Rovinj ...

...is located on the western coast of the Istrian peninsula and was the location of our day trip today being only 50 kms approx from Pula.

It has had an interesting history being originally Venetian then captured by the Romans, was part of the Byzantine Empire, then part of the Exarchate of Ravenna then taken by the Frankish Empire and we are only at 788AD! Later governed by the Republic of Venice, then part of the Austrian Empire, then part of Italy, then Yugolsavia and finally Croatia in 1991!

It is a bilingual town with both Croatian and Italian equally spoken.

Inspite of or because of its history and location it is a delightful town

The water of the Adriatic here is very clear and the fish could be clearly seen from the walkway (though the photo isn't)

Above the town sits Saint Euphemia's Basilica built in 1736 with adjacent Bell tower and the views out over the Adriatic are superb

as is the scene from sea level

There are a great number of tourist type shops in and adjacent to the alleyways but for some reason they don't distract from the grace of the town and that perhaps is because they are selling quality, hand made products

We arrived back at Pjescana Uvala latish afternoon and it was straight down the beach for a refresh.

Pjescana Uvala could be described as a Pauanui type holiday area which attracts holiday makers from all parts. In NZ unless you are talking to a fellow holiday maker you have no idea where they are from but here it is different because you can tell from their car registration. The visitors out number the locals in a big way - coming back from the beach this afternoon there were 72 cars parked on the road between the beach and our apartment and 49 of them were from countries other than Croatia.

In the 3 days we have been here we have noted cars from the following:

Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, France, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia & Serbia.

We have to say that the Croatian towns/cities we have visited on this and our previous trip rank right up there with the places we have enjoyed the most and that may be because they are situated on the Adriatic Coast which is a superb coastline.

 

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A waste of time

Today we went back to Pula centre to have a look at the Roman aspects of the city and as the bus stop was immediately outside the apartment we decided to travel by bus (€2 each, each way) - well this was a mistake as the bus arrived 25 minutes late and was packed to the gunnels.

Nevertheless 10 or so minutes later we were alighting at the bus centre. Before leaving there we needed to find the time buses were returning and we stood in front of a timetable board trying to decipher it. Having made the decision of the return times I asked a bus driver who was passing by to confirm the times which he did, so with that comfort we went to the Arena which is a Roman amphitheatre and is the only remaining amphitheatre with four side towers and the three Roman "architectural orders" entirely preserved

The Arena was constructed in 27BC-68AD and is among the six largest remaining Roman arenas in the World!

It is obviously used as a concert venue which if you were at the concert would be fine but detracts from it when there is nothing on.

Deeper into the centre of the city is a square known as the Forum

which is overlooked by the Temple of Rome and Augustus built in the 1st century AD..

...and at the commencement of the Old Town is another 1st century Roman structure The Arch of the Sergi

By this time, some shopping time included, it was time to get back to the bus terminal to get back home - we got there five minutes before the scheduled departure time and waited and waited and......

It was over 70 minutes after the scheduled time that the bus arrived so over the two trips we wasted 95 minutes - as a gentleman also waiting said "it's holiday time so no stress"

Back at Pjescana Uvala we then went for a swim to refresh.

Last night after dinner which we enjoyed at a restaurant on the beach front

we went walking around the coastline. The sun was almost set and it was around 8 pm but scores of folk were still enjoying swimming

I

From what we can tell the Europeans love the seaside in the summer!

 

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Another moving day....

....this time further down the Isrian Coast to Pula.

Pula is renowned for its protected harbour, beach lined coast and Roman ruins. It was founded in the 10th century and because of its strategic location has been occupied, destroyed and rebuilt many times!

Having arrived around midday we had a quick look around the central area dominated by a market square and the Old Town before driving to our accommodation in Pjescana Uvala a seaside "suburb" where all the roads have Roman names and frankly were not easy for the GPS to gets its mind around - the road we required was II Ogranak, which needed to be distinguished from I, III, IV, V, VI etc. Ogranak.

The accommodation is a very nice apartment with on site swimming pool however the beach is only about five minutes walk away so after unpacking, driving back into Pula (4 kms) and getting some necessaries from the supermarket it was down to the beach - we are enjoying low 30s at the moment - and straight into the briny. I use briny advisedly as the sea water around these parts is very salty and certainly keeps you afloat.

Walking to the beach there was a striking display of vegetation

and the houses on the hills overlooking the sea made a nice sight

Sherry got quite excited when she saw this fine looking gentleman in his budgie smugglers and couldn't resist taking a snap - I have to say he looked quite striking indeed but it is a pity she only snapped the lower half!

Tomorrow we will explore the old town and roman amphitheatre!

 

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A day underground

We left Umag around 8.00am this morning driving to Postojna in Slovenia around 85kms away to tour the Postojnska Jama which are limestone caves approx. 110m below ground. (A UNESCO world heritage site)

In the caves the temperature is a cool 10 degrees and as I had sent all my warm clothing home some days ago I was one of a very few who didn't have a pullover or similar on.

The caves were created by the Pivka River, are 24kms long and were first open to the public in 1819. Today you are taken into the caves by a "train" and once deep inside you tour on foot until joining back up with the train to exit.

