Restablecer búsqueda
Croatia
  • Jen Ritchey
abr. – jun. 2024

Croatia

Una aventura de 38 días de Jen Leer más
SeguirResumenCalendarioCompartirCompartirLista de deseos
Más recientes primero
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia

    Podstrana

    15 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Today wasn’t a super exciting day, but that was fine. We got up with a few different plans and we would see what we felt like, and it was still stormy in the mountains so we decided against hiking up to the storm clouds and went almost to Split and walked along the Žrnovnica river instead. It was a pretty easy trail, all along the water, mostly forested and not a bad way to spend the day, but not super exciting either. Though we did see a snake across the trail! When we got back to town we had a sit on the beach and it was so windy! And chilly! And so many birds in the water and flying around!

    Then it was off to where we are staying near Trogir and that was an adventure! The place is down a VERY steep hill that was tiny and so we were going to pull the car down and unpack our things and then take the car back up the hill to the parking…only we almost got stuck trying to reverse at the top of the hill to get onto the street (not wide enough to just turn onto it) so we decided against that when Raymond had to help push the car back up the little ways we went down! But the views are not bad, it is still super windy here and we walked down to the water and it was so choppy! Not a good time to try and swim as the waves were all crashing against the rocks. Tomorrow into Split to explore and see what we can see!    Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia

    Split

    16 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ 🌬 20 °C

    Today was a long, fun day exploring Split! Yesterday it was such a nightmare trying to drive from there to where we were staying I thought I am only doing that again once! But this morning it was a much nicer drive (and we ended up coming home much later than yesterday so the traffic wasn’t bad) so we might go explore more another day. We shall see!

    First up was a climb up to the viewpoint on the hill. There is a giant park that is a big hill that we parked next to and it said there were 314 steps to the viewpoint, but I swear there were not that many! It took two seconds and we were up there! It was a nice view, but it was so overcast and SUPER windy! I had been debating what to wear as it was supposed to get hot, but be windy all day, so I went with a t-shirt and shorts instead of my sleeveless dress thinking I would probably regret it, but I was so glad I did! I ended up wearing my light sweater all day as it was not very hot!

    After the viewpoint we wandered to town and spied on the market and got some dried figs to try since they are everywhere - pretty tasty! Then a wander through old town looking at all the things (and all the kitties!) . We did get lunch out at this vegan place which was really tasty, and wandered around picking up treats to have for dinner and snacks for the next few days - some empanadas which were delicious, some Croatian cakes and baked goods, all the things!

    We also tried three different flavors of gelato from two different places and they were all so so so good! Definitely the best of the trip, maybe some of the best ever! First was pistachio which yum! It was so creamy and slightly salty with the sweet and I loved it! Then I had seen a lemon lavender and was curious so asked and it was vegan so of course I had to try it! Also super tasty and on a hot day would be so refreshing! Then one place has vegan dark chocolate which looked black so again had to try it and oh it was delicious! As good as our favorite place back home, which we have never found before! If we go back another day to explore the park more we might have to get some more gelato from these two places!

    Finally we wandered back to the car along the waterfront which was nice, but just a marina so no beaches unlike everywhere else we have been to. Oh well, there are beaches at the big park.

    Overall it was a pretty good day. We were out way longer than we expected, but we had a lot of fun. We both agreed that Split is not as nice as the other places further south we have been to, but it is fun. Once we got out of old town and were where the people live (and I noticed all the bakeries and such only had things written in Croatian) I enjoyed it more. Still pretty hard to beat some of the earlier stops.    Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia

    Krka National Park

    17 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Today was so much fun! Another waterfall day! We drove up to Krka National Park which I had planned to visit on Sunday on the way to our next stop, but Sunday is supposed to be thunderstorms there so we decided to go when the weather would be nicer. Today was perfect! Sunny, but not too warm until later in the day (we had considered going tomorrow but it is supposed to be much hotter all day!). We went to the two main waterfall areas and wandered around and it was beautiful! The first area was lots of waterfalls, tons of fishes in the water, lots of dragonflies and butterflies and new to us birds! Also lots of frogs when we first got there that were so loud! Most of the photos are from this area (it is also where most of the people were, but we managed to have perfect timing for the most part and get in between tour groups).

    Then we drove up to the upper parts which were also cool, but the falls are more small cascades which was fun. There was also a 517 stair climb to a cave - the cave was not very interesting and not very big, but the views on the way up/down were great! So worth it. This area also had a ton of Tufa which was really cool. All the rocks in the second area were fun!

