April 19th we took a flight from Düsseldorf (Weeze) to Trieste, Italy for a week in a lovely villa in Croatia. Picked up the car at the airport, a Lancia no less, don’t get those in the UK, and started what we thought was an hour drive to Motovun, the village we’re staying at. However, without satnav, no decent map, it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses (that bit’s not true) it took us over 2 hours to get to the villa. 
Following morning, nice and sunny, not too hot though, around 21 degrees, we spent the day in and around Motovun. Jamie tried the pool, lasted around 10 seconds before getting out; way too cold he says. He may have been right, I put my feet in for a while, felt them again about 2 hours later. So we took a walk up the hill toward the main village,
quite a climb in the sun, but we stopped on the way for many photo opportunities. Tom and Jamie resting:
We passed a lovely little house, with a cat sat outside, flowers, table, and in the setting sun just looked perfect. So, another photo opportunity.
Found our way to the top, eventually, through the many narrow, cobbled streets, and at the top we found a bar, great. Fabulous views all around from up there, so decided that was the best place for a beer or two and something to eat. Well, it was dinner time.
and after a few beers, which Jane enjoyed tremendously
we took a walk around the wall at the top before heading back home.
Next day, another sunny one, we headed down to a village by the sea (Adriatic) to a place called Rovinj. Which build by the Venicians was just like Venice, but a fraction of the cost.
We wandered the narrow streets,
up to the church at the top, did some shopping, ate and drank more beer (very cheap here) before heading home for an evening BBQ and yet more beer from a very nice 2 litre bottle at the expensive cost of about £2.
We found a nice little town only 15 minutes away, called Grosnjan, right on top of a hill, that was apparently abandoned until the mid 1960′s when some artists moved in and renovated the town. Now it’s full of small art galleries, craft shops and a lovely cafe.
Jane and Liz bought some hand made jewellery and I of course went to potter about and take some photos, and of course, drink coffee. (Did I mention I love coffee?)
We also visited Pula, on the south coast of Istria, again by the sea but we found it a little disappointing after some of the other places we’d been to. There wