We drove into the interior of the Istrian peninsular to visit a couple of hilltop medieval villages. The interior of Istria was very green - I noticed lots of what looked like hay meadows full of absolutely perfect grass, not a weed/flower in sight. That would make top quality hay. Not like what you see in my part of France, which is usually 50% weeds (/wildflowers depending on how you look at it). However we barely saw any livestock. It was a bit strange!
The first village was called Grožnjan. The population has fallen from between 3-4,000 people living here in the decades of 1910-1940s to its current about 656, which includes some other nearby settlements as well as Grožnjan itself. However nowadays it is known as the 'Town of Artists' and is visited by tourists and people visiting the art galleries and attending the annual jazz festival, all of which have brought life back to a declining village.
When we arrived we discovered some market stalls with antiques and bric a brac which I love mooching about in. I chose a Murano glass bead bracelet as a birthday present from K, as my birthday fell during our holiday.
This cute house below is for rent as a holiday home.
Lots of cute alleyways and totally unspoilt.
The next village was called Motovun but it wasn't as scenic as Grožnjan. We had to walk a long way up a steep hill and after a while we just gave up and called it a day! It was too hot for walking uphill any longer and the main bit of the village was right at the top of the hill!
I think it was the next day when K took this picture of a Hooded Crow. Those who live with these crows would think of them the same way we do about the all black crow that we have in our part of Europe, so that explains the photo and the interest - because they are very different to what we are used to! (I should mention that some of these photos are K's mixed in with mine. I often just took pics with my phone when I was using my alpine stick as it was easier.)
The following day we went further down the coast to Poreč. Originally we had planned to visit Rovinj, but I couldn't find anywhere that we could park a moho so we compromised and visited another smaller seaside town where parking was a lot easier. This is what I see as the only real downside to motorhoming.
Upon arrival we came across an antique market - something we were very lucky with in Croatia was the amount of markets we stumbled upon - I absolutely love looking around them - whether it's old things or modern clothes or fruit and veg and honey, I don't mind what, I find it all fascinating.
There was a lot of building work going on in the harbour area around where the market was, so I haven't included any photos of that. I'm not sure what this tower is below but it looks like it has a garden, or at least a terrace, on the top.
A lovely facade with Venetian windows.
The main street was full of little shops - a mix of tourist stuff, clothing boutiques and lots of jewellers. Jewellery seems to be popular here and there’s a lot made with red coral from the Adriatic. I didn’t see so much of the blue coral though (I bought some blue coral bracelets from a market stall later on).
A lovely green square. It’s funny looking back on that after nearly three months of drought and heat, as everything is so brown and sad. But our seasons are like that and we will soon be moaning about the rain and the cold!
More Venetian windows.
There was an island just across the bay full of 4 and 5 star accomodation.
I think this is a part of the old town walls.
Looking towards the marina in the distance, which is where the market was.
So that was what we saw during our brief time in Istria, but there was so much more to see elsewhere and it was time to move on...
Novigrad was a pleasant place to stay for the next three nights and easy walking distance from the campsite, perfect as our first full day in Croatia was definitely to be a no driving day! We had originally booked a pitch beside the sea but the pitch proved too difficult to get into due to the pine trees in the way, so we asked to move to this pitch which was far easier to get in and out of and was huge! Cheaper too and we could still see the sea, which had a gorgeous colour.
After doing very little in the morning after lunch we wandered into Novigrad to have a look around. It proved to be a nice little town, with a scenic harbour full of small fishing vessels and a good amount of restaurants dotted about.
The building colours were gorgeous, all shades of orange and terracotta with yellow, green and blue thrown in for good measure!
This building had a lovely porch area with painted arches, not quite trompe l'oeil but close....
....and on the side of the building, these pretty painted window surrounds, and the top windows with either painted glass or decals, I'm not sure as I can see reflections in the glass in the upper windows. It gives the impression of being an old decoration though.
This building is the Rigo Palace, built in 1770 in the Baroque style.
A closer look at the lovely carved stonework and the carved faces. The metal framework looks like it is holding up the arched stonework as it looks a bit crumbly in places!
Above and below, colourful umbrellas have been used cleverly, providing a bit of much needed shade during the hot months and really brightening up the streets joyously.
This is Sts Pelagius' and Maximus' Parish Church, also a colourful building. The church has undergone many transformations over the centuries and is currently a Neoclassicist façade that was finalised in 1935, whilst the campanile dates from 1874, again a replacement for an earlier one.
And our walk brought us back to the harbour again. I love looking at boats and there was plenty here to stop and have a look at for a little while.
From the waterfront we took the little tourist train back to the campsite, and later in the evening took it again back into the town for dinner. Afterwards we walked back along the sea front, a gentle stroll of about 15 minutes. For dinner I had fish which was delicious, Gilthead Bream which was served quite commonly in the restaurants we went to. Fish seems to be always served with a potato and chard mix which I found too salty. I asked for chips after that whenever I had fish! Keith tried out a Croatian delicacy, Ćevapčići, which are small skinless sausages. My brother had a rolled stuffed pork dish - this was one of the best meals we had! It took K the whole holiday before he could get his tongue around the pronounciation of Ćevapčići (sevap-chichi - easy once you know how)! 😀
4 weeks and 4,691 kms to Dubrovnik and back. It's a long way to the Balkans! After two nights en route, we first visited Piran in Slovenia, which nestles on a short strip of coast between Italy and Croatia. Slovenia and Croatia sit on the Adriatic Sea and the northern peninsular is known as Istria. Both countries have a long history of being ruled by the Republic of Venice, so there is an Italian influence in the towns, particularly the coastal ones. Each town has a Slavic and an Italian name.
We had to park a fair way out of the town and despite Google saying the walk was mostly flat, it was actually very hilly! I learned not to trust Google after that.
As we got closer we walked down alleyways and under archways; the arch above had this sign saying it dated from the second half of the 15th century. It's a part of the old city walls.
Coming into the medieval alleyways.
How cool to match your paintwork to your cactus flowers!
The main square in Piran, Tartini Square, with St George's Cathedral overlooking it. The square is named after the violinist and composer Giuseppe Tartini who was born here in 1692 and the statue is dedicated to him.
The Town Hall, built in 1879 replacing a former C13th building.
The centre of Piran is small so it wasn't difficult to walk around. This little harbour was lovely, overlooked by the cathedral clock tower.
Walking in the other direction towards the end of the town, which juts out into the sea.
With no town beach, people sunbathed on this concrete area and there were steps down to the sea in many places along this stretch for swimming. It was a bit choppy on this day though!
Lots of restaurants here facing the sea.
Our Lady of Health church and yours truly.
Venetian Gothic arched window, influenced by Islamic architecture.
We walked up the hill to the cathedral and had lovely views over the town, including a glimpse of Tartini Square and the harbour.
St George's Cathedral. We couldn't enter the building as it was roped off, but at least we could look inside. What a gorgeous ceiling - a surprise really as the outside of the building was rather plain.
Another view down to Tartini Square.
When we got back to the moho, we discovered that we had received a parking ticket. This was our fault really, as en route to a car park which I had found where we could park, we passed another one that had a number of mohos parked in it. This was a bit closer to the town, so we thought we'd park there. However, there was a sign saying 'No Motorhomes'. Well there are other mohos here, we thought, so sod it. A big mistake!
And then we drove on to Croatia, and our destination for the next few days, Novigrad.
