When we checked in at Villa Marija yesterday… Loraina mentioned that we could have breakfast on our balcony in the morning. That sounded amazing!… So we signed up quick 😃. At 8 o’clock, sharp breakfast was sitting outside our door. It included croissant’s… Breakfast, meat, and cheese… an apple cake of some kind (we smelled it cooking last night, and it was amazing), and scrambled eggs with tea and coffee, of course. What a great way to start our day!
On tap, today was a tour of the Istrian peninsula in north western Croatia.
And…our first stop would be the Limski Fjord. When we arrived there…the GPS was trying to send us down a foot path 🤪. Denise asked a German runner how far it was down to the water. He gave us some quick directions and we were soon walking down the side of a very steep hill. There were only a couple of people there when we arrived. We both agreed that calling it a fjord was maybe a bit of a stretch, but looking to the south it did look quite beautiful. It’s just that we were expecting maybe some sheer cliffs along it. 🤷♂️
By then the temperatures had climbed into the low 80s and it was muggy as hell. Needless to say, by the time we climbed that hill, and got back to the bikes…we were both covered in sweat. We dried up quickly on the bikes, but we both felt pretty yucky for the rest of the morning.
By noontime…we arrived in Rovinj…a small historic town on a peninsula. It was a busy place…mixing in with tour buses and just lots of tourists.
It was a beautiful old city, but a little busy for us. After a quick lunch at a pizza shop… We made our way back to the bikes and got on the road again.
The next stop would be “Pula Arena”…a coliseum-like amphitheater built between 27 AD and 68BC. It’s located on the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula. It is remarkably intact for something built such a long time ago.
There was a crew in the middle of the arena filming for some sort of a movie. There were two guys dressed as gladiators, fighting it out with swords and spears. We hung out for a while and watched them perform. Pretty cool!
The remainder of the ride along the east coast of the peninsula was really beautiful. It passed through a lot of beach towns with a road that was right along the Adriatic Sea.
We rode out on one of the piers in Lovran and saw people swimming off the dock in water that was crystal clear. Our plan had been to end our ride in Opatija…about 10 miles up the road…but Lovran was too good to pass up. We looked around and found the nearest hotel to the pier.. After checking in we switched into our swimsuits and got out on the pier with the locals. The water was so clear you could easily see the bottom 20 to 25 feet below.
After spending about an hour and a half there, we headed back to the room… Got changed up…and went out for a beer and a nice dinner.
What a great evening! Tomorrow we will ride off the Istrian peninsula and head south along the Adriatic coast. We hear the road is spectacular…and can’t wait to ride it!
