Zadar to Skradin

Zadar is quite a large town; certainly larger than what we have been used to up to this point.  We try to stay together and follow Alen until we get through town.  Of course that plan goes amok rather quickly when Terry gets one of his flats.  Terry and Alen stop to fix the flat and the rest of us proceed on through town.  We are all able to regroup again at the first coffee stop.

Today is a long day over mostly flat terrain.  And as it happens a pretty good head wind as well.  Not a very scenic day, at least not by Croatian standards.  This is also an area that saw significant action during the war so we are advised not to stray too far from the road since there is no guarantee that all land mines have been removed.  Previously we have not seen a lot of evidence of the war.  But in this area there is some.  Villages that are abandoned - their inhabitants driven away or killed.  Somewhat chilling.

We cycle on and have our usual nice lunch in Benkovac.  The flat terrain and headwinds continue after lunch. We finally make it to Skradin at just under 90 km.  Skradin is a nice little town.  Quite small.  It is mostly known as the gateway to the Krka national park which we will explore tomorrow on our off day.  I also learned from the internet that it is apparently Bill Gates favorite vacation spot (go figure).  It also has very good pizza.

Skradin town center

Skradin bell tower

Pag to Zadar

The poor staff at the hotel in Pag -- more than 50 cyclists all trying to eat large amounts of breakfast and hit the road at the same time.  There were some issues (like a severe shortage of coffee) but generally all went well and eventually the Canadians and the French all got their breakfasts and hit the road (and the staff got a rest).  We headed through the little town of Pag and then south past the salt ponds the town is famous for.  No ferry today -- we leave the island via "Paski Most" a bridge to the mainland.

Paski Most -- Bridge from Pag island to the Croatian mainland

After leaving the island we pedaled on through Vrsi towards Nin.  At the BEPO (bus meeting point) outside Nin we heard a strange noise.  It sounded like a cat in distress.  There by the side of the road was a box and the sound was coming from there.  When Valerie opened the box out came the little kitten of Nin.  He was very young and had not yet been weened, obviously left there to die.  We figured the least that we could do to increase his chance of survival was give him a good meal and take him in to town.  So off we set for Nin with kitty on the back of the tandem.

The little kitty of Nin on the tandem with Valerie

The little kitty of Nin doing chin-ups on Valerie's arm.

We stopped and bought some milk for kitty but he didn't know how to drink from a bowl yet.  However he was a quick learner and was soon filling his little tummy as full as he could get it.  After milk and bread and meat and yogurt Valerie took him over to the nearby auto campsite and turned him loose.  Hopefully he will find a nice german family on vacation that wants to give him a nice home and feed him lots of goodies.

After dropping off kitty we walked around the very old and picturesque town of Nin.  Nin was a very important center prior to the 10th century.  Nin is on a very small islet and was apparently founded around 3000 years ago and is one of the oldest towns on the eastern Adriatic, It had its period of glory from the 7th to the 13th century.

City walls of Nin

Church of the Holy Cross in Nin - the world's smallest cathedral

From Nin we rode on to Zadar, our stop for the evening.   After checking into our hotel and taking a shower we set off for the old town of Zadar.  It turned out to be a pretty good hike, but well worth the effort.  A very large harbor (with many very expensive yachts) and a short boat shuttle to the old town.

shuttle boat across the harbor into Zadar

City gate to Zadar dating from Venetian times 

Church in the center of Zadar

Church in the center of Zadar

Tomorrow we head for Skradin and a day of no traveling.

Rab to Pag

Another day and another ferry to another island.  Today we leave Rab island and head to Pag island.  It is only 10 kilometers to the ferry port so that goes pretty quickly.  At the port we encounter another cycling group from France / Belgium.  They were quite a large group -- 38 total.  We had nice conversations with several of  them.  They chartered a bus and trailer and drove here from Paris.

Connie & Iliya at the ferry for Pag with Diana, Sharon, Terry and Diane in the background.  

Once off the ferry we headed up the hill.  Riding with the large French group was kind of fun, except they do seem to use slightly different rules of the road than we do.  The landscape on Pag is incredible.  It is best described as a moonscape.  Just totally devoid of devastation.  The white you see in the following two pictures is just barren limestone.

Mike topping one of the hills on Pag.

Mary and Diane topping one of the hills on Pag.

It was hot with strong head winds as we cycled south along the western side of Pag island.  So when we finally turned east and crossed over to the western side of the island it was a welcome site.  Particularly since we had a wonderful view of the city of Pag and it was all down hill to our hotel.

