On Wednesday Mike and I left the central Croatian coast behind in a rented white and blue VW and headed north up the A1 highway into the Balkan mountain range.  Plitvika Jezera – Plitvice Lakes – is Croatia’s largest national park, about a 2 hour drive from the seaside with absolutely stunning views along the way.  We continue to note the terrific condition of the Croatian road system, and the clearly significant investment Croatia is making in its infrastructure.  The road signage is clear, and the GPS is dependable here.  These imposing granite mountains must have been quite the obstacle without the series of relatively new (last 20 years) tunnels, and the Sveti Rok tunnel at 3.5 miles is the longest either one of us had travelled through.

Road leaving Trogir into the mountains

Much as I loved the brilliant beauty of the coast, the farther I got into the mountains the more I felt that we were approaching the “real” Croatia I had heard of throughout my life.  I suspect these central mountains resemble those of Switzerland or Austria, being dotted with more rustic homes with picturesque farms, and roads running off to the east or west to little towns.  It is in this area where the town of Mrkopalj exists as highlighted in the excellent book “Running Away to Home.”

We arrived at the Plitvice Lakes parking lot 2, were waved towards the automated parking ticket dispenser, and found a parking spot under the trees.  Written reviews of the Plitvice Lakes note its beauty but lack of “crowd control” which, at this time of year (off-season), seemed more to do with the cryptic signage.  Were the parking lot full of tour buses, I can imagine it would be very confusing.  We spotted the “Turist Buri” and went in to purchase a ticket. There were 5 employees around the desk, but all guests were queued up at the one dispensing tickets.  The other 4 wouldn’t make eye contact and seemed slotted for certain unneeded services such as money exchange.  One finally did explain to us the signage system – the trails are marked with a system of letters depending on how long a walk you want to take.  We selected “E” for the 2-3 hour trek, which meant we picked up a shuttle at Stop 2, were shuttled up to the top at Stop 3, and walked 2 hours somewhat downward until we caught a boat across the lake back to Stop 2.

The park, a series of extraordinary lakes and waterfalls, is unique in its system of elevated wooden walkways throughout.  We commented that in America someone would have sued for more safety controls, and there certainly is no handicap access, but for the able-bodied and eagle-eyed tourist, the walk is a fantastic adventure. We kept crossing paths with two sweet Israeli girls with whom we exchanged group-photo requests and so were able to get some Christmas-card-worthy photos of the two of us.  The wooden-walkway trek was great for exercising the quads, and we were very glad we did not choose the “C” 5-6 hour route.

After the lakes, we drove about 10 minutes more to our destination for the night, the very lovely Hotel Degenija, the nicest hotel of our trip to date and easily of our recent trips.  Our hotel clerk, Mario, resembled our Bobby so much I asked to take a photo, and he and Mike had a lengthy discussion about American basketball and wrestling.  Mario is a fan of the Denver Nuggets, a team he chose for the excellence of their jerseys.  He gave us an idea of the cost of living in Croatia compared to typical salaries, where the low cost of food is offset by the high cost of petrol that eats up 25% of their salaries.  The associated Restaron Degenija was a great value at $59 for the “Mixed grill meat for two” which would have been more appropriately named “Enough meat for a family of six” – the $59 included a full bottle of wine for me, which I corked up and brought back for future consumption.

We highly recommend both the Plitvice Lakes and the Hotel Degenija for any complete tour of Croatia.