Road Trip Croatia

It’s been a long time since we’ve taken a good ol’ fashioned American style road trip.  I’ve been jonesin’ to get behind the wheel, crank up the music, and head for the open road for a few years now.   Croatia was a highly unlikely, yet perfect destination.   Sun. Sea. Nature.  Sun.  Culture. Food. Sun. Wine.   It don’t get much better than this!

We decided to take our time on the road and explore some new terrain on the way, not wanting to do a marathon 14-hour drive to our destination.   The driving bit was a mixed bag – I’m not sure I would do it again.   If it wasn’t white-knuckle adrenaline at 200 KM/hour on the Autobahn in the little Audi A3/A label car (extremely fun!) then it was white-knuckle adrenaline at 140 KM/hour in a tiny, 2-meter wide construction lane with a concrete barrier grazing the driver's side-view mirror and double trailer trucks grazing the passenger's side-view mirror (extremely stressful!).   But the destinations were great and as we crossed the Alps into Slovenia the roads emptied out and the real relaxation began.  Here are few pics and stories from the trip.

Our first stop was Regensburg – a picture perfect Bavarian town.  In fact, almost too perfect.  It felt a little bit like Ligonier on steroids - not knocking my home town, but meaning that everything felt a bit too controlled by people with too much money.   (BMW's are built here.) There was a good, health conscious vibe to it which can’t be denied (probably due to the overwhelming presence of the university), but overall it felt a bit “contrived” for lack of a better word.  We managed to find a back room for rent in the local brewery which helped to bring it all back to perspective for us.  Regensburg is nice to visit, but once is enough for us.

What the .... huh?!?!   I love the mountains!  Little mountains.  Big mountains.  Any mountains.  But the Alps are rarely kind to me.   Every time that I drive through this particular mountain range, there seems to be some sort of “incident”.  Sleet.  Fog.  Traffic accident.  Flat tire.  They just don’t seem to want me heading south toward the sun.    We had planned on hiking in Austria, but it just wasn't to be.  This time through the Alps it was snow and fog, slowing us down to a crawl the whole way to the Austrian border crossing with Slovenia.  But the 10 KM tunnel to the southern slopes delivered us from the cold weather (if not from the clouds) and we never looked back!

Slovenia - Wow!  What a country!  The Slovenians are one of the proudest, most friendly people we’ve encountered in all of our travels.   They went out of their way to help and offered juicy tidbits on the sites that only the locals were privy too.   This is a country where I could live…if only I knew which language I had to learn to get by.

First stop, Bled.  One of Slovenia's top tourist destinations...and you can see why.

Off season - only way to go to get hotel rooms with views like this from your terrace!

Hiking in Vintgar Gorge, just outside Bled.  The nature in Slovenia is magnificent.  It rivals, or surpasses, anything that I’ve ever seen – from Stanley Lake in Idaho to the Okavango Delta in Botswana.  The topography goes from high Alpine meadows to Mediterranean coastline in a matter of a few hundred kilometers.  It’s amazing how varied that it is. This river was so polluted with trout, it almost didn't seem real.  This place is special. 

 "Typical" Slovenian village we'd come across hiking in the mountains.

Then it was on to Ljubljana.   We had very high hopes for this city.  One article that we read on the Slovenian capital city said that it could be characterized as mix of the classiness of Prague with the energy of Amsterdam and an Italian lover thrown in for good measure.  Umm, not quite.   But very cool none the less.  For me, the city was very compact and full of great architecture, food, wine, and bohemian vibe.  But it just didn’t scale very well.  It has a population issue…as in just not enough people to really pull it off.   But, if you add in the unprecedented nature that the city is surrounded by then you’ve got one hell of a landing place for a few months or years for the right time in life.  Who knows…it just may happen one of these days.  Any tips Albena?

Ljubljana center

Biking under Ljubljana castle

Ljubljana

Piran, Slovenia

Next was a short stop in one of those coastal Slovenian towns I mentioned...Wow!   But then we headed just a bit further south to the "main" destination....Croatia!  The slogan they use to attract tourists is “The Mediterranean as it once was.”  Let me tell you after many trips to the Mediterranean coasts of Spain, France, and Italy, this slogan is Spot On! 

