A short drive from Montenegro is Dubrovnik, probably one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world now, so naturally we had to go and see this old city, built by the Venetians in the 1300s (previous incarnations were destroyed by a great fire in 1296). We found a campsite just to the north and decided to take the bus into town the following day.
After our experiences with popular tourists destinations in the past few months, we knew it was going to be busy in there—not just with Europeans but people from all over the world, thanks in part to Game of Thrones—so we got up early and were in the old city just before 9am.
This was a great move as for nearly an hour, there were hardly any people about, the main thoroughfare (Stradun) usually rammed with guided tours was virtually empty. It was a good opportunity to get a few photos of the city, the cobbled streets, the major monuments and churches without the back of peoples’ heads in them.
It’s a lovely setting and is probably seen best from up above, but you don’t need to pay the extortionate fee to walk around the walls, just walk up the hill outside the old walls! We also found a basketball court within the walls that looked down on the city.
Sure enough the masses did arrive by 10am or so and the restaurants and souvenir shops were in full swing by midday.
By then, we had walked around the place and decided to head back to the campsite for lunch.
We enjoyed the experience and we would totally recommend it to anyone, however, we weren’t knocked off our feet like we thought we might be, maybe we have seen too much lately or perhaps we were expecting ‘King’s Landing’ :-)
Gluttons for punishment, we decided to see a bit more ‘old stuff’ the next day. We stopped over at a small place called Ston on our way up the coast. A small charming place made up of two little villages with a fortified wall joining them. Very cute but nothing more. However the drive up the Dalmatian coast was superb and probably one of the highlights of our entire trip.
Croatia is ridiculous. How can one country have such a long amazing shore line? Beautiful clear water with lots of various shaped islands on one side, on the other, majestic mountains with pine trees and such. Just wonderful.
That night we ended up going up into the mountain a little and stopped over by a river, again beautiful clear water. A very peaceful place at night but also a popular one with canoeists in the day as it seemed to be a pick up point. It was a lovely place to wake up, watching a Kingsfisher do his thing and we also saw a Leopard Snake (in the water). After some breakfast, we walked up the river for a while, well actually battled through the bushes in all honesty to see where the path would take us, which was, nowhere really… We scrambled up the hill/mountain to rejoin a road and walk back down to the van. It wasn’t the best walk we’ve ever had, let’s say, and by the time we got back, we were all sweaty so the 12v shower came out, the river water being so clean, but boy it was cold!
All clean, we headed towards Split, Croatia’s second largest city and a busy port, but it was getting late so we drove on for a while longer to find a great place to stop over for the night—so good and with the weather being wet for the next two days, it ended up being three nights.
Wonderful views over towards Split, day and night.
We did manage to visit Split the next morning, before the rain really came down. A fascinating place this. When he was Emperor of Rome, Diocletian decided to build a palace here—to see out his retirement in part—and even though it was nearly 2000 years ago, lots of the walls still remain, further more over the centuries, the palace has been adapted time and time again and what we see today is a real mish-mash of styles inside the walls. Sure it’s touristy, but it’s also a lived in place, rough around the edges, and in a way more authentic than picture-perfect Dubrovnik. We really enjoyed it here, as it was different.
We got back to our ‘spot’ and hunkered down for nearly two days, it really did lash it down, but sure enough, that was that and the sun was back out.
Although it is getting noticeably cooler in the evenings and at night, it still very warm in the day but not too much, October is a great time to visit Croatia, a sentiment that the Germans agree on for sure. There are so many motorhomes of mostly retired couple enjoying the sunshine and warmth down here.
Around the corner is Trogir, another pretty Venetian town that we walked around for an hour or so, before heading back inland to visit the Krka National Park.
It’s a wonderful place, with some beautiful waterfalls, amongst other things. We got up early again to beat the crowds and got the first boat in at the lower section of the park. It stretches out for 45km or so, following the trail of the river Krka. After a while, we then drove up to another section and saw some other bits and bobs and climbed up a steep mountain side to get some views of the river and valley below, there was a further climb a little later up 500 odd steps to see a cave, which in fairness we could have missed out really…
After another wonderful overnight stop just north of the park next to a bay mostly used by friendly fishermen, we headed into Zadar in the morning, mainly because I wanted to see the peculiar Sea Organ, which turned out to be not as exciting visually but it did work well sonically when the waves hit the perforated stone stairs that descend into the sea. Basically it’s a system of pipes and whistles that make various notes when the water pushes through it. Aside from that, Zadar was another one of those Venetian towns, but it suffered badly during the world wars, so it wasn’t as complete as other places.
Directly after, we drove a good three hours up the coast towards the north of the Adriatic following the very windy road, which was a tiring drive in fact, even though we shared the effort. Mostly its a bleak and near bare landscape with hardly any towns at all, although still majestic to look at. There is a wind called the Bura which sweeps through here making living in the area or growing crops not ideal.
