Wheels Around Europe . . . . . . . : Rovinj

This morning, after a rather strange beeping noise kept us awake last night, we awoke to a glorious warm and sunny Istrian morning.

The noise at first sounded like a vehicle reversing, electronic type beep, but it went on, and on, and on. At one point I was ready to get out of bed and go and speak to whoever was making that din and give them a piece of my mind, but I didn`t.

It also changed in tone at pattern from time to time. This morning I spoke to a man in the next motorhome and he heard it also (so I`m not going nuts) he says he regularly hears it when abroad and he doesn`t know what it is either.

I can only think it must be an animal, some birds put out calls at night so maybe that’s the answer, it`s not a sound I heard before so I`m hoping whatever it was, has now found a mate and shuts up tonight !

Maybe it`s the same bird from Aminess Sirena Novigrad followed me here to harass me some more.

We set off early to Rovinj in order to get there before it got too hot.

It is a very beautiful spot the town occupies, we first walked up to the Sveta Eufemija Church on the hill with stunning views of the azure Adriatic Sea below. The church was built in 1736 and the bell tower was inspired by the tower in Saint Marks Square in Venice.

We then wandered down through the lanes looking in the mostly tasteful tourist shops and admiring the stone buildings. The cobbles are interesting, they are a very light colour stone and have a foot polished appearance after many years of having tourists walk them. There are two geological areas in Istria, white Istria and grey Istria, with the two differing colours of limestone rock. Presumably the streets cobbles in Rovinj are quarried from the white Istria limestone.

The town has many narrow cobbled lanes and alleys to explore with lots of bars and cafes having the most amazing views out over the sea. Not forgetting the Gelato sellers that take some willpower to pass without calling in (I weakened and had a single scoop in a cone, delicious).

The cost of living in Croatia is still very reasonable compared to nearby Italy, which I suppose is why there are so many savvy German, Dutch, Italian and Belgium tourists here, and for that matter, why we are still here.

Croatia has pretty much everything, great climate, great scenery, great fish food, lovely warm seas and very genuinely friendly people.

We first came to Croatia, an island called Brac, a few years ago and loved it then and I still feel the same now having seen more of the country.

The harbour is very busy with lots of fishing and tourist boats coming and going, the obligatory pirate ship and glass bottom boat are all here.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable morning spent in Rovinj and for anyone visiting the area it is definately recommended to spend some time here.

Wildlife update, we had a slippery visitor this morning, see photo.

Whilst at Aminess Sirena, Novigrad, there were red squirrels scampering about in the pine trees above us, but were very shy and scattered whenever I got my camera out so no photos unfortunately. I keep looking here but not seen any yet.