Croatia
Arrival in Venice - Italy
Now that I have finished the first part of my trip with the Via Alta 1 trek in the Dolomites.
It’s time to continue on to Croatia.
I arrived in Venice around 3 pm, took a shower, rested and then went for a walk in Venice.
We celebrated the success of the trail with a good wine and each one went their own way.
Already with plans for the next trail.
Paola, André and Penha only arrived at 3 am due to flight delays.
We didn’t sleep much as we had to go to Trieste.
Trieste - Italy
We have breakfast and at 10 am we leave for Trieste.
The day was very beautiful, the road was quiet and after an hour we left the main road to take a road by the sea.
Trieste is the last city in Italy heading towards Croatia.
It is a medium-sized city, with a lot of history and alternating importance and oblivion depending on the season.
In the Middle Ages it competed with Venice for control of the Adriatic Sea, being for a long time a point of conflict between the Venetians and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
It was the fourth largest city in the Empire, after Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.
Today it is a city with wide avenues, parks, and a very long waterfront, with buildings from the Roman era.
The view of the Adriatic Sea is spectacular.
When we stopped to enjoy the view, we were surprised that the road was closed, as there was a bicycle race.
We tried to go to Castelo Miramar, but it was too crowded and so we stopped at Parque Pinheiro de Barcola to enjoy the view of the sea.
We walked around the place, had lunch and after 4 pm we went to the apartment.
Later we went for a walk around the city center.
Way to Pula - Croatia
We went to visit Miramare Castle, more details here
Built by the Austrian Archduke Maximilien de Habsbourg, he built the castle as his home between 1860 and 1864 with his wife Charlotte of Belgium.
The Castle is surrounded by a park with carefully designed gardens on the shores of the Adriatic Sea.
They lived for only 4 years and Maximilien went to Mexico where he was crowned Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, but in 1867 he was captured and shot by the republicans.
Today the journey through Croatia really begins, but you still need to get there via Slovenia. Distance 120 km
We took the road and didn’t notice the border crossing with Slovenia, we could only see that the signs had strange names and the road was a little worse than in Italy, but nothing important.
Less than 1 hour and we pass Dragonja border control to enter Croatia.
As we didn’t need a visa and we came from Europe, everything was very simple and fast.
Our goal is to reach Pula, the main city of the Istrian peninsula.
Travel time 2 hours = 120 km
Almost arriving in Pula, we stopped at Hidrobaza beach, in the city of Fazana, our first beach in Croatia.
We began to see that Croatian beaches are made of stones and crystal clear water.
The sea is dark blue, the water a little cold.
We arrived at the apartment and went to pack our bags and rest.
