Wheels Around Europe . . . . . . . : Exploring Istria

Thursday 31 May 2018

Exploring Istria

As much as we liked our site at Aminess Sirena Novigrad, especially the direct assess onto the sea, the birds (still unidentified and unseen) rather made us question weather we should stay longer and in the end, the temptation to discover the delights of Istria won us over.

We were not disappointed, we drove through rolling hills of lush and fertile landscapes to a town in the hills called Groznjan.

In the past the town has been popular with artists and musicians and regularly held festivals.

Now it is more of a tourist destination for it`s quaint traditional Istria buildings, but it makes a fascinating stop for a couple of hours.
Today there was a small market selling all kinds of second hand / collectable stuff.

It has very narrow cobbles streets with pretty Istria stone buildings and courtyards around every corner. Lots of shops selling local olive oil, truffles, wine and preserves.

There are also spectacular views of the surrounding countryside.

We stopped for a drink at a café and had uninterrupted views of the surrounds.

A lovely way to spend a morning.

I had planned to go on to another hillside village called Motovun but there was a road closure and the detour was quite considerable so we decided to give that a miss.

So we continued our journey south to the famous port town of Rovinj.

The Romans built this port on an island which was joined onto the coast in 1763 by filling in the channel between Rovinj and the mainland.
Tonight we are parked up at Camping Porton Biondi (GPS 45.09588 13.64152)

It`s quite similar to the site in Novigrad with tiered levels up from sea level, It`s not too busy so we managed to park fairly low down towards the sea.

We haven`t seen much of our surroundings yet apart from a brief walk down to the beach with Louis, but we will explore tomorrow.

After tea we all showered including Louis who went in the doggie douch ! These are quite a common site around here and certainly make washing your dog a lot easier.

The climate coutinues to suit us much better than Italy did, still far less humid for some reason and makes sleeping so much more comfortable.

I meant to mention last night, the reason for the food photo was Sue was served her food, chicken and chips, with two knives, so we asked for a fork and she was brought another knife !!!

Eventually a fork was produced.

My Sea Bass was delicious by the way.

Another strange one, today in Groznjan, Café Latte served in a pint glass with a straw no less. At least it was a good measure and a good coffee for £2.10 especially with those views.