The drive veers between being up high and also driving along the coast at sea level which is nice. The best things are the little villages perched along the waterfront and the tiny bays where people swim and sunbathe. The land however is so barren that apart from tourism in the summer, there is nothing there, no agriculture. Most villas are holiday villas for the summer months. The wind is very strong and that too contributes to the lack of anything growing in the soil.
The towns are different. They have permanent residents. The above shot was taken at Novi Vinodolski just south of Rijeka where we spent a delightful couple of hours bathing. What you see is on the waterfront in the town with swimmers in front of the moored boats.
I am not sure about villages like these, how many of the residents are permanent.
This sort of seaside villa is almost certainly only a summer residence. All along the coast from Senj to Karlobag are signs with "Rooms" or "Apartma" offering to lease on a daily or longer basis. The cars outside have all sorts of international stickers as well as Croatian HR ones. If we had more time to spare, spending a few days at any one of these would be a delightful prospect. The rates are lower if one stays more than one night. Many people from other parts of Europe own or build quite sumptuous villas along this coast. I would not like to come here every summer for my holidays but they obviously feel differently.
The Croatian coast abounds with islands both large and small.
The only big town we visited on this trip was Zadar, an old city between Rijeka and Split. We intended to drive as far as Split but we decided that the Plitvicka Lakes were a sight not to be missed and going as far as Split would have meant backtracking, so in Zadar we turned northward.
One of the old town gates at Zadar.
The Church of St Donat also in Zadar.
A religious fresco on a wall of a house.
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