We have a destination ... Croatia.
We first heard about this country as a possible motorbike tour destination speaking to Argentinian motorcyclists we met in Siena, Italy. They had just done a tour and were ecstatic and strongly recommended we do this. We then started reading about Croatia and got more and more excited as we learned about it.
It is supposed to be one of the best places to visit in Europe with beautiful beaches and a number of cities that are still "unspoiled" and are Unesco World Heritage sites.
A bit about this country per Wikipedia:
Croatia is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of Central Europe, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. Croatia covers 56,594 square kilometres (21,851 square miles) and has diverse, mostly continental and Mediterranean climates. Croatia's Adriatic Sea coast contains more than a thousand islands (;-)). The country's population is 4.29 million, most of whom are Croats, with the most common religious denomination being Roman Catholicism.
Croatia today has a very high Human Development Index. The International Monetary Fund classified Croatia as an emerging and developing economy, and the World Bank identified it as a high income economy. Croatia is a member of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization, CEFTA and a founding member of the Union for the Mediterranean. Croatia is an acceding state of the European Union, with full membership expected in July 2013.
Tourism is a significant source of revenue during the summer, with Croatia ranked the 18th most popular tourist destination in the world. Since 2000, the Croatian government has invested in infrastructure, especially transport routes and facilities along the Pan-European corridors. Croatia provides a universal health care system and free primary and secondary education, while supporting culture through numerous public institutions and through corporate investments in media and publishing. The nation prides itself in its cultural, artistic and scientific contributions to the world, as well as in its cuisine, wines and sporting achievements.
I like the Croatian flag. It is quite new as it was adopted in 21 December 1990. The flag is a tricolor with the background formed of three colors: red, white and blue placed horizontally and with the same size. These colors represent the Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia.
The meanings of the colors of the flag are: white represents peace and honesty, red is bravery, power and blue vigilance, truth and loyalty.
In the middle of the croatian flag is the Coat of Arms of Croatia.
The main coat of arms is a chessboard, named ahovnica and it has 13 red and 12 white fields.
The 5 crowning coats of the centered emblem representing the five different historical regions of Croatia: ancient Croatia, Dubrovnik, Dalmatia, Istria and Slavonia.
Day 1 is Monday (Sep 24) and we will leave Venice and go NW towards Slovenia where we will cross into and then turn south to Croatia. Depending on time spent in border we may or may not visit Rovinj on way to our first stop which will be in Pula.
On Day 2 we will travel from Pula to the Plitvice Lake National Park where we will spend night of Day 2, Day 3 and night of Day 3.
On Day 4 we will leave Plitvice and go to Split where we will stay for Day 5 and Day 6. On Day 5 and 6 we will take ferries and visit the islands of Brac, Hvar and Vis.
On Day 7 we will leave Split and go to Drobovnik. The route will be through the island of Korcula.
We will spend one day in Dobrovnik (Day 8) and on Day 9 we will leave to location to be defined soon.
We are very excited about this trip as we will be going to a country very different from the ones we have visited so far in that I had been there in business before and knew a bit about the culture and people. This one is totally unknown.
Let the adventure begin ...
Posted by Armando
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