If you’ve seen the movie Avatar, I think you’ll understand why we think this place was the inspiration behind Pandora. Plitvice (PLEET veet seh) Lakes National Park. These were the tallest in the park at 250 ft.Lakes were a beautiful turquoise.Just in case you’ve forgotten us.Could not believe how clear the water was!Water rushing under and around staircases and boardwalks.Love these reflectionsBeautifulWaterfalls like this everywhere!Sixteen lakes connected by hundreds of falls.Even climbed up to a cool and drippy cave.Walked 20K (12 miles) the first day and loved every minute.
Nice view of the old town.Boat yard we walked by a lot. Cool to watch them restore these old boats.Amazingly relaxed dogs, often laying in doorways. Cute!Typical street scene with shiny marble walkways.So Venetian (right Casey & Shyla?).Biked around the Golden Cape, just outside of town.Went on a sunset cruisefor beautiful views like this.
This is St Euphemia Church, one of the main sites in Rovinj Croatia – where we are visiting.Euphemia stands atop the Venetian style bell tower and acts as a weather vane. If she is facing the sea the sailors know they’ll have a good day and if she’s facing the town – not so much!St Euphemia, age 15, was a martyr in the year 300.Story goes that she washed up on the shores of Rovinj in this sargaphogus 500 years later. Thus the name of the church.We decided to go up the bell tower for views of the surrounding area.192 terrifying stairs!At the top there was this hole that we could look through to see this crazy staircase.Built in 1754 – very scary climbing up AND going down!
Croatia’s landscape is dotted with sleepy, picturesque hill towns.Grozjan (grohzh-NYAHN) was the first of three hill towns that we visited.It was virtually forgotten until several artists took up residency. Lots of nice galleries to visit.Check out these dates.RESTORED in 1799! 😀Zavrsje (ZAH-vur-shyeh), small, compact and deserted. This was our favorite (favourite for Nathan and Belinda) town of the three that we saw.After the Italian exodus post WII this village remains almost uninhabited today.Only a very few locals live here now and virtually all of the buildings are abandoned skeletons.My very own hobbit house!Motovun (moh-toh-VOON), biggest town we visited, built one thousand feet above vineyards and truffle filled forests. Birthplace of Mario Andretti.Nice spot to grab lunch beforewalking the walls. Windy up here!Commanding view of the countryside below.
When you’re in a beautiful townwhere fishing is the main industryit’s probably good to order fish for dinner.Right!?!Ummm, (cover your eyes, Annette). I think I can do this.Yep! Pretty tasty!Murph liked his squid, too! (wish you were here, Tewks).The square where our eatery was located.Next day, I thought it would be safe to order crab risotto – here we go again!
After just about three weeks of fall like weather we landed in Piran, Slovenia. We spent the next day laying at the beach – relaxing and reading.Then we walked the ancient path into the old town.And explored the charming lanes.Spent some time in Tartini Square…I thought these fishing storage units were pretty cool. There were about 30 different containers and each had a unique painting of the old town.Such a warm evening we decided to stay for sunset.
On the way to Bled we stopped in the village of Radovljica and visited this Catholic church.I found it fascinating that so many flowers were used to decorate the ceiling instead of religious figures.While staying in Bled, we walked through the neighborhood orchard many times. At first I thought they were just apple trees, then I discovered the plum trees. Never have I tasted such sweet plums – even the skin was sweet! YummyMy favorite selfie.My favorite hubby!I think this is a fun pic. ❤
Murphys on the Move 