Blogs from Central Croatia, Croatia, Europe - page 4

Good breakfast then departed 8am. Had to turn back as somebody left their ipad at the hotel, wasted an hour. Roadstop then crossed border into Croatia, had to disembark twice at the crossings. Arrived Zagreb at midday, picked up Mattea for city tour. Bus tour around the lower town then walked the upper town which is the old town. Stopped at old town square, where cathedral and parliament buildings. Walkedvdown streets to lookout over the lower town then through the old stone gate to the lower town, market square to the main Cathedral then main city square. Spent an hour wandering around stopping for coffee and ice cream at Krass cafe recommended by Mattea. Back to city square where there was a motorbike meet, (appox 100 bikes) they were just heading off which was great to ... read more

After reasonable night sleep breakfast at 7am, what a terrible breakfast mainly as there was no staff on duty. After complaining at reception some staff came out to clean the tables and bring some more food out. Departed 8am for long drive today. Roadstop at waterfalls bus station, Posjeti - Dozivi, lovely view of the falls but disgusting toilet facilities. Stopped fo lunch at roadside cafe which was very good, we had preordered our menu. On the road again then had to disembark for border crossing. Bosnia into Croatia. Arrived at Hotel Jezero at 5.15pm, very basic rooms, thankfully only one night. Dinner out tonight.... read more

We get up early and set off on the 158 mile drive north to Plitvice National Park. It’s going to be a shock to the system; after 2 weeks of travelling in temperatures around 30 degrees, by night time it will be minus 2. The majority of today’s route is along the A1, a lovely modern motorway which is a relief after some of the gravel tracks we had to negotiate in Bosnia and Montenegro. It is, however, not cheap. In 100 miles we notch up over £10 in tolls. The drive is another spectacular mountain extravaganza, only this time on a proper road. It’s an incredible piece of engineering consisting of a series of bridges, raised sections and tunnels. One tunnel is 5800m. That’s more than a parkrun worth of tunnel. On the other side ... read more

Dan's final day! We had an early morning wake up call so we could beat the huge tourist groups to the lakes. Toure said that by the afternoon, as many as 15 buses with tons of tourists will be unloading and starting their trek through the park. We had showered, ate and were ready to go at 9 am. It was a short drive to the park from our hotel. We were excited to start the hike to the waterfalls. It was another warm and sunny day and we were ready to be active. The park is massive and beautiful. We hiked down to the first lake and took a ferry across to the upper part of the lakes. We started on the paths and hit several waterfalls right away. We were blown away by the ... read more

Saturday, May 26 and Sunday, May 27 We left Split and went to Trogir, a small island not far from Split. It's a small place with a cathedral, museum, monastery and fortress. I wandered around, listened to a female a capella group, found the bayfront promenade, and went to Kamerlengo Fortress. The Fortress was built around 1420 when Trogir became part of the Venetian empire. When we left here we drove inland and stopped near Krka National Park where the Krka River forms waterfalls and lakes. We couldn't actually see this from where we stopped though. Then we traveled further inland to Plitvice Lakes National Park, the most visited park in Croatia. Since we arrived around 5 p.m. we would see the attractions the next day. We had another group meal that evening with more guitar ... read more