Plitvicka Lakes & Zadar

After spending some time on the Istrian Peninsula we headed inland to the Plitvicka National Park and Plitvicka Lakes which are said to be the most visited attraction in Croatia, which judging by the number of people around we can believe.

Plitvicka Lakes

Waterfalls at Plitvicka Lakes

And another ….

There are a total of 16 lakes which flow into each other by a series of waterfalls. It’s weird wandering around as it feels like a giant manmade ornamental water garden although is in fact 100% natural.

Somewhat bizarrely Plitvicka is where the Balkans “Homeland War” started in 1991 when rebel Serbs attacked and took over the National Park Office.

There is still a lot of evidence of the conflict with bombed / shot out houses plus a large number of buildings with patched up bullet holes.

As usual our sat nav has taken us down some unusual / interesting routes even when we have selected the ‘avoid the landmine’ option!

Evidence of Balkans conflict

Tom Tom really is dumb dumb!

After our stay at Plitvicka we continued South and headed for Zadar on the coast. We had a quick spin on the bikes to get our bearings and then headed into town in the evening. Sharon’s research into cocktail bars and restaurants paid off with a couple of excellent Mojito Royals (Prosecco rather than mineral water!) and a good little back street restaurant.

One of the reasons we came to Zadar was to look at a couple of art installations on the sea front – the Sea Organ which produces sounds as waves push air through a series of pipes on the promenade, and the Sun Salutation which stores energy from the sun during the day to produce a light show at night.