Rovinj
15th September
Today is the halfway mark of our trip around Europe. Well it’s a few countries in western Europe to be honest. We decided to leave Belarus, Moldova and North Macedonia for another year, if ever. Leaving another flat means repacking all our worldly (on tour) goods into a small wheelie case. So here’s some tips:
- Use IKEA packaging cubes and squash them well on the floor
- Lay socks flat so they don’t make lumps
- Lift your case onto a table to save your back and knees
- Book accomodation with a washing machine
- Just throw away that old tee shirt you have been keeping for sentimental purposes, new tee shirts can be bought anywhere, even in Croatia
I’m typing these fine words in Trieste coach station because our Flixbus to Rovinj is already 47 minutes late. There’s no point in getting narky, one has to take the Buddhist approach. The Almighty has cast a pebble into the river of time, and the ripples have slowed down a coach on the A3 road to Trieste. It is, what it is, a right old pain in the arse.
The green Flixbus coach passes through the Dinaric Alps south, through the Istrian peninsula. The first 20 miles or so is through the small part of Slovenia that faces the Adriatic. Then the road goes on into Croatia passing through verdant woodland and fields of grapevines and olives.
Rovinj is an exceedingly pretty town that has been passed from one empire to another for millennia and is now part of Croatia, a county that has been independent only since 1991.
Our new accomodation is up a steep hill paved in variously sized limestone blocks. After dumping out bags we walked about 50 yards before finding a pizza restaurant at the bottom of the street. There is a wide choice of places to eat in the town, dozens and dozens, mostly lining the water front.
The town is on a promontory so it’s almost surrounded by the sea, and very easy to walk around, or push your dog. Dogs in prams are a theme here for some reason. Old dogs used to stay at home where they could sit on their favourite cushion, chew a bone and fart contentedly. These days they are taken out on a pram like a hairy slobbering baby. They must miss sniffing other dogs bums and peeing on lampposts.
Another theme I noticed are bikes, hundreds of them and probably two thirds are electric. I noticed that in Europe as a whole, electric bikes are much more popular than at home. In years to come European legs will wither due to lack of resistant exercise, whereas stout British legs will enable us to win the Tour de Whatever repeatedly.
The town was very lively in the evening, there was some sort of local festival. In the piazza a stage was set up and a pop group were playing Croatian songs, plus a passable Uptown Funk, which I jigged along to. On a the habour wall there was a row of stalls selling food and drink. The biggest queue was for a stall selling fresh tuna with bread. A piscine butcher was carving up and enormous black tuna, and cutting it into slices which he passed to another man who slapped them on a barbecue.
We reached the sea wall just as the sun was setting, it was absolutely fabulous darling. Rovinj has a lot going for it, no wonder it is so popular.
16th September
Rovinj is really lovely town, the stone-paved streets are thronging with tourists perusing the fridge magnets, bottles of olive oil and souvenirs. There are many many places selling delicious looking pastries and gelato. Resisting temptation is tough, but I don’t want to be a Fatter Bastard than I already am.
The town was a Venetian stronghold for 500 years, and the town is still officially bilingual, Croatian and Italian. Practically it is trilingual, since i havent come across anyone who doesn’t speak English.
From the harbour there are views of the old town surmounted by the church of Saint Euphemia, which is reached by winding steep roads. Pedestrians and cars share the same narrow roads built for people and donkeys. You have to regularly pin yourself against the wall so another wealthy tourist can have their multiple suitcases transported up the hill. Tourists not travellers you see? I like to dress in a sack and crawl up the hill while whipping myself with a bundle of spaghetti.
Rovinj (or Rovingna in Italian) was originally an island surrounded by walls. The separating channel was filled in during the 18th century to make it a the town into a promentory. The church of St Euphemia is dedicated to an early Christan virgin martyr, virgins are obviously the best type because they haven’t done any of that filthy business.
Allegedly her marble sarcophagus floated to Rovinj from Constantinople. It was dragged up the beach by a boy and two calves. I’m a little sceptical, but seeing as it’s the Saints Day today I’m willing to suspend disbelief. There was a huge celebration taking place in the church with a full choir and an array of scarlet clad priests including a bishop.
After lunch at the flat and a brief snooze, we walked to Lone Beach. It’s a shingle beach, like most in Croatia which are painful to walk on. But I’ve been to Croatian beaches several times before and came prepared with water shoes so I can walk in and out of the sea confidently like James Bond. I could feel the admiring glances of German pensioners (ladies of course) comparing me to Daniel Craig.
The water is warm, but there aren’t many fish, they probably all go into Frito Misto in local restaurants. After some sunbathing I was in need of a beer from the cafe, so I bought one as big as my chest.
In the piazza in the town there were more saints day celebrations going on. There was a race of traditional batanas, flat bottomed fishing boats. The rowers stand up and row forwards. Being a rower of enormous experience, I could see the rowers weren’t experts. Right at the start there was a clash of oars and one of them was broken, so the guy continued with one oar. They all rowed around a bouy and back again. The guy with one oar came second, which shows the quality of the competition.