    Then it was back to the house as it was later by that point (there were other things to see that I had on my list, but no time!) and we had just enough time and the weather was perfect to swim a bit! First time using the pool here and it was great. Then we drove over to the marina for sunset since we are not on the right side for that, but there were no clouds! And we ended up watching all the planes land as the airport is right on the other side of the water. All in all a really fun day!    Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia
    11

    Marjan Park, Split

    18 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Today we headed back to Split to explore Marjan Park more. We headed towards the highest point, Telegrin peak, but found a weather station building (the salmon colored building) along the way. There were great views, but it was pretty hazy today. From the park we wandered down to the point and found some old WW1 bunkers, and a church and Hermitage in the cliff walls! I had forgotten that we had seen a photo of that the other day so that was pretty exciting. You couldn’t go in anything, but still fun to see!

    Then down to the beach as it was getting hot and after a quick lunch we had a quick dip - the rocks were all tiny jabby rocks and the water was freezing! So we didn’t stay in long, but the cold water cooled us off nicely and we took a long break to relax. We then headed back into town for some of that amazing gelato from last time - the pistachio is my favorite as it is so creamy and delicious! By the time we left the beach it has gotten so hazy and the clouds had also rolled in so you couldn’t see the islands anymore and it started raining just after we got home - perfect timing! All in all a pretty nice day. We did a lot of walking, but still had some nice down time.    Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia

    Trogir

    19 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    This morning we got up and packed up our stuff and headed over to Trogir old town (it was just on the other side of the peninsula we were staying on so not far. Though it was 90% humidity when we were packing so I was not really looking forward to being out in that! Luckily on that side of the hills it was only 54% which is much more manageable) we wandered the old town which was pretty small, but nice - it’s really a 1-2 hour adventure and if you add in lunch it was perfect since we were moving on.

    When we got to where we are staying (outside Zadar) we had a wander and it is very quiet over here and very flat! The road is on the same level as the water - no more steep hills to go up and down! Driving up here you could see forever, though it was hazy and cloudy, and then we passed so many River canyons which was fun.

    There is one house with a fancy gate down the road from us, the beach looks pretty nice so if it is warm enough we will probably take a swim, our place doesn’t have the best view we have had this far, but you can see the water and it does have a hot tub! On our own private rooftop patio which is pretty nice. And perfect views from there of sunset! When I booked this place I thought I don’t think we will use the hot tub as it will be too hot, but by the time we got here it had cooled off and it’s chilly so perfect!    Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia

    Paklenica National Park

    20 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Today we headed to the mountains and hiked up Paklenika Canyon! It was a lot of fun! Most of the hike was shaded by trees which was nice, and then you would get openings where you could see the rocks all around! It was a pretty easy hike, though climbing uphill was so hot! We took a break at the mountain house at the top of the trail with a cold beverage, then headed back down. Saw lots of lizards and a mountain kitty! Lots of rock climbers also as there are a ton of climbing paths there. The weather was perfect - tomorrow is supposed to be thunderstorms all day so we shall see if we are able to go explore Zadar or not…might just be a lazy read all day and watch the storms kind of day.Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia
    111

    Zadar

    21 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    I thought today was going to be a forced relaxed day as last night it said thunderstorms would start overnight…but we woke up to nice skies and the forecast changed to severe thunderstorms at 11. Since we get up early we decided we would go into Zadar and see what we could see before it stormed…only it never stormed! It got overcast and cold and breezy, but no storms! We kept looking at the radar and it was all around us, but not on the city so that was great! But then we had a long day since we wanted to see all the things!

    We had a fun wander around the city and had lunch out and got some more dried figs and cherries from the market. A long time ago when Raymond and I were flying somewhere I read in the airplane magazine about Zadar and the sea Organ that plays music with the water so of course I was like someday we should go see that! Well today was the day! And it was a lot of fun! I took some video, but it was so windy! Still fun! Zadar old town felt much different than the other ones we have been to. Much more like it was just people who live there. Lots of apartments, there is a college on one side so lots of kids, just people living and not only tourists which was nice.

    Also saw a sign that said “men of Zadar” and it turned out it was the first public transportation here. Men would row you across the water (on the inland side - it’s not very far - the small red rowboat in the one photo is a man of Zadar! He would take you over to the red point) which you could still do for a euro twenty/person (and we did see lots of ladies doing just that!)

    By the time we left it was sunny and gorgeous so we went down to the beach here (the last 3 photos) to try out our new water shoes and they are great! No more jabby rocks in our shoes or hurting our feet! So that is good (the beaches are like all little jabby rocks. Or at least almost all rocky).

