The Sunniest Island in the Adriatic!

Ah Croatia!  What a wonderful country, filled with friendly people, delicious food, and lots of sun and water!  Travers and I spent about 10 days in Croatia, one of the longest trips we have taken in a long time.  While I want to blog about Croatia in its entirety, I am very far behind in my blogging, so you'll just have to go there someday to truly experience everything we did. And we sure did a lot!

We started our trip in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia and one of its largest cities. Getting in our rental car, we drove into the city to have some lunch and explore the town. While it is the largest city of Croatia, it is by far one of the smaller European cities we have been to. With a cobbled old town area, a couple of churces, and some fun restaurants and bars with outdoor terraces, we were wondering why we weren't spending the night there. But we had plans to see something even better the next day and it required us to get in the car and drive a couple hours south which we didn't want to do the next morning. So off we went to a small town called Grabovac which is near the Plitvice Lakes, an UNESCO world heritage site.

Spending the night in Grabovac at basically a road-side motel (but clean and friendly and would stay there again if we found ourselves in that area for some reason), we got up early the next morning and drove the 10 minutes to the Plitvice Lakes.  I'll let the photos do the talking (even though they don't nearly do it enough justice), but we basically walked the trails and pathways of these lakes for most of the day, stopping to absorb the breathtaking waterfalls and scenery surrounding us. At times, we were on these narrow wooden walkways that sat right on top of the water and others running right next to or on top of a waterfall. Amazing! I would highly recommend going here at least once in your lifetime. It was that spectacular!

After getting our fill of the lakes, we drove another couple hours towards the coast to Zadar. We were staying in an Airbnb apartment, so once we met our host and got settled, we headed to the old town area, which is a walled-in part of the city that sits on a peninsula.  We strolled the cobblestone streets, and made our way around the old town area, making sure to pass by several of the touristy hot spots, like churches and viewpoints.  Just before sunset, we headed down the boulevard that runs along the water's edge, and made sure we were standing at the end so we could watch, according to Alfred Hitchcock, the most beautiful sunset in the world!  And I think, Mr. Hitchcock got it right. What a sight!

After the sun set, we had a nice dinner in town, followed by some more strolling and finally back to our apartment. We rose early the next day, got back in our car, and headed to our next destination, Split. We drove along the coast, seeing some amazing azure blue waters, and stopped at several small towns, all quaint and charming with old churches and castles and amazing views of the water.

Arriving in Split later that afternoon, we dropped the car off at the airport and took a bus into town, arriving at Hotel Luxe by early evening.  We dropped our bags, got ready for the evening, then headed out to explore the Split's old town, which is based around Diocletian's Palace, a large walled in section of the city that is now filled with restaurants, shops, bars and churches.  We wandered through the narrowest cobblestone passageways we've ever seen (and we've seen a lot of these in Europe, but these were definitely the narrowest). And we found our way to a quaint looking restaurant filled with locals and tourists alike, and were welcomed by a friendly waiter.  After having a delicious Croatian meal, we wandered the passageways within the old palace walls again, eventually finding our way back to the hotel.

The next morning, we checked out of the hotel, leaving our bags behind for the day, and went to explore some more. We walked out to the beach area of Split, which turned out to not be as pretty as we had imagined as the sky was turning grey and clouds were coming in. Seeing the weather turning, we headed back towards the old town area to see it during the daylight.  We wandered again through the narrow streets, ending up at the bell tower near the center of the city.  Climbing up the bell tower on narrow metal stairways that didn't look like they would last much longer, we made it to the top to take in some panoramic views of the city.  Making our way back down on shaky legs, we decided it was time for lunch. We found a small bar/restaurant that had a 2nd floor balcony that overlooked the main shopping street, so we could enjoy our food and people watch at the same time.

 Wandering around some more, we eventually headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags before getting on our ferry to Hvar, the sunniest island in the Adriatic!

To be continued....