Slovenia and Croatia awesomeness

Despite the rainy forecast, we left Trieste with overcast but dry skies.  The bicycle paths of Slovenia are amazing - almost every road has a separate bike path (not just bike lane), including inter-city roads.   We followed the main route, the D8.  At one point I mentioned to Alicia that Slovenia may have the best bike infrastructure I've ever seen.  She said, ummm, what about the Netherlands?  Well, it's hard to beat the Dutch, but it's good enough that it made me forget about them.

We camped in Slovenia, just short of the Croatian border.  We had stopped to buy a small camp stove so we finally made a hot meal - pasta and veggies for dinner, eggs for breakfast.  Yum!

In Croatia the bike path continued but unfortunately without pavement.   We followed it anyway for a few slow, bone ratting miles, then left it for paved roads.  The area did have a nice map of bike friendly routes, so we followed those - they went through a bunch of villages inland from the coast, and it was lovely.  We camped in Porec, which was nothing exciting.  No offense, Porec!

Today we continued down the coast to Pula, at the southern tip of Istria.  It was sunny and hot and we had a beautiful day.  We went up and around a fjord, which was a lot of climbing.  We dropped back to the coast at Rovinj which houses the sarcophagus of a saint martyred in 300.  Yes, 1700 years ago.  Wow!  If I had WiFi I'd post a picture of where I went swimming - there is only craggy rocks around the edge of the old town, but that is where everyone swims.  I swam out a way and could see a lot of town and the big church.  The water is this crazy blue and super clear. 

We left town towards Pula but discovered a small road along the coast that was really special.  Almost no traffic, and little dirt paths every so often heading out to the shore.  I went swimming a second time.

Tonight we are put up by a Warm Showers host.  Actually, his friend who lives out of town, and we are camping on his yard.

So overall things have made a turn for the better.  The weather had been nice and I hope it continues.  While Slovenia and their D8 takes the cake, Croatia has been lovely, especially when we get off the main road.  Tomorrow we should reach the island of Cres (pronounced 'Tres'. The have a 'T'  here, don't ask me why they don't use it), which begins our island-hopping portion of the trip!