Istra Hotel Opatija

Felt ok when I got up which is a good job as we are moving on not to far though only to a little place down the coast we have to get the bus there which only takes about 2 hours so not to much of a trek for me as still feeling light headed and dizzy which is nothing new for me really. Want to say a quick congratulations to Collette and Ste Ians sister and husband who have had a little girl called Layla Grace saw the pictures of her ...

... had to at least wear pants..hehe. I went snorkelling at one stage, naked of course and came across about 1000 tiny fish... it then got me worried where they might swim and I had to cross my legs and swim with my arms only after that!

Our 2nd full day we woke up to a lot of wind and I was worried our pop up top would rip off so i pulled it down and top and tailed with kathleen downstairs. The wind didnt let up ...

... les poissons et éviter les piqûres d'oursins. Le paysage côtier est magnifique et l'eau limpide. Nous répèterons l'opération 1h30 de marche plus loin, puis sur le chemin du retour.

Cette journée nous a ouvert l'appétit : dîner dans une "spaghetteria" sur le port accompagné d'un succulent vin blanc et retour à la chambre pour une bonne nuit.

... le tout dans une charmante maison avec jardin tenue par un couple de retraité italo-croate, à 5 minutes du centre.

En septembre, le soleil se couche à 20h. Difficile pour nous car en France, c'est plutôt 21h. Tanpis, nous savourons notre 1er bain dans la mer un peu fraîche!

La journée a été longue, nous rentrons "chez nous" pour un petit pique-nique improvisé et une bonne nuit.

... et d'un met italien à la terrasse d'une pizzeria. Le centre-ville a l'air animé mais Rijeka est le 1er port de Croatie et les abords de la ville sont très "industriels". Malgré tout nous nous baladons un peu en attendant le catamaran pour l'ïle de Cres (départ tous les jours à 17h). Si les hauteurs de la ville n'ont que peu d'intérêt, le centre et le canal sont à découvrir.

... in the castle just walk aroundto see the pond and surrounding nature.

The rest of the day we spand in the Internet bar on the way to Lipice workin on our blog, not easy work guys; believe us...

In the evening we continue our way to Liice to see a lot of horses :-) We park just near the stables, very bad night,Alena can't fll asleep at all... it will be a looong night!

I jumped the bus in Pula, and headed off for Rijeka, just a hop, skip, and jump. When I left, I saw a roadsign saying 100km to Rijeka. But, this bus went everywhere but straight. After 1 hr. on the bus, I saw another sign saying 100km to Rijeka. But at least I got to see more of Croatia. I wondered why my ticket cost so much (100 konas, or about 20 ...

... ago. A very worthwhile stop.

It was about 500-600 steps down to walk through the whole thing and come out the other end.....where the elevator back up was broken, meaning 500-600 steps to climb back up outside the exit, lots of fun on this boiling hot day!

After a perfect holiday breakfast with continuing Italian influence of excellent coffee, we spent some time considering the options and then walked off to the bus station. Unfortunately Stefanie's mother sent us to the left which was the wrong direction, perhaps we were walking off the ice cream from yesterday :-)

The bus ride took us through a lot of the local countryside and, from looking at the chimneys on all the ...

... mushrooms and grilled tomato which was just fantastic and then we lazed around the apartment for a while playing with our gifts and getting ready ever so slowly for our luncheon date. Despite bringing a minimum of clothes, Jess was able to put a few things together and look a million dollars as we headed off to lunch. The kids also got all dressed up and Jean did her hair in a French braid so she looked like a movie ...