The kids were really missing the beach and since there are no good beaches in Germany, we decided to head south to Croatia. I should rephrase that - there are lots of beautiful beaches in northern Germany, but the water is entirely too cold for us! And when flights are like, $59 per person round trip to Zadar, you just buy them and go to the beach!
As we got ready to land in Zadar, Natalie was already super excited about that turquoise water on the Croatian coast.
Why hello there, Zadar!
We took the public bus from the airport down to the bus station in Zadar, which I totally recommend. Don't even bother taking a taxi here. The taxi drivers are like vultures when you exit the airport. Just go with the much cheaper and super easy to use bus. Thankfully, the bus station was only a few hundred meters away from our apartment. But, as with most apartments in Europe, there was no lift, so we had to drag our stuff up about 5 flights of stairs.
We only had two goals for this trip: go to the beach and finally see Plitvice Lakes (see another post for that part.) So we immediately changed into our suits and headed for the beach. But we grabbed some pizza and beer (and sodas) on the way there. And I don't think I have to explain this photo.
The REAL photo!
And now of course, a lunch selfie.
After lunch, we headed straight to the beach. I liked these trees that sat on the bluff above the rocky beach.
It was a really nice day but the beaches in Croatia (at least here in Zadar) are VERY rocky. You can't walk around with bare feet at all. And you guys know me... I don't get in the water unless it is above 87F and it definitely wasn't that. But the kids were in heaven! We had brought some inflatables from home and they were having a blast. Meanwhile, Todd kept saying, "Did you guys know that that's an island over there?" (It's the island of Ugljan!)
A happy, relaxing time on the beach.
Little boy had a little too much fun on the beach, but the water was cold so he laid down to warm up. Notice all of the rocks on the beach!
Not far from where we were sunning ourselves was this massive inflatable bouncy house on water. You had to pay to enjoy it, but the kids were begging to do it. And we noticed there was a bar up on the bluff above them. So we bought them 30 minutes and went to have a little happy hour. We weren't sure the kids were going to be able to handle the physicality of it. But they had a blast!
Down below us, old men were playing games.
There was also a (very clearly) group of drunk men trying to tackle the obstacle course. It was very amusing.
The kiddos finished their 30 minutes and then came up to join us for happy hour. Natalie gave it a thumbs up!
As we enjoyed our happy hour, we noticed the drunk guys gave up on the inflatable obstacle course and opted for just swimming in the Adriatic.
Hey! I wasn't the butt of this joke for once!
After happy hour, the kids swam for a few more minutes and then we went back to our apartment. This was our view... construction!
Then we walked to the old town of Zadar to grab some dinner. It was kind of a long walk, and we walked past this building which the kids promptly declared was the Starcourt Mall from Stranger Things.
We saw this all over and it's a mural about their soccer club! "Tornado 1965" (it's founding year) was seen all over the city.
For dinner, we went to Restoran Zadar-Jadera. It was fabulous! Much like other parts of Croatia, there's a bunch of cats roaming around. These guys just plopped down like they owned the place.
When we travel around Europe, we prefer to eat local and traditional foods and drink local/national drinks. We enjoyed this nice Croatian wine with our dinner.
And we finally got to eat Paški sir ! This hard cheese only comes from a small breed of sheep on the Croatian island of Pag. It's REALLY good. Even the kids liked it! Todd's Aunt Betty would be so proud! It's on my scratch off food map, too!
Maybe the wine and cheese were a little TOO good in Zadar. Todd and I took silly selfies and I entertained the idea of getting a neck lift.
After we left our dinner restaurant, we roamed the streets of Zadar for a bit. It was late and the kids had to get to bed, but Zadar was really hopping at night!
The atmosphere in Zadar is really one of it's best features. Everyone was just hanging out, enjoying the summer evening.
Zadar suffered plenty of damage during the Croatian War of Independence, beginning in 1991 and peaking during Operation Storm, which lasted for four days in August of 1995. This battle was the last big battle of the war for the Croats, and as the sign above says, "... Serbian rioters, the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), Serbia and Montenegro began its aggression against the Republic of Croatia, as well as Zadar. After the collapse of the aforementioned geopolitical community, attacks on our city lasted until August 1995 and the victorious military operation Storm." During these attacks, many of the city's landmarks were damaged or destroyed. The final battle, Operation Storm was the largest land battle in Europe since World War II and was a major victory for Croatia, resulting in a recapture of 4,000 square miles of it's country.
