Leaving Split today and heading for Zagreb. Sorry to leave Split, and in particular our hotel for the past few days, Palaca Judita (no Julie, you can't take Andrej home with you). If any of you are thinking about coming to Split in the near future, do yourselves a favor and come. And make sure you stay at the Palace Judita, you won't be sorry - it would have to be the most perfect hotel we have ever stayed in. Anyway, Zagreb - our final stop in Croatia before h...

Split. Nothing like you would expect. Yet, it is all that you would imagine it to be. Confusing? Yes. The people are really friendly and helpful. It is old - the old city dates back to at least the 4th century. The influences of different cultures can be seen everywhere - Italian, Venetian, Greek, Turkish. It's difficult to grasp just what it is to be Croatian. There doesn't appear to be a distinctly Croatian cuisine - pizza places are everywhere, restaurant menu...

A short drive today as we head further down the coast to Split. We're looking forward to seeing Split as we have heard so much about it (and we have been trying to get there for the past three years). Arrived just after lunch. On the way in we received a phone call from Andrij, the hotel manager, to inform us that our room was ready for an early book-in, and that he would meet us at our designated parking space in the city. Our hotel is in the UNESCO heritage l...

Today we say goodbye to Pula and head down to Zadar. It's a beautiful sunny day (again) for the four hour drive. As we head east across the peninsula, we have snow capped mountains to the north, and rugged escarpments to the south. The landscape is quite dramatic. Not quite the non-descript scenes we encountered on the drive into Istria. There are broad flat valleys surrounded by rocky ridge lines. The road sweeps over rivers on bridges some 300m high. Long sweep...

Woke up this morning (always a good start to the day) to an absolutely gloriously sunny day. We really have been blessed with great weather so far on this trip - even the snow in Asti was a bonus. So, after a leisurely breakfast, we consulted our various travel websites (Lonely Planet, Google, Trip Advisor etc) to determine which sights were worth investigating. It turns out there are a number of attractions here in Pula - all associated with the Roman Empire. Is...