The town of Pag on Pag island.

A quick descent and we were into our hotel.  Much to our surprise, there to greet us was the french riders tour bus.  They were staying at the same hotel that we were.  The poor hotel staff were nearly beside themselves trying to take care of more than 50 cyclists at the same time.

After a quick shower we were off to explore the town.  It was a quite small little town known for its salt production (as well as fishing and tourism).

The town of Pag from the foot bridge.

Tomorrow we leave the island -- but no ferry this time, just a bridge back to the mainland and then down to Zadar.

Cres to Krk to Rab

Today we leave Cres and take a ferry to the island of Krk -- the largest island in Croatia.  Then from the ferry port near Krk town we travel across Krk island to Baska.  From Baska we will take a charter boat to Rab island.  Then from there we cycle to our hotel near Rab town.

The first leg from Cres to the ferry port went without incident.  Quite a bit of climbing out of Cres, but a nice descent into the ferry port on the other side of the island.  We had no problem, but apparently some of the later riders encountered strong Bora winds that made the descent quite interesting.  The Bora winds can be incredibly strong here this time of year. They can stop all ferry traffic to and from the island.  The places that we stayed were beginning to wind down for the season because in a few more weeks the islands would be isolated for weeks at a time by the boras.

Connie roaring into the ferry terminal on Cres island

Mike coming into the ferry terminal on Cres island

The ferry ride over to Krk island was short.  Once we got to Krk island most of the group took the scenic route through the town of Krk.  Valerie and I wimped out and skipped the town and headed directly for the outgoing ferry port at Baska.  It was a bit of a slog over the ridge, but we had a nice lunch near the top with some great views.

View from Krk island looking north.

From there we (mostly) descended into the port near Baska.  There is no ferry from Krk to Pag so we had to use a charter boat to take us and the bikes to Pag and the support vehicle would have to take the long way around and meet us there later.  We did have some logistics problems and had to wait about 1.5 hours for the crew for our boat to show up.  Then the boat trip took another 1.5 hour, putting us in fairly late.

Terry, Damijan, Mike, Bernie, Diane, Paddy and Diana hanging out in Baska waiting for a boat.

Lynn, Damijan, Diane, Bernie and Valerie boarding our boat -- the moby dick

Sharon and I with our matching kerchiefs aboard the Moby Dick

All in all it was a nice afternoon, but we still had another 20 Km to go once we landed on Pag island.  But we made good time despite a nasty little hill right before the hotel.  The hotel was was in a beautiful location. Too bad we didn't have more time to look around since it was nearly sundown when we arrived.

View from our hotel room in Rab.

Tomorrow we do another 2 ferries to go from Rab island to Pag island.

Cres and Lozinj

We are going to stay 3 nights in the hotel Kimen just outside of Cres.  The first day is an out and back to Losinj and the second day is a free day.  A welcome relief from having to pack up every morning.  In other words I have a chance to catch up on laundry and the blog.

The trip Lozinj is not so much an out and back as a 'back'.  Alen is arranged another van and is driving us and the bicycles down to Lozinj to see if we can make it back home.  We all did!

The bikes all loaded on the trailer -- yes that is the tandem stacked on top.

We dodged the rain a few times but all in all a very nice ride back to the hotel in Cres.  About half way back at the village of Osor.  By that time it was a beautiful day for cycling.

Ed, Diane, Diane and Valerie in Osor.

Mike, Mike, Mary and Terry in Osor.

We got back to Cres fairly early and I had a chance to make a quick hike into Cres (the town, Cres is also the name of the island).  I hadn't made it into town the first afternoon because I had been busy with my favorite pastime -- laundry.  But this afternoon I decided to make the trek in search of ice cream.  It was really a nice town.  Much nicer than it appeared from a distance.

Valerie on the promenade into Cres 

Distant view of the Cres harbour and town center.

One of the three town gates for Cres.

That evening and the next morning it rained quite heavily.  We were all quite happy that it had decided to rain on our rest day when we were not out on the bikes.  But the rain was mostly over by noon so we were able to walk into town for Pizza and more site seeing.  Incidentally the pizza in Croatia is excellent.

Town square in Cres.

Valerie on the streets of Cres.

One of the back alleys in Cres.

One of the older city gates Cres, apparently from Venetian times

The largest of the many churches in Cres.

Valerie, Mike and Ed in the church square.

The view of Cres from the fortress above town.

Tomorrow we are on the road again for the nearby island (and town) of Rab.

