Getting There, Coatia Bike and Sail

Greetings from Cres, Croatia.

The thing about flying to a less touristy place is that there are no direct flights.

Fortunately we had a three hour layovers at each stop over. That proved to be a trip saver. Each plane was delayed for at least an hour.

We flew from Syracuse, NY. Someone cut a cable in New Jersey causing technical and logistical problems.

Then we had a flight from JFK NYC, NY, delayed an hour.

And when our flight from Amsterdam to Zagreb was delayed. We took the opportunity to get a beer and chill.

We are doing the Croatia portion of this trip with our travel friends, Christy and Mark.

There was no plane at our gate for our flight from Amsterdam to Zagreb. We were wondering how we would ever be able to board without a plane to board.

But we ended up taking a bus across the airfield to a KLM plane.

We arrived at our apartment a whole day after we got on the first plane

We all were pleased with the accommodations. You never know what you will find when you book online.

Outside our apartment was a bike in a bike rack. The single-speed bike, the lock, and the bike rack were interesting.

We were not in the city center, but close enough that sometimes we heard noises at night. But I found it very quiet. Zagreb and Croatia are very safe and low crime.

This is the view out our front window.

The doors inside and to the apartment were top notch high quality. The windows were like we experienced in Germany. I have never experienced such great quality in the USA. The door with the round holes is to the bathroom.

The first day we spent walking around the city of Zagreb.

These angry owls were above the National Archives Building.

We visited the Botanical Gardens. It only cost two euros per person.

I had never seen these succulents before. I think they were called Lithos.

We walked around the upper town (Old Town). Beautiful old buildings, Many are in poor repair. Most are covered in graffiti.

We chatted with a Canadian that was raised until seven years old in Zagreb, Croatia. She said in school they had to march and get indoctrinated to support the regime. When we mentioned how it was a pity about the graffiti on the old buildings, she and her Croatian friend said she had never noticed!

The resident said that they were hit with two earthquakes shortly after COVID hit. That explains a lot of the damage to the plaster on the buildings.

We visited a couple churches.

The picture below is from a souvenir shop where Steve bought a light weight back pack to use for walking around.

There was more stuff to see than we had time for. Including the museum of broken relationships. We did get to a tunnel used during WWII.

There was a public restroom in the tunnel.

We did a taste testing at a little distillery in the old town area. We ended up buying three small bottles.

Dinner at a street side restaurant.

Steve mapped our walk, over eight miles.

Day two, Christy had arranged for a small group tour of Plitvice Lakes National Park. There were seven of us on the tour. The three other passengers were all women from three different countries traveling solo.

They were from Washington State (born in Iran), Saudi Arabia, and Japan.

The tour was of the National park with 16 lakes flowing down falls one after the other. The website has drone pictures.

Before we arrived we stopped in a town where every house is on the water as the water flows around the homes.

The first lakes in the National Park are granite and the last lakes are sand stone. It was amazing to see the sink holes in the sand stone area. As we were driving out of the park the end of the day we could see sink hole after sink hole in the woods next to the road.

Click the link to see a video I took in the Plitvice Lakes area and of a bird we saw fishing in the park.

The picture below shows that the granite part of the park has no sink holes but the sand stone part looks like a meteor shower hit it.

Our guide said the park is always changing.

Our guide was a tall man. He stopped a few times to drink the water from the lake, scooping it up and telling us it was safe. I did not try it.

The next morning we walked to the train station in Zagreb to meetup with our shuttle driver. He would take us to the boat in Omasalj for the bike and boat part of our trip.

While we were waiting for the shuttle, we met Werner and Wolfgang, brothers from Germany. Fortunately they speak english well.

Our room has a big bed and a twin in it and our own bathroom.

We met one of our guides, Anna, who is very good and entertaining during what she calls our Blah Blah sessions. She informs us of what to expect during the day and when and where to meet.

We are spoiled! Everyone on the ship speaks English!

We have enjoyed meeting people from the states, Canada, New Zealand, The Netherlands, and Germany.

If you have been reading this blog a couple years, you may recall that Steve and I caught colds on our first bike and boat trip starting in Amsterdam.

This time, we packed all kinds of cold medicine just in case and started taking zinc before and during our trip.

This time, Steve got sick first, complete with body aches and fever. Now I have it. A cough and aches. So today I am missing the bike ride and sitting on the boat writing to you.

There are many more pictures to share. But it is time to rest. Thanks for trippin' with us yet again