    We went down to the beach again for sunset as it looked like it would actually be nice and it was! Hooray! The past 2 nights it has been really cloudy and no sunset at all last night because of the clouds. Plus we found a collection of tiny shells :) There haven’t been many shells we have seen so that was fun. All in all a great day!    Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia

    Zrmanja River Canyon

    22 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Today was an unexpectedly gorgeous day! I had read a lot about the Zrmanja River Canyon and how you should go and hike around, but couldn’t find much about hiking there. So we just headed off to the one waterfall to see what we could see. You were supposed to be able to walk along the water a ways to fort ruins, but the trail was blocked with barbed wire so we were like now what? Raymond figured out we could walk down the road to another waterfall not that far away so we headed off for that and it was so much fun! We found so many interesting bugs and butterflies and so many giant grasshoppers flying through the air! And it was a road walk until suddenly it opened up to gorgeous views and a pretty nice waterfall.

    After lunch we thought we would explore the town nearby, Obrovac, which was really run down and not much to it, but we did walk up to the fortress ruins and surprised a snake sleeping in a tube and then he was stuck as it was too slippery to get out. I took a quick photo then moved on so he wasn’t so upset forever and when we turned to look a minute later he was gone so he figured it out.

    We also stopped on this bridge on the way home which was gorgeous! The views both ways were so beautiful! We walked across the bridge and on the way back we saw a dolphin jumping around in the water! So much fun!

    Once we got home we headed to the beach here for a swim until I got too cold. The water was freezing, but I did manage about 20 min which was really nice. I didn’t expect much out of today, but it was really nice!    Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia

    Pag Island

    23 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Today was a super fun day! We started driving to our first stop and all of a sudden there were big islands that had no green and were just rocks! They looked so strange! Especially cause everything else was so green!

    Our first stop was a bird sanctuary to try and see some Ibis birds and we did! As well as a great egret (there is one in the second photo, but probably pretty blurry by the time I post these) and some other smaller birds and lots of weird bugs!

    Then we drove through the city of Pag where there was a nice viewpoint over the city, then on to the Life on Mars trail which was super fun, but way too hot! All the reviews were like it is so so so windy! So i thought okay, even if it is direct sun it will be okay…only there was no wind! We walked to the one beach and the way there was so cool, lots of giant cliffs of rocks, some conglomerate, and lots of rocks with fossils and stuff in them! I brought back a small collection as they were so cool! If it hadn’t been as hot we would have spent a lot more time looking at the rocks.

    I did try and swim at the first beach, but there were too many fishes that kept swimming at me even if I moved to try and get them to go away they kept coming…plus lots of fish in the rocks that blended in and yeah I took a quick dip and then ate lunch on my beach towel. We then walked back to another beach as the trail went through that beach and I was so hot I was like want to take a dip? It was so nice! The water was pretty cold which was perfect! We swam around for a long time until I finally cooled off enough I was getting cold. There were some fish there, but they blended in so they were hard to see and if I moved they swam away so that was good. Afterwards I said to Raymond how there weren’t as many fish there and he was like there were, you just didn’t see them and I didn’t point them out. But there were a ton of tiny ones hiding in the sand close to shore. I bent down to take some photos and they kept coming closer! But that was fine as I was out of the water ;)

    Raymond’s allergies are getting bad at this point which was so strange cause it was like all rocks so we headed off to where we were staying (with a short ferry ride so we didn’t have to drive forever out and around). The place we are staying is so nice! Great views from the balcony, plus the sun sets right here and there is a ferry dock we can see and have fun watching the ferry come and go (and we have been watching a thunderstorm out on some of the islands! All the lightning, though we cannot hear any thunder). Luckily Raymond allergies settled down so hopefully they are not bad tomorrow.    Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia
    1

    Zavratnica Cove Hike

    24 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Today we walked from where we are staying (the closest building on the right side of the first photo) to Zavratnica Cove. The walk was all along the coast by the water and was pretty nice this morning in the shade. We saw lots of fun bugs and snails and even a snake! Maybe two, or the same snake on the way back as it was in a similar spot - I think it/they were an Aesculapian Snake so that was fun - he was slithering away when I saw him. Oh and the snake from other day that looked so weird in the pipe? That was actually a European Glass Lizard! I finally found a place to look up all the fun things we are seeing, though the bugs have over 100 pages so that is going to take a while.