We picked one of the many restaurants and had a fishy dinner. While we were eating a rock band started playing tunes I recognised and I got as excited as a kitten with a ball of wool. Replete with fish, we went over to the stage to see an excellent Croation covers band. They kept changing the drummer, honestly there must have been six or seven. There were also three or four guest guitarists, Saint Euphemia would have loved it. One of the singers was Angelica Zacchiggna, who was fantastic, an exceptional rock singer who covered “What’s Going On”. I was right in my element, they also covered “Money for Nothing”, “China Girl”, “Wish You Were Here” and bizarrely “You’re the One That I Want”.
17 September
Thunderstorms were promised , and arrived at about 8am. We had considered visiting Pula today, but not in the rain. So we walked to the Tommy supermarket for eggs and bread, and then looked for a good coffee
We found one just as the next torrent began, and sheltered with other tourists in kagouls. Our table had four seats that we shared with two sets of couples in progression who drank cappuccinos and didn’t converse. Naturally we had Americanos because we actually like the taste of coffee. The waiter was a particularly surly fellow, and smiling was not part of his vocabulary. Perhaps he wanted to work in musical theatre, but had suffered constant rejection at auditions.
The coffees were soon completed and were followed by a decision as to whether to have a cake or a “proper drink”. The booze won the fight and I had a Paulaner Weiss bier and Julie had a Limocello Spritz. Time passed in a very pleasant way.
Back at the flat we had good old egg on toast for lunch, followed by a lovely kip. Once the streets dried out we explored the streets of the old town, which are narrow and wind up to the church at the top.
In the evening we watched “The Gentlemen” on Netflix on my Chromebook. It’s very Guy Ritchie, with Ray Winstone going full-on Barking Mad Cockney Gangster. It is very sweary, violent and funny and won’t win any BAFTAs.
18th September
The weather forecast today has improved from shit to only slightly shit, so we took the bus to Pula at the southernmost tip of the Istrian Peninsula. Pula has been Roman, Byzantine, Ostrogoth, Frankish etc, etc etc and it now Croatian. The history here is complex and often very nasty, with completing empires and ethnicities. Like Rovinj it is bilingual Croatian and Italian.
The principal attractions are it’s Roman remains, which are very impressive. The Arena is complete and in very good condition, considering it’s over 2,000 years old.
There is also a Temple of Augustus, the first Emperor. It got bombed during the war, but was rebuilt and looks amazing. It looks very similar to the Maison Carre in Nimes that we visited in 2022. I’m surprised The Donald hasn’t built himself a temple. He has got the basement of a gigantic ballroom, which feels a bit camp to me. I never had POTUS down as a Strictly fan.
The square by the Temple is called, quite appropriately The Forum, and we arrived just as it started raining. We dashed for shelter in a restaurant where I had Beef Goulash and Gnocchi, which made a change from Italian nosh.
On the hill above the town sits the Venetian Fortress, built in the 16th century in a star shape like those built by Vauban in France. It had great views from it’s walls over the harbour and its huge shipyard. It was the home of the Austro Hungarian Navy in WW1, and the guns of the fortress protected it. The British Navy blockaded the Adriatic so that the Austrians couldn’t get out and they didn’t play any part in the war.
The small museum was about the life of Austro Hungarian soldiers who were stationed there in the 19th century. Their living conditions in the fort were very primitive, as you can see from their latrines.
Beneath the castle are long tunnels built for defensive purposes in WW1 which lead off in four directions from beneath the castle and emerge on the streets beneath. They also served as air raid shelters in WW2. The tunnel we took emerges close to the Roman Gemini gates through the old walls of the city.
Pula has some great historic sites, but the city is not as pretty as Rovinj. To be fair we only saw part of it, so it may have some scenic areas that we missed.
19th September
The sun is out again, woo hoo! After two days of rainy days we can soak up some solar rays again. To the south of Rovinj is a wooded promontory with a forest park covering it. We walked along the coast from the harbour, passing the marina and several swanky hotels. The first “beach” we reached was Mulini, which was a very nice concrete platform giving easy access to the sea. Julie settled herself in the shade while I went for a swim. Once again not many fish to see.
The narrow shingle beach close by was completely covered in recliners and umbrellas, a set costs 100 euros a day. That’s a night’s accommodation for us.
The promenade became a gravel path through the pine trees within the Zlatni Rt Forest Park. We shared the path with cyclists, and everyone over 40 had an electric bike, probably 80% of passing bikes. I love cycling and done so for a good 65 years. I will consider going electric once my leggies can’t do it any more, but I hope that’s a long way off.
Towards the tip of the forest park is the Montauro Quarry. It produced limestone to build palazzos in Venice, it was good stone very close to the sea for shipping across the Adriatic. Today it is a popular site for rock climbing , and has over 150 bolted routes, like Stanage Edge but next to a beautiful sea rather than the dreary Peak District.
The day was mostly spent ambling through the pine forest and gazing out to sea. We did stop for a coffee and Julie ordered a Coffee with Cream. It turned out to be a single shot of espresso with a large portion of squirty cream on top, much more cream than coffee. It was gone in a mouthful.
At another cafe we stopped for a beer. An American overheard us talking about sherry (in the context of a trip to Jerez) so we explained what it is. He had never seen or tasted sherry before. Turns out his normal drink is Vodka, which was a surprise because judging by the size of him, he looked like a five pints of brown ale a night kinda guy.
I thought that Rovinj was a particularly attractive town, which is also a very popular resort. I would recommend it to anyone for up to a week, you can easily fly into Pula and get a bus here or hire a car to see more of the neighbourhood.
