Jun 6, 2018 - Last day Croatia

This morning we had breakfast and saw downtown Rijeka. It definitely has a different vibe here. It’s a working city and not touristy. We even had a hard time finding a souvenir shop. It was the only place to have dirty river water. Everywhere else was crystal clear. It makes sense though because it is a commercial port and transportation hub. We then headed to the Cernik cemetery to try and find our grandfather’s parents’ grave. We were glad to have found their grave along with about 50 other graves with multiple names on each. We were not...

Jun 5, 2018 - North Bound

Today we drove north back to Rijeka with a few stops along the way. Our first stop was Trogir which is in a small island. The city itself is a UNESCO world heritage sight. We grabbed some breakfast at the bakery and headed to main square. We toured the Cathedral of St Lawerence. It took 400 years for them to finish building the church. They also have several other churches all in a row that were built throughout the years, the first one being from the 9th century but it was torn down in the 19th century and only certain walls remain. On our...

Jun 4, 2018 - Split take two

We slept in today and enjoyed left over Orahnjaca and orange juice on the balcony over looking the city in the distance. Returning the rental car was a chore and ended up taking 2.5 hours. Split’s old town is filled with squares, cobble streets and interesting old buildings. There are remains from Diocletians Palace. Diocletian was a Roman emperor for 21 years and was known for his persecution of Christians. He retired in this palace after it was built in early 300 AD. Today pieces remain among buildings from the 1300’s on. In the entrance...

Jun 3, 2018 - Forest oasis

Before we begin the day we have to mention our scary adventure of Mindy driving stick shift after 27 years. The ferry dropped us off on the other side of the island with no bus or taxi to get us to the hotel. Thankfully there is a “rental car agency” (tiny place with cheap cars) the only catch is that they only have manual cars. So Mindy fondly remembers her little Toyota Celica that was stick when she 16 so thought it would be like riding a bike. I can drive stick she announced. So we were off. Driving stick on mountain roads is a little...

Jun 2, 2018 - History lesson

Denise and Kathy had to get up early as they had to go to Split today so we were on our own. We decided to walk the city walls first as it is very hot out so we got there by 8:30 to try to beat the heat. It didn’t work. We were hot immediately with the sun reflecting off the water and the white stone. But the view from atop the walls is beautiful. You can see how old town Dubrovnik was once divided by a canal that ran right through the middle where the Main Street is today. You can also see the fortress watching over the city from above,...

Jun 1, 2018 - Game of thrones

We are going to Dubrovnik today where a lot of the TV show Game of Thones is filmed and the most visited city in Croatia. After a 2 hour ferry ride we arrived checked into our apartment near old town. Once again we wandered the city streets admiring the old buildings. The whole city is a UNESCO world heritage site. The wall around the city is completely intact. We went into a Monistary that has one of the oldest pharmacies in the world. It opened in the 1200’s and is still open today. There is a museum that has the equipment they used to...

May 31, 2018 - Island Korcula

Split is such a cool city we don’t want to leave yet. We haven’t even scratched the surface. We stayed in the area of town known as Diolectian’s palace. However we had an early 7:40 ferry to catch so we just had a few minutes to take some pictures before we headed out on our 3 hour ferry to the island of Korcula. The island is beautiful! We knew right away we wanted to jump into that crystal clear water. While checking into our rental, we asked our host where the nearest beach was and she pointed to one just down the street. Perfect! We...

May 30, 2018 - Water, wine and wandering

Our sites were set on the national park Krka. We took a boat ride up to the park. There was a 1.5 mile hike around the park which was a breeze compared to Plitvice. We love the design of their parks. The trail systems allow you to walk among the water falls. In several places the walking platform goes over the waterfall itself. The river is not just beautiful. The power has been harnessed for centuries to help people complete chores like washing clothes, processing wool for clothes and grinding down corn. Theses techniques were used up...

May 29, 2018 - River exploration

Croatia keeps on impressing. We were on the water most of the day white water rafting. It was Kathy’s first time and she is now hooked. The river was in Krka National Park, we rafted through the canyon and when the two rivers merged the real fun began. There were 2 large water falls, fresh water springs you can drink from and pieces of history along the way. Both waterfalls were too large to raft so we pulled over on the side and walked around them while the guides threw the empty boats over the falls and grabbed them on the bottom. While...

May 28, 2018 - Waterfall extravaganza!

Before we headed over to Plitvice National Park, we stopped for breakfast at what it seemed was the only restaurant in this small mountain town. The lady at the rental made reservations for us so the outside table was ready when we got there even though we were the only ones there. There was only one small problem....ants! There was a plate of meats and cheese on the table that was covered in ants along with the table and some of the dishes. So us being too polite to complain, we moved to another table and ate our yogurt, fruit, and hard...

May 27, 2018 - Family reunion

Along our trip we have been searching for a few things along the way lamb, potica/hunanutcha and good Croatian wine. Today we checked a few bakeries looking for the Croatian bread our Grandma used to make, she called it hunanutcha. No one new what we were talking about so we asked for potica which is a similar sweet bread, so we decided to search for it. Everyone knew what it was (slovenian sweet bread) but no one had it since it is traditionally made at the holidays. We found out the only place you can get it is on the island in Bled Lake....

May 25, 2018 - Love at first sight

We love Croatia! It didn’t take long to feel at home. Here everyone knows how to prounce our name and they know the way to our heart..lamb on the spit. Sadly we haven’t tried it yet. It was too early in the morning and we assumed we could find it everywhere so we didn’t stop. Big mistake. We only found this in one area but we will be back. Today we toured the Istria Peninsula in the northwest part of Croatia. We stopped in four towns visiting the sights. Each town had its own vibe and we’re bigger than we expected. We drove through Vrsar...