    The cove was actually really gorgeous! I wasn’t expecting much as the hike there went in and out and by the town of Jablanac, and it was nice but not amazing. Then we turned the corner to head into the cove and it was beautiful! Tall mountains and gorgeous water and I loved it! There were also the sunken remains of a German WWII ship in the water! There was a viewpoint you could walk up to, but before we headed out we both agreed we were not going to do that as it would be too hot and let’s just have a relaxed day. Well…we got there and a sign said you could learn all about the cove from a number of info boards along the way to the viewpoint so I was like well…maybe we should! So off we headed and the way up was not bad! Not that long and still mostly in the shade (though in the sun by the time we came back down!) and the view was really nice, but it was boiling at the viewpoint so we didn’t stay long. Also there was only one info board at the very beginning! I guess one is a number…but they tricked me!

    We had lunch by the water in the cove and I put my feet in, but it was freezing! Like the coldest water I think we have tried on the trip! I was standing there and thought oh, I’m getting used to it maybe I can swim! Then I moved my foot and it was ice cubes all over again so no swimming there. Way too cold and not hot enough yet.

    When we got down we noticed Raymond had some red rash spots on him, but he didn’t notice them until we sat down and we saw them, they didn’t itch so we figured he just brushed against something as it looked like poison something rash and he remembered one plant he did brush against, but we couldn’t figure out what it was. On the walk back to our place we went through a lot of grasses that we had to brush through and when we got back we had a swim in the pool as we were so hot! That last few minutes of the walk was no air and just the sun beating down on us so in the pool we went to cool off! When we got out we noticed both his legs were covered in red spots! They still weren’t itchy or anything, but not great it was getting worse. So he took a shower really washing off well and by the time he got out they were almost all gone! So we think it was the grasses as he has grass allergies, but has never had this happen before. Yesterday we did walk through a big bamboo field (the photo yesterday with the green before the Rocky area was all bamboo fields!) so that probably set them off yesterday. I had planned a hike for tomorrow, but since his allergies keep getting bad and now the red spots we decided to explore some cities instead. Stay out of the tall grasses! Should still be fun.

    Where we are staying is right by a ferry dock that doesn’t go far so comes and goes a lot. This afternoon I kept getting so distracted watching the ferry! All the cars loading on and the people who were trying to buy a ticket quickly before the boat left. Luckily the ferry seemed to wait a few min if there was a last minute person/car who showed up, but it was fun! Then on one of the ferries a choir or something boarded and I could hear them singing! Such fun! So much entertainment!    Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia

    Krk, Punta, & Baška

    25 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Today was far busier than I expected! Way more walking than I thought we would do! I just had a couple small towns to visit, but that was still a lot.

    First up was Krk, which had a small old town, but was still fun to wander around. We found some good food there too - a salted caramel gelato and pizza for lunch that was so tasty! The dough had spinach in it, with hummus, bell pepper, zucchini, tofu, tomato, caramelized onions and arugula on top. They even brought us hot sauce and pepper infused olive oil to put on top which we love! But the pizzas were huge and we had the leftovers for dinner which was still super delicious!

    After lunch we headed to our next stop, Punta, which we parked kind of in the middle of the waterfront and headed the one direction…and there was like nothing there except “beach” which was just cement that you could lay on and get into the water from. Very strange. So we put our feet in then headed back the other way and found the small town with restaurants and stuff. It was so quiet with not many people there.

    Then on to Baška where we are staying. We are really close to the beach, which runs the length of town and then some! It goes on forever! We walked along it a ways, and there were so many people at the beach and in the water! The busiest beach we have been to by far! We then got a drink at one of the beach bars and enjoyed the view! Later after dinner we headed back and walked the other direction and it was a lot of walking! But really nice pedestrian waterfront with cute buildings and I really enjoyed it. Our place doesn’t have amazing views, but it is still pretty nice and you can just see sunset from the balcony. Tomorrow more exploring!    Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia

    Plateau of the Moon Hike

    26 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    I decided to split today into two posts as I had too many photos I wanted to use. First up our morning adventures hiking up to the moon plateau and back. We got up and got going while it was still cool out which was good as the first part of the hike is straight up the mountain to the top. Luckily it was still in shade when we hiked up with a nice breeze so it wasn’t too bad. At the top it was gorgeous! The photos aren’t very good, but the plateau was full of these grasses that were like fuzzy on the end and it made it look so cool! Especially in the wind, though the wind was cold and I had to put my sweater on! It was gorgeous, but didn’t really look like the moon.

    Then it was a gradual descent to the church on the hill and back to the car mostly through forest with some nice views along the way. It was starting to get warm on the way down so we were glad we had gotten going so early!

