SUMMARY The long-ish drive to Plitvice National Park is well worth it. At the end of the trip awaits one of the most gorgeous places you can imagine. (Luckily you won’t have to imagine as we have photographic evidence!) - Karen
DETAIL
We wake and flip switches to ensure the building’s three different water heaters are all on. We use the hot water to bathe and shave. The coffee maker is up to the task and we have a few pots. Liz and Mike brought some breakfast (chocolate cake). Ron tries to make toast (in a frying pan on the induction stove). I work on the blog.
Our host has provided a link to a government form where each of the six of us needs to put in our name, address, birthdate, passport number, birth country, etc. etc. We try to do it on the iPhone, and it’s willing to accept our birth month and day, but insists that each of us was born this year. We swear that we will try again later on the laptop.
Nancy, Ron, and Karen hike back up the hill to the grocery store to buy stuff for lunch and dinner. Yesterday Ron and I didn’t realize we had to weigh/label our produce. The cashier lady rolled her eyes knowingly to the long line of locals now backed up behind us. She slowly trudges back to produce section to correct our typical tourists’ mistakes. Today Ron, Nancy and Karen are very careful to weigh and label everything. To no avail. One was right and the rest she had to redo. Oh well.
Ron and Karen start pre-making dinner (cutting up and sautéing veggies to be combined with pasta and cheese) anticipating a late return while Nancy crafts elaborate yummy sandwiches for lunch.
Mike and Liz are at a family event. The plan was that they’d join us for lunch but when they arrive Mike’s family had prepared a big spread of local food, some grown and/or prepared by the family themselves. So the remaining four of us eat our lunch of yummy sandwiches (with spicy potato chips) alone.
When Mike and Liz do eventually return, we put the dinner prep in the fridge and two cars drive to Plitvice National Park, 1 hr 40 min away. The drive is beautiful with many long tunnels. The country we’re driving through remind us of this or that part of the world, but it’s fairly unpopulated so it feels a little like we’re traveling back in time. When we do see a building it’s probably a 16th century monastery made of beautiful white marble.
At the national park our admission is pre-paid. It’s 25€ each in advance. We opted for an afternoon window of arrival (3 PM) and it’s a five mile walk, so we’re going to be here a while. There are already a ton of people here at the park all walking around taking selfies. The park is designed where you can start at one end and walk to the other or visa versa, and we’re mostly one wooden planked paths over water.
Our mass of humanity is going one way and an equal sized mass of humanity is going the opposite direction. And everyone is trying to get a picture of the gorgeous waterfalls as if we’re the only ones there. Our path includes the five mile walk, plus a long boat ride (actually two) in the middle and a shuttle ride back to the parking area. We walked from below up and up and up, so each new level up offered up new water falls from the small body of water above us. The water snaked down through moss-covered rocks with bushes and trees added for dramatic effect. It was all put there by nature but the walkways were man-made and humans were maintaining it in spectacular form. It’s Plitvice, the most popular national park in the whole country, understandably.
As our five mile walk and return bus to the parking winds down we’re doing the math in our head: the 90 minute drive back home will ensure we have a very late dinner. Hats off to Ron and Karen for doing the dinner prep in advance.
We have two cars so we divide up the two most vital jobs between each. One takes the cooks home to continue the dinner prep while the other goes for more wine. Eventually we’re eating a fabulous dinner accompanied by delicious Croatian wine. We’re exhausted but full and very happy it’s been a great day.
At 11 p.m. we’re heading to bed when Ron asked if we knew what was making headlines. We were sure we did not and told him so. His two word answer “Corduroy pillowcases” stumped us at first and then we laughed for the next half hour. Well played.
Photos
Our room at the house. Lots of much room. Three bedrooms, three bathrooms, one pool, check!
Nancy making lunch while Karen and Ron do pre-prep for dinner
It was a long drive to the Plitvice National Park but the scenery along the way was very dramatic. We were curious how we were going to go over the high mountains we were seeing. In the end it was a very long tunnel.
Some of the geological features weren't so much dramatic as interesting
There were also interesting old buildings along the way
Our route for our hike. A series of bodies of water, one flowing into the one below. The result? Lots of waterfalls.
Mostly you're below the falls, but for the first, lowest falls, we start above the falls.
Some of the walking is over the lake that makes the falls. The water is clear and there are lots of small fish. No swimming and no feeding the fish. At least the 'no swimming' is honored.
Lots of wild cyclemen
Lots of people. 1/2 going up and 1/2 coming down. Our tickets were for the UP route, so we always had the pretty falls views in front of us.
Thankfully there was a boat ride in the middle to keep the hike from being a seven mile trek.
So many waterfalls! You get done with one set and a bit further on there's the next.
Almost done with our five miles, we're tired and happy and ready for dinner. The sun is starting to get low in the sky
Most of the hiking/walking was on this raised platform. Underneath is usually water, sometimes rocks, often more waterfalls.
Home at last, time for pasta and so many delicious sautéed vegetables. Oh, and cheese. (And wine, of course)
Somehow we ended up with the girls on one side and the guys on the other. It was all very yummy, including the local wine.
Comments