La version française est en cours de traduction. Merci de votre patience.

Croatia is known for its beaches. Crowds flock here from Slovenia, Austria, Czech Republic and the rest of Europe for long weekends and holidays. Me? I have never liked beaches or swimming. But still, since everybody we talked to says it can’t be missed, we decided we wouldn’t miss it. We rode along Croatia’s Adriatic coastline from the Istrien Peninsula down to Zadar. And for sure, it is beautiful. From a biker’s point of view, the road is unbelievable: it follows the topography closely. No guard rails. Tight twistees. Seven hundred foot cliff diving into turquoise water on my right. Off the coast: striking rocky islands.

Located in the NW corner of the country, 90% of Istria lies in Croatia while the leftover 10% belongs to Italy and Slovenia. Like the rest of the Balkans, as we will soon find out, it has a very complicated (shall we call it “rich”?!) history, having been ruled by many, including the Western Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, Venice, the Habsburg, the Napoleonic Kingdom, the Austrian Empire, Italy, the Nazis, Yugoslavia and now Croatia.

Nowadays Istria as well as the whole Adriatic coast are Croatia’s main tourist destinations, offering national parks, old towns complete with castles and churches, grottos, beaches, an amphitheater, an aquarium, climbing tours, zipline adventures, water parks, wineries, castles, and more.

I was completely overwhelmed.

A giant tourist attraction park.

World Peace is not on anybody’s mind – except mine.

On our second morning in Barbariga, we got up at 6 a.m. once, just to get the beach all to ourselves – and the sun graced us with its rising presence.

Still, to be fair: it IS beautiful and I want to share some of it with you so here you go.

To see the slideshow, click on the photo below

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