I know, I know. Mommy loves history and culture and her kiddos just wanted to go to the beach! We had originally planned to go to Plitvice Lakes on Friday and spend the whole day at the beach on Saturday (trying to beat weekend crowds.) It's a good thing this family has a meteorologist as their mother/wife because I saw that there was an 80% chance of rain on Saturday. The kids would have been crushed if we went to the Lakes and it was beautiful but then had a rainy day at the beach. So at the last minute, I switched up our bus tickets to the Lakes and we spent a beautiful Friday at the beach! It worked out perfectly. I'm still patting myself on the back for this smooth move.
Todd ran over early in the morning to the Konzum grocery store to grab some food stuffs, sunscreen and he even scored a couple of blow up rafts! They were wicked cheap and we just left them in the apartment on the last day.
This is as far as you would find me in this water. I think the water temp was in the low 80s. Nope. Too cold for me. But the air temp was warm enough for me to get in the water up to my knees.
I felt kind of bad because Natalie loves to make dribble castles and this beach wasn't conducive to dribble castle construction. She still looked so cute with her snorkel gear on trying to make some kind of castle on the beach.
After a morning of swimming in the Adriatic, we went up to the kids new favorite pizza place ("this pizza is better than the pizza on the cruise!") Fast Food Dir for some lunch. While we were sitting there, Natalie said, "I have a sweet tooth." And Grant responded with, "Really? Which one is it?" And so of course, we made them a meme.
Sunshine lunchtime views of everyone having a fun time at the beach.
Because the kids had such a blast on this contraption, we promised them that they could have four hours on it in the afternoon. Todd purchased an hour for himself to make sure the kids had the hang of it (even though they had been on it the day before. Between you and me, I think he just really wanted to play on it!)
The day before, when we had purchased the half hour package, we didn't get them life vests. They're both good swimmers, especially Natalie, but the combination of swimming and having to pull yourself up on everything was exhausting to them. So we got them life vests to make the whole experience less tiring and more fun! It made Mommy breathe easier, too.
They really had a blast... but they were a bit sore the next day! After 3 hours, they had had enough and called it a day. You've gotta be strong to spend a few hours on this thing!
After Todd's hour, you know we had to go to happy hour. We could keep an eye on the kids from up here, which was a bonus.
We finished up our day at the beach and headed back to the apartment. Pretty much anywhere you go in the Balkan countries, you're bound to find pock marked buildings. And it's not just government buildings. This one is residential. Weirdly though, to think this Cold War eyesore of a building will someday be torn down is a bit sad to me. Visual reminders of their war, although at times upsetting to the heart, are always a reminder of why we should be respectful and kind to each other. We are all part of the human race and our differences shouldn't be why we see these things.
Not my prettiest manhole cover in Europe, but unique none the less.
We walked (again) to the old town area of Zadar (while singing Old Town Road, I'm sure...) to grab some dinner. We came upon Petar Zoranic Square (to the right) and Five Wells Square (to the left), with Captain's Tower as it's main attraction. It was built by the Venetians to help defend the city from the Ottomans.
Zadar was actually a part of the Roman Empire from 48BC to the 400s AD. What you see here is the base of one of the Roman towers that once stood here. Protective glass covers the remnants that reside below ground.
On our way to dinner, we also walked by the People' Square.
I left the second evening's dinner in the very capable hands of my husband. If there's one thing he does pretty well, it's find a good restaurant for dinner. We ate at Restoran Malo Misto and one of the waiters must have thought Grant was cute, because they came by with a napkin hat and put it on his head!
My dare devil foodie child ordered what she thought were shrimp. Which appeared looking more like langoustine. Apparently (news to me since I don't like any of these things) prawns are a freshwater creature and are much bigger than what we know of as shrimp in America. She loved them though!
After dinner and heading home, we walked along the Obala Kralja Tomislava and it's harbor that protects all of these little boats. A very pretty end to a fun day.
The next day was spent almost entirely at Plitvice Lakes. In order not to bore you too much, I'm making a separate post for that. When we got off the bus back in Zadar, we swung by the Konzum to grab a few things for breakfast the next day. There was no translation feature (not surprising) at the self check out stand, and Todd was causing all kinds of problems by making the lights flash, requiring help from one of the employees. Oh Clark....
I don't know that I've ever been in a grocery store as big as the Konzum. And I don't mean a Costco sort of place. I mean a regular grocery store that sells normal sized things. It's so big, it even has a playground to entertain bored children.
After our grocery store adventures, we got cleaned up and headed back into Old Town Zadar for one more amazing meal, walking along the Obala Kralja Tomislava. As we walked along this promenade, we all picked out the boat that best suited us. Because we always do silly things like that!
Our only goal of the evening (besides eating) was to see the Sea Organ. This musical instrument plays tunes through a series of openings in the concrete and plastic tubes embedded beneath it. The wind and the waves combine to make music for all to enjoy on the marble steps.
