Discovering Sarandë

Monday, 1st. July, 2019

I was woken up early this morning as we had left the curtains open and as dawn was breaking, I heard quite some activity down on the beach. I went out on our balcony and saw quite a few local senior citizens making their way to the beach for their early morning swim! As the sun rose behind the mountains, our side of the beach changed its colour to a golden shade. Soon the elderly community on the beach had changed their gear and were in the sea for their swim and chat………

Also just across on the right side of the beach, there is a small port and there are ferry boats and hydrofoils (Flying Dolphins) to cross over to Corfu which just lies outside the bay of Sarandë. These ferries start early morning and continue all day and are both for foot passengers as well as cars.


It’s a good thing we are spending 2 nights here in Sarandë. The hotel where we are staying is called the Royal Sarandë Hotel run by an Albanian family who live in London and come down by car in May and stay on till October. Their son and daughter also help run the hotel during their school vacations, managing the reception desk as well as breakfast.


After having coffee on our balcony, we went upstairs to the hotel’s roof terrace where a full breakfast was being served – such a delight to enjoy breakfast while admire the view from up here. Today we were going to do some sightseeing first and then close off the day by relaxing on the beach and having a swim

Our plan for today was to visit the “Blue Eye” – a natural wonder some half an hour away from Saranda and then onto Gjirokaster, an Ottoman historical town with Ali Pasha’s castle sitting on top of the hill towering over the grey slated town.

The Blue Eye – in Albanian, Sryi I Kalter, is a water spring and a natural phenomenon which has become a popular tourist attraction. The clear icy blue water of the river bubbles out of a depth of more than 50 meters – although divers have gone down to a depth of 50 meters, it is not known exactly how deep this spring karst hole is as divers have been pushed upwards when trying to go down deeper………. this spring is the source of the River Bistricë which flows 25 km further into the Ionian Sea near Sarandë. Although swimming is forbidden due to the swift current there were quite a few young people dared to get into the freezing water to have a swim. Well we only dipped our feet for a while……..


It was great sitting for a while in the shade of the huge sycamore trees while enjoying a coffee and a glass of icy cold spring water, however after some time we did get back into the car to continue our drive to Gjirokaster – another hour in the car winding through the mountainous roads till we reached our destination.


We must have been quite crazy as we started our walk around in the middle of the day when the sun is most hot – I felt the sun burning my legs as I stood still to take some pictures. Anyway our first stop was at the tourist office where I bought a marked up map. Our main visit was to wander around this old Ottoman town – UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city appears in historical records dating back to 1336 and was known by its Greek name: Argyokastro when it was part of the Byzantine Empire. However it fell under Ottoman rule in 1417 and remained part of the Ottoman Empire until 1913 when it was incorporated into the newly formed Albania.

The climb up to the castle was exhausting. – but well worth it and we spent quite some time exploring the site. The view was overwhelming!

I had also read that during the last dictator’s rule (Hoxha) there were tunnels dug under the castle to house his bunkers and this was so secretive that they were only discovered later in the 1990’s. It was too hot to go deep down under the castle so we just take it for granted that these tunnels do exist.

By the time we arrived back at our hotel, we had enough energy to get changed and go for a swim. The sea water was rather refreshing, sometimes cold but good to have a swim alternated with lying on the pebbly beach to feel the warm sun rays. We stayed till the sun disappeared behind the buildings on the west side – this is the first time we did not see a proper sunset ……

Back in our room, time to shower and go out for a meal – too tired to go looking around so we decided to have dinner at the restaurant next door to the hotel – and it was delicious -Gerry had his steak and I had linguine con frutti di mare and a salad to share – of course Gerry had to have his vanilla ice cream as his dessert!

I could hardly keep myself awake while Gerry ate his ice cream so you can imagine how happy I was to just walk a few steps to our hotel and crash into bed…….

To,orrow it’s going to be a long, long day driving – Sarandë to Galaxidi a distance of more than 400km.

