Last week, I had 4 quiet, peaceful days on the beach in Brela, Croatia, about halfway between Dubrovnik and Split. The water was a beautiful color of blue and soooo clear, I could see the bottom more than 50 feet down. I swam and floated and watched the clouds and the people, and meandered along the car free-seaside walk. It was a beautiful few days. I hade a "fish picnic" scheduled, but the weather turned rough on my last day, so it was cancelled. I was perfectly happy to stay and play in the waves and paint.
After bidding the sea farewell, I headed up the coast to Split, where I fought through the throngs of tourists. It was culture shock!! Having to step around people stopping to gawk, stopping short when others suddenly turned or looked at something on offer on the already crowded sidewalks. Split is a very busy, modern city which began on an ancient nucleus.
The Roman emperor Diocletian retired to this coast and built a modest retirement place for himself...
He died, Rome fell, the palace still stood. After awhile, the local folks used the walls of his palace as a wall of their own homes - hey, one last wall to build, right? So now there's old (medieval) buildings built into and onto the ancient walls of a columned, marble Roman palace. There are shops in the basement and churches in the wings. There's a baptistery in Diocleatian's temple to Venus (?) and bars put pillows on the low walls for their customers to sit and people watch while sipping high priced beverages that sweat in the heat.
I opted for a one hour plane ride to Zagreb over an 8 hr. bus ride. I was loathe to leave the seaside, but v. excited to get to Zagreb, because my mom, sister and Auntie Alice arrived two days later!
Zagreb is the capital of Croatia. I stayed in the old town area and wandered around looking at the buildings, going into churches and museums and stopping along the pedestrian streets for drinks and food and people watching.
Most of the old town centers are car free zones and it makes it SO easy to be there and really observe the area. One can stop and look around and check the map or take a picture without being buzzed by motorbikes or trucks. Plus, it cuts down on the noise so sitting outside in cafes is pleasant, refreshing. And, since the road is for people, the sidewalks can be for tables and chairs without squeezing out the pedestrians.
Finally, the day came -August 2, and I went to the airport to pickup the three ladies! Late flight, missed connection, long wait...finally 5 hrs late they arrived bleary eyed and ready to go to the zoo. (Literally, Robin got off the plane and said "Let's go to the zoo!"). After changing money, potty stop, getting a map, and finally getting to the car, we opted out of the zoo because the trip to our first night's lodging
Our first stop was in the north east of Croatia. A town called Verazdin is not on the main tourist trail yet and it was such a pleasure. We were there on a lazy Sunday and almost had the quaint, easily walkable town to ourselves. There's a castle that looks like a fortress, there are blocks of baroque buildings, there's the most interesting cemetery I've ever seen.
Along the road, there are people selling the veggies out of their gardens. We stopped at one and bought enough veggies for a tasty meal of salads, and corn - $6. We're not in the tourist area any more! They were so happy to choose tomatoes, peppers and greens as fresh as it gets.
Since they're only here for about 7 days and we've already booked our lodging for their whole trip, we've got a lot of ground to cover. We spent yesterday morning in lake Bled in the mountains of northern Slovenia - yes, another country for us! We took a boat ride to the island where there's a church, and had a piece of the world famous custard cake.
We spent a rainy evening walking around Ljubljana. It's a fairy tale city of bridges, fancy architecture and young people. We heard the organ in the Franciscan church, a trio (piano, violin, cello) concert in the city museum, and ate in the arched basement of a pub while waiting out the rain. We even made a late night Mc Donald's run for coffee with milk. That place was hopping at 10:00 on a Tuesday night. There were people sitting outside on the terrace, and loads of locals getting their Big Macs on!
We're staying in an "Eco hotel". It's a working farm where they raise horses and livestock, and among other things, make hemp products. Here's the tags on the sheets.
There's also hemp oil, shampoo and soap. 
Castle-check,
boat ride-check,
They built this building using all renewable resources, sustainable heat and electricity, all the products are organic and I've had two very restful nights on those sheets!
We're leaving right now for the coast of Croatia. Rovinj is said to be a picturesque, stone walled town here in the north of Croatia. We'll spend two nights there, so hopefully, we won't have to drive anywhere tomorrow. Maybe we'll just have a beach day.
This week is flying yet, we're doing and seeing what's on their list:
ice cream-check,
Castle-check,boat ride-check, classical concert- check,
Having a wonderful holiday-check!
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