Prague and Central Europe 2017: To Rijeka, Croatia

Had a sensational sleep after our long day yesterday. Heard a little rain on the roof during the night and woke up about 6 and went for a walk along the lake. Perfect time of day to enjoy the scenes and the swans. A few fishermen about but otherwise deserted. Got back in time for a 8am breakfast because we knew we had some jobs to do today – namely call into Zagreb on the way to Rijeka to buy a Sat-Nav. Pam has drawn the line in the current model and it’s out with the old and in with the new…..I’m watching my back!!!

Got away Sat-Navless at about 9 and promptly got lost – headed north instead of south. I had words with Pam, she had paragraphs with me. All was sorted out when we arrived in Zagreb about 10.30am. I’d located Garmin offices in Zagreb on Google the night before and we drove straight there – they’d recently moved. We’d parked so decided to walk towards town in the hope of finding a Sat-Nav shop. Got lucky and found a shop, bought a Garmin ($AU280 – cheap at twice that!!!), got back to the car and it was all in Croatian. More pleasantries were exchanged. Got out of Zagreb and stopped at about 2pm for lunch at a roadside stop, used their wifi to research and changed all the settings – peace has descended on the Holcombe road trip. This matter will not be mentioned again.

Arrived in Rijeka at 4pm to a B&B – no-one spoke Australian – managed to sort it all out, had a wonderful welcome, the room has beautiful views of the Adriatic Sea, very calming, somehow worked out what we should do after our Croatian language skills were tested and headed to Slatina Beach at Opatija (a suburb of Rijeka), about 5kms from our accommodation. Walked along the boardwalk for a couple of kilometres, put our toes in the water. Had a drink by the water, called in and got some cheese and biscuits for tea, arrived home at 9pm. Another busy day, another good nights sleep we hope.

The temperatures during the last 2 days have been about 35 degrees. Thought we would leave the balcony door open to let the cool breeze through, looks like there were no mosquitoes? Saw a micro-bat fly past and now know why there aren’t any mosquitoes – the bats have eaten them all. The door will be closed tonight, don’t want the bats to visit us!!!