CROATIA TRIP PREP
To be honest for our Croatia summer roadtrip there wasn’t much of trip planning. All we knew was that we wanted to stay away from the motorways. We had a very high level plan of going to Trieste, then the peninsula Istria. Follow the coast from there and take the ferry to the island of Pag. Visit Zadar, turn east and head towards the Plitvice waterfalls. From there go and have a look at Zagreb, because there seemed to be a lot of curves waiting for us. Head back home from Zagreb.
For accommodation we didn’t plan ahead too much either, maybe a day or two in advance so we would be able to adjust our route just in case.
GOING EAST
Starting from Bolzano, we knew that using the Autostrada was not an option. We actually cheated immediately and joined the Autostrada del Brennero towards Gröden. Of course purely for the reason of properly warming up the cars. From there we stuck to the back roads very firmly.
So firmly in fact, that we were totally knackered near Udine from hours of driving. Additionally dinner was waiting for us at Trieste. So: More Autostrada it was. And a warm welcome at Trieste.
ISTRIA
The first thing you see when you enter Slovenia coming from Trieste is a shop at the border where you can buy a motorway sticker. Don’t do it. In this part of Slovenia there is no motorway whatsoever. Crossing through Slovenia was very quick and very short and ended in a traffic jam at the Croatian border. Croatia is member of the EU but not part of the Schengen states. Hello passport control.
First stop, after a series of nice curvy back roads was Porec. This experience ended with overheating cars and local parking lot clerks shouting at us in their mother tongue. We still don’t know what they said, but we sure understood that they very everything but relaxed. After a quick tour of the center of the old town, we set off for Rovinj.
Rovinj is a lovely town brimming with beautiful, ancient Roman architecture. And a good lunch.
UCKA AND OPATIJA
On the way to our overnight stop at Opatija, we took the old road through the Ucka Nature Park. The road is crossing the ridge of a chain of mountains between the inner land of the peninsula and the coast. And what an amazing road it is!
You need to follow road number 500 coming from south. Beware: The entry ramp to the motorway looks like the most natural turn you would take. Don’t do it, stay on the 500! What follows is the most delightful sequence of sweeps and curves. Absolutely amazing.
Having crossed the ridge, we took a right at Veprinac towards Poljane and Icici to follow the coast to Opatija.
Our hotel had only recently converted the upper floor from basically nothing to guest rooms. Very beautifully done with a lot of attention to detail. The ceiling featured a set of tiny lights resembling a starry night.
Also the reception was very nice: We asked where to find the entry to the hotel car park. They sent someone to show us the way. When they saw the Elises, we were immediately promoted to parking our cars right in front of the hotel. This special treatment was applied to our cars for the first time ever.
THE COAST AND PAG
After a good look around at Opatija (beaches and the center) plus a short stop at Rijeka to see some architectural gems, we headed south on the street along the coast. This street is normally packed with traffic and provides little opportunity for overtaking. Unless you are ready to apply the driving style of the locals, that sometimes appears to be a bit suicidal.
We decided it was the better idea to just take things easy and strolled through the rocky landscape at a relaxed pace. We eventually arrived at the ferry to the island of Pag.
I have a soft spot for car ferries, so there was no way we were going to miss the opportunity to ship the cars from the mainland to the island. After the short ride on the ferry, where some of the fellow passengers took the chance to take pictures of the Elises, we zipped up the curvy road from the ferry terminal to the village of Novalja. On this side of the water the landscape looked as if we had just landed on the moon. A moon with decent roads though 😀
For dinner we took a long walk along the beach towards the restaurants closer to the city center. You can find plenty of opportunity for a solid local dinner at reasonable prices.
PAG, ZADAR AND PLITVICE
In the morning we continued south towards Zadar. The street takes you all the way along Pag island. On the way, on a crest just above the namesake village of Pag, we spotted the large salt evaporation pools. In Croatia Pag is well known for its salt works and you can find “Morska Paška sol”, sea salt from Pag in virtually every supermarket. The product has now even be recognized and protected by the EU as a typical local product. Another specialty from Pag is their Paški Sir, a local cheese made from sheep milk.