An overnight stay at a campsite, and then in the morning we headed for a town called Opatija, a riviera resort place built at the turn of the 19thC for the well to do Austro-Hungarians of the day. A bit of the ‘Eastbourne of Croatia’ about it but with some gorgeous villas in the late 1800s French style on show.
In the afternoon, we headed into Istria and the following day visited a couple of old towns in the middle of the heart-shaped peninsula before heading towards the tip to see the wonderfully well preserved Amphitheatre in Pula (the rest of the town is much of the same as the rest of the other Venetian towns on the Adriatic, the Venetians built their towns to a certain form and function). Having never seen the Colosseum (yet) or any other complete amphitheatres this was a first for us and we thought it was terrific.
Istria was quite different to the rest of Croatia that we saw, the landscape felt very temperate and we could have been in France if we didn’t know better, but wow, summer holiday tourism is in full flow down the west coast. It seemed to be one huge Butlins resort of sorts, with kilometres of camping areas, water parks, restaurants, etc. etc. of course empty at this time of year, but in the summer it must be absolutely heaving around here. We counted at least five huge caravan ‘car parks’, for people to leave their homes from home over the winter.
Having seen old Venetian towns Ad Nauseam lately, we skipped seeing other towns here such a Rovinj—it has got to saturation point and we want to enjoy seeing Venice when we get there.
We had thought of going to see Zagreb and other places over that way, but perhaps that will have to be for next time. We did like what we saw of Croatia—such beautiful landscapes—and we certainly enjoyed their Burek! but we could really tell that we were back in Western Europe, it’s all too easy!
So after one more night in Croatia, we headed into Slovenia.
Slovenia is a country that we are naturally attracted too, being an Alpine one and walking in the mountains would be fantastic for sure but it’s getting late in the year for all that now, so we will have to come back one day in mid/late spring and visit the country properly.
This time, we just spent a couple of nights here, to visit a wonderful castle and a spectacular cave.
A combined ticket lets you visit both of these attractions, not cheap but well worth it.
First up was Postojna Cave (if the one in Krka park wasn’t worth it, this one certainly was) around 2 million years old and so vast (24km) you have to take a train inside for 2km to get to the ‘good’ bit, the ride was great fun, a little bit of the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom feel about it, don’t stand up or lean out, that kind of thing. Once inside we walked around for a good 1.5km. The sheer scale of this place was amazing, stalactites and stalagmites seem to stretch endlessly in all directions. We’ve seen some very impressive caves in our time but this may be the best yet. It was opened in 1819 and according to our guide has received some 36 million visitors since, apparently making it the most visited cave in the world. There certainly were a lot of people here, but the cave is so big, it doesn’t matter.
We also got to see the Cave Salamander which they take care off here in vivariums/aquariums, also known as the Human Fish due to it’s pinkish flesh, it can live up to 100 years apparently and can go up to 10 years without food! Strange little chap.
Leaving the crowds behind, we headed to Predjama Castle some 9km up the mountain, much more serene and peaceful here.
Built inside a cave, seeming near impregnable, this is one of the most striking of castles we’ve seen from the outside, though more basic inside and not that luxurious. Most of the buildings we see now date from the 1500s with a few recent renovations. Just a wonderful place to walk around, made all the better for us as we saw our first Wallcreeper darting up the castle walls and cliff face—I was only sating to Wend a few weeks back that I hoped we would see one sometime.
Like a Norman castle with a keep, this castle had a further safe haven in case of attack, the ‘keep’ was inside the cave itself, although it’s difficult to decipher now what it would have looked like 500 years ago as only the facade remains.
Very happy with our lot, we returned to the spot we’d found up on a mountain the previous night to stay over again and that was that for Slovenia, for now at least, it’s getting a bit too cold now to stay in this mountainous country so we’re heading towards Venice.
Well, this will be the last post for a while.
We’re making our way back to the UK (slowly) for various reasons and we’re booked in for a housesit early Dec. We’ll stop off and see some parts of Northern Italy and Southern France—on route to see my family—but these areas are too well travelled and documented for me to have the urge to write about them.
Until next time.
Dubrovnik
Ston and Driving up the Coast
Wildcamping
Split
Trogir
Krka NP
Zadar
Opatija
Istria
Slovenia
After our experiences with popular tourists destinations in the past few months, we knew it was going to be busy in there—not just with Europeans but people from all over the world, thanks in part to Game of Thrones—so we got up early and were in the old city just before 9am.
This was a great move as for nearly an hour, there were hardly any people about, the main thoroughfare (Stradun) usually rammed with guided tours was virtually empty. It was a good opportunity to get a few photos of the city, the cobbled streets, the major monuments and churches without the back of peoples’ heads in them.
