Road Trip To Montenegro Via Split and Dubrovnik

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We hit the road nice and early for our drive from Zadar to Kotor, Montenegro so that we could stop along the way.

Our first stop was in Split, Croatia.  Split is a wonderful city spread along the Adriatic Coast with the old fortified wall still standing.  We weaved our way through the streets and alley ways enjoying the old buildings, cathedrals and market stalls.  Leo and I especially liked the fish market, looking at all the unusual fish and trying to decide if some on them were snakes. We dropped Filip off here to catch a plane back to Prague.

We passed lots of wonderful scenery.  In the photo of the blue border crossing was the Bosnia border control.  We only had a 20 minute drive through this part which was luscious and cultivated with lots of fruit and vegetable orchards.

Next was Dubrovink, another amazing city that has a very distinctive Old Town with massive stone walls that encircle the city with a castle down on the waters edge.  We’ve never seen Game of Thrones, but this is where much of the filming is done (we even saw the ‘throne’).

Our GSP also took us along some very narrow coastal roads once we arrived in Montenegro.  We had to find our way back to the main road, so we could reach our Airbnb apartment which is along a very narrow, scary road that takes some driving still!  

Kornati National Park

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Croatia is famous for its beautiful islands and coastline so we did a boat trip to the Kornati National Park.

It was a 2 hour ride out to Lojena Island where we swam and snorkelled in the warm clear water.  There were lots of fish, kina and orange sea coral. The rocks were scattered with interesting things to look at. The water was so clear it was like swimming in a pool.

From here we went to Tureta.  Here there is a small chapel built in the 6^th century and some ruins at the top of a rocky hill which only Leo and I dared to climb in the heat.  We had some pictures at the top before heading back down where I fell down on the rocks and injuring almost every part of myself other than my face and the camera (good save)!

Lunch was in a 1000 year old fisherman’s village.  We were served a Croatian meal with a whole fish, pork and a pickled cabbage salad. We met a couple from South Africa who Corban and Leo befriended their daughter.  We enjoyed a short walk and another swim before the boat trip home.

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.  

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.