07 | August | 2019 | Physio my way

July 23 – Aug 5

Croatia is an amazing country with a turbulent history. It has a population of approx. 4.5 million and receives around 4 million visitors a year. Tourism is obviously a big part of the economy, contributing around 15% to the GDP.

In summer, it is easy to see why it is so popular with both UK and European visitors with it’s beautiful Coast and safe waters to swim in

It has been very hot the last two weeks so we alternate days at La Mare (the Sea), relaxing in the shade of the trees on the waters edge at Cologne about 6km from Bale, and swimming in the turquoise water, with days exploring local surrounds.

I’m reminded of those long hot summer holidays when I was a child doing nothing much more than reading and swimming and relaxing. We are both sleeping more and napping also, probably due to the extra sun.

Just in case your wondering, to combat all this laziness, Rob and I have started an early morning run session and we also walk around Bale village most days doing daily messages or just for the sake of it.

Summer in Istria is also festival time. On Saturday 27 July we went to the cow festival at Kanfanar, about 6km from Bale. The festival has an annual pretty cow parade of 20 odd beasts of burden and it was amazing! The cows were huge, most taller than me at the shoulder with big horns but also quite docile and yes very pretty and happy to be petted to.

My favourite was number 8, so we named him Otto (Italian for 8) and I gave him a few comforting scratches to keep him calm before and during the judging! Not sure I can take any actual credit but he won!!!

After the cow judging we enjoyed the delights of the festival with local dishes of Chevacipci and Bratwurst Sausage and Kapuzi (Sauerkraut) before bolting for the car as a storm came across.

Last week we drove back to Trieste in Italy for a few days.

While we were there we took the opportunity to catch up with Rob’s other Aunt, Maria and cousins Oriella and Sylvia and their families.

Lucia, Rob’s Aunt Irene’s daughter is lovely and was very kind and took us on a drive to see the sights of Trieste by night. A beautiful city with the largest piazza in Europe and the only one with a seafront, we had a lovely time and as Lucia said, the city looks very different at night. Thanks Lucia!

James Joyce loved Trieste

One of the many official. Buildings in the piazza.

While in Trieste Rob and I visited Miramare on July 30, an area of the coast about 20km from Trieste City that has been preserved with a Castle and parklands built by Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian and his wife in the 19th Century.

On the terrace. A cool spot on a hot day.

Miramare and the start of the parklands.

The next day we drove to Sistiana Bay a popular swimming destination about 25km from Trieste passing through Prosecco on the way.

Last Saturday we visited Fazana for the sardine festival. Bale was having a festival the same day but in the evening so we thought we would attend both!

Fazana is about 15km from Bale and the pretty village is right on the shore and opposite Brijun (Briony) island which was a favourite of Tito’s in his day!

We hung around as long as we could but this was as close to the Sardines as we got! Rob was very disappointed to miss out on a freshly grilled one!

Back in Bale we checked out the Jazz and then the local concert.

These guys, Klapa Rispet are Croatia’s version of our backstreet boys. Hugely popular and everyone was singing along. The second act was a another popular band Jasmin that came on at 12:30am! We walked home around then. The lead singer reminded me of Sir Cliff Richard, another ageing rocker.

On Monday we visited Pula which was a popular holiday destination of Caesar! So much so that he built his own Colosseum and Roman Theatre there. Pula has quite a few historical sites including a Roman arch and mosaics all dated BC! The colosseum is well preserved and in better condition than the one in Rome! The history of Croatia continues to amaze me.

Monday 27/5/19

Saturday, we had a slow day in our Cabin and only ventured out for a Sunday Roast dinner at local pub, the Malt Shovel. Rob can be seen here drowning his sorrows over the Lions 1 point loss to the Freo Dockers…

The next day, Bank holiday Monday in Somerset. A lovely sunny day, we decided to do a longish walk.

The Quantock Hills is a range of hills west of Bridgwater in Somerset, England. The Quantock Hills covering only a small area, 19 kilometres long and 6 wide were declared England’s first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, being designated in 1956, and consist of heathland, oak woodlands, ancient parklands and agricultural land.

Rob found a 7 mile (13.2km) walk for us to do and along the way acted as my guide, so romantic, reading me the history of the area including anecdotes about Coleridge (writer) and Wordsworth (poet) who were good mates in the late 1700’s and spent about a year in the area.

The walk was a loop from Holford Village bowling green going up and past the Holford Combe House Hotel which had a 130 year old water wheel last in use in the 1950‘s and into the first Combe (deep narrow valley).

The walk meandered, steadily upward through a leafy laneway towards Holford Combe and the Dingly Dell.

Fun fact – my “guide” told me that parts of the 1991 Robin Hood movie starring Kevin Costner were filmed in this area.

Dingly Dell

Climbing steadily and looking up the hills on either side, through beautiful forest, this area reminded me of the last day of our Overland Track walk in Tasmania 2016; so green that you almost feel like you are walking underwater.!

Still climbing upward we came to one tree frog hill and could finally see the Quantock Moors.

It was really interesting to see how quickly the landscape changed from the temperate lush greenery to the starkness of the heather and gorse of the moors. The weather changed too, across the top of the moors we head a strong Easterly accompany us as we walked.

We turned right on pack way towards Higher Hare Knap with an outlook to the channel.

View from Higher Hare Knap looking North towards Kilve where we did the Coastal walk

We then walked down again into Shepherds Combe then up again along Lady’s edge following a stream all the way up until it disappears.

Further up we get to Bicknoller Post which marks the meeting way of several pathes. Fantastic views towards Minehead and Exmoor and the Bristol Channel from here.