With over 4000 kilometers of coastline, this country is made for beach lovers.   Yet, it is surprisingly (and refreshingly) underdeveloped.  We never saw a full-blown resort and travelled through miles of unspoiled and undeveloped coastline.  It was very easy to find a two-track, dirt road and follow it to a pristine private beach with not another soul in sight.   And once you got away from the coast?  It got even better.  We did hit a few “tourist bus route” sites that were overrun by the over 60 crowd, but all-in-all, Croatia was an off-the-beaten-track, experience-junkie’s wet dream.   We’ll definitely be back.

We rented a great apartment on the main square of the little village of Vodjnan.   That's Beth looking out the center window of the apartment.   See the church tower in back? 

We had a great rooftop terrace with a magnificent view of the tower and the Adriatic.  Great for breakfast...and a bottle of wine in the evening.








The town came complete with a mascot!  This little girl was incorrectly name "Vladmir" by a group of Russians and the name stuck.  She lived on the main square and was very well cared for by everyone in the village.

There are some interesting stories in the back streets of this country.  Some Yugoslavian/Tito legacy graffiti.   (Sarajevo is next on the list!)

One of those dirt tracks and private beaches that I mentioned...my kind of tailgating!!!

We hit a "developed" beach or two....

...but preferred the more local fare with nothing but water in front of you ....

....and a cool little beach bar behind you.   Perfect!

Fazana - one of our favorite little towns.   Investment opportunity?

Rovinj - classic postcard Croatia!

Living on the water's edge.

Finding a little pub on the water's edge isn't so bad either....watching the boats coming back to harbor with a rich Croatian red...superb!

The interior of Croatia also held many surprises.  Here the hilltop village of Motovun.  A bit tourisitic, but worth a visit.  We hit a "Truffle tasting" event here and I can now say that I finally "get" the hoopla around truffles!

But once again, the side tracks held the best surprises, like this little pizza joint in Saint Vincent.

The biggest disappointment of the trip was Pula.  I'm very much into the Roman ruin stuff, so this city had to be on the list.  If you've never seen ruins before, then I'd say it might be worth it.  But otherwise, it was loud, dirty, and completely overrun by tour buses.  There are many, many better places to see Roman history...I'd recommend a "pass" on Pula if you've seen ruins before.

On the return trip to Holland, we decided to stop once again in Slovenia - this time in the mountain resort town of Kranjska Gora which is the gateway to the countries largest contiguous track of nature, Triglav National Park.  It was beautiful weather, excellent hiking, and once again some of the friendliest people we've met in our travels.

We also stumbled across this little monument on one of the roads out of Slovenia.   Kind of a cool historical tidbit.   But Beth didn't want to stop at the presevered German Panzer Tank along the other mountain pass.  I guess one war "site" is enough for her.

The final stop was the little town of Bad Wimpfen in Germany.  This was a stop of neccessity after we got hung up in nasty traffic and construction between Munich and Stuttgart.  But it also turned into a real gem and rounded out the roadtrip of 2012 nicely.

Until the "itch" hits again...safe travels!

Creative Cooking

Generally speaking, I'm a pretty adventurous eater.  I've had my share of truly nasty looking, smelling, and tasting food.   But I figure when you are out on the road, you've got to try the local fare.  For the most part, it's worked out well and introduced me to some really great grub.

However, when it comes to cooking different dishes, I'm easily intimidated.   Don't get me wrong, I love to cook and have taken a lot of classes over the years.  But I still tend to stick to many of the dishes/cuisines that I already I know.

And the most intimidating food group for me?  Fish!  Every time that I pass the fish monger at the local market I see a huge variety of aquatic critters which I have never eaten, let alone cooked.  Some look really tasty, others not so appetizing.  But, I'm tired of just wondering what they are and have decided to pick out a new fish every month and give it a shot.

And what better place to start than with the ugliest, meanest fish that the oceans can deliver - The Sea Devil - also known as angler fish, monk fish and a bunch of other names which make you wonder if anyone knows what to call this thing.

This gnarly beast was on sale at market this week, so I picked up 500 grams and took it home to see what I could do with it.  A bit of internet surfing revealed a few recipes and I decided to stick with a simple one so that I could taste the fish itself.   Fry 2 minutes per side in a pan, then 6 minutes in an 450 degree oven with some simple herbs and olive oil.  The results?  Delicious!   It was kind of like a dense fish steak with an incredibly "buttery" flavor even though I didn't add any butter at all.

So far the little experiment is off to a good start - one for one.   I'll just always be sure to keep the phone number for our pizza delivery boy close by when I hit that first loser.

Eet Smaakelijk!