Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Picturesque Croatia

Ok... Guilty as charged!  We are so far behind in the blogs. We have another 5 written and pictures ready to upload, but internet coverage not available or too expensive. So you know where we are at, here it is in brief. We have been from Austria to Netherlands and back to Italy, on the cruise (sensational) and now find ourselves on the island of Kos  for the last 4 days in the Greek Islands. Finding ferries a drama, so will leave for Santorini on the 10th (local) for a brief island hop before hitting Athens. Flight to Frankfurt, 5 days in Singapore then home. Looking forward to catching up. WILL catch up the blogs soon. In the mean time... Croatia!
Hi Again,
Due to our decision for our stay in the forest bungalow and the visit to the caves in Slovenia, we decided to abandon our plans to head to Croatia to allow us more time getting to the Netherlands and back to France to drop the car off. Luckily in the morning we decided that longer driving sessions would be worth the adventure and headed to the border. After weeks of no border control we were unprepared for the sight of a border security and customs outpost and had to quickly go digging for passports. Two more stamps. Woo Hoo!
Across the border and loosing light, we randomly followed the coast road looking for a camping sign and admiring the coastline.  We stumbled across a sign, went to the park but were informed there were no suitable bungalows in the area, "BUT... I have a friend who has..." and the next thing we knew we were up a windy road on the top story of a private unit complex staring at a spectacular panorama of the Adriatic Sea. We negotiated the deal of a lifetime with the owner and decided we had to stay 2 nights to enjoy a home for a short time and absorb the views.
In the morning we made ourselves at home among the deck chairs right at the water on one of the nearby bays. To this day we aren't sure whether the chairs were for the public or for one of the many 5 star hotels nearby, but we claimed them as ours regardless. The water was crystal clear and looked inviting, but pebbles and concrete boardwalks are a poor substitute for good old Aussie sand, and the water was... COLD! Kids being kids, they couldn't stay out of the water and braved the cold for a dip. Alex being Alex, went in several times after the others had had enough.  Mum and dad did the sensible thing, kept our fluids up and gazed at the view, read a chapter or two and supervised the kids.  (Better than looking at some of the unattractive older Europeans with far too little clothing on soaking up the rays and sucking down the cigarettes.)
Before leaving the Croatian coast we pulled into another beautiful bay and decided to have some fish and chips for lunch. Instead we ended up having an amazing feed of local seafood, steak and pasta while gazing over the inlet. We discussed where we were from with the owner and that we are collecting small flags from the countries we have visited, and he returned with a team flag for his soccer team as a souvenir. 
So started one of our '3 country days', starting in Croatia, driving through Slovenia again and into Austria to continue the journey.
The Wockies





































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