Motovon was a lovely town we day-tripped from Pula. An old town set on a hill with a wall around it, and known for their Tarfuti (Truffles).
We had lunch on the hill with a great view! I got black truffle pasta, Aaron and Scott had Gnocchi with cheese and Timmy had little hot dogs and french fries.
Cora: "Shout out to my grandmas and grandpas!"
Afterwards, we visited Rijeka on the way home. Beautiful seaside town (the favorite city in Istria in most guidebooks). Had a wonderful view from the top of this bell tower, from which Cora threw her ball. It bounced nicely down onto the walkway, where a woman promptly picked it up and took off with it. Sigh. I had only bought it 20 Minutes before.
The little alleys were so charming.
Back at home, our host made us chocolate "pancakes" (crepes). What a treat!
The next day, we headed for another swimming spot out by Premantura. This cove had no wind and calm waters. Bit cold, but nothing the wet suits couldn't handle. It was almost hot with the full-body wet suit. My kind of snorkeling!
Cora J was hanging in the pack pretty much the whole 12 days.
The next day, we toured Pula in the morning. The Roman Amphitheatre was pretty cool.
So was this gate entering the town.
And that's pretty much it for Pula-town, so we're headed back to the beach!
We found this spot to swim that evening, which was a really shallow beach, making for warmer waters. Lots of other swimmers out was a good tell-tale sign that it was a nice spot.
5 nights at this ladies apartment was heaven! Karina was the best hostess!
We spent the other 5 nights close to Plitvice Lakes in Dresnik Grad. We spent the first morning hiking by the Korena River, taking naps and then the afternoon in Rastoke.
Here's Korena Valley.
Caves under the waterfalls in Rastoke.
We had dinner at a restaurant , where you can go out the back and see the waterfalls running off the cliffs. So pretty!
The fall leaves were really beautiful, and we had nice warm weather.
Next day we spent several hours hiking and lunching in Plitvice National Park.
The kids had a blast there!
They were super excited about the hiking, waterfalls, boat and food.
The Park has unusual boardwalks that get you right up to the falls, and beautiful green water.
We finished the night off with a family sized pizza. (9 bucks - not bad eh?)
The next morning, we tried to visit the Barac Caves, but they were closed, so we just hiked for a bit, had lunch, and went to get a view of Bosnia, across the border.
Good idea if you want to check a country off your list of places you've been.
Bad idea if crossing borders into unknown lands, and bullet holes in downtown
kind of freak you out. (I won't say which of us what the interested one, and which of us was the
freaked out one.)
Our wonderful hosts at the Sminov Apartments!
The morning we left, we got our tour of the Barac Caves afterall, which was a lot of fun!
This room was the most beautiful, and we got to see at least 7 bats!
We drove to Zadar and had lunch before flying out.
This was waiting on our doorstep when we arrived home!
We have the BEST neighbors!