It’s a lovely setting and is probably seen best from up above, but you don’t need to pay the extortionate fee to walk around the walls, just walk up the hill outside the old walls! We also found a basketball court within the walls that looked down on the city.
Sure enough the masses did arrive by 10am or so and the restaurants and souvenir shops were in full swing by midday.
By then, we had walked around the place and decided to head back to the campsite for lunch.
We enjoyed the experience and we would totally recommend it to anyone, however, we weren’t knocked off our feet like we thought we might be, maybe we have seen too much lately or perhaps we were expecting ‘King’s Landing’ :-)
Gluttons for punishment, we decided to see a bit more ‘old stuff’ the next day. We stopped over at a small place called Ston on our way up the coast. A small charming place made up of two little villages with a fortified wall joining them. Very cute but nothing more. However the drive up the Dalmatian coast was superb and probably one of the highlights of our entire trip.
Croatia is ridiculous. How can one country have such a long amazing shore line? Beautiful clear water with lots of various shaped islands on one side, on the other, majestic mountains with pine trees and such. Just wonderful.
That night we ended up going up into the mountain a little and stopped over by a river, again beautiful clear water. A very peaceful place at night but also a popular one with canoeists in the day as it seemed to be a pick up point. It was a lovely place to wake up, watching a Kingsfisher do his thing and we also saw a Leopard Snake (in the water). After some breakfast, we walked up the river for a while, well actually battled through the bushes in all honesty to see where the path would take us, which was, nowhere really… We scrambled up the hill/mountain to rejoin a road and walk back down to the van. It wasn’t the best walk we’ve ever had, let’s say, and by the time we got back, we were all sweaty so the 12v shower came out, the river water being so clean, but boy it was cold!
All clean, we headed towards Split, Croatia’s second largest city and a busy port, but it was getting late so we drove on for a while longer to find a great place to stop over for the night—so good and with the weather being wet for the next two days, it ended up being three nights.
Wonderful views over towards Split, day and night.
We did manage to visit Split the next morning, before the rain really came down. A fascinating place this. When he was Emperor of Rome, Diocletian decided to build a palace here—to see out his retirement in part—and even though it was nearly 2000 years ago, lots of the walls still remain, further more over the centuries, the palace has been adapted time and time again and what we see today is a real mish-mash of styles inside the walls. Sure it’s touristy, but it’s also a lived in place, rough around the edges, and in a way more authentic than picture-perfect Dubrovnik. We really enjoyed it here, as it was different.
We got back to our ‘spot’ and hunkered down for nearly two days, it really did lash it down, but sure enough, that was that and the sun was back out.
Although it is getting noticeably cooler in the evenings and at night, it still very warm in the day but not too much, October is a great time to visit Croatia, a sentiment that the Germans agree on for sure. There are so many motorhomes of mostly retired couple enjoying the sunshine and warmth down here.
Around the corner is Trogir, another pretty Venetian town that we walked around for an hour or so, before heading back inland to visit the Krka National Park.
It’s a wonderful place, with some beautiful waterfalls, amongst other things. We got up early again to beat the crowds and got the first boat in at the lower section of the park. It stretches out for 45km or so, following the trail of the river Krka. After a while, we then drove up to another section and saw some other bits and bobs and climbed up a steep mountain side to get some views of the river and valley below, there was a further climb a little later up 500 odd steps to see a cave, which in fairness we could have missed out really…
After another wonderful overnight stop just north of the park next to a bay mostly used by friendly fishermen, we headed into Zadar in the morning, mainly because I wanted to see the peculiar Sea Organ, which turned out to be not as exciting visually but it did work well sonically when the waves hit the perforated stone stairs that descend into the sea. Basically it’s a system of pipes and whistles that make various notes when the water pushes through it. Aside from that, Zadar was another one of those Venetian towns, but it suffered badly during the world wars, so it wasn’t as complete as other places.
Directly after, we drove a good three hours up the coast towards the north of the Adriatic following the very windy road, which was a tiring drive in fact, even though we shared the effort. Mostly its a bleak and near bare landscape with hardly any towns at all, although still majestic to look at. There is a wind called the Bura which sweeps through here making living in the area or growing crops not ideal.
An overnight stay at a campsite, and then in the morning we headed for a town called Opatija, a riviera resort place built at the turn of the 19thC for the well to do Austro-Hungarians of the day. A bit of the ‘Eastbourne of Croatia’ about it but with some gorgeous villas in the late 1800s French style on show.
In the afternoon, we headed into Istria and the following day visited a couple of old towns in the middle of the heart-shaped peninsula before heading towards the tip to see the wonderfully well preserved Amphitheatre in Pula (the rest of the town is much of the same as the rest of the other Venetian towns on the Adriatic, the Venetians built their towns to a certain form and function). Having never seen the Colosseum (yet) or any other complete amphitheatres this was a first for us and we thought it was terrific.