    Afterwards we drove back to Punat for lunch at the one restaurant - vegan chicken burger with a side of Swiss chard Dalmatian Style - we had tried to find this while we were in Dalmatia area, but never saw it on a menu so thought we would try it out now. Everything was super tasty! And there were way more people than yesterday which was odd, but still fun. Then it was on to more adventures!    Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia
    1

    Vrbnik

    26 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    The second part of our day was exploring Vrbnik, a small town on a hill with narrow, windy pedestrian roads. It even has the narrowest road in the world at only 43cm wide which we of course had to walk through! It was pretty fun just wandering and seeing what we would see, then we started hearing thunder which was so loud in the narrow streets as it reverberated all over. We went to spy as it was sunny there and it was thundering across the water in the mountains, but it was slowly moving towards us. We got all of our spying done and went down to the beach to put our feet in the water (it wasn’t as cold as most places have been!) as the dark clouds started getting closer so we headed back to the car. It started sprinkling on us, and once we got in the car it started pouring! And thunder and lightning and crazy storm! We drove through it, we could see the lightning in the sky through the windshield, but then we crossed the mountain pass to our side of the island and it was sunny and gorgeous.

    We were supposed to go out to a fancy vegan place for dinner, but once again were foiled this time by the weather. Around dinner time it was so nice where we are staying, but the restaurant is on the other side where it stormed, so I checked the radar and still stormy over there so that won’t work! Oh well, we can see the storm clouds that way if we look off the balcony.

    We also have been seeing all of these rocks or sculptures of/with strange symbols on them on our side of the mountains and we were like what are these?!? Well we finally found one on the beach and it had a sign - they are letters of the Glagolitic alphabet, the first Croatian script developed in the 9th century! So that was fun and we are going to stop and spy on some of them on our way out of town tomorrow. Once we knew what they were it was fun trying to find all of the ones we could!

    We went down to the waterfront for sunset as the sun sets behind the town and it was pretty nice. The place down the street from us also has these trees/shrubs in fun shapes! Tomorrow we move on and explore more towns    Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia

    Rijeka

    27 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Today I split into 2 parts again as we went to two cities and well why not share more photos? First we headed off and stopped to take photos of all the Glagolitic letters we could find on the road out of town which was a lot of fun. Then when planning the trip a friend said we should make sure to stop in the two cities we stopped in today so I added today to the plan. First up was Rijeka and I’m sorry if you are reading this, but I am not entirely sure why they recommended it. To us it was kind of a nondescript generic city, maybe we didn’t go to the right place, but we still had a wander and enjoyed ourselves. We almost said never mind and left as we tried to park in this parking lot and the ticket machine just let everyone in even though there were no spaces so there were tons of cars circling waiting for someone to leave, including us, which after a half hour we were done and decided to just move on to the next stop. We were there so long we had to pay though so we went to do that and there were other people paying and leaving and I was like we could ask them where they parked and see if we can get their space! Raymond got out to do that and the first guy was just like go away no, which is fine, but we got super lucky the second lady was really nice and was like I am parked over here and Raymond went with her while I tried to find them and she even waited till I got there to get in her car and go - Raymond said she said people would cause a riot if he tried to just hold the space, so that was so so so nice of her! So we finally got parked and were able to explore!

    First we happened upon a gluten free bakery so I went to spy as they often have vegan things and they did! We got to try Krofna which are Croatian doughnuts, one with marmalade and one with vanilla cream and they are both delicious! We have seen them around so it was nice we could try them!

    Then went to the market as I wanted some more cherries and figs and it is just fun to wander there. Then through town, which had some nice spots, but overall was not my favorite. I did find a pretty nice street art alley such was fun, but overall eh. Oh the one church there was also the most ornate one we have seen on our trip here! Most of them have very simple, but this one was pretty fancy. We had lunch at a noodle place which was pretty good, then wandered back to the car. The second to last photo is the door of the cathedral - that was pretty interesting! There was also an entrance to an old WWII military tunnel to help the people survive bombings so of course we had to wander through there. Then it was off to the next stop, and man even driving through the city was not my favorite as everyone just did whatever they wanted! Turned almost into us, pulled out and cut people off left and right, it was crazy. I was so glad to be gone from that town!    Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia

    Opatija

    27 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Next up was Opatija which is where we are staying for the night. I really just wanted to park the car and be done with driving after the last parking/driving debacle and luckily it was easy peasy getting to where we are staying and they have their own parking lot which is nice. So once we unpacked it was off to explore the town and I enjoyed it so much more! The main road was really cute and felt very much like an old healthy spa town or something. Like an old beach town which I loved. The buildings were nice, the waterfront was nice, there were lots of parks, it was all just really great. We wandered, found some gelato (watermelon for me which was really good!), had some cold drinks by the water (I usually go for a Virgin mojito, but they had this blueberry drink that I was like oh, that sounds different I will try that. I chose poorly, but oh well, it was nice enjoying the views!)

