Friday, December 22, 2017: Plitvice National Park to Zagreb

There has been fresh snow of several inches in this area within the last week.  Some of it is still clinging to the trees, the ground is covered, but the roads are clear. 

We still have a few miles to the Park, through a very poor economic area.  We do not know what this was like before the war, but it has not rebounded very rapidly.  Only one entrance is open at the park, and parking was limited due to snow in the parking lots.  However, there are very few visitors at this time of the year, and due to the snow and ice, about half of the park walkways are closed. 

Plitvice National Park is known for its lakes and water falls. There are many water falls, both upper and lower.  The big falls is eye catching with several smaller falls below it.  When we entered the park the information lady told us that the lower pathways were closed because of the ice and snow.  As we walked into the park we naturally took a trail that headed toward the big falls. We stayed on the most cleared path which lead us to the lower trail.  None of the paths were closed, so we kept walking, even though the boardwalks between the lower lakes were frosty.  Cherie and Cal continued walking the boardwalk toward the big falls.  The last portion of the boardwalk was quite icy and required caution, but they made it.  The view from the bottom of the falls was amazing.  The formations of the falls are interesting.  Water cascades over dams of limestone formations. 

Big Waterfalls in the Lower portion of the Park

Smaller Falls along the icy boardwalk we did not walk

From where Rachel waited, another boardwalk continued around and over lakes to the destination of a boat ramp.  The condition of the boardwalk appeared to be extremely icy at places, with no handrails.  We decided to return to the higher trail that was better, but it was still snow covered in many places.  Many of the other visitors in the park that morning, were from S Korea and did not appear adept at walking on the snow.  We made it to the boat dock with enough time to have a cup of tea at the kiosk before the boat arrived.  The boat ride took us past numerous other lower falls.  The scene was very enjoyable.

The Boat in the Distance

The Snowy Trail

Some of the many Small Waterfalls along the boat ride

When we got off the boat we took a shuttle half of the way back to the parking lot and walked the remainder of the way to the car. Thank goodness, we were dressed warmly.  When the sun was shining it was very pleasant, but when it was cloud covered, you needed all the warmth you had.  We were walking in the park for at least 3 hours – it was cold enough the snow and ice were not melting.   

When we arrived at the car we were soon on our way toward Zagreb.  Along the highway we went through an area where we saw a few buildings that appeared to still have some war evidence, but it was a small area.  It has been 25 years since the war, and they are trying to rebuild, so life is back to normal.  

We made a stop in the town of Slinj.  The old town area is near the main highway, and you hear waterfalls as you drove by.  Then you realize they have provided a pull-out area for viewing.  This is an extremely interesting place. The houses, restaurants, and shops appeared to be built along or over the river, so that there were water falls around and under the houses and shops, dropping into the ravine below.  There were numerous water falls on the edge of the town as the water went over the low cliff also into the ravine nearby.  The sun was not in a good position when we were there - in our face, which made photographing difficult, but it was amazing.

Waterfalls in Slinj

The Beautiful and Pristine Croatian Countryside

Our next destination is the apartment in Zagreb.  The GPS took us right there – no guessing regarding one-way streets! It was surprisingly easy to find the apartment that is in the center of Zagreb. After unloading the car, Cherie and Cal took the car to a nearby parking garage where we have left the car while we are in Zagreb.     

Traditional Zagreb Meat and Cheese Platter

Our Zagreb Group

Thursday, December 21, 2017: Split to Plitvice National Park 

This morning at 10:00 am Cherie had a business call via SKYPE.  We were able to sleep in later than usual. 

By 11:30 we were on the road north to Zadar, a coastal city.  We were told the 3 gems of the Dalmatian Coast are Zadar, Sibenik, and Split.  Zadar’s walled city was interesting, but not as nice a Split.  At about 3:30 we began driving inland, with the destination of Plitvice National Park. The A-1 has a 3.5 miles long tunnel, going through the beautiful Velebit Mountain Range. The tallest peaks are completely snow covered, the lower peaks just have a dusting.  When we came out the other side of the tunnel, there was snow, and the temperature had dropped.  

Roman Forum on Zadar

Doughnut Balls with Nutella

We drove to near the Plitvice Park entrance.  We found one of the only Hotels open for the winter. The hotel restaurant had a limited wintertime menu, but it was great homestyle cooking. Today has been more relaxing.  

