1 - Saturday
We awoke Saturday morning to a much quieter town after the previous night's thunder storm. The weather was cooler, but sunny, clear and very pleasant. We had arranged for our host to drive us to Trogir where we were to embark on our week-long bicycle cruise of the Dalmatia coast National Parks with islandhopping.com. It was a struggle to load our 4 large, 3 medium and three small pieces of luggage into his car. When we arrived in Trogir Old Town (anther Unesco heritage site), we found the Magellan, checked in, then sat in a cafe to have some coffee. Afterwards, Jill and Maureen went for a walk while Fred and I sat for a time watching the goings on up and down the wharf.
We boarded at 12:30 and got settled into our cabin. It's a very nice setup with 18 cabins for the 36 of us. We're in the bottom of the boat across the hall from Fred and Maureen. Lunch was at 1:30 and we all had a good time. The group is a great mix of fun-loving people. The saloon room was very noisy with several conversations going at each of
the 6 tables.
During lunch, we motored from Trogir to the little town of Rogosnizka where we tied up to the dock for an overnight stay. The crew off loaded the bikes (each one had our name on it!) while the tour guides, Lizelle and Drazen, briefed us on the rules, routes, etc. that we needed to know for a safe ride. After we adjusted the seats, we were off for a 17 km ride along the habour and then up into the hills for a view of the town.
We arrived back after our 90 minute ride in time to shower and change before dinner. The dinner was a mussels appetizer and pan-fried sea bass with chard and potatoes. Very delicious! After dinner the crew was introduced to us. We were told that our cycling routes are going to be very flexible and dependent on the weather. If it's too windy and the captain can't dock, we'll have to go somewhere else. The evening then developed into card games, conversations, quieter reading, etc.
Day 2 - Sunday
We had a busy day today. It started with a hardy breakfast and a bike ride. We rode
about 18 km today to the coastal town of Primosten. There was a 250 m climb into the hills for a wonderful view of the sea and some small port towns. We rode downhill into Primosten to our boat. We then walked around town for an hour or so, and came back to have lunch while we motored to Sibenik. There we had a 90 minute walking tour of the town with an English-speaking guide. We were enthralled by his historical references to the architecture and history of Sibenik. He had wonderful and very fascinating stories of how wars were fought, how churches and battlements were built and how people lived in the middle ages.
We were supposed to motor to Krka National Park to spend the night, but we found out that, due to the high winds, the Croatian naval ships had to take the dock space we were to use for the night. So we're staying here in Sibenik for the night safely secured to the dock and protected from the winds.
After dinner, Lizelle and Drazen taught us the Croatian alphabet and about a dozen Croatian words. We had lots of laughs trying to keep
up with our teachers.
Monday, October 10
Happy Thanksgiving Day! We had coffee and a good breakfast while we motored to the little port village of Skradin. By 9:00 am we had boarded a smaller ship for the ride to Skradinski Buk, which is the longest and most widely visited (over 10,000 visitors per day in the summer time!) series of waterfalls on the Krka River. There were only a handful of people so we pretty much and the place to ourselves.
An interesting fact is that one of the waterfalls was used to create electricity, and it went "online" just two days after the Americans to become the second electrical generating plant in the world. But the town of Sibenik, which we just left, was the first city in the world to have electrical street lights.
We returned to the boat to have a nice lunch before our 40 km bike rise with 450 m of elevation gain. This will be the longest bike rise we have ever done!
What a ride! There were 33 of us as a few decided to stay with the ship for the voyage to Vodice. The country we
rode through was very similar to the Okanagan/Kamloops area--sunny, arid, rolling hills, and low level bushes and grasses with a few groves of trees. It was very pastoral. Most of the 40 km was quieter back roads, although we were on some pretty busy roads for short 5 minute sections. We rode through areas that had been damaged in the war of twenty years ago. There were signs warning of unexploded mines and we were told not stray off the roads. We all made it, and we all congratulated each other on our arrival at the boat in Vodice. While we did tend to stretch out, we all arrived together as we regularly stopped to get everyone caught up before moving on.
That night, after another wonderful dinner, we had a sing-song with Armando, our waiter, to celebrate Thanksgiving Day. Songbooks were handed out, and Armondo played guitar and led us through many songs. Lots of laughs and conviviality.
Tuesday, October 11
After breakfast, we started our ride from Vodice. We traveled about 27 km along the coastline through several small villages. There was very little climbing today. The day was sunny and warm with just a
gentle sea breeze to keep us cool. Again, the coast was very beautiful and the riding was great! Lots of pictures of small port towns, blue seas and sandy beaches.
When we arrived at the boat at the very small port of Murter, we changed and went swimming at a beach about 100 m from the boat. Jill swam from the beach to the boat, the rest of us walked back. We then had lunch. I should explain that when I talk of lunch I mean we had a meal. The lunches consist of a soup with salad as a starter course. Then we would have meat, chicken or fish with pasta, potatoes or lentils and a vegetable. We all ate the same thing except for yours truly. For me they varied the menu a bit so that I got rice pasta if pasta was served, etc. The cook and waiter have both taken very good care of us all.
We left Murter as we started lunch. During the afternoon, we cruised for about 3-1/2 hours along the Kornati Islands which are a Croatian National Park. We docked at Telascica Nature Park and went for walk to the
impressive cliffs and around the salt lake until sunset. We were greeted at the boat by many donkeys which roamed freely in the park. We had the park pretty much to ourselves as it is the end of the season.
Wednesday, October 12
We left the ship at 9:00 am and cycled Dugi Otok Island north to buzzara (42 km and 550 m elevation gain) where we enjoyed a refreshing swim upon our arrival at 1:00 pm. While we had lunch, we motored to Zadar where a local guide took us for a walk through this beautiful old Roman-built city while enjoying wonderful gelato. We watched the sunset while listening to unique water pipe music created by the waves lapping against the specially constructed seawall. There was also a solar powered light show imbedded in the seawall walkway called "Monument to the Sun". Both were very cool.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.07s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 5; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0432s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Dee Radford
non-member comment
All is well here in the Okanagan, we're having beautiful Fall days and the colors get prettier by the day. Take care and keep posted on the rest of your trip of a lifetime. love, Dee