Croatia ~ Istria Peninsula

Part two of our Croatia/Slovenia/Austria vacation. Part one on the Plitvice Lakes can be found here.

Monday ~ Senj and Rovinj/Rovigno

We left the Plitvice Lakes and wound our way west to Senj on the Adriatic Sea.

Ben, Karl and Garrett brace themselves against the gusts.

Our first view of the Adriatic was from the very windy pass at Vratnik. This pit stop also provided us the opportunity to teach the boys not to pee into the wind.

Nehaj, the Uskok fortress at Senj, built in 1558.

The Uskoks -- known as Croatian freedom fighters to locals, but mere pirates and hoodlums to Venetians and Ottoman Turks -- used Senj as a base from which they attacked and raided ships (often Venetian) traveling the narrow Adriatic passage. Venetians had a saying in the 1500s, "May God preserve us from the hands of Senj."

Kate and Karl at Nehaj

Even though we'd descended more than 750m/2500ft from the pass, we didn't escape the wind down at the coast!

We ate at a lovely waterside restaurant, La Meduza, where the boys played at the water's edge before and after lunch.

Garrett bonked his head right before this shot. Unfortunately.

Karl and I shared a seafood risotto and Caprese salad, and the boys split a Margarita pizza.

Squat toilets -- they're not just for Bulgaria.

I hadn't used one of these since 1979 when I stayed in rundown Parisian hostel with a bunch of girls. A squat toilet leaves an impression on a 13 year old. So to speak.

Brothers

Back to the car. We drove north along the coast and around the Kvarner Gulf, through the center of Rijeka (didn't mean to -- again, signage left a little to be desired), and across the Istrian Peninsula. Arrived at Rovinj later in the afternoon.

Image from here.

Historically the Istrian Peninsula was governed by the Venetian Republic, the Austrian Empire, Italy, and Yugoslavia before it was divided between Slovenia and Croatia following the breakup of Yugoslavia in the '90s. Because of its long-standing connection with Italy, most of the towns are identified by both their Slavic and Italian names. Rovinj is also called Rovigno.

We checked in at Villas Rubin Resort only to find that our accommodations -- an efficiency apartment tucked into rows of block apartment buildings -- hadn't yet been cleaned. UPGRADE!

We were given the keys to an apartment in this lovely duplex bungalow, not 100 meters from the water. After locating swimsuits it was time to play on the rocky coast.

The water was cool, but the air was hot!

In the evening we went into town for dinner and found Al Mare, a sweet restaurant on the harbor. Clever readers will note that al mare is Italian for "by the sea."

Al Mare (left) and Eis Salon

I know there were lots of fine dining establishments that we could have tried, but we ate here three of the four nights. When you're traveling with children, sometimes predictability trumps adventure. Plus, we were embraced as regulars by night two. When he brought the check, our sweet waiter provided us complimentary cordials of pear brandy mixed with slivovice.

Mom and Garrett at dinner

Tagliatelle with truffles

Karl and I shared a dish of pasta with truffles. Truffles are a local specialty. We also ordered a green salad which may have been the freshest, most delicious salad I've ever had. Everything was wonderful!

After dinner we wandered next door to the Eis Salon for ice cream and entertainment.

This became a nightly habit, too.

Boys with clown cones made of modre nebo ("blue sky") ice cream.

Harborside umbrellas

Rovinj was reminiscent of Italy in so many ways, which wasn't surprising given the history and proximity. But even the attitudes and body language evoked Italy. Karl noted that he'd hear people talking and think they were speaking Italian -- until he detected Slavic sounds. But even the Slavic bits (consonant clusters and hard endings) were Italian-ized, more lyrical and melodic.

Lucky mama and her boys

La dolce vita!

Monday's sunset

Tuesday ~ Roman arena at Pula/Pola

From The Rough Guide to Croatia ~

According to legend, Pula was founded by the Colchians, who pursued the Argonauts here after the latter had stolen the Golden Fleece. The prosaic truth is that Pula began life as a minor Illyrian settlement, and there's not much evidence of a significant town here until 177 BC, when the Romans arrived and transformed Pula into an important commercial center endowed with all the imperial trimmings -- temples, theatres, and triumphal arches -- appropriate to its status.