Lovran to Cres

Today we ride south along the coast to Stipani to catch the ferry for Cres.  We don't go right along the coast but up into the hills away from the coast, which means more climbing.  Along the way we go through the village of Moscenicka.

Village square in Moscenicka.

Mike, Damijan, and Max all in Canada jerseys

The road from Moscenicka down to the coast.

We have about a half hour ferry ride over to the island of Cres.  Once we hit the island it is immediate climbing and it lasts pretty consistently up to the ridge at approx. 450 meters.  We had some fantastic views from the ridge that can't really be captured in photographs, but I took a couple anyway.

Mike, Terry, Alen, Connie, Ed and Valerie along the Cres island ridge.

Connie and Valerie along the Cres island ridge.

At the end of the ridge we have a late lunch and descend into the city of Cres.  It is a beautiful little seaside village where we will spend 3 nights.  We are staying at the hotel Kimen, a 10 minute walk from the village of Cres.  It is a large resort, filled with tourists (mostly German) but a nice place nonetheless.  Now that we have left Istria, things have gotten much more touristy

At dinner that night we celebrated Bernie's birthday!!  She seemed to enjoy her big birthday, I know that the rest of us did.

Bernie at here birthday party.

Mike, Bernie and Diane at Bernie's birthday party.

Tomorrow we have to get going early to shuttle down to Losinj.

Buzet to Lovran

Today was billed as a big day and it lived up to expectations.  I showed 1250 meters of climbing for the day.  Some members of the group (the majority) took the scenic route early on and clocked a bit more time and climbing.  Soon out of town we did a sustained 10-12% grade, which is about the best we can do on the tandem.  But after a couple of kilometer the grade leveled off a bit -- but continued climbing, eventually reaching 750 meters.  We were rewarded with some nice views.

Nice shoot of old Buzet up on the hill overlooking new Buzet.

However most of the scenery was hills and pine trees -- hardly a novel site for Canadians.  Most of the morning the group was split up, but by noon everyone had got back on track and we were all together for lunch.  Shortly after lunch we be began the big descent.  However we picked up heavy traffic about half way down and hand to ride quite cautiously.  We were descending towards Rijeka, which seems to be a large and very busy port city.  We did not go into Rijeka but still picked up a lot of traffic.  This is also the Istrian Riviera -- lots of tourists and tourist traffic.  Opatija seemed to be the center of the Riviera.  We passed some very expensive yachts and villas.  From there we continue a few more kilometers down the coast to Lovran where we would spend the evening.

Happy hour at our hotel in Lovran.  Clockwise: Ed, Bernie, Diane, Diane, Diana,Valerii, Paddy and Alen. 

The grounds of our hotel in Lovran.

Lynn in front of the Lovran hotel

View from our hotel in Lovran with the Adriatic and Rijeka in the background.

Tomorrow a short ride to the ferry and then off to the island of Cres.
 

Motovun to Buzet

Today we traveled to Buzet from Motovun via Pazin.  Coming down the cobblestones in Motovun was almost as much fun as going up.  But there were a lot fewer tourists so it wasn't too bad.  Valerie walked down and joined me on the tandem at the bottom of the cobblestones.  It was about 20 km of rolling hills to Pazin.  Pazin is called the heart of Istrian country.  We stopped there to look at Pazin castle.

From Pazine we headed back north toward Buzet up into the hills.  We stopped for lunch in the little village of Pagubice.  After lunch we continued climbing for a while before beginning a stunning descent into Buzet.  David (from Motovun) road with us as we descended along spectacular sweeping turns.  Later in the week-end these roads would be used for the european motor sport championships.  There did seem to be a few cars out practicing when we were coming down, including a close encounter with a white BMW that seemed to prefer our lane over his.  When we got Buzet it was all abuzz over the upcoming races.

Race cars lined up for viewing outside our hotel in Buzet.

Yep, that is Mike on the hotel balcony in Buzet.

Also from the hotel balcony a view of the ridge we cross tomorrow as we leave Istria.

Like most towns in Istria, Buzet has quite a history.  But in Buzet the old and the new are quite separate.  Most of the current town is down on the valley floor where our hotel was.  The old town is up on a hill overlooking the valley and dates from the 1500's when it was headquarters for Venetian Istria.

The old town of Buzet as seen from our hotel in the valley.

A beautiful fountain just outside the gates to the old town.

To bed early tonight.  Tomorrow will be a big day as we have to cross the hill to exit Istria.