a FEW photos and an I LOVE CROATIA post

A few weeks ago our family took a week long trip to Istria which is a part of Croatia near Italy and on the Adriatic. We were amazed by the beauty of Croatia. Anyhoo, I loved seeing Croatia and nature in it's purest state and so this is yet another reason why I LOVE CROATIA

We have such a nice landlord and since the tourist season was almost over and the Italians had gone home we thought surely we could find a nice, secluded place on the sea somewhere along a coastline that takes at least 9 hours to drive.

Guess what we soon found out; Croatia was experiencing a very late tourist season and the coast was packed. Since we don't mix swim we were only able to get close to the sea in the moring between 7am and 8am. I know that's early but it's what we had to do to get there before the rush and it was so nice.

This is the little cove we found. Is it the most lovely place you've ever seen or what?

The kids and I also found some rocky cliffs, not too high and jumped and dived, FUN! Oh yea and I scrapped my leg on some rocks so I can tell folks that I was injured cliff diving. (shhh, the rocks were only about 5ft. off the water, but that can be our little secret!)

I loved it and check out our view out to sea!
The area along the sea is lovely too, we found this little place while hiking a bit.
You would not believe how much Rosemary there is down there, it's growing everywhere. So nice when you rub up against it.

After we realized that the sea was not the place for us we stayed inland and checked out some of the interesting sites. This big gorge is right out side the castle in Pazin.
In the courtyard of the castle.
There were many interesting things to see in the museum in the castle. Check out these lovely marriage bed spreads. The custom was that a mother would hand embroider these covers for a bed on the wedding night. They would bring good luck and also many children! Aren't they great!











A walker in one of the rooms, my babies woule have slid right out of that thing. Babies must have been a bit thicker back then!



Wouldn't want to be this lady. You know what's funny, I see ladies working like this even today.
I thought this was neat, a simplicity pattern in English!


Okay now, don't tell me you can think of a better place for a teenager! I don't believe it!

Oh yea, did you know that Jules Verne got his inspiration for one of this books from this castle and gorge with it's own caves? How cool is that??
upsize this photo to read more!
It was a long way down too.
Then we headed to Motovun, this beautiful town built on the hill. breath-taking!
Oh yea and walked up to the top, maybe even crawled a bit!
Hannah Girl
Johnny and Joe-kewl, I mean Josh
Dinner, meat platter, with kabobs, port and hamburger patties
fries and a salad that had 75 tomatoes in it, really and three leaves of lettuce! Did I tell you I hate tomatoes??
Cody
Hannah again, mom's girl
Then we headed to the coastal town of Rovinj to see the old town.
Is it beautiful or what?
also trekked to the top of this town too.
the views from the top were worth it.


Taking a break on someone's door step, sure they didn't mind.
I loved all the little nooks and crannies of this town, one of my favorites now.
a window, ya know how I love 'em .
drive through worship.

the picture below is one of my favorites, so many things going on in this little hall. LOVELY!

Us taking advantage of someone's lovely coutyard. Hi Hannah!
Okay so then we wen't to Roč (said ROACH). It was a small little town but a nice stop just the same.

Told Hannah that girls don't preach, she's in rebellion.
Cody's showing her how to do it

Josh found the canons, this one is Venetian.

Love to see hanging veggies, specially gordes and pumpkins.
cute little house
Cody
Then we headed south to Kotli, an abandoned milling village. They all moved away when the river dried up and left a lovely place to see.
This whole town was for sale, if anyone has $100,000 for us to use to buy this place for a youth camp just drop me an e-mail. NOW!


These the old mill where the river once ran.
Okay this is the town of Hum (hoom)
The kids were trying to figure out what this strange box was used for.

loved the way the stored the watering cans at the cememtary. We're a bit morbid, we ran through the cemetary trying to find the oldest grave, I lost. The oldest was 1840.
Oh yea and this door to this little chapel at the cemetary leads into a chapel from the 11th century.

Driving home we saw a sign that peaked out intrest. It read Parasol Mexican and being from Texas that's all we needed to know. We became a little concerned when we read the front of the menu and seen that it was called a Mexican (uh, Mexcio) Bistro (French) Pizzeria (Italian). So which was it? None. They had no pizza or french food but they did have something with chili powder in it and in some countries that could be considered Mexican, right?

Not being able to go the the sea we decided to drive an hour north and cross two borders to get to the Italian city or Trieste. It was lovely, clean and the Italians were so friendly. I love 'em!
Oh yea and Italy really does close down for nap time every day. I like that, suits me just fine.
This is my favorite photo, well one of then, anyone it was a little canal in Triest, so pretty!

Outside the WC (those of you in Europe will understand)
Inside the WC and Hannah's stall. Doesnt' she look so excited? These things take lots of practice.

One day we found a local go-cart place and the kids and Johnny took off. Before it was over, Josh was ejected from the race and his car hauled off to be totalled. Seriously!
Close to the end of our stay we checked out the little fishing village of Fažana. Where boats are docked people tend to stay out of the water so it was great for us.

a super nice Croatian man took our picture, sweet huh? Do we look like tourists?
love all the boats, so sweet.
On our way home we decided to take the old road through the mountains instead of the highway which is 2 hours faster. Why did we do that you ask; the tolls on Croatians highways are some of the highest in Europe. To drive home from Istria would have cost us $80. No kidding!
We found this great little mountain house on our way through the mountains and stopped for the view, breath-taking.Had some coffee
Had to get a blanket because it was so chilly up there when it was around 100 at the bottom of the mountain.

Oh yea and then we made our way down this range and up another on and this was waiting. Lokve is a lake in the Gorske kotar forests in Croatia.
Is that incredible or what?
So pretty
Anyhow, out sweet landlord said we could stay in his apartment on the sea for two weeks but we returned after one. When the sea is off limits at the sea there's not a lot to do.

We enjoyed seeing God's handiwork and spending time together but we will NEVER for near the sea again in summer or early fall, lesson learned.

I warned you that there were a FEW photos!