The Roman amphitheatre at Pula is the sixth largest of its kind in the world. It was built near the end of the 1st century BC and could accommodate 22,000 spectators for all sorts of grisly events.

Back in the day, there was a network of passages below the arena floor where exotic beasts were kept ready to fight gladiators and mete out the ultimate punishment to convicts and Christians.

This is the most exotic four-legged creature you'll find there today. Two-legged creatures, however ...

Garrett and Ben as modern-day gladiators.

 ... there are plenty of those.

And since the time that gladiator games were banned, the two-legged creatures have posed the most threat at the arena. Much of the stone from the internal tiers and galleries was quarried for construction of other buildings. Despite numerous attempts to disassemble the structure, however, the external shell remains remarkably intact.

Karl and a Pula pillar

We rented an audio device and let the boys be our tour guides. They listened at each of the various stations, alternating turns. Whoever listened first got to report what he learned back to Mom and Dad while his brother manned the audio device.

Ben takes mental notes.

Garrett

Before we left we ducked down to the basement level, where the animals and Christians had been held. We were there under happier circumstances, and as such enjoyed our subterranean visit to the cool foundation. The heat in the sun was verging on oppressive in the arena.

Roman amphorae

No longer cages and cells, this area now houses Roman artifacts like these amphorae as well as olive presses and mills.

We were all ready to cool off by the time we returned to Rovinj! This time we headed to the pool.

I'm going in!

Gunnin' for you.

The boys were beyond excited when they saw the big attraction at the pool -- the Aquagun. Unfortunately it wasn't open while we were there. Either it needs maintenance (which I wouldn't doubt) or they only run it during high season (which wouldn't surprise me either). Regardless, we still managed to have fun.

Wednesday ~ Rovinj/Rovigno

We had considered a few outings that would have required driving half an hour or more from Rovinj. Going to see the amphitheatre at Pula was on the "Must Do" list. We also weighed touring the Byzantine fortress and safari park on the Brijuni Islands (an archipelago that served as Tito's private retreat before it became a national park) and visiting the Basilica of Euphrasius at Poreč to see its famous mosaics.

But it was too dang hot to want to spend any time in the car, and the boys -- understandably -- just wanted to play in the water.

So instead we hung around Rovinj for a couple of days, exploring this adorable town by foot and water and playing at Villas Rubin.

Aerial view of Rovinj. (Not mine, got it here.)

Via Carrera, a pedestrian zone

Trg Valdibora (Valdibora Square)

Found a lovely market ...

at a stunning location.

Got some snacks,

and headed to the nearest playground.

Monument to the Partisans

Revived by strawberries, cold beverages and recreation, we started making our way up the peninsula of the old town.

That last step's a doozy.

Potted garden

Crkva svete Eufemije (Church of St. Euphemia). This was taken on Monday evening.

At the top of the peninusula is the Church of St. Euphemia. I think I was (1) so taken with the stunning views of the water and/or (2) melting in the heat. For whatever reason, I didn't get a closeup picture of the church from the outside nor inside. So we'll go with this one.

Jewelry and trinkets for sale on the route back down

Charming courtyard

Fountain at Trg maršala Tita (Marshall Tito Square)

Back to the resort for lunch, a fierce tournament of Rat-a-Tat-Cat (Ben won), and more time at the pool.

Kickin' back.

Boys on the bridge

The setting sun reflecting off the harbor boats.

Dinner, ice cream, sunset, ... ahhhh.

Wednesday's sunset

Thursday ~ Glass-bottom boat

Even if we weren't going to make the big trip out to the Brijuni islands, we knew we wanted to get out on the water. The 90-minute excursion around the local islands by glass-bottom boat was perfect.

Church of St. Euphemia

Captain Ben. Both boys had a chance at the helm.

Checking out the coral and sealife.

Returning to the harbor

By Thursday, we had our Rovinj routine down pat: a morning outing, lunch and a little downtime during the heat of the day, playing in water, back to town for dinner.

For our last night we returned to Al Mare and Eis Salon where we were greeted warmly and fed well.

Evening glow on Via Carrera.

The next morning we packed up and headed to Slovenia, praying the border patrol didn't care that we didn't have international driver's licenses. Did I forget to mention that? I'll cover that in the next post.

(Probably won't be getting to the Slovenia and Austria posts any time soon. We leave Prague in nine days, and we've got a few things on our To Do lists.)