At the city of Zadar we looked for the sea front, because of some recent art installations. There is a huge roundel of glass with solar panels and light installations underneath. During the day the solar panels collect the daylight and store the electricity in rechargeable batteries. When night falls the lights will re-use the saved electricity to generate a spectacular lightshow.
When you decide to sit on the quay you will hear whistling sounds. These are produced by flutes that are integrated into the stones of the quay wall. One end, open to the atmosphere, will send out the tunes. While the other end, submerged under water, will move the air in the pipes back and forth, driven by the waves.
From Zadar we took the direct route to Donji Karin, to continue route 27 towards Obrovac and Gračac. Route 27 turned out to be a wonderful, fast paced yet windy connection and offered o lot of delightful driving moments.
From Gračac we went north, following a street towards Korenica. For some reason we ended up on route number 1 rather than 218 via Dobroselo and Dnopolje which looks like a much more entertaining alternative.
The evening at Korenica turned out to be rather dull: The place we stayed was some kind of a truck stop and the offers for dinner didn’t look very tempting. So we just went to the local supermarket and helped ourselves to some crackers and cheese kind of snack for dinner. Meh.
PLITVICE AND ZAGREB
The next day started with a huge disappointment: Rain was drumming on our windowsill. Not exactly the kind of weather for a hike around the Plitvice lakes and waterfalls. This hike was meant to be one of the highlights of our trip and it figuratively fell into the water. I don’t know it this idiom actually exits in English, but you would say it like this in German.
After some very frustrated discussion, we decided to put a raincheck on the waterfalls (never has the raincheck term been used more suitably) and head on to Zagreb. The planned driving highlight was supposed to be the curvy road leading up from Zagreb to our overnight stop at the Tomislavov Dom Hotel located in the middle of the Bliznec – Šumarev Grob: A nature sanctuary right next to the Zagreb metropolitan area.
The first thing we learned when we arrived at Zagreb was, that the temper of the parking lot clerks seems to be a national thing: More abuse in their mother tongue, but we eventually found a nice underground parking in the city center.
Zagreb felt a little bit like Berlin: Lots of young people in the streets, fancy cafes and a relaxed atmosphere. We used the opportunity to stock up on drinks and snacks and headed on to the hotel in the mountains. A Subaru Impreza was leading our way for a while, until we decided to dial our pace back a little bit, since the road surfaces presented themselves scattered with potholes. Not too great for a petite and fragile Lotus.
The hotel turned out to be a relic from socialist days: Nothing to eat, rude waiters. Hmm. Not to be considered again.
SLOVENIA AND BACK TO TRIESTE
The next part of the trip provided us with the confirmation that you cannot plan a road trip using online maps only. The Žumberak i Samoborsko gorje looked like a great place to drive our Elises. Once we had passed the city of Samobor, we quickly learned it was not: Unpaved streets for kilometers and kilometers. Deep ruts where the rain had washed away the surface and only left rocks and stones behind. In other words: Hours of tiptoeing along with our low cars to avoid bottoming out or damaging the delicate chassis on rocks and stones.
Finally we found tarmac streets again and eventually had to stop a a closed barrier: The border of Slovenia. Two border guards came out, asked for our documents and then disappeared again for around 15 minutes. After the certainly thorough document checking procedure the barrier was opened and we were allowed to set wheels into the Slovenian territory.
On the way back to Trieste we only stopped once for lunch (yum) and fuel (cheap).
BACK TO BOLZANO
This time we took the right streets from Trieste via Belluno into the Dolomites. First highlight was the Passo San Pellegrino followed by Passo Carezza and a stop at Lago Carezza which is a beautiful small lake featuring the nicest blue and green color of its super clear water. From there it was only a matter of minutes back to the home of the family at Bolzano.
All in all Croatia, or the few parts of Croatia we visited left positive impressions. We would have benefited from more thorough planning. We were actually aware that our planning was a bit threadbare and the next time around we will apply our usual trip planning standards and save ourselves from some of the surprises.
