Croatia

Our neighbors Hrvoje and Ivana invited us to stay in their vacation home in Croatia this summer. It was a real treat to be shown the area by locals. Their home is on the island of Krk, which is beautiful, but not touristy. We really enjoyed hanging out with them and some of their friends as well as getting the opportunity to go to a private beach. They have been visiting this island and this beach for many years with their families. Because of this, they have a lot of friends there and even have a special spot on the beach where they hang out.

We stayed about 4 nights with them and then visited a couple of other places on our own. We would have liked to spend more time on Krk but it would have been a pity not to see more of Croatia; especially since it was the country that was on the top of both of our "must see" lists. I am happy to say that it lived up to our expectations.

Traffic Jam in Austria

Ivana warned me ahead of time about driving on a Saturday. However, I decided to withold this information from Rick because we already had a hotel booked in Germany for Friday night and a hotel booked in Lake Bled, Slovenia for Saturday. He was not amused when I confessed this to him as we were sitting in one of the worst traffic jams I have ever seen! The entire drive from Brussels to Krk was 13 hours. We decided to break the trip up a bit by leaving Friday evening after Rick got off work and driving about 4 hours or so to Germany. The next morning we drove to Lake Bled where we spent Saturday night and most of Sunday. This was to be a 6 hour drive. It took us 11! There were many occasions where we were just standing outside of our car on the highway.

We were frustrated but didn't let it ruin our vacation and the story gave our friends a good laugh. They also got a laugh because we didn't know that Croatia was not part of the EU and, therefore, had our passports buried deep in the trunk in our luggage. As a consequence we held up the line at passport control while we searched for them.

Lake Bled, Slovenia

This was really a special place. It's a small town with a small lake and a small church that sits on top of a small island. The town is surrounded by mountains and is really, really cute. There is not much to do there, but it's definitely worth stopping for a day or two. We paddled out to the island and visited the church. We also found a fantastic restaurant that we ate at twice. We discovered it Saturday night after arriving late and, while outside of our normal travel budget, we decided to treat ourselves because we were tired, hungry and irritated about wasting our day sitting in traffic.

We are normally not crazy about the food in this region of Europe so it was great to find a restaurant that had some contemporary cuisine with some good vegetarian options. I had a wonderful pasta with truffle sauce. The truffles were local and were to die for! Of course our Croatian friends doubted that they could be as good as Croatian truffles (in their opinions, nothing in Slovenia could be as good as in Croatia--why even bother stopping there) and insisted that we try some in Croatia. However, we never got around to it.

Vintgar Gorge

This was a really cool gorge near Lake Bled.

Hanging Out with Friends

Visiting Some of the Towns on Krk

At the Beach

The beaches in Croatia are rocky rather than sandy and the water is clear. This beach was beautiful! It really had an island feel to it; especially because it had a lot of trees.

Smallest Town on Krk

Plitvice Lakes National Park

I know I sound like a guide book but this place is a "must see" for anyone visiting Croatia. It was magnificent! Rick and I spent 7 hours walking around in awe of the beauty of this place. There are about 7 lakes -- all at different elevations -- and everywhere you look you see waterfalls. Many of the waterfalls flow into one another and create even smaller pools. Moreover, the water is so crystal clear that you can often see to the bottom of the lakes and pools. Because Plitvice is located inland, it is also pretty forested. This is one of Europe's natural wonders! Words don't do it justice and neither do these pictures.

Istria Peninsula

We visited another part of Croatia called Istria. This is the peninsula that is in the northwestern part of Croatia, just across from Venice, Italy. It is a big wine growing region with some nice, roman towns/villages and a real Italian flavor.

Montavun
Cute, cute, cute village!

Wine Tasting

Porec

This was a very nice Roman style village and harbor.

Kayaking around Rovinj

Rick and I with a whole group of young, Dutch people.