Sunset is definitely the time to visit the Sea Organ. There were a bunch of kids having jumping contests off of the side of the Sea Organ. They were totally messing with each other before each jump. Ah, to be a kid again, having fun and swimming in the Adriatic!
Although the tide was low enough not to need these musical openings, this is how the music is made.
If you walk to the very end of the Zadar Embankment, you can get a delightful view of the sunset. We were a little early for it, but it was still really beautiful.
Three Bailey's at the edge of Zadar.
You just can't beat these views. The sea breeze and the smell of the salt air is all that's missing from this picture.
This cutie girl was enjoying herself at the edge of the Zadar Embankment.
There's a very large, round display at the end of the Embankment. It took us a few minutes to figure out what it was. It's called the Greeting to the Sun. I WISH I had an evening to see this. This is a series of solar fed panels that give off a light show every night. All of the names of the saints who have churches named after them in Zadar encircle this, along with their feast dates and the declination and altitude of the sun on those dates. This beast of a solar panel not only produces a cool evening light show but also provides half of the energy along the Zadar Embankment.
Then, to make it EVEN COOLER, it is like a mini solar system display that are size and spatially proportional to our own solar system. I'm such a science nerd, this was SO neat!
We made our way back along the Zadar Embankment, on our way to find some dinner. I'm sure at night this area is incredible, with sound coming from the Sea Organ, and a pretty light show display by the Greeting to the Sun.
I haven't seen too many buildings like this one in Croatia. It's just the county office of Zadar!
The meal we had a Bistro Pjat was yet another incredible meal. I cannot express to you how good the food is in the Balkans. I've said it before and I'll say it again. This was Todd's little friend though. He arrived like this and then Todd had to actually ask for him to be cleaned up ha ha.
Meanwhile, I'm loving all of the Croatian wine. People don't get that Croatia has amazing wine. It's literally right next to Italy (only across a small sea.) We enjoyed the same wine two nights in a row!
Having a nice wine with my honey. This group next to us thought it was funny that we were from Boston. One of them had lived there a long time ago. It's a small world!
Look at these crazy goofballs. Man I hope they realize how lucky they are someday. Just hanging out on a beautiful evening in Zadar, Croatia.
I also hope this cat realizes how lucky it is. It just hopped up on this empty seat at the table next to us, curled up and fell asleep. I'm seriously coming back as a cat in my next life.
Hey now Zadar, this is a little more like it!
We took a somewhat slow stroll home and through the Petar Zoranic Square with it's Roman columns still adorning the plaza.
Todd likes to think he's a tree when he's in Zadar. (And all I can think is... how old is this tree? Not the human form, but the actual tree?)
The kids ran around on top of the Roman ruins that are protected by glass and I took blurry pictures of them.
The Captain's Tower looked really pretty in the evening light.
We had a late flight out of Zadar so we promised the kids a few more hours at the beach on our last day there. Thankfully our super awesome AirBnB hosts didn't have anyone coming the next day so they said we could stay a bit late (and shower after we hit up the beach.) I'll say one more thing about the Balkan region... the people there are among the friendliest you will meet in Europe!
While on the beach, the kids (and my big kid) decided they wanted to ride water bicycles that were for rent. But someone has to stay behind and watch our stuff on the beach. So I just enjoyed watching them ride around on these things!
There they go!
After water bicycle adventures, we grabbed some lunch before heading back to the apartment. I honestly didn't want to leave. Although short, this was really one of our best vacations ever!
"Can we have an ice cream cone before we leave?" Oh okay....
We walked back to the apartment after lunch to clean up and get ready to go to the airport. This was our view of the apartment (on the right.) I remember our lovely host saying, "It's a post war building." Meaning it was a Cold War block housing type of building. Never judge a book by it's cover because this apartment was awesome!
We hopped on the bus to the airport and once through security, Todd and I had one last Ozujsko. This was the picture I sent my LBPs because this was my LBP of the day. (That's a "lucky b---- problem.")
Me and my babes about to board our flight back to Nuremberg.
Todd and I were SO EXCITED to see the beach we went to from the air. Do you see that island looking thing just off the coast, slightly right of center? That's the inflatable obstacle course!
Doviđenja, Zadar! You can even see the Greeting to the Sun from way up here! That is amazing!
Todd just couldn't believe Croatia had so many islands... most of them rocky and somewhat inhabitable. But all of them very geologically unbelievable!
As we passed over Austria and into southern Germany, we passed this really neat thunderstorm. I swear I've never seen thunderstorms quite like I have here in Europe (especially north of the Alps.)
Until next time, Zadar! I'll forever be dreaming about your cuisine!
