A week of exploring Istria! Our plan was to ride south visiting the coastal towns of Porec, Rovinj and Pula and then take the ferry out to the island of Cres in the Kvarner Gulf.
Leaving Momjan we headed out and had an awesome ride! We saw many other riders in this region which is usually a good indicator for good riding, and it was indeed beautiful road riding terrain. We arrived in Rovinj at dusk just in time to find our campground and settle in. We decided to stay an extra day to be able to check out town which we did the next morning, by riding a bike path along the coast for 8 km. We did the usual church and castle visits and explored the cool winding pathways, which so far we have not grown tired of. Back to camp and to the beach for Susan for a little R&R in the sun!
The next day we headed to Pula the big port town of Istria. We checked out the big amphitheater which is impressive, and as nice as the one in Rome, just not Rome. We also found out that the Ferry we intended to take to Cres was not running... So we would have to ride another day up to Brestova to a ferry that reaches the Island of Cres from the north. The ride north to catch the ferry, although a bit rainy, turned out to be very nice.
We had hoped to ride the whole length of Cres from the south to the north but as that Ferry was not running we had to do an out-and-back from the north. We ended up at a nice campground and stayed two days for a break from riding and some beach time. The water is an amazing shade of blue, (just like in the pictures) the swimming was a bit cold but nice after a little sunning.
We rode back to the ferry and rode to Pazin in the center of the Istrian peninsula. Oh and along the way Susan had a little heat exhaustion experience and had to take a little roadside nap! The next day we returned back to Momjon via an awesome ride that brought us past Cerovlje, Draguc, Buzet, and Motovun, our tour of Istria was almost complete! Our return to Michael and Marijan's felt familiar and welcoming. Such great host and wonderful people!
Divigrad castle
Riding along the water in Porec.
Rovinj, very touristy, but for good reason, it was beautiful.
This communist era monument stood out like a sore thumb in this otherwise historic village.
We almost had o backtrack 6km uphill due to a wrong turn, but were able to ride this dirt road Long the sa cliffs,to make a connection back to pavement on the way to Pula.
Pula's Coliseum or Aphitheatre is amazingly intact and the 6th largest one known.
It rained pretty good while sight seeing in Pula, but Susan's rain jacket matched the street pretty well.
Italian energy drink for those times when your dragging...
See next post for the rest of our Istrian Photos.
No comments:
Post a Comment