    Then we went down and put our feet in water. The “beaches” were again just cement, but there were like circular pools to swim in which was fun. Then we wandered back through some parks to where we are staying - the last 2 photos are the views from our terrace which is so nice! It is a floor above ground and perfect for relaxing! We took a quick dip in the pool before dinner and some kids were in it at the one end so we went down to the other end and they were just like stranger danger and got out not long after we got there. Then by the time we got back to our place above the pool they were back in! I thought it was pretty fun, but in a way kind they didn’t splash all around while we were swimming. The sun sets behind us so no sunset tonight, but there are lots of clouds back there anyways. Overall it was a good day, and Opatija was pretty great! I’m loving sitting on our terrace and enjoying the views!    Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia
    2

    Drunken Railroad, Labin, Medulin

    28 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Today we did not do as much as I had planned as this morning was a bit of an adventure. First up was a visit to the drunken railroad, an old abandoned railroad that got warped with ground movement, which was a much longer stop than I expected. I was following directions from someone else who had gone there and they said to park at this church so I did…and it seemed like it would be a really long walk so we drove a bit farther to a trail I had marked that mentioned it and were started on that. We turned down the old railroad tracks and at first it was fine, but then it was all overgrown and hard to walk through and I was like where is this crazy part?!?! Well it was not that close so we trekked on. Luckily we got to a road crossing and after that the tracks were clear, but it still took over an hour to walk to this small section that wasn’t as crazy as I thought it would be (and smaller than I thought!). Oh well, the surrounding area was pretty nice. Big mountains on one side, open valley on the other. But if we had parked at the church the person said it would have added at least another hour to our already longer than expected walk!

    Then we headed on to Labin, which I had read was a colorful old town. This was a tiny old town that took maybe a half hour to wander all the streets, but it was fun. A little disappointing as while there was color most of it was muted which I was expecting more vibrant colors. Still a nice stop and we did find some gelato to cool us off for the walk back to the car (we parked about a kilometer away, but it was a nice walk with views of the water and valley and old town).

    After that it was time to head on to where we are staying, Medulin. We had a quick dip in the pool and then went to spy on the town - there was an old windmill on the water, and a small kids amusement park. It felt more like a party beach town as there were tons of bars and stuff there, but this early in the season it was fine. Nothing special about town, but it is always nice to be by the water. Tomorrow we have an island adventure which should be fun!    Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia
    1
    111

    Fazana & Brijuni National Park

    29 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Phew! Today was a long day! We were out of the house for about 12 hours which is longer than usual. We got up and headed to Fazana to take the ferry over to Brijuni National Park and explore. The park is an island and you can either walk, rent a bike or rent an electric golf cart to get around. We of course chose to walk and I had a trail that said it was 13km that went around the whole island…which is a good amount of walking, but not crazy (we have been doing 14-15km/day). Well somehow we did over 20km! Crazy!

    We walked around most of the island - the first part was a golf course which wasn’t that exciting, but then you got to the dinosaur footprints which were way more exciting, and an odd Safari park with zebra, ostrich, an elephant, and local farm animals. That was fun as they were out in open field just doing their thing.

    The next part made Raymond very cranky - it was a long, hot road walk where you couldn’t see the coast as it was all private Villas. Raymond was just like be a National park or not! But then we got to all the really old ruins which were interesting, and some more dinosaur footprints which made him happy.

    We had brought our swim stuff with us, but the ferry didn’t leave that often and we ran out of time to swim (unless we wanted to take a late ferry back, which we didn’t). So we headed back to town and spied on the restaurants and found one with pasta with vegetables so we decided to have dinner there. It was a bit early so Raymond sat and read his book while I put my feet on the water! It wasn’t that cold which was surprising, and there were a lot of ramps out into the water which were fun to walk down as the waves came up over them. Then dinner and home. A long day, but pretty fun overall!    Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia

    Pula

    30 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Today is another 2 post day as we visited 2 towns that were pretty nice! First up was Pula. I had not originally planned to stop here as I didn’t find that much about things to do except see the old Roman amphitheater, which while I thought it would be cool to see I also had other things on my to do list I wanted to do more. I was going to do a beach hike and swim today, but the weather didn’t cooperate and was a bit chilly and windy and not the best swimming weather (plus it was very flat where we were and I looked at photos of the hike and we thought nah as it was in another National park you had to pay quite a bit to go into). So we headed off to explore Pula and it was way nicer than I expected! It is a holiday today so all the stores were closed, but it was super nice walking around (especially this morning when the city was empty!). We parked out of town since a) it was free and we don’t mind walking and b) we weren’t sure how busy it would be and the last few times we have tried to park closer it has been a nightmare and full. I’m glad we did as we found this street art area which was fun and got to see a bit of the area outside of the touristy downtown which I always enjoy.

