We had to find some accommodation so we went to the tourist information office to see what was available. The lady at the desk told us that the only hotel available was the Hotel Adriana that had rooms for €280.
This was obviously way beyond our budget and while this devastating piece of news sunk in she skilfully moved in with the alternative offer of a simple room in the town for 400 Kuna (about £50). This was obviously her sister or her best friend but there was no contest and we took it.
Posted in backpacking, Cathedrals, Croatia, Greece, Literature, Natural Environment, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Adriatic Sea, Croatian Islands, Hvar, Life, Photography, Travel
I was pleasantly surprised by Rimini, I was expecting a ghastly Mediterranean holiday resort but found history, charm, elegance and a busy fishing port.
Click on an image to scroll through the gallery…
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, Food, History, Hotels, Italy, Literature, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Adriatic Sea, Fellini, Garibaldi, Italy, Rimini, San Marino
The flights to Pula were an irresistible bargain at only £16 return, which effectively meant that they were being subsidised by Ryanair because we didn’t even have to pay the full Government flight taxes. Sitting next to us was a couple from Kenilworth who had an impressive capacity for drinks from the sky-bar. They loaded up with beers and whiskey on its first pass down the aisle and they restocked when it returned back the other way. I like a gin and tonic to help pass the flight but I couldn’t possibly compete with these two heavyweight boozers.
Posted in Croatia, Europe, History, World Heritage
Tagged Adriatic Sea, Capua, Coliseum, Croatia, Croatian Islands, El Djem, Greek islands, Italy, Life, Nimes, Photography, Pula, Roman Amphitheatre, Roman Empire, Roman Gladiator, Rome, Tito, Travel, Trieste, Tunisia, Verona
It was really hot in the midday sun and we sat and watched the harbour activity, the tour groups being led around the town and the children playing in the square. Rovinj was certainly very different to Pula with a chic Italianate ambiance that oozed style and disposable income. Whereas in Pula the tourist part of the city rubs shoulders with the noise and sweat of its industry Rovinj felt exclusively like a pleasure zone for holiday makers, yachtsmen and tourists with no hint of a scruffy industrial area.
The pine fringed white beach was even busier today (school must have finished early) and we had to squeeze ourselves in on a vacant patch right at the sea’s edge. This was a beach of stones all carefully graduated by size as though someone had carefully arranged it that way. At the back of the beach there were rocks, then stones giving way to pebbles and finally shingle disappearing into the sea.
The water taxi took about thirty minutes to make the short journey from Mlini to Dubrovnik and even though large cruisers anchored up outside the harbour spoiled the approach the old town fortifications looked spectacular as we sailed into the harbour and once off the boat we transported into an alternative world of narrow medieval streets, magnificent buildings constructed of white Dalmatian stone and a riot of red tiled roofs. We knew that we had all day to explore the city but we were impatient so purchased our tickets and climbed to the top of the walls for the two-kilometre walk around the magnificent tenth century guard’s walkway.
Posted in Cathedrals, Croatia, dubrovnik, Europe, History, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Adriatic Sea, Croatia, Dubrovnic reconstruction, dubrovnik, George Bernard Shaw, Mlini, Montenegro, Siege of Dubrovnik, UNESCO
As usual the Easyjet flight was late taking off and also arriving so added to its statistic on late or delayed flights that Michael O’Leary delights in gloating over when he provides benchmark statistics in the Ryanair in-flight magazine each month. Easyjet are frustratingly relaxed about flight times and I think on the whole I prefer the Ryanair approach.
A week or two after returning from Riga there had been a very minor snow fall over the south of England, certainly no more than a flake or two, but predictably this had resulted in total travel chaos and the motorways and the airports had been brought to a ridiculous standstill. I had contrasted this with the heavy snowfall in Riga on the day that we arrived that had been dealt with quickly, efficiently and caused no disruption to transport arrangements at all.
Posted in Croatia, Europe, Greek islands, History, Hotels, Italy, Natural Environment, Travel, United Kingdom
Tagged Adriatic Sea, Capua, Coliseum, Croatia, Croatian Islands, El Djem, Greek islands, Italy, Nimes, Pula, Roman Amphitheatre, Roman Empire, Roman Gladiator, Rome, Tito, Trieste, Tunisia, Verona
Continuing north with the Dinaric Alps soaring above us inland and catching the clouds as they rushed in from the sea we stopped again at Primošten, not because there was anything in particular to see there but just because we liked it there.
Posted in Croatia, Europe, History, Hotels, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Adriatic Sea, Croatia, Diocletian's Palace, Hvar, Krka National Park, Pink Inn, Primosten, Trogir, Šibenik, Šukosan
First thing the weather had been quite promising with a bit of cloud but a lot of blue so the plan was to spend the morning in Hvar and see the side of the town we had missed yesterday before getting a mid afternoon ferry back to the mainland. We started our walk by visiting the market and then through the main square and down to the harbour, and then it started to spit with rain.
Posted in Croatia, Europe, Greek islands, History, Travel
Tagged Adriatic Sea, Diocletian's Palace, Greece, Hvar, Split
Have Bag, Will Travel 