Knowing that we will not pass this way again and having a rental car at our disposal can lead to all sorts of adventures. Suddenly nothing seems too far away or too insignificant to visit. All of which explains why we drove 400+ kilometers up the beautiful Croatian coast on the most serpentine of roads and returned on the inland road in a surprise snow storm.
Our first stop was Trogir, a smaller version of the Venetian-like town of Perast in Montenegro. I'm afraid my photos are becoming redundant. I can't help myself, everything is so picturesque and the winter light is just right.
Croatia doesn't boast the "world's largest ball of string" but that's not to say it doesn't have its own obscure attractions. Stop in the port town of Zadar and listen to the world's only "Sea Organ," a series of stone stairs descending into the sea that toots and whistles like a discordant calliope when the waves force air through it. And right next to it is the "Sun Salutation," the 22 meter circle cut into the stone and filled with multi-colored glass. It absorbs sunlight during the day and with wave power it produces a light show at night.
Porec is an ancient Roman town on the Istrian peninsula. A wrong turn up here and you could end up in Trieste or Ljubljana. But we came to see the Euphrasian Basilica and its outstanding Sixth Century mosaics. Again traveling off-season paid off. We were the only people in the church and could take our time marveling at the details and thousands upon thousands of precious stones used in the mosaic. Every time I am tempted to complain about satellite dishes or T-shirt shops in World Heritage sites, I hear the voice of the waiter in Prague. We were there just after the floods of 2002 and I mentioned to him that they were spoiling a beautiful city with such things. He replied, "You know, we don't live like this just so you have a place to go on holiday!" So I'll put up with it but, like the song says, "You don't know what you've got till its gone..."
It was raining when we arrived in Otocac but by morning it had changed to snow accompanied by lightning and thunder. Undaunted, we drove on the single lane cleared by the snowplow through a winter wonderland to Plitvice Lakes National Park. The park is known for its crystal clear lakes whose colors change from turquoise to emerald as the sun moves across the sky. The park offices were closed so we didn't have to buy tickets. But nothing else was open either. So we slopped through the snow to one of the lakes, monochrome on this snowy day, until our cold wet toes told us to turn back. Maybe we will return some autumn day to get the full effect. But there are so many places in the world we have yet to visit.