    We wandered through town and at first it was super empty which was nice. There are so many old ruins and things around town which was fun. It is also set up in a circle so it was easy to wander and see everything. We ended up getting some tea in the square with the city hall and Temple of Augustus, there wandered more to almost back to the beginning of the circle where the Roman Amphitheater was. It was really nice as you could walk the whole way around the outside and see everything! Then we found a Mexican place we thought we would try for lunch and got fajitas, which while not really Mexican food was super tasty as it tasted like moo shu vegetables which we love and haven’t had in forever so we weren’t upset about that.

    I was glad we decided to stop in Pula as I really enjoyed it there! It was so nice walking around and seeing all the things!    Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia

    Rovinj

    30 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    After Pula we headed on to Rovinj, another small town on the coast. This felt much more colorful than Labin so I don’t know why it isn’t considered the colorful town. It was interesting as on the small peninsula where old town was you would wander then all of a sudden there would be a „street“ opening and it was just the water right there. There was also a bunker on the point and a church with the sarcophagus of St Euphemia, the patron Saint of the city, up on the hill (the streets circled up to it which was fun). There were lots of nice, narrow, windy streets to wander which we always enjoy. It was starting to get a bit stormy, lots of wind and dark clouds around, but luckily not right over us so we didn’t get stormed on.

    After we explored it was on to our last place we are staying in Croatia. It is a house with its own pool and when I booked it I thought that will be nice as a last stay! We can swim and relax by the pool, only the weather so far has had other plans! It is raining lots and lots and has been since shortly after we got here and lots of thunderstorms are rolling through just north of us. You can still hear all the thunder and see some flashes of lightning! It is fun as I love thunderstorms, but it is supposed to storm all day tomorrow…we shall see if it actually does this time! Luckily the place has a nice big covered patio we can sit out on (even though it is freezing with the wind and no sun and super damp air! We are all layered up, but what else are you going to do? We love sitting outside and we can always make some hot tea to keep us warm :)    Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia

    All the small towns!

    31 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Today is another two post day as we went to too many places! Though it will be a bit out of order.

    We woke up to grey skies that started to clear up and the forecast said rain/storms this afternoon so we headed out. First up was Hum, considered by some to be the smallest town in the world. We found some more of those letters along the way and the town was pretty small, but not as small as I expected. 2 streets, but a good number of buildings, how is it the smallest in the world? What constitutes a town as opposed to something else? Raymond found online someone in Croatia who learned in school that in medieval times you had to have a wall, a town square, and a church to be considered a town which Hum has. So with those parameters it probably is!

    Then we went to Kotli where there is a river and a waterfall and I had seen some gorgeous photos of people swimming in these shallow pools…only it rained way too much yesterday/this morning and there was so much water and sediment! Still a fun stop, but not like what you get in the summer when it is drier.

    Then we headed on to Motovun, which will be the next post as it was pretty nice. Lastly we went to a large town, Poreč, mainly because there were grocery stores there and a vegan restaurant with desserts to try! So we wandered the town and there were WAY too many people walking on the road through town. I was like let’s get some gelato (hazelnut this time) and go out to the water (it is a tiny peninsula with like 2 road through and one around) and that was much better! Though we could hear thunder from the dark clouds around us! The water was also pretty green close to the shore which was different. Overall both of us were meh on the city, and when we stopped to get some treats at the vegan restaurant they were closed until dinner! We thought about trying again for dinner, but so many storms are rolling through and it is FREEZING outside so it wouldn’t work out. Foiled once again! Oh well.    Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia

    Motovun

    31 de mayo de 2024, Croacia ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Motovun is a small town on a hill that was pretty small, smaller than the other towns on a hill we went to like Verbnik and Labin. We parked at the bottom of the hill and walked up and around all the streets we could. You could buy a pass to walk on the city wall, but you could see the top of the wall from the inner streets…and the views you get you can get from just below the wall on the outside so it didn’t seem worth the 5 Euro/person it cost. It was really tiny so would take minutes to walk. But I think we walked on every street except that. The surrounding area was nice, though the dark clouds were coming in again and by the time we got to the car it started sprinkling, and when we got in the car it started pouring! Great timing on our part! We drove out to a viewpoint for the city and there was a giant‘s chair (there is a story of Veli Joze, a giant who lived in the area) which was fun.