Weekend driving through southern Albania

Saturday, 29th June 2019 and Sunday, 30th June 2019

Saturday morning we woke up in our spacious sea view room at the little hillside hotel in Durrës. The staff and owners of this tiny hotel at the end of the boulevard in Durrës were ever so friendly and had prepared a really good breakfast with local products x local white cheese, boiled eggs, juicy tomatoes and crispy cucumber as well some spicy small sausages accompanied by some good bread. Both Gerry and I had to catch up with our mails and blog so after breakfast we moved our stuff out of our bedroom and settled on the verandah were we had really fast Wi-Fi. By 12 noon we were ready to move on and thanked the guys at the hotel for their hospitality. Really upto now we have only encountered fantastic Albanians who are most helpful and polite.

Back on the road again, I installed our TomTom to drive down further south to Vlorë – also a seaside town with a 7 kilometer beach front. Both Durrës and Vlorë are seaside towns which have expanded in the last 20 years in their race to catch up with the western world. Actually Durrës is a port city only 36 km west of the capital Tirana. As I mentioned in my last blog, Durrës has grown to include high rises along the beach front, loads of cafe’s, restaurants and night clubs and we were glad that our hillside hotel was situated at the other end of the beach front as we could not hear all the music going on in the center of town.

Our drive to Vlorë was quite uneventful – apparently we used the 2 day old highway which our TomTom did not recognize. This (partial) highway decreased our travel time and we were happy to get into Vrole just after 3 pm.

We were now staying at Mini Hotel with Maxi Rooms and indeed we were pleasantly surprised when Armando showed us to our room on the 6th floor of the sea front building.

Once we were settled in, we went out for a walk along the boulevard – this is really magnificent and has only been in place for the past two years. The palm trees still need their support as obviously they had been planted as adult trees along the boulevard and the beaches need more clean sand.

As we strolled along the beach, there was a gentle sea breeze which was most welcoming as the sun was still too hot – we were too tired to get our swimming gear on and go for a swim but it was already nearing 7 pm and we were thinking where to have dinner this evening. So we crossed over the boulevard and walked along the different restaurants and coffee bars – the waiters were friendly and inviting us in however we kept on walking till we noticed that some traditional restaurants were roasting lamb over a charcoal BBQ – we stopped at one of these restaurants and of course we were invited to take a look. The waiter told us that they were having a party that evening as it was the boss’s daughter’s birthday. Actually besides preparing various lambs to be barbecued, they were also rearranging tables so that they had a clearance in the middle for dancing. So we stopped for a drink and immediately we were given a plate with some roast lamb to sample.

Anyway, we stayed at this restaurant and had a good meal with Albanian prices (cheap) while we were being entertained as well dressed family and friends arrived and were congratulating the parents on their daughter’s ninth birthday. All the little girls were dressed so prettily ( but I couldn’t get myself to take any pictures as I felt I was intruding on the family’s privacy)

Well we stayed a t the restaurant, and watched sun set through the palm trees – interesting g to note that we’ve been watching sun set for the past three evenings!

By the time we left the restaurant , it was quite filled up with guests and even though we were invited to stay on, we said we had an early day the next as we were travelling to Sarandë. So we strolled to the other end of the boulevard with loads of locals all doing the same – the Albanians are very family minded and for the weekend stroll along the boulevard, they are all well dressed – on the way back we stopped at a Gelateria for Gerry’s daily ice cream.

Back at our hotel, we first enjoyed the view (and the musicJ from our balcony and before long went to bed.

Tomorrow it’s going to be a long drive to Sarandë – it’s not the kilometers but the winding roads through the mountains and along the coast!

Day 11: driving down to Durres from Shkoder

Friday, 28th June, 2019

We are spending 3 days driving through Albania’s coastline. Today, after going into shkoder’s town centre, we attempted to climb up to the Rozafa Fortress but due to the heat, we decided to take in the views from below the fortress.

