Zadar and Pag Island

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With the continued heat and beautiful water we are eating our fair share of ice creams and doing plenty of swimming. The ice cream here is different to the Italian Gelato that the kids love, it is creamier with heaps of unusual flavours, yum, yum.

Zadar is a cute little town along the Adriatic coastline. The city centre is dotted with Roman and Venetian ruins with little white stone chapels.  The streets are full of vendors, many with religious paintings and crafts.

Most of the beaches are pebbles or stones; we have been swimming at different beaches each day. We did manage to find one sandy beach; this beach also had exfoliating mud that we had fun rubbing all over ourselves.

We made our way along Pag Island, the island is like a rocky desert with gorgeous coastline. We found the little town and wondered through the streets looking at the crafts and shops. There were a number of women making and selling a variety of crochet designs. We also brought some famous Pag sheep cheese for dinner that night.

We’ve had a relaxing and enjoyable time in Zadar. 

Adriatic Coastline

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Our first glimpse of the ocean this summer! We left our home exchange in Zapresic and headed towards Zadar, Croatia. The view on our way down from the hills to the coastline was stunning.  The water is clear, clean and refreshing. 

It took Filip a little bit to get in, but us kiwi’s spent no time mucking around for our first swim in the ocean this summer. The water was lovely with rocks, fish, sea slugs and even kina. Corban had her first go at snorkelling and did really well, she even went out quiet deep until she got cold. We all loved being in the ocean and exploring.

Zapresic, Croatia

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We spent 7 days in our home exchange in Zapresic, Croatia.  We experienced a heat wave during the first 5 days, followed by a welcomed thunder storm and rain!

During our time we crossed through to Slovenia to visit the Lake Bled and also go to an aquatic centre. We had to laugh each time crossing the border and needing to get our passports stamped.

One day we did a drive up Mount Mikulic (by accident) looking for some bat caves.  We had a lovely picnic and beautiful view from the top before heading back down the mountain to find the bat caves on the other side of the mountain, near the bottom.  After walking up hill in 38° we loved standing in the cave which was only 10° to cool off! The photos inside the cave didn’t turn out very well, but there were heaps of bats, 8 different species.

There was also a visit to the Neanderthal Museum. The museum had lots in visual shows and wax figures.  There is also an actual excavation site a short walk along a path from the museum.

Like always our home exchange was fantastic! Our apartment was above some local shops, had air conditioning (very positive with the hot weather) and interesting toys for the kids.  

Lake Bled, Slovenia

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Because Lake Bled is the Number 1# attraction in Slovenia we decided to make a day trip.  Once again it was another incredibly hot day.  To walk around the lake only takes about 2 hours however with the heat and the kids enjoying the lake so much we decided to find a nice spot and just play. We also rented a small swan row boat and rowed to Bled Island, a small island in the middle of the lake with an historic church, lovely gardens and beautiful board walk around the island.  The water was so clear we could easily see to the bottom and lots of fish swimming around. 

Zagreb

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The temperature was a still 38° the day we visited Zagreb the capital city of Croatia! Water fountains and walking in the shade become a must do, not to mention wetting our hats and t-shirts to help with the heat.

Zagreb is a cute little city that is easily accessible by foot.  We enjoyed the township, cathedral and markets.  It was lovely to be entertained by some Croatian Folk Singers in traditional dress and also some guards on horseback and foot marching through the city. 

Zapresic, Croatia

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We spent 7 days in our home exchange in Zapresic, Croatia.  We experienced a heat wave during the first 5 days, followed by a welcomed thunder storm and rain!

During our time we crossed through to Slovenia to visit the Lake Bled and also go to an aquatic centre. We had to laugh each time crossing the border and needing to get our passports stamped.

One day we did a drive up Mount Mikulic (by accident) looking for some bat caves.  We had a lovely picnic and beautiful view from the top before heading back down the mountain to find the bat caves on the other side of the mountain, near the bottom.  After walking up hill in 38° we loved standing in the cave which was only 10° to cool off! The photos inside the cave didn’t turn out very well, but there were heaps of bats, 8 different species.

There was also a visit to the Neanderthal Museum. The museum had lots in visual shows and wax figures.  There is also an actual excavation site a short walk along a path from the museum.

Like always our home exchange was fantastic! Our apartment was above some local shops, had air conditioning (very positive with the hot weather) and interesting toys for the kids.  

June Birthdays!

June was a very busy month this year.  The usual three Birthdays plus lots happening with school. Allan chose the Grosetto Boat for dinner and Taylor and Leo's went to Parliment, a restaurant with a play park (great for everyone!).

Purple Poem by Corban

It's official we are on the summer school holidays!  We have been in Zagreb, Croatia for 5 days. I will start updating the blog shortly.  Corban is doing some home schooling over the holidays, she is very proud of a purple poem she wrote today.