    The last photo is where we are staying, in between rain storms! When we got home we had a bunch of groceries to bring in and it started sprinkling again, and on the last trip out it started raining more and as soon as we closed the doors it just downpoured! Again perfect timing!! We had been sitting outside on our covered patio, but all of a sudden around 5:30 it got sooooo cold! I had all of my layers I brought on and a warm blanket from the house and I was still freezing! My hands turned to ice cubes so we had to move inside. It is so humid and the storms bring the cold wind and it is crazy! Earlier in the sun it was so hot, and all day it was hot and cold with all the storms moving through. I am glad I did bring warm layers as I almost left most of them at home thinking it would be hot and I would never use them! This is definitely the coldest it has been on our trip, and it is the last day! Was not expecting that! But we had a lot of fun. Tomorrow we head towards home, though we won’t get back until Sunday afternoon. I will probably make one last post when we get back on Sunday just as final thoughts :)    Leer más

    Ver traducción
  • Jen RitcheyViajeroCroatia

    Home Again

    1 de junio de 2024, Alemania ⋅ 🌩️ 16 °C

    Phew! We finally made it home. That drive was long and stressful and not that much fun, though we did get luckier than we could have with it. Starting out in Croatia was sunny and beautiful, then we got into some spooky clouds which were fun, and then all the rain. So much rain. There were times I thought we were going to have to pull over at the next exit and wait for it to let up as it was raining so hard. So much water on the road at times too so it was slow going for most of the way. That and there was a lot of traffic through Austria so it all was a lot. There was one point where google said there was a backup of an hour because of an accident at a construction zone, but we could get off the freeway and go around it through the small towns and save some time so we decided to do that. I think a lot of people did and we got to a roundabout where the first exit road went to an entrance to the freeway where the traffic was really bad and the second continued on. We of course were going to go with the second exit, but some guy was standing in the rain making most of the cars go to the freeway exit road (not sure who he was or why), and we had to as well. But there was a gas station or something on the corner behind him between the two roads so I pulled in there and went out on the roundabout behind him and we went on our way. I really don't know why other people didn't do that, but they all just listened to him and went and sat in traffic.

    I was thinking before this that we do a lot of driving here and I have never actually driven past a car accident. I know they happen, but I just have never seen one, but yesterday there were quite a few. I think a lot of people were not driving for the weather and disregarding the speed limits they had posted which were quite slow, but for a reason. We were lucky as we passed a lot of areas going the other way where the traffic was backed up and not moving forever, over 5km each time, but we didn't have anything like that (or maybe the bit we went around way). The radio said the one section going the other way that we had passed earlier you should expect a 3 hour delay! 3 hours! I was like if we were there that would be stop and continue on tomorrow kind of delay. I cannot imagine sitting there for that long.

    We were going to stop in Munich to get dinner at this Afghan restaurant that is amazing, but with the weather and all the severe weather/flood warnings in the area we decided it would be best to just continue on to where we were staying. It was a long day already and we didn't really feel like walking around in the cold and pouring rain (it was pretty cold all day too. Whenever we took a quick break we had to bundle up). We got into southern Nuremberg where we were staying after just over 10 hours of driving what should have been maybe 9 hours, so not that bad (it said it was an 8 hour drive, but with breaks that adds time), but it felt like so much longer. We had some food and then went for a walk in the area since it wasn't raining and found this pretty nice park. They had all these play areas that were like those courses in trees where you walk along unstable things - I don't know what they are called, but it was pretty nice. There were some for smaller kids up to really difficult ones that I don't even know that I could do them! And we found a few other fun things on our wanders.

    Today we headed off and it was more pouring rain! All the rain! There was a lot of flooding just south of us and the freeway we took the day prior from Munich was closed because of it. So I was glad we stopped as far north as we did! Then when we finally made it to Berlin we got here just as the cops were closing off the freeways we needed to get home, no clue why as we couldn't find anything online, but luckily it only added about a half hour to our travel time (I imagine if we had been later the traffic would have been much worse!). And it was sunny and gorgeous when we got home so that was nice.

    So that was our trip. I really enjoyed it, even though getting home was kind of a mess. The water was gorgeous, we both agreed we loved Dubrovnik and Makarska area the most, and Baska in the north was also really nice (though the beach was already way too busy). Overall it wasn't as warm as I thought it would be, which is good for me, but then we didn't swim as much because I freeze (though still tried to swim for a little bit every day!). We had some really good food, the scenery was great, and we enjoyed exploring all the things.    Leer más

    Ver traducción
    Fin del viaje
    2 de junio de 2024