driving through Istria to Plitvice National Park

Today we didn't do too much because we had over 5 hours of driving. We took a taxi to the rental car company and got a real clunker of a VW Golf. It has so many dings and scratches and almost 150,000 km on it!  But it did its job!

We headed first to the hill town of Groznan in Istria (the Northen part of Croatia).  We really loved Groznan!  There isn't too much to see there but we spent about an hour wandering around and having a coffee and croissant in probably one of the best viewed cafes ever!






 



 



 

From there we drove about a half hour to our second hill town of the day: Motovun. This area of Croatia is known for one thing: truffles. Truffles are a rare mushroom/fungus thing with a very distinctive flavour. They are very hard to dind since they grow completely under the ground. They train dogs to find them. They are quite expensive and so we had allowed in the budget for a splurge lunch. We ate at a Rick Steves recommended restaurant that had also been visited by Anthony Bourdain (he has a travel/food show). 

We each ordered a truffle pasta. They were about $30 each and apparently that is an exceptional deal for truffle dishes!  Trev got a seafood gnocchi with truffles and I got an Istria pasta with homemade noodles with truffles. 


 


The waiter brought us this olive and truffle tapenade which was delicious!

The waiter shaved the truffles fresh onto the pasta. 

This is what the truffles look like. 

Trev loved his pasta. Mine was essentially just pasta with olive oil and truffles so I didn't find it exceptional. But it was still a nice meal!

 We wandered around Motovun for a bit. The little village is pretty small but did have some nice views!





After that we hade a long drive to Plitvice. It was fairly uneventful. Some nice views along the way and a bunch of tunnels through the mountains, one of which was 5km long!




We are staying at the Hotel Plitvice. This area is pretty remote without a tonne of hotel options. It is most convenient to stay right at the park so we can leave the car parked here while we hike tomorrow. So it is a bit of a funny hotel!  Not what we are used to staying it. But it's good for one night!  Weird to stay in a real hotel though!



 



The hotel restaurant is really one of the only places around so that's where we ate. It was weird to eat inside!  I think this might have been one of the first inside meals we've had this trip. Even when it was raining earlier in the week, we ate outside at tables with umbrellas!
 
 I had French onion soup and mushroom risotto. Trev had trout stuffed with prochiuto (trout is the local specialty since it comes from the local lakes)




Our bread came with this spreadable cheese

Trev:  look, we get a free hat!

It's supposed to be chilly tomorrow morning (4C low overnight with a high of 18C). Should be ok for hiking though!  Then we drive south to Split and back into the nicer weather!
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Comments

  1. Every single day after reading your blog...Dad and I say the same thing...We want to do this exact Trip!,

    ReplyDelete
  2. Every single day after reading your blog...Dad and I say the same thing...We want to do this exact Trip!,

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment