Adventures of Trent & Jane

 We arrived in Krk, greeted by the family at the B&B with a glass of snaps.  The accommodation is nice, as full a kitchen as we have seen. We both feel like some home cooking. Walking into town the first night was surprised to see a Roman walled city. It’s really lovely in the old town, narrow cobblestone streets, little alleys and quaint shops and restaurants. There are a fair number of people but it doesn’t seem too crowded. There are several places where they have live music in the evenings, all open air. And we danced! We found a busker in a street with a bit of room, he played some local music so we polkaed, we Fox Trotted and other stuff. People thought we were hilarious and maybe part of the show but the musician was really happy with our display. It did make people stop to look and maybe he made a few more dollars from it. He thanked us as we left.  

Getting to Pula from Porec was a breeze, literally, it was windy and no good for diving anyway. About 60 Km with a couple stops. We found a winery with a very good selection of wines, red and white. Their Malvazja is delicious and can be done in a lot of various ways. The minerality is pronounced and quite delightful. The town is actually quite large with a very active port. We found the dive shop near the B&B and spoke with Dani the owner. They have caves to dive as well as a cliff and reef. They have a large dive boat that is similar to some of the Caribbean boats we are familiar with. Dani is fun to talk to, he owns the shop and he was our first guide. We did two cave dives and two wall dives. The caves are very cool, the walls are different as well. There is not a lot of colour but the diving is interesting anyway. The old town was small and frankly we were not very interested in visiting another castle. There are some nice views around town and our accommodation is interesting...

 We arrived at the coast in a big rainstorm, with them pumping water out of the bib basement.   The next dawned sunny and we set off and found Milos at Poreč Dive center.  We parked in a forest which kept the car cool, it’s around 32 degrees. We dove 3 times a beach dive, reef dive and then a cave dive which was really cool as we surfaced in the middle of an island. Can you find the scorpion fish? .  Great town to wander around the narrow streets.  Had drinks on top of a tower! Found our new favorite, stuffed squid. The town was interesting, it had the first Christian church in Croatia dating back to the 4 century

 Apparently Slovenia is full of caves, we toured one near a castle on the way to Porec, the Postonja Caves. The guide described Slovenian as a ‘big cheese full of holes’. There some 14,000 caves here. We saw just one which is part of a small system of three groups of connected caves. There are a lot bigger systems elsewhere but they are difficult to tour. This particular cave is really amazing and has a long history. There have been kings touring this set of caves and the hold concerts from time to time to time in a gallery called ‘The Concert Hall’. The acoustics are amazing and I am sure no amplification is necessary. There are a lot more if you want to see but that will be when we get home. Too many to share. There are old discovery stories, war (both big ones and many smaller ones) stories, and good history for this particular cave. There are very good pathways with a fairly steep climb but the rest is easy and downhill.  There is even a train that takes you 3.5 kms into t...

 Taking the train looked like a good idea but poop happens.  We headed to Fonyód to catch the train to Zagreb. On Fonyod we could not find storage for the bags so we rented a couple bikes and the shop held our bags, very convenient. We rode to a couple of wineries but nothing was open for tasting, no matter what the internet says. We headed back to town and ate a couple times on the way.  The train was ….. (wait for it) ….. late. Only about 40 minutes, minor in the eastern country. We had booked seats, luckily?, and our compartment had a young Aussie couple in it, and the car had a few dozen young students in it. Very hot and really moist. The AC in our car was not functioning either so it made for a less than ideal environment. The students didn’t stay on long but the moisture and heat were already firmly entrenched. We chatted and rode for a while when the other Aussie couple appeared and said the next car was empty and the AC working wonderfully. Off we go! After a rea...

 Trent mentioned in the last post we came here in 1992, what he failed to mention we where doing a cycle trip down the Danube.   When we started this adventure I did not expect to be back on bikes, but I was wrong we rode 4 days well we where Lake Balaton  Day 1 on road bikes from the hotel took us down to the lake to a “strand” (a park and beach that you pay an entrance fee).  It was fairly busy on Saturday and we took our first dip in the lake.  Warmer than our pool but the water was silty, but many were in swimming.    We took Sunday off but the town was having a festival so able to catch some Hungarian dancing.   Monday we found some e-bikes to rent and headed for the wineries 25 km away.  Tasted some great wine including a Hungarian grape irsai Oliver, a nice dry white. Also found some full body reds, very mineral forward as the soil is volcanic ash.    What we didn’t plan was for Trent bike to break down on the way to lunch, t...