Back to Zagreb

It’s Don’s 51st birthday today! 🎂

We left the apartment in Smoljanac around 10:00a and headed out to look for breakfast on the way out of town. Here was the apartment from the outside...

We stopped at a hotel/restaurant named Old Shatterhand (what a name...should be in a coastal fishing village) for a good local breakfast.

We chose to drive the backroads again, both to avoid the tolls and to get some more rural Croatian flavor. Within 30 minutes we came to the noteworthy town of Rastoke, a village based around water mills, natural formations and waterfalls. Because it was Don’s birthday, he got to go see the working mill and wandered around the property open to the public that had many water features and a natural cave (plus a creepy fairy garden).

Back on the road, we drove through several small towns and stopped in one to try to fix Tammy’s cellular data service at an A1 store - no luck though. This has handicapped our map capabilities for several days, but we worked through it. This stop did let us get a couple pastries for a snack before we got back on the road.

After another hour of driving we stopped in a coffee bar to use the bathroom and WiFi, plus get a couple espressos. We used the time to get checked in to our flight from Zagreb to New York and to coordinate getting Don’s shorts that he left in Slano sent home. Finally we plotted the last bit of the route to the hotel and headed out.

Having booked a hotel for the last night helped in finding it more easily and we checked in around 4:00p. The reception staff helped us with getting some clothes laundered and recommending a nearby restaurant that served štrukli. We were tempted to drive back into Old Town Zagreb to La Štruk again, but wanted to try another version of štrukli and not spend so much time driving.

The hotel and restaurant were in a planned community called Jarun that was centered around a “sports complex” which entailed a lake, running/biking trails, fitness areas, sports fields, restaurants and night clubs - all with limited vehicle access. It was very nice and well planned, and the community was taking full advantage of all the offerings.

We were one of the few at the restaurant, called Lido , so we had a nice quiet dinner of štrukli, salad and wine.

Oddly, the štrukli wasn’t on their menu, possibly because it is intensive to make and only requested on special occasions/holidays by the locals. Although it took 45 minutes to make we liked having it again (but didn’t measure up to La Štruk).

After a relaxing dinner, we drove around the Jarun lake and back to the apartment to take care of the somber take of packing our bags for the final time. Tomorrow we say goodbye to Croatia, as it marks the end of our fantastic summer trip.😢