Shkoder is one of the oldest cities in Europe, and while houses and mansions are still being restored to their former glory, it was pleasant to wander around this town and take in the sights and sounds – church bells ringing and the muezzin calling from the minaret. This old town is wedged between the Accursed Mountains and Lake Skadar and is a gateway to the Albanian Alps or southwards towards the coast, the Albania. Riviera.

I must say that up to now, we have encountered only pleasant Albanians – everyone is helpful and want to have a chat with you; for instance as I was taking pictures of an old dilapidated building, a shopkeeper on the other side of the road come across to talk to us. He did tell us that most buildings that haven’t been renovated are often due to disputes in the family inheritance plus the fact that to restore these buildings it would cost a fortune. The building which housed his shop was beautifully restored. He also suggested we visit the Cathedral and we said we would be walking around to take in the the prominent sites.

Another experience we had was when I saw an ATM and decided to withdraw some local cash – Lek – but first checked what the currency is worth – 100 Lek is 80 euro cents. Anyway at the ATM machine a bank employee stood there helping clients to use the ATM. She was actually given both debit card and PIN code so that she could withdraw the cash for the clients. I can understand when some of the clients were elderly people but there were also younger generation with their teenage daughters using this assistance……. well when it was my turn to withdraw cash, the bank employee politely stepped aside and smiled at me as though to let me know that of course she knew that I was more capable of withdrawing cash!!

Well further with our sightseeing x it’s incredible that within 300 square meters, we found 3 different houses of worship – the Russian Orthodox Cathedral, Catholic Cathedral and the Moslem Mosque.

We also walked down the main pedestrianized street filled with shops, cafe’s and hotels – Rr. Kolë Idromeno – it was interesting to see that bicycles are heavily used in Albania – apparently it was illegal to own a car till the 1960’s …….

Back at our hotel, The Rose Garden, we picked up the car to make our way to the Rozafa Fortress – a most impressive site founded by the Illyrians in antiquity and rebuilt by the Venetians and later by the Ottoman. The name is derived from the woman who was allegedly walked into the ramparts as an offering to the gods so that the construction would stand!

Well as I said earlier, we arrived here at noon and it was too hot to make the climb all the way but I did manage to take some good pictures and we have to do with that!

We then started on our 2 hour drive down to Durres. Sometimes we drove on a two lane road where we had all sorts of traffic, bicycles, donkey carts, busses and speeding BMW’s and Mercedes. For a few kilometers we were on a sort of a four lane motorway but within minutes this luxurious strip of motorway ended and we were back on a two lane road……. anyway we arrived in Durres just after 2pm and we could immediately check in to our hotel just across the beach.

We had access to the beach so we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the beach and swimming too till early evening. Back in our room (with sea view), we checked our social media and showered and were ready to take a stroll along the beach front. Actually Durres is also a sea port and we were able to see this when we went out for our stroll before dinner.

Through TripAdvisor, I chose a good restaurant to have dinner as we fancied having fresh fish – my choice fell on Gusto di Mare. While we had a fantastic meal made up of fresh green salad with avocado and shrimps, fresh sea bass baked in the oven with vegetables and very good local white wine from the Berat region, the prices were very Western European. Actually the restaurant manager spoke very good Dutch with a Flemish accent as he used to live in Belgium.

We strolled back to our hotel and welcomed the pleasantly warm sea breeze. All the way, we could hear music and singing in different seaside resorts. I believe half of Tirana is out here in Durres for the weekend. This is the summer resort for the Albanians living inTirana as it’s only some 36 km away. Mind you it’s not the beach front of my choice – it’s more or less like Benidorm; huge apartments built along the coast and some other buildingslook quite worn out and are need of a paint makeover…… tomorrow we are travelling further south to Vorle where we will also be pending the night in a beach side hotel.

Day 10: crossing 4 borders to reach Shkoder

Thursday, 27th June, 2019

This morning my alarm clock went off at 7.am – it is going to be another travel day as although we are not doing that much mileage, it’s going to take us some 4 hours to arrive finally at our destination and stop over night in Shkoder.

