Croatia by Car!

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Thursday, October 13

We left Zadar at 8:00 am and motored for 30 minutes to the town of Preko on the island of Ugljan. From there we biked south, across a large bridge to the island of Pasman. We continued our undulating ride south along the coast to the town of Tkon where we had to load the bikes in a hurry as the ferry was due and we were using its slip.

We left the dock heading south to an unknown (by us and the crew) town because the weather was changing and the proposed destination might be too windy to stay there. Eventually, we cruised for 3-1/2 hours back to Primosten where we spent the night. We wandered the town, this time going along the seawall out around the north part of town. There were a few people still swimming even though it's now mid-October. The town was very quiet and had a mellow feel to it as we watched the sun set while Jill had a glass of wine. We saw a fisherman casting off a rock, bocci players on a bocci court, and a few late afternoon shoppers in the old town.

Friday, October 14

The boat left the dock at 7:00 am for the island of Solta. We had our morning cycle briefing during breakfast, then arrived at 9:00 at Maslinica, where we shared the dock with three other boats--all four boats side-by-side against the same side of the dock. The 17 km easy-peasy ride went to the top of the island of Solta (160 m) for a beautiful view over the surrounding islands. When we got to the town of Grohote, we stopped for coffee for a half hour, then returned to the ship on a nice long downhill ride! This marked the end of the cycling portion of the cruise. In the end, we had cycled a total of 207 km and climbed a total of 1760 metres.

All four boats had to untie from each other to let us out! The crossing from Maslinica to Trogir was a bit rough. There was a strong wind called "Yugo" which means "south". We lunched enroute to Trogir.

We spent the afternoon touring Trogir, getting maps and info for our trip to Plitvice Lakes tomorrow and finding a bus route to the airport so Fred and I could pick up the car. We had an extraordinary piece of luck! One of our fellow cyclists, Pat Casey (who Joye went to school with!), offered us his Garmin GPS unit for the remainder of our trip. We'll be able to use it for the next week as we tour Croatia by car and again on Mallorca where we will again rent a car. So between the four of us and the GPS, we should be more relaxed travellers, at least as far as getting around goes!

Dinner was great tonight. The crew treated us to the best wine on the ship and we had an excellent English mixed meat grill. After dinner, the crew was again presented to us so we could cheer and thank them for their wonderful, caring treatment of us. Most of us retired early as breakfast was for 7:00 am to facilitate our departure by 9:00 am. We all would highly recommend using Island Hopping to do this type of travel!

Saturday, October 15

After the early breakfast we said our goodbyes, packed our suitcases and left the boat. We parked our luggage across from the boat in a dockside restaurant guarded by Jill and Maureen, while Fred and I took a bus to the airport to pick up the car. We had a nostalgic ride as there was a class of 11 - 12 year old students on the bus.

The car rental agent was very nice. He agreed with us that our rental was too small for all of our luggage, so he upgraded us to a Citroen diesel with a larger trunk. Well… we returned for the girls and packed everything in that car. You wouldn't believe. We had to fold down the smaller back seat to stack luggage on while Jill and Maureen squeezed in to the other half! Fred sits in the front as navigator using the GPS (which works well) and I drive.

We hit the road and were quite comfortable due to the small size of the girls in the back seat! We were driving on a freeway going 130 km/hr for about 40 minutes when we were stopped by a string of orange cones across the freeway. So we had to take a detour but there were no detour signs to show us which way to go. There were about 25 other cars wandering with us trying to figure out which way to go. Even the GPS was confused. I finally asked for directions and was told to follow a different road. It was a much smaller, narrower road which twisted and turned it's way up the side of a mountain, through a pass and down the other side. We only travelled about 30 - 50 km/hr. So it took us much longer to get to the House Tina where we were staying near the Plitvice Lakes.

The area we are in is very similar to the Okanagan's Falkland Valley. The leaves are starting to turn red and orange. Lots of trees in quite a rural area with small, rolling hills.

We settled in to our lovely, new accommodation and immediately did the washing so we'd have clean clothes to continue our trip. We had a late dinner at a nearby restaurant which had been recommended by our German host.

Sunday, October 16

We woke early to try to beat the crowds at the National Park at Plitvice Lakes. On the Friday before, there were 12,000 visitors in the park! Our host provided breakfast with a special meal for me--5 fried eggs on several thick slices of ham! I was preparing to share it all with Jill, Maureen and Fred when he came back with another large plate of scrambled eggs for them. The girls enjoyed toast too! Needless to say we were well fortified for our day ahead hiking in the park. We packed up, checked out, and drove about 8 km to the entrance to the park, arriving at 9:00 am.

Plitvice Lakes National Park with an area of about 300 square kilometres, was included in the UNESCO list of World Natural Heritage sites in 1979. The park is an example of karst hydrography and travertine (look it up on Google for Heavens sake!), which creates the lakes, streams and waterfalls in the park. There are all kinds of species of animals. For example, 21 species of bats and 321 species of butterflies! We didn't see many animals because of the time of year, and also the temperature was three degrees Celsius! Boy was it cold. We did see lots of fish, though. They were trout, and Fred and I immediately thought of Michael when we saw them.

We hiked briskly for three hours along a well-defined "route c" walkway looking at deep, clear pools, small streams, ferns, moss and lots of different sizes of waterfalls. We started at the lower end Entrance 1 and walked up to the upper lakes. That way we were always looking up at the water features. We almost had the whole park to ourselves as there were few people braving the cold so early in the morning. Halfway around the park we came to a dock and took a small boat several hundred metres across a lake to continue the walk on the far side. When we got to the end, we boarded a shuttle bus which took us back to the parking lot.

We had read reviews of this park; many of them proclaiming the park as the most beautiful they had seen in the world. Well, they were right. If you Google "Plitvice Lakes, Croatia" and click on "images" you'll get an idea of what we saw. Although it was overcast for the morning, the sun did come out for the last half hour or so and it made a dramatic difference... the lakes became even more beautiful!

We finished at 1:00 pm and already there were a dozen buses parked and lots of cars in the lot, so we were glad we'd been there when we were.

We set off for Omis (south of Split) where we stayed the night. We arrived about 4 hours later after a stop for lunch at gas station which was all that was available on the toll highway. We had a little trouble finding our Podstrana lodging as the address we had was incorrect. Villa Mikrut was worth the hunt, a spacious 2 bedrm/2 bath with great kitchen and balcony and an outstanding view of Island Brac and Split.

Our host was a wonderful German woman. Immediately, Fred began speaking to her in German. She was very pleased, of course, and brought us coffee, biscuits and information about where to shop for food and wine. I must tell you how strange it was... Jill, Maureen and I sitting listening to Fred and our host talking away in German. And having no idea what they were saying! Of course, Fred told us everything later. We were very glad that Fred spoke German. The girls enjoyed the spectacular sunset from the 180 degree view deck while the boys went shopping for groceries at a huge store, which we considered the Croatian equivalent of Costco. The boys made dinner as we decided to eat at our dining room table.

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Comments

[Michael]

Budding Travel Writer
Wow! Excellent blog Ger. I see in my crystal ball a future as a part time writer for travel magazines?