As many of you know, to wrap up a trip, the last story in
the series is used to hand out Kudos to those people and organizations that
made a positive difference to our trip. In addition, we mention other aspects
of our trip that for one reason or another didn't make it into a previous story,
and we'll start with those.
Other Things Croatian
The first thing we noticed about the Adriatic Sea, was its
clarity. The water was perfectly clear and clean. In the sunlight, it shone with shades of greens and blues, but
probably more importantly, we seldom saw any garbage floating or washed up on
shore.
The travel distances were relatively short, but the travel
times relatively long. While travelling by car, our average speed was about 60
kph on the main highway, and less on the secondary highways.
Prior to our arrival, it hadn't
rained for 3 to 4 months. As soon as we acquired our bicycles, there was a
threat of rain in the forecast for each and every day. The rain added to our
adventure, and if getting on our bicycles made it rain, we were glad to help
out. We cycled uphill, downhill, and through the hill, in the sun, wind and
rain.
We loved the historic architecture, and appreciated their
efforts to blend it all together when building and rebuilding. We also
appreciated their use of small space. They do remarkably well providing
excellent accommodation in a fraction of the space we would use in North America.
Most of the furnishings are scaled down to fit and at the same time maintain
their functionality. Having said that, we also noticed the average Croatian
looks healthier, more fit and smaller than the average North American, and
probably feels more comfortable in smaller spaces.
The EU is playing a significant role in the development of
Croatia. One example is Croatia's proposal to build a long bridge to
connect the southern tip of the country to its main part. Presently, the 2
parts are separated by a stretch of Bosnia that reaches out to the coast. The
proposal includes some EU funding.
Croatia is remarkable for having survived a significant
civil war only 22 years ago, and bounced back to the country they have today.
If we returned to the country, we would rent a villa in a
non-tourist town, similar to what we had done on the Island of Crete a couple
of years ago. We feel, we would have gotten to know the Croatian people better
and learned more about their non-tourist way of life.
Kudos
The kudos for this trip were difficult to assign because
many people provided us with excellent service. In addition, everyone we met,
went out of their way to speak English and help us along our way.
However, we do want to recognize the following as
outstanding. Kudos go out to:
Meridienten, their Staff and specifically their front man,
Ante Vujanovic - these folks get a premium kudos for being almost impossibly
good at what they do. They arranged 6 accommodations, 2 land transfers, half a
dozen baggage transfers, 2 ferry rides for us and bikes, 2 private water-taxi
rides for us and bikes, gluten free breakfasts at each accommodation, and
provided good bikes with appropriately equipped, with very detailed
instructions to guide us around the country from pillar to post, all without a
hitch over 11 days. It needs to be noted, that they customized this trip for
us, and in as much as they used components from other trips they have run in
the past, there were a number of elements being done for us for their first
time. Now they didn't provide all of this themselves, but contracted others to
deliver most of the services. Given the number of people and organizations
involved, it is truly amazing how smoothly everything went. Well done Ante and
the other folks at Meridienten. They can be found at: Meridienten
The Cakelic Family - who
are owners of the Zuljana Apartments in the village of Zuljana on the beautiful
Peljesac Peninsula. The heads of the family, Zdravko and his wife Nike,
provided us with a beautiful modern apartment and more. They shared their life
with us. Zdravko made us a wonderful
seafood meal one evening.
We enjoyed their wine, grapes, figs and tomatoes.
Zdravko pointed across the road from where we stayed, to the
house he had been born in. He tends the family vineyards to this day, and told
us his father taught him everything he knows about making wine. He is now
sharing all this with his son, and, their wine was the finest that we tasted in
Croatia. Zdravko and Nike can be contacted at: apartmanizuljana@email.t-com.hr
And You - thank you
for following our adventures as we travelled through a slice of Croatia. We
hope you enjoyed our stories.
