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…
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.…
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.…
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…
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!
As we walk around the island, my eye is often caught by interesting details – arrangements of colours or textures that are like small pieces of art in the landscape. Some simply occur naturally, such as weathered rocks or tree bark, while others are the result of human activity (good or bad). Here are a…
I love the winter on Hvar. It’s a time when we can enjoy having that gorgeous scenery all to ourselves. Although we have had some rain, there have also been lots of sunny days when the great outdoors just has to be explored. January and February are perfect months for hiking, with comfortable temperatures and…
Go Hvar 
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