Saturday, 22nd June, 2019
Today we started off our day bright and early, even though the skies were filled with rainy clouds. Our little studio apartment just off the beach at Porec was sufficient for an overnight stay but we needed to go out for our coffee and breakfast. Hence by 8.30 am we were on the road to the old town of Porec and hopefully we could have breakfast there.
Porec old town was only a 5 minute drive away and by the time we arrived there, it started to drizzle. That didn’t stop us from walking along the harbour front – this was another morning when we witnessed the waking of a touristic town. Streets were being washed down, shops were opening up and hanging their wares out under awnings and restaurants and coffee houses were getting their outdoor seating ready for their customers.
So we first went for our walk around town – this used to be an old Roman town called Parenzo in Italian and Parentium in Latin. Porec’s street plan was laid down by the Romans in the 2nd century BC, who divided the town into rectangular parcels. The Romans used Porec as an administration centre to control that part of the country. Anyway after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Porec came under the Byzantine rule between the 6th and 8th Centuries AD and later fell under Venetian rule in 1267.
Loaded with this knowledge from out of my Lonely Planet book, we enjoyed our walk about in Porec – fascinating to walk through the ancient Roman stone streets polished creamy white over time and then to see the various Venetian towers and Byzantine Basilica………
Hopefully Gerry is enjoying his coffee 
Cappuccino, Lonely Plantet and Nikon – perfect holiday
After our interesting walkabout, we sat at a harbour cafe and had our coffee while watching the various excursion boats filling up with tourists for their daily trips to watch dolphins at play. However, our wish to have breakfast remained as it seemed that none of these harbour cafe’s served breakfast and as it started raining we decided to hit the road again and start our drive down to Mali Losinj.
By 10.15 we were driving under grey skies and a moderate drizzle towards Pula; we had chosen a secondary route through the mountains to get to Brestova where we would catch the ferry across to the island of Cres.
On the way, we stopped at a little medieval village which caught our attention as we were driving down a hill – Gracisce . This little village is surrounded by rolling hills and as we stopped outside the village, we could admire the scenery stretching in front of us – there was even an 11 km hiking trail going into the hills but of course that was not our primary goal for today.
Lest we forever where we stopped 
Our first glimpse of Gracisce 
Views stretching far into the hills 
Strolling into this well kept secret 
Time stood still in Gracisce 
One of the archways 
The 11.5 hike trail 
Another view from the other end of the archway 
The little chapel of St. Mary 
Statue outside the village of Gracisce 
The tower to the Romanesque church
When I walked through the archway into the village, I was transported back quite a few centuries – this village must have stood still in time – its collection of ancient buildings include a 15th century Venetian – Gothic palace, a Romanesque Church of St. Euphemia and the Church of St. Mary dating back to 1425. Most of the buildings are badly in need of repair – anyway our search for breakfast was also futile in Gracisce – the local cafe’ served only drinks and coffee …….
Back in the road again and this time our stop – or actually our traffic jam leading down to the ferry boat in Brestova lasted an hour. We joined the long queue of cars waiting for the ferry at 11.45 and an hour later we drove onto the ferry. By 13.15 we rolled off the ferry at Cres and started our drive to Mali Losinj. Luckily at the ferry port, we bought a couple of sandwiches which turned out to be our breakfast and lunch rolled into one.
On board the ferry 
Leaving mainland Croati at Brestova 
There’s the Dutch car between the campers 
Selfie 
Arriving at Cres island 
On the way down to Mali Losinj 
We finally arrived in Mali Losinj at 14.45 and I called our apartment host who came to meet us at the crossroad – after delivering our luggage, Gerry had to reverse the car uphill to a public parking area while I waited for both men to reappear down some narrow steps. Our home for 2 nights is in a very old part of Mali Losinj – the house itself dates back to 1848 and apparently the town mayor at that time had it built as his private residence. We have a fantastic view from our bedroom window over the bay of Mali Losinj and as the weather had cleared up, we were ready to go down to the town centre, taking in various landmarks so as to be able to find our way back again in the evening!
It was good walking down to the harbour and boulevard of Mali Losinj – when we sat down to enjoy a coffee, I sent Lara ( family friend to Gerry’s family) a message to let her know we had arrived. We included Mali Losinj purely to meet up with her and her family whom I was also introduced to, two years ago.
In no time Lara surprised us by joining us for coffee together with her little daughter Carolina and her husband, Drago. We chatted for a long time and made a date that we all meet up with the whole family the following evening for dinner.
By the time we had done some grocery shopping, it was time for us to have dinner and Lara suggested we go to Bocca Vera – and yes, Gerry and I had a lovely meal together after which we went off to find our apartment up in the old town……
Tomorrow we will be having a sunny day after today’s wet day and we will be meeting up with other friends from Gerry’s past.
