Where? Croatia.

Our first road trip begins with a rental car: Gullliver's first FIAT.

And then we are off to Croatia! Now, many of our friends and family back home said, "Where are you going? Croatia?" And I'm certain they were thinking, 'now where is that again?' and 'is that safe?' Well, I admit when our friend Alessio told us he had been vacationing there for years with his family, I had the same reaction. But loads of Italians go to Croatia on holiday, in fact, the part where we were, Istria, was part of Italy not too long ago.





We stayed in the charming town of Rovinj, a small penisula jutting out into the Adriatic Sea.
And even though the Americans aren't vacationing there, just about everyone else is!




Lots of tourists: Croatians, Italians, English, German mostly. And everyone speaks all these languages so it is quite easy to get by here.


Natural beauty: the Limski Fjord


Our hotel was adjacent to this national park where we spent our first day exploring the seaside coast.








The hotel was a mix between plush, retro, modern and eastern block. But the Hotel Eden had lovely wooded surroundings and two beautiful swimming pools. Plus, the sheets were really nice.




The kiddie pool.


The grown-up pool was gigantic and they even had a water aerobics class. Just as queer as in the states I'm afraid.


The hotel had a green roof and a nicely designed fire escape for the penthouse residents.


The town itself is also known as "Little Venice", and in fact, its winding stone streets are reminiscent of that city.


Other shades of Italy.




Gulliver and Eisen enjoyed running up and down this hill on the slippery marble stones at dusk.



One at rest, the other a racing blur.



The discriminating shopper.


Croatian gelato is also very good.


And we even found this special shop which made us feel not so very far from home for just a moment.