We also wanted to first drive up to the ruins of Fort Imperial on Srd Hill. Built by Napoleon in 1806, the fort was to provide defense from the north when the French dismantled the Republic of Dubrovnik and fierce fighting was going on between the French on one side and the Montenegrins and Russians on the other side while Dubrovnik decided to remain neutral. However Dubrovnik fell into the hands of the French, but it did not last long before the town ceded to the Austrians after the fall of Napoleon. The Austrians were scared of the Ottoman Empire which was moving up more north and decided to fortify the French fortifications.

During the Homeland war of 1991, the fortifications proved again to be useful and strong in the defense of Dubrovnik which was surrounded by Serbs and Montenegrins who occupied all the surrounding territories while the Croatian army was only in the Imperial Fort. The Imperial Fort withstood a whole day of attack in December 1991 and hence Dubrovnik did not fall. Those Croatian defenders must have thanked the builders of the fort – although severely damaged it withstood modern artillery fighting……. now the museum of the Homeland War is situated within the fort.

After our walk around , we also took pictures of the old town of Dubrovnik from the top of hill cliff – this was such a wonderful panorama and good to get a bird’s eye view of Dubrovnik and the surrounding areas!

By 12 noon we were on the road again and our TomTom gave us a route to our destination through the mountains and not as we had expected along the coastline….. we were lucky to have a bus driving in front of us as the road was so narrow that no two cars could fit at the same time x in fact the bus made a car reverse quite a few meters before we could continue our journey.

Both Gerry and I are not really mountain lovers and certainly after an hour of driving through mountains we both had had enough but we had to drive another 3 and a half hours….. these mountains are bare rock formation and only on the lower grounds we could see green vegetation.

Within an hour we had reached the border to Bosnia Herzegovina and some time later we pulled up at a gas station to fill up the car and a sandwich – alas no sandwiches at this fuel station but we were told we could get lunch just across the road. So off we went!

We had a pleasant lunch of Cevapcici and salad and a thirst quenching drink of fresh lemonade and then we were ready to continue our drive through the mountains and head towards the border with Montenegro. This is where we saw beautiful lake Bilecko which made the waiting at the border less frustrating…….

We followed TomTom’s instructions all the way through mountainous roads which seemed impossible to drive through but we made it to the Albanian border and then it was a short trip to Shkoder. We were dead tired by the time we arrived to our hotel – Rose Garden Hotel

  • Gerry enjoying his well deserved beer
  • Our hotel Rose Garden
  • Previously an Ottoman mansion
  • The church tower as seen from the rose garden

The border to Albania runs across another huge lake – Skadarssko Jezero and Shkoder lies on the this lake. We will be doing the sightseeing tomorrow as will be going up to the Rozafa Fortress and taking in the views from there. But for today, we just wanted to relax in this little hotel and enjoy the rose garden and dinner.

  • Salad to share
  • Enjoying the rose garden
  • Vegetarian risotto for me
  • Tasty spaghetti Bolonaise for Gerry

Day 9: Hanging around Dubrovnik

Wednesday, 26th June, 2019

Today we had a good lie in – I only woke up around 9 am and Gerry much later – so all our plans to go and climb the old city walls early morning fell through. And we were not going to walk up some 1.000 steps in the heat of the day!!

So we decided to have a somewhat relax day, sipping our coffee on our terrace and me doing some more travel planning and keeping up with my blog. Our German neighbors were already off for the day so we were totally on our own on our floor.

Still quite sleepy but enjoying his coffee on our terrace

Later in the day we decided to go down for a swim – it was just down the road and some steps onto the rocky beach – gradually more locals came down too – I imagined us being seals or penguins basking on the rocks and soaking up the sun!! Some of the locals went fishing, putting out cages with loads of bread so as to entice the fish and others went off to catch octopus…….. but for us, we enjoyed the fresh and clear sea water and went in a couple of times for a refreshing dip.