Istria was quite different to the rest of Croatia that we saw, the landscape felt very temperate and we could have been in France if we didn’t know better, but wow, summer holiday tourism is in full flow down the west coast. It seemed to be one huge Butlins resort of sorts, with kilometres of camping areas, water parks, restaurants, etc. etc. of course empty at this time of year, but in the summer it must be absolutely heaving around here. We counted at least five huge caravan ‘car parks’, for people to leave their homes from home over the winter.
Having seen old Venetian towns Ad Nauseam lately, we skipped seeing other towns here such a Rovinj—it has got to saturation point and we want to enjoy seeing Venice when we get there.
We had thought of going to see Zagreb and other places over that way, but perhaps that will have to be for next time. We did like what we saw of Croatia—such beautiful landscapes—and we certainly enjoyed their Burek! but we could really tell that we were back in Western Europe, it’s all too easy!
So after one more night in Croatia, we headed into Slovenia.
Slovenia is a country that we are naturally attracted too, being an Alpine one and walking in the mountains would be fantastic for sure but it’s getting late in the year for all that now, so we will have to come back one day in mid/late spring and visit the country properly.
This time, we just spent a couple of nights here, to visit a wonderful castle and a spectacular cave.
A combined ticket lets you visit both of these attractions, not cheap but well worth it.
First up was Postojna Cave (if the one in Krka park wasn’t worth it, this one certainly was) around 2 million years old and so vast (24km) you have to take a train inside for 2km to get to the ‘good’ bit, the ride was great fun, a little bit of the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom feel about it, don’t stand up or lean out, that kind of thing. Once inside we walked around for a good 1.5km. The sheer scale of this place was amazing, stalactites and stalagmites seem to stretch endlessly in all directions. We’ve seen some very impressive caves in our time but this may be the best yet. It was opened in 1819 and according to our guide has received some 36 million visitors since, apparently making it the most visited cave in the world. There certainly were a lot of people here, but the cave is so big, it doesn’t matter.
We also got to see the Cave Salamander which they take care off here in vivariums/aquariums, also known as the Human Fish due to it’s pinkish flesh, it can live up to 100 years apparently and can go up to 10 years without food! Strange little chap.
Leaving the crowds behind, we headed to Predjama Castle some 9km up the mountain, much more serene and peaceful here.
Built inside a cave, seeming near impregnable, this is one of the most striking of castles we’ve seen from the outside, though more basic inside and not that luxurious. Most of the buildings we see now date from the 1500s with a few recent renovations. Just a wonderful place to walk around, made all the better for us as we saw our first Wallcreeper darting up the castle walls and cliff face—I was only sating to Wend a few weeks back that I hoped we would see one sometime.
Like a Norman castle with a keep, this castle had a further safe haven in case of attack, the ‘keep’ was inside the cave itself, although it’s difficult to decipher now what it would have looked like 500 years ago as only the facade remains.
Very happy with our lot, we returned to the spot we’d found up on a mountain the previous night to stay over again and that was that for Slovenia, for now at least, it’s getting a bit too cold now to stay in this mountainous country so we’re heading towards Venice.
Well, this will be the last post for a while.
We’re making our way back to the UK (slowly) for various reasons and we’re booked in for a housesit early Dec. We’ll stop off and see some parts of Northern Italy and Southern France—on route to see my family—but these areas are too well travelled and documented for me to have the urge to write about them.
Until next time.
Dubrovnik
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| Another super cute Kitty at the campsite |
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| Got to love the chinese getting all dressed up as if they are in Game of Thrones, brilliant! |
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| SHAME! |
Ston and Driving up the Coast
Wildcamping
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| Scrambling through the bushes |
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| Nice view once we climbed up the hillside though |
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| All along Dalmatia, you will see sstuff like this, ardent supporters. |
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| Driving back to the coast |
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| Our view for three nigts, Split in the distance on the right |
Split
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| How do you get in to that door then? |
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| More Hajduk Split graffiti |
Trogir
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| This was unusual, Adam & Eve statues. |
Krka NP
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| A carpet of cyclamen |
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| A very friendly kitty |
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| Another awesome place to spend the night |
Zadar
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| The sea organ |
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| Last night in Dalmatia |
Opatija
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| From Opatija, you can walk around to Volosko |
Istria
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| Pazin gorge, the inspiration for Dante's Inferno and Jules Verne's Mathias Sandorf book |
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| Svetvincenat |
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| You can torture him all you like, he'll never talk |
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| The wonderful Pula Amphitheatre |
Slovenia
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| Some photos came out ok, usually tough to get good cave shots with a mobile phone |
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| What a castle! |
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| Where does the cave end and the castle begin? |
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| The second castle inside the cave |
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| View from Nanos, where we stayed two nights |
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| And we are reunited with the Camino once again. Well that's that for now, see you soon! |
