Plitvice, Croatia
Our next country is Croatia, an old nation with a depth of history. Nestled between Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro and Italy, this is a country rich with deep forested landscapes and an alluring coastline. We spent a week in Croatia about 11 years ago, enjoying a tour along the coast, so were glad to come back here under our own steam and at our own pace.
The drive from Bled was very scenic, through karst limestone mountains covered dense woodland which contain bears, wolves and lynx (apparently). Most of the journey was on good motorways with equally good speed limits – 130kph is a decent limit. The last hour or so was on a slower B-road equivalent, taking us down to the Hotel Mirjana Rastoke, a roadside motel-like venue with serviceable rooms, but terrible food. We dropped our bags, and to clear my head after a longish drive, we hired a couple of mountain bikes and cycled for a few kilometres down to Rastoke town near the amusingly named ‘Slunj’.
Rastoke is an old mill town which has been built on a river system, with a myriad of tributaries and small waterfalls meandering through the town, flowing their way under the old mill buildings. A number of the mills have now been converted into restaurants or cafes and it’s a very pretty little place to visit.
The next morning, we drove down to Plitvice Lakes National Park. We’d been fortunate to visit this place before, but were with a group and only had limited time to explore. After eventually getting parked (it’s BUSY), we hiked our way around the park, following the longest hiking route. The walk was good, and the scenery, with stunning aqua marine lakes and pretty waterfalls was very beautiful. However, as I mentioned, it was very very busy and it was slow going along the narrow boardwalks. Made all the slower when after 3 hours, we found ourselves at the end of the route, several kilometres away from our car, requiring a bus to get back to the car. The queue for the bus was another 1.5hours.
Trogir, Croatia
A further night at the Hotel Mirjana, and a very dodgy stomach the next morning (did I mention the bad food?), we made a beeline to Trogir on the coast. We were staying in the beautiful old town, a fortified island complete with castle, walls, and a maze of little streets. It is surrounded by boats, as 1000+ islands pepper the Adriatic coastline of Croatia and it’s a Mecca for sailing and the boating community every summer. Staying in an Airbnb, we were well located to enjoy the restaurants and were only a minute away from our pick-up at 6am the next morning to head out by boat to visit some of the islands.
We were on a fast rib with another 10 folk. We picked up a few folk 20 mins away at Split, at which point Shona and I tactically dropped a sea sickness tablet each (just in time) and headed out to sea for a bumpy hour to visit the ‘Blue Cave’. We transferred to a smaller boat at a little harbour operating solely for the purpose of visiting this UNESCO protected cave. We were driven into the cave on the boat and were genuinely impressed with natural blue light illuminating the cavern. The light streams in, reflected through an underwater entrance, reflecting off pure white sand below.
After the cave, we stopped at a couple of other coves, swimming at one, before lunch and a mooch around the gentrified island of Hvar, a Mecca for ‘Yachties’ with a lovely harbour overlooked by a castle on the hill above. Arriving back at around 6pm, we were weathered but had loved the day.
The next day, after morning runs around the harbour, we headed to a shopping centre near Split to stock up on essentials (sunscreen, shampoo, a hat for Shona!), then visited Split itself. It was a crowded spot and while there were pretty parts, we didn’t hang around for long before shooting back to Trogir for a very decent pizza (excellent ‘cornicone’).
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Leaving the next morning, we drove our utterly filthy car (not washed since the UK and parked in a veritable dust bowl) a few hours south east to Dubrovnik. We planned to park near the old city and wander the streets, but traffic was horrendous and we elected to head straight to the Hotel Lapad. Dropping the car, we caught an Uber into the city. Again, we’d been here 11 years ago, but this place delivers. It is truly staggering. The level of historic preservation; no wonder it’s such a massive tourist draw (cruise ships galore) and the location for Game of Thrones, The Last Jedi and Robin Hood.
We wandered the beautiful stone boulevards and explored the narrow lantern-filled alleyways. We stopped for a drink and enjoyed a hilarious moment with an Italian family having an argument. Cue teenage girl in full Italian gesticulated rage directed at mother who crosses her arms and turns her back on her. Poor father receives animated venting from daughter. Father wears pained look. Daughter buckles, strokes father, briefly calms… Then sees mother with crossed arms and erupts again… brilliant.
While again, we wouldn’t recommend visiting in the height of the summer season, it is a truly amazing destination. (Word of caution though, don’t expect cheap – it’s definitely hiked in price. €40 each to get access to the walls; we declined and relied on photos from our last visit!)
Kotor, Montenegro
The next day was a challenging drive. It looked straight forward enough; head down the coast, cross the border into Montenegro, then land at Kotor. Simples. The journey to the border was uneventful, but the border was a very long wait. Once eventually through, Google Maps rerouted us, recommending we take the Kamenari Ferry across a short stretch of water to avoid the long coastal drive. Made sense, we thought. Disembarking the ferry, we turned onto a very long narrow winding road hugging the coast. Still 40 mins to drive along this single laned road, complete with with crazy locals, few passing places, an idiot in a Motor Home, and a lot of unpredictable pedestrians, cyclists and insane taxi drivers.
By the time we arrived, we were both pretty frazzled, and weren’t brimming with holiday spirit when we met the lovely couple whose Airbnb we were staying in. We were however in a great apartment, with views over Kotor Bay, and a shared swimming pool, which Shona made a lot of use of.
We spent the next couple of days in and around the old town of Montenegro, walking back and forth along the Road of Terror into the town. One day, we hiked up the Kotor Ladder to a viewpoint high above the old walled city (a wall that extends up connecting ridglines to encircle the town high into the cliffs.
Unfortunately, I’d been struck down with a heavy cold, so some of the more energetic plans were out, but we did have a relaxing few days in a very pretty spot. For our next stop, we’re travelling South East, to Albania.