Luckily we had steps leading into the sea – while Gerry did dive, I went down the steps.
  • Time to relax after a good swim

After a couple of hours we went up to our apartment to have a siesta. It was too hot to remain on the beach and by then there were more tourists who were spreading their towels on the pathway……..but we had a great time swimming! When we climbed up the steps, we needed a little break to catch our breath – so we had time to admire the craggiest shoreline and take some pictures as well as a selfie – that’s always fun trying to get both of us in the picture…….

After our siesta, we got ready to go into town – this time we caught the bus so we did not get all sticky and sweaty by the time we reached the old town. Our city card which we bought yesterday evening has proven quite useful with catching the bus – it’s much too hot to walk….

Once in town, we did attempt to climb up to the bastion walls, however the official entrance was already closed but we thought we could get up a different way – although we climbed many steps, we could not reach the top of the walls but we did enjoy some magnificent views.

But we did find a “hole in the wall” and were able to get out of the bastions only to see one of the pirate ships sailing out to the sunset……. later as we were having dinner we also saw these pirate ships returning to port!

  • Washing lines, electricity cables in the foreground and terra-cotta rooftops in the background
This pirate ship takes tourists out to sea to watch the sun setting into the ocean…..

When we finally made our way down to the old port, I had worked up quite an appetite. We stopped at the same restaurant we went to last night x it has simple but good food so we could not go wrong here and even the wine and beer were good. Also it’s a good place to watch what is going on in the port and people strolling around. And when it started getting dark, the twinkling lights went on and it all looked so magical…….Very entertaining!

After dinner, we made it on time to catch the bus back to our apartment – we are having an early night as we plan to be back on the road tomorrow and well on time!

Day 8: Driving from Zadar to Dubrovnik with a detour to Mostar

Tuesday, 26 June, 2019

We had a really good night’s rest in our luxurious bedroom in the old town of Zadar. It’s a good thing we had visited this port town a couple of years back as we had no time to go sight seeing due to today’s busy schedule!

Gerry getting our coffee ready to relax before going to bed
Luxury shower in our bathroom

By 9 am we were on the road again after Gerry had his morning coffee and smoke on the little patio leading down the stairs to the pedestrian street below. Luckily our car was parked close by at no extra charges.

For some time we drove over the motorway after leaving Zadar and we were quite alone travelling on this well maintained motorway. However once we exited the motorway to drive to Mostar in Bosnia Herzegovina, the motorway changed to a two lane road winding through the mountainous countryside.

  • Green agricultural valleys surrounded by ragged mountains

We finally reached the boarded between Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina and it took us quite a while as passports and car documents were being checked thoroughly – of course we needed something back from the officers – passport to be stamped! The Bosnian customs officer was full of humour and said he would stamp our passports but it would cost us five euros each……… hahaha…….

  • The flag of Bosnia Herzegovina

It took us nearly 2 hours to reach Mostar – a medieval town on the Neretva River and which was heavily shelled and destroyed during the ethnic cleansing wars of the 1990’s. This town was built in the 15 & 16th centuries as an Ottoman frontier city and later developed further by the Austria-Hungarian period in the 19and 20th centuries.

Most of the facades as well as the iconic bridge have been rebuilt through funds donated by UNESCO and now the reconstruction of both the Old Bridge – Stari Most – and the Old City of Mostar are a symbol of reconciliation, international cooperation, and of the coexistence of diverse cultural, ethnic, and religious communities.

I then wonder, why was there a war fought?

  • Driving into Mostar
  • Our first view of the iconic bridge
  • A better view
  • The Old Bridge – Stari Most – one of the main attractions is when young men jump off the bridge x as a sport!

As we had not had any breakfast, we had some lunch along the river and shaded by the trees – now we had to have the Cevapcici (beef and lamb mincemeat rolls) with salad. After our lunch we made our way back to the car to continue our drive to Dubrovnik.

