Croatia!

We said goodbye to the gondolas, gelatos and perfect weather of Venice and caught a train to the border. We hopped on a bus that took us through a narrow strip of Slovenia, which was very green and rural, to a large town in Croatia where we picked up our hire car.

On the bus into Croatia.

Getting out of that town in a manual hire car while driving on the wrong side of the narrow roads was a challenge to say the least. Fortunately, Janet the GPS kept us heading in the right direction while John tried to remember who to give way to. We started off along highways but soon turned onto beautiful country roads. We passed gorgeous stone farm houses with terracotta tiled roofs. We saw lots of crops and vege gardens but very few farm animals.

We finally found our accommodation and it was amazing - stone and timber walls, shutters and flower-boxes at the windows. We somehow scored the attic rooms which was a bit squishy for John and I but the kids loved it. The people here were great - very friendly and lots of fun.

That tiny window at the top was John's and my room. The kids' room was on the other side.

The reason we stayed here was to see Plitvice National Park. The next day we walked for many hours through beautiful forests gawping at amazing waterfalls in the park. The water was crystal clear. The weather is significantly hotter in Croatia and we would love to have jumped in that cool, clear water but sadly, it wasn't allowed. It's summer holidays here so we also shared the walk with hoards of other people but it wasn't too bad most of the time.

The National Park was simply superb!

The next day I did some driving and it wasn't too hard on the country roads and well-made highways. I let John tackle the cities though!

Hooroo!
Heather

Aaaahhhh, Venice!

Bongiorno!
After a crappy overnight flight (is there such a thing as a great overnight flight?) where the airline thought it was appropriate to wake the whole plane of people to give us a snack in the middle of the night, we arrived in Venice bleary but excited. We caught a water taxi to near our hotel and it was fabulous to see the city from the water.

We stayed in the same hotel we stayed in 7 years ago and John and I had exactly the same room overlooking a small canal where the gondolas glide past. It was just as amazing the second time around.
We spent three days adjusting to the different time zone and exploring the island. We saw stunning buildings, climbed up and down umpteen stairs and ate lots of pizza, pasta and gelatos. Yum!
We were all quite tired so we didn't go too far. One of the highlights was when Alanna fell in the canal! Those steps can be slippery when they're wet! Unfortunately, her phone was in her pocket and now doesn't work.
We explored St Mark's Square which is such an atmospheric place. We tried to climb the huge tower but it was closed at the only time we could make it.
John and I usually woke very early, about three hours before they served breakfast at our hotel, so we would head up to the market and buy a coffee and croissant. Three hours later we came back and had second breakfast! Not a good way to maintain a trim bod! The early mornings were great though - we got to see the square under beautiful morning skies without the crowds.
I'll leave you with one last photo from Connor's phone (I haven't loaded pics from my camera yet).

Ciao!

Heather

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to our travel blog. John and Heather, with kids plus one, left home last week for some serious sunshine and exploration of south-eastern Europe. If you would like to keep in touch with what we're up to, you can check in here at any time. Please don't feel any pressure to follow us though - this is just for those of you that want to be here. We won't be at all offended if you choose to not pay any attention to this blog at all.
Once we have better internet (sometime in the next few days I hope) we'll get some updates happening in here. It has taken me well over an hour just to get this blog created. The internet is so slow here that I've started reading a book while I wait for each page to load!
Ciao!