Going boating in winter months is a chance to explore the coast when we have it to ourselves. With the beautiful sunny weather this weekend (though I have to say a tad chilly) we took the boat along to Vela Stiniva where there’s a lovely little dock for mooring. That allowed us to go ashore…
On the north rim of the Limski Kanal is Aeropark Vrsar, a private airfield, open to the public, that offers skydiving, scenic flights and, if you care to spend longer, flying lessons. It also has a museum of oldtimer planes parked behind the hangar. The airfield belongs to Rajko Tomašić. It has a 700m paved…
Beyond / Food & Drink / Landscape / Travel
The long narrow inlet between Rovinj and Vrsar is a very distinctive natural feature in the landscape. If you’re driving from Bale in the south to Poreč, as we were, you have to cross it one way or another. It’s a spectacular canyon, and well worth taking the time to see it properly. Lim gets…
From Bale, it was an easy day trip to the island of Brijuni, a place we had long wanted to visit. Since the 1990s it’s a National Park that anyone can go to, but before that, it was the summer residence of Yugoslavia’s President Tito and off-limits to all but government officials and foreign dignitaries.…
Architecture / Beyond / Travel
From Rijeka, we follow the coast road down trough Opatija and Lovran, enjoying the old Austro-Hungarian buildings and gardens, and the views over the Kvarner gulf and the islands floating out there. Although it’s around midday, the clouds are still dark and heavy after the storm, but we can see it clearing as we head…
Rijeka is known as the city that flows (grad koji teče). Not just for the Rječina river, but it seems they also have more rain here. Another thing we learnt about Rijeka is that its museums and galleries, several of which we planned to visit, are closed on Mondays. We arrived on a Sunday evening…
We’re following part of the beautiful Adriatic highway up the coast from Split to Rijeka, the Jadranska Magistrala in Croatian or more prosaically the D8. Various earlier sections of road were connected up during 1945-1965 to form a complete coastal route from Trieste via Rovinj and Pula all the way down to the Albanian border.…
It’s been seven years since we first visited Lake Vrana and explored the area around it. At that time, we saw the Maškovića Han from the outside, a 17th century project for a retirement home with guest rooms attached that was never completed. Over time, some of the more easily portable materials were snaffled to…
Here we are at the beginning of August and it’s been a doozy of a summer so far. Between the sweltering temperatures and the cloying humidity, it’s been difficult to breathe some days, let alone get up the energy to move. These are the days of the Dalmatian fjaka, sort of like a Spanish siesta,…
Zastražišće is one of the villages along the road between Jelsa and Sućuraj, at roughly the halfway point. The area is known for its fruits and flowers, and the fine island products made from them. We’ve been there twice recently, once in May with a Nordic walking group, and again last week as part of…
Ferns are plants that don’t have flowers. Across medieval Europe, the absence was worrying, and explained as ferns having invisible flowers, and seeds that only appeared on Midsummer night, when they could be collected. The seeds then had the power to make you invisible. In Slavic tradition, the flowers were not invisible, simply very rare…
At the far eastern end of Hvar, where it comes closest to the mainland, lies the port of Sućuraj. It’s a good long drive from our place, following the beautiful winding road along the ridge of the island. On the way you get stunning views north to Brač and the mountains of the mainland, and…
Although you’d hardly know it from the weather most days, it is now summer and time to get outside. Usually we’d have started the season at Easter with visitors coming from many parts of the world. It’s slowly, slowly this year, though,and last weekend a group of Vrboskani took to the beaches with black bags…
The world looks a lot different this month. I look back at my photos of the Vrboska karneval and am shocked at the sight of such a large crowd. Was it truly only 4 weeks ago? We are now, like much of the rest of the world, staying at home keeping ourselves to ourselves. Croatian…
On the way into Stari Grad from Dol, there’s a small chapel by the roadside, with a rather curious carving of a bear above the door. This is the 16th century chapel of Sv Jelina, and it stands where the Slavic goddess Mokoš was previously worshipped. The sacred triangle of Perun – Veles – Mokoš can still be read in the landscape if you know where to look!
Go Hvar 
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