Once on the road, we noticed that at most times, we were the only travelers – high and ragged mountains with hardly a living soulmaround – yes we did see lots of cemeteries – Christian oas well as Moslem cemeteries. Anyway we were really glad when we could see the coastline again and not too long, we crossed the border again into Croatia – we now had some 1.5hours drive to Dubrovnic!

We are staying in a one bedroom apartment just outside the city walls of Dubrovnik – our hosts are really lovely people and made us feel at home straight away – we have a side view of the coastline and apparently from the upper floors, one can see the walled city of Dubrovnik – alas for us (and for our hosts) there is a monstrous big hotel built on the side blocking most of the view. Such a shame as these beautiful villas must have had a fantastic uninterrupted view of the coastline!

Once we were settled and Rudi, our host, showed us the sights on the tourist map, we walked to the old town of Dubrovnik. According to Rudi, it should take us some 25 minutes, but i guess he must be a brisk walker as it took us well over a half hour to reach Fort Lovrijenac where we could admire the view!

Luckily the heat of the day was gradually getting lesser as we entered the city walls through Pile Gate and it was as though we were transported into the film set of Game of Thrones – only I had to imagine all those tourists disintegrating into nothing! We were late to climb up the City Walls – we will leave that for tomorrow- but our walk around and getting to know Dubrovnik was such a wonderful experience!

By the time we had walked around and also heard some lovely singing in the Cathedral, we went down to the Old Port which was truly magnificent. Here we decided to stop and have a drink with a snack and just relax for a while.

  • Knocking on the brass knob of the Rector’s Palace – now a museum
Finally drinks and bites at the Old Port of Dubrovnik

Well we were ready to go back to our apartment by 10 pm however we did not p,an to walk up the hill as we were dead tired – as we had bought our it’s Card at the tourist office earlier this evening, we also had a bus card so we put it to good use and caught a bus that took us up the hill – from there we walked a small bit to our apartment. When we arrived our next door neighbors from Munich were having a drink on the terrace and we just exchanged our evening’s stories while enjoying a liqueur which Rudi’s wife had left us as a complimentary drink in the apartment.

Tomorrow we will have a bit of a relaxing day as Gerry has been doing all the driving while I have been navigating and getting g things sorted out on the trip.

Time to sleep!

Day 7: Ferry from Mali Losinj to Zadar

Monday, 24th June, 2019

After yesterday’s busy day meeting up with Arlen, going to the beach and enjoying the company of Lara and her family over dinner, we badly needed our sleep and did not wake up till much later than planned. Today is going to be a travel day – easy and slow going – by ferry which we are taking later on in the afternoon and saving us driving back to Cres to cross over to the mainland and drive down to Zadar. I hate retracing my steps – I rather keep moving forward even if it means going round in a circle to get back to a specific point!

Our breakfast consisted of a banana and some chocolate cookies with our coffee – we were given strict instructions by Lara that we should not eat too much as she invited us for lunch when we would be eating some of the fish that her son Alex caught yesterday.

After packing up everything, we met our host, Matheus, downstairs and thanked him for his hospitality – we decided to walk up to the car park with our luggage but it seemed that the steps got steeper and steeper as we climbed up…….

Anyway finally made it to the car park after much grunting and panting and stopping to admire the view – we then drove over to Lara’s place.

  • On our way, picturesque steps leading down to the harbour
  • Half door open leading into a secret garden

At Lara’s place, the house was full with kids as they have holidays – the twins Dado and Carolina were watching cartoons and Alex started preparing the fish to put on the BBQ while his girlfriend, Bruna went off to the greengrocers to get some salad for lunch. Maria was out shopping and joined us just before lunch. Gerry has a special relationship with Lara and her family as he knows Lara since she was a little girl. In fact, before we left Holland, Gerry put various photos he had taken over the years into an album. These pictures were take when Gerry and his family used to travel to the then Yugoslavia and spent time with Lara’s family – Lara really appreciated this photo album- as did her husband, Werner!