Tomorrow morning, we will go through the park before driving into Zagreb, hopefully by mid-afternoon. 

Wednesday, December 20, 2017: Dubrovnik to Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina and back to Split, Croatia. 

After checking out of the hotel, we drove to Mount Srd, the mountain-top point overlooking Dubrovnik.  It provided a wonderful view of the city, giving perspective to the city and the surrounding area.  We wanted to return to the Walled City, but we had problems finding a parking spot, so returned to the hotel, ordered a taxi to take us downtown.  It was more expensive, but the best plan.

Mt Srd on Right 

Monument on Mt Srd

View from Mt Srd

Today the churches in the walled city were open, however none of them were that wonderful.  We did buy cold medicine at the oldest continual pharmacy – Franciscans opened it in 1317.  Wow!! That’s a long time!

We liked the old walled city of Dubrovnik, but it did not have the character of the walled Diocletian Palace in Split.  We are glad we spent the extra days in Split. 

Dubrovnik Cathedral

City Gate

It was almost noon before we were on the road to Bosnia-Herzegovina, with a destination of Mostar.  We wanted to see the Old Bridge (Stari Most) in Mostar.  

The recent history of this whole area (former Yugoslavia) is interesting yet confusing.   It depends on your origin, as to how you feel about the whole situation.  Feelings and tensions will be there for several generations, but by then nationalist feelings could be stirred up!

We are planning to drive a rural road that cuts across the country-side from Dubrovnik to Mostar.  After you leave the coast, you climb over one mountain range and then another.  These are rocky barren mountains. We did see several beautiful snow-capped ranges in the distance. There is not enough grass among the rocks for grazing, even for sheep.  The rocks look like they are growing out of the ground.  Anything green was low shrubs, barely surviving. Yes, deserts are barren, but this was a different kind of barren.  It was an interesting drive. 

Every once-in-a-while you saw a small village of several homes, but there were no larger villages along this route.  As to how these people make a living, we have no idea. We began seeing small slate-roofed Orthodox chapels, each with a cemetery surrounding it.   We stopped at several, looking at the dates on the memorial stones. We did find it interesting, that other than the little chapels, there were no churches in the villages. 

For quite a distance we drove along the same river.  The lower part of the river has been carefully managed.  The river banks appear to have concrete along the edges at places.  The one thing that was of particular interest are the irrigation wheels that can still be seen along the river.  The wheel had buckets that collect water from the river, rotated, carrying the water to the top of the wheel, where the water flows out of the bucket into a catchment area that is connected to a water pipe that carried the water to the adjoining fields for irrigation.

Water Wheel

Farther up the same river we drove through a valley that is prone to flooding.  The small villages sat on the edge of the valley.  However, they were using the rich soil of the river bottom to grow crops – lots of vineyards and other crops.  It appears they had built a network of drainage channels, with raised areas on which they planted grapes, etc.  This appeared to be a productive area.  Interestingly, this river flowed south to the river delta we saw the other day where all the citrus is grown.  

Finally, we arrived in Mostar.  We followed the GPS to the Old Bridge.  This bridge was reconstructed just like the original old bridge in the mid 1990’s.  During the Yugoslavic war of the early 1990’s, all of the bridges across the Neretva River were destroyed because the leader, at the time, wanted the river to be the natural boundary between the Croats (Catholics) on the west side and the Bosnia’s (Muslims) on the east.  (This is the man who committed suicide (drinking poison) in the World Court, in The Hague, Holland, in November of 2017, after being convicted and sentenced due to war crimes during the war).  Needless to say, he is not very popular in Mostar.

Ancient Mostar Bridge

Can you imagine a city where people used the bridges every day to go back and forth across the river, and all of a sudden the bridges were destroyed?

We decided it would be neat to see the bridge lite up at night, so we found a lovely restaurant in the old town for dinner. After several more photos of the bridge at night, we were on the road back to Croatia.  It was dark, so we could not see the landscape.  We know we were driving in a river valley, so it would have been nice to view the area, but we made the choice to see the bridge at night.  Here again, it is not late, as it is dark by 5:00 pm.

Before crossing the border, we began driving on the A-1 Tollway. Since we already had dinner, we decided to keep rolling until we were as far north as Split.  The Tollway goes through an area of the country that is barren.  We had seen this area driving south, so there is no need to see it again in daylight hours.  We found a hotel near the A-1 outside of Split.