With the stalagmites and stalactites of all shapes, sizes and colours everywhere you look the experience is quite simply amazing

There are numerous souvenir shops and restaurants in the complex but it did not detract from the environment - even the food prices were very reasonable

A pleasant drive home, with only a seven minute delay at the Slovenia/Croatia border, completed a very good day out.

It would pay if you have interest to seek out a YouTube video of the caves and get a good appreciation of this unique environment

 

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Oh it is nice to be beside the seaside

Woke to find it had rained overnight - we sure have some luck with rainy weather! We saw rain one afternoon when we were in York for about 20 minutes and every other time it has rained, and that has not been often, it has either been when we were driving or during the night.

View from our hotel room balcony out over the Adriatic

Looked up a map last night and saw that Slovenia goes all the way to the coast and so seperates Croatia from Italy completely so when we return to Italy later this weekend we will need the vignette so that was the first purchase this morning (will need it also if we make our day trip into Slovenia tomorrow).

This morning and early part of the afternoon was spent in and around Umag's old town coupled with a walk around to the marina on the other side of the inner harbour.

The old town, small in size that it might be, has some quite pleasant streets to walk through

The city is very well kept and presented tidily and with some unique aspects such as this window made of block!

One always wonders what the inside of one of these buildings looks like now and I was able to get a photo from ground looking through a high window

If that is any indication they are colourfully decorated.

There is of course the obligatory church with the usual trappings but the style is somewhat different - more simplistic

The marina area on the other side of the harbour gives a lovely view back across to "Centro" as well as out over the Adriatic

Where the hell has Rangitoto gone??

If this was my yacht club I would find another sponsor as www.sinkovic.hr doesn't quite cut it

Our day was rounded off by another swim in front of the hotel which gave a nice relief from the low 30s we have enjoyed today.

 

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Stressful

After a leisurely breakfast and pack we said goodbye to our hosts at Grado and set off for Umag being a coastal city in the Istrian province of Croatia - so our trip today was from Italy through the border into Croatia.

We knew from our last trip that we would have to go through passport control at the Croatian border. On the way we stopped at a petrol station/cafe in Italy and found that most motorists were buying vignettes for Slovenia, a vignette being the sticker you buy and affix to the windscreen that shows you have paid the tax to drive on the roads in the country you are visiting.

As we weren't going into Slovenia (or so we thought) we passed that opportunity up and motored on.

Not too much later we came to signs saying that we were crossing the border into Slovenia - at that point some stress set in as we were not in possession of the required vignette and the penalties for not paying your dues can be relatively steep.

All we could do was motor on and get into Croatia without being picked up for some minor offence and then we came to the border between Slovenia and Croatia manned by the Slovenian gestapo or so they looked and the lines on the forehead increased somewhat. Passed over the passports with a sheepish smile as he stared at the car, made some small talk with Sherry as if we had nothing to fear and held the breathe.

Passports stamped and returned with a comment in his language which I assumed wished us safe travels - foot to floor and we moved forward the 100 metres or so to the Croatian passport control knowing that they would not give a toss whether or not we had paid the Slovenian government their dues. Passports stamped a second time and we moved off having beaten the bastards again.

For the next 5 or so kilometres there was a line of traffic backed up for the border waiting to cross out of Croatia - in some places the line was two lanes wide. How long it was going to take those near the back of queue to get to the border was anyone's guess.

Mr GPS (we changed from Mrs some time ago) didn't have a good day. On two occasions he took us off the motorway and around in circles in the town before we had to negotiate our own way back onto the motorway in the direction we thought we needed to travel - our mantra was keep the ocean on our right!

Coming close to Umag he took us off the motorway again and through some back country roads before depositing us back on the motorway south of Umag.

Finally arrived in town and parked up as it was time for lunch. Having eaten we then walked around the city centre area getting the feel of the place which is built around a harbour with the inevitable stalls selling beach related souvenirs and clothings to the throngs.

Mid afternoon we made our way to our accommodation which is a very nice hotel about 4 kms south of the centre and right on the water, water which invited us in for a swim later in the afternoon.

We will return to the centre for dinner tonight and again tomorrow to have a good look around.

 

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Exercise Day

As if we needed it!

After breakfast we made use of the bicycles provided by the hotel (as do most hotels here in Grado) and went for a two and a half hour ride around Grado, a ride interspersed with a couple of stops.

The first for coffee at a lovely cafe

and later when we ran across the local market

It has been many years, decades even, since we hitched our frames on to a bike seat and it took a while to get some confidence among other cyclists and any vehicles that were coming our way.

It did however allow us to see far more of Grado than we would otherwise see - the lagoons, the canal around the island we are staying on and other areas of town

Having put the bikes away it was then a walk into the centre to find some lunch and then back to the beach for a swim.

I mentioned yesterday the private changing rooms available for hire and today I took a photo.

We estimate the beach to be about 2 kms in length and along that length there are little sheds and umbrellas and loungers in close proximity to each other - imagine this photo repeated for 2 kms and you have the beach at Grado.

As a matter of interest we don't know whether yesterday we received a discount to go on the beach or today we were ripped off - €1 yesterday, €2 today!

A walk to the centre later for dinner will complete our exercise for the day.

 

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