Well back to today! Besides having lively conversations, I also managed to make reservations in Dubrovnic – to arrive there on Tuesday evening and where we will be spending 2 nights. And then it was time for Alex to get the BBQ going………

  • Grilling process under way
  • All the fish ready for the BBQ
  • Making sure that the fish is well done
  • Alex managing the BBQ
  • Table set for lunch

Werner joined us much later for lunch but there was enough fish to go round and it was great being with this really nice family

From left to right: Maria, Alex, Bruna, Carolina, Werner, Lara, Dado and Gerry

Alex did not only attend to the BBQ but also served out the fish and as we could notice, this wasn’t the first time that he’s done this. Gerry kept on saying how Alex reminded him of Jozo, Alex’s grandfather, the same voice and mannerisms……..

Before we knew it, it was time for us to leave and drive down to the ferry. Another surprise awaited us – Arlen, who lives opposite the shipyard, came down to say goodbye – so sweet of her and the. She even called Anna (Lara’s mum) so that she too could wish us happy travels. These people are so friendly and hospitable – just cannot helps loving them!

Our ferry arrived and after some messy way of driving on board, we saw Mali Losinj slowly getting smaller and smaller as we sailed away – literally into the sunset!

We sailed along the coastline and in between various island – this ferry was like taking the local bus with different stops – our first stop was at the island if Primuda and then onto Silby and one final stop at Olibi before arriving at Zadar late in the evening 22.15 pm of course it was just great and easy going trip -;watching the coastline, other boats and different basic ports as well as the sunset and then finally the twinkling lights of Zadar.

Day 6: relax day in Mali Losinj

Sunday, 23rd June 2019

It was good waking up this morning and knowing that we need not pack our stuff to hit the road again. Today we are having a relax day in Mali Losinj visiting with Gerry’s friends from decades ago when he was working in the local shipyard back in the 70’s when this country was part of Tito’s Yugoslavia

But first we are drinking coffee downstairs in our little secret garden and patio while I write my blog. Our hosts (from Belgrade, Slovenia), Veronica and Matheus stopped by and we had a nice long chat. They found our road trip very interesting and also asked about my blog. As I had just finished yesterday’s update, I showed them the page and they were fascinated. Matheus noted the blog page and said he would be following me.

  • Morning coffee on our patio
  • That’s me working at my blog
  • Early morning view from our bedroom window
  • And again the view from our bedroom early morning

After showering we got ready to walk down the steps to meet up with Arlen, a retired teacher who Gerry knows a long long time through Lara’s family. We met up at Bueno’s -a cafe on the main square, serving all sorts of coffee. Arlen is one of the last citizens of Mali Losinj speaking Italian and we had a very dynamic conversation with regard to the history of this island and it’s people.

Enjoying coffee and company

After a couple of hours, we went up the steps to the church as Gerry had parked the car “somewhere there” …….. what with the warm weather and all the steps we climbed, we were quite out of breath and were glad to find the car after some time! Our next stop was to spend a few hours on the beach before meeting up with Lara and her family – Gerry was hosting a family dinner and the whole family was invited.

Anyway, we spent a few relaxing hours at Cikat beach and swam a few times. It was ever so relaxing.

We met up at Lara’s house round 7 pm and while waiting for her son Alex, to come back from his fishing expedition with his girlfriend Bruna, we enjoyed the view from their veranda with a glass of wine.

Our hosts with Gerry on their verand overlooking the harbour of Mali Losinj

Finally we saw Alex arriving in the harbour in his little motor boat. Apparently he had caught two sea bass which went into the fridge and we will be eating tomorrow’s lunch.

Lara had made a reservation at the Lantern, a restaurant perched on the shore line across the beach if Cikat. Her brother, Christian and his wife Sandra as well as her mother Anna were joining us too so we had a really long table on the terrace where we could watch the sunset.

We had to walk quite a bit to teach the restaurant as it is in a park but the sunset scenery made it worthwhile and I did manage to capture a few good shots as you can see in the above picture gallery.

After the sun set, the sea breeze was quite fresh but luckily the restaurants gave us fleece blankets to wrap ourselves in…….. we had a lovely meal and I am sure Gerry enjoyed reminiscing about old times with the various members of the family.

It was a delightful evening which ended up with Gerry trying to find the same parking area as we had when we left for the day the same afternoon…….. and then to find our way to our apartment down various pathways and steps……. but we did manage to get home …….

Tomorrow, we will be leaving Mali Losinj by ferry to Zadar where we will be staying overnight before driving to Dubrovnic.

Day 5: on the road from Porec to Mali Losinj

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.

Skies cleared up; far stretched views of rolling hills

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!

Our ancient door leading to the garden and patio

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.

Day 4: driving from Peschiera del Garda to Porec

Friday, 21st June, 2019

After yesterday’s delicious dinner at Al Lago, Gerry just fell asleep as soon as we were in bed while I was writing my blog – well to be fair, he’s been doing all the driving so he must be quite exhausted – mind you, the wine may have had some effect too! Anyway, I woke up to the sounds of Peschiera waking up – little trucks delivering their goods, garbage being collected and little old ladies chatting to each other as they went about their errands.

Before starting off on our drive today, we had a scrumptious breakfast at the Palazzo ai Capitani -the staff from this boutique hotel in the middle of the historic town really know how to look after their guests. We were shown the frescoes along the stairwell that were discovered while renovations were being carried out. These date back to the 1500’s.

  • The view from our room
  • Various frescoes dating to 1500’s

When we were ready to leave, we walked to the gate leading to the bridge outside town and Gerry walked up the hill to pick up the car from the parking area while I waited with our overnight luggage at the gate.

  • Goodbye to Peschiera de Garda – a delightful historic town!

By 10.15 we were on the road again and we decided to break up the drive to Porec, our first overnight stop in Croatia, by visiting Venice – only 125 km away.

Outside Peschiera we filled up the car as fuel was running low – the prices here in Italy are much higher than back home – we paid €1,44 per liter! Traffic was quite heavy all the way to Venice and by the time we reached the parking garage just outside Piazzale Roma, it was already gone 12 noon. This parking garage has only a Day tariff – €29,00 !

  • Crossing the bridge leading to Venice
  • First glimpse of Venice
  • Rooftops as seen from the garage 9th floor
  • Starting our Venice walkabout
  • Our first gondola sighting

Our walkabout Venice was to reach Piazza San Marco and unlike Nancy, we arrived here in the middle of the day when the city was teeming with tourists – and temperatures had soared up to 35C.

Following the signs and using google maps, it took us some 45 minutes to reach Piazza San Marco. Mind you on the way, we were able to take some beautiful shots of various buildings and canals, however it was ever so difficult to get a good picture of the Cathedral…….

As we had walked some 5.5km, we decided to take the water-bus back to Piazzale Roma – and this was the best decision ever! There were some 8 stops till we reached our destination so it was a comfortable sightseeing trip on the canal – of course the main attraction was the Rialto Bridge!

Rialto Bridge as seen from the water-bus – marvelous!

Back at Piazzale Roma, we first stopped to have a drink – fresh orange juice and cold water – before picking up the car and starting our second leg of our trip – Porec – a 220 km drive through 2 borders.

  • Flatlands gave way to hills
  • Our stop on the Slovenian border
  • Vignette bought at the border stuck somewhat crooked

Finally we arrived in Porec well after 6 pm – our overnight stay was in a little studio apartment just off the beach. I was somewhat disappointed as I thought I had booked us in the old town but we were just outside along the beach front. Well as soon as we settled in, we went out for dinner and a stroll around this area which is very touristic – loads of German and Italian tourists. We were so ravenous that I forgot to take pictures of our delicious meal – Gerry had to have his nostalgic- Cevapcici – similar to a kebab, while I had grilled squid……..

By the time we got back to our studio we were dead beat – no late nights for us! We will have to get up on time to visit the old town of Porec in the morning.

Tomorrow we will be driving down to Mali Losinj where we will be meeting up with Gerry’s old friends.