France, Italy, Croatia

June 13th - June 28th, 2017

From Spain we drove quickly through France and Italy. We needed to spend time out of the EU, so we decided to go to Croatia.

 The Tour de France in the Pyrenees - A sculpture located in a rest area along the motorway in France.

 We traveled trough many small towns in France as we headed toward Mont Blanc.

The tunnel under Mont Blanc. It is more then 7 miles long, connecting France and Italy.

Looking at the summit of Mont Blanc from the Italian side. It was a perfect day for the para-gliders, they are the little dots in the sky.

Glacier on Mont Blanc.

Bridge to the Island of Krk, Croatia.

The coast of Croatia is way to hot, crowded, and overpriced during high season, so we decided to leave and head east. Eastern Croatia is beautiful, laid back, and pretty much tourist free. We enjoyed it a lot. The first city we visited was Varazdin, located in the northern part of the country on the Drava River.

 Streets in Varazdin.

Schloss Varazdin, a castle in Varazdin.

Picturesque door.

Crinoline of Love - A sculpture for love locks. You are suppose to attach your lock and then toss the key into the town well.

Osijek is a college town in the south eastern Croatia. Osijek was a frontline city in the Croat-Serb conflict in the 1990's. There is still a lot of damage to structures in the area.

Pedestrian bridge over the Drava River.

Church of St Peter and St Paul.

Sculpture of Picasso in Osijek.

Flowers for sale in the covered market.

 You still see bullet and shelling damage to the structures around the city.

Croatia

Dubrovnik - Our last beautiful city on the Croatian coast.

You enter the city via this wonderful bridge.

Finding parking for the Sprinter can be challenging. Sometimes you just have to squeeze in where ever you find a spot.

We arrived on a Sunday. The city was crowded with tourists. The weather was damp and gray. This is the main pedestrian street in old town.

Street musicians. The music was good. To bad they only sell cd's. We have no way of playing them.

The next day, Monday, we did the wall walk in the afternoon. We had a sunny day and about half as many people. Views of the wall and old town Dubrovnik.

Time out for a refreshing smoothie break with a fabulous view.

Old town harbor.

Another view from the wall.

Good bye Dubrovnik. We are on our way to Montenegro.

Croatia

Split and Makarska Croatia

Split  -  Split is a large city. It had a very different vibe then the towns we had previously visited. It was a very busy place and not near as scenic. The old town did have one difference - it had very old Roman ruins.

View of the harbor.

Split has wide sidewalk area of cafes and shops between the harbor and old town. The perfect spot to sit and have gelato.

Photos of old town

Girls in traditional dress. They sang in a tower in old town. The acoustics were fabulous.

Inside the tower where the girls sang.

View from and of Hwy E65, the road we drove along the coast.

Makarska 

View of the harbor.

Sidewalk along the harbor.

Sculpture called Monument to the Tourist.

More love locks. They are everywhere in Croatia.

Main square in old town Makarska.

Croatia

Middle coast of Croatia and Slunj

 Driving down the coast from Rovinj it is one scenic town after another. The roads are narrow and twist every which way, but the views are fantastic. This is Senj. We spent the night just outside of town.

The ferry to the island of Rab.

The town of Rab on the island of Rab is like most towns we visited. They all have an old town, some walled, some not, with narrow streets for pedestrians only. The old towns are filled with tourist shops and restaurants. They are usually on the water so there is a harbor and lots of old buildings.

Harbor in Rab

View of the harbor from the wall around the town.

Street scenes in Rab

Outside the harbor.

Bill smiling.

From Rab we went to Plitvicka. The weather had turned to rain so what we wanted to see was closed due to flooding. We took a short walk in the woods instead. That night we met my quilting buddy Sandy and her husband Dan for dinner. We had a great time. Dan suggested we visit Slunj on our way back to the coast. Since it was raining the next morning we decided to do just that. It was a great alternative to Plitvicka. It is very close to the park, but water flows everywhere in the town instead of lakes.

Slunj - water flowing under the house

Water flowing around the houses

There are large water falls everywhere.

I have never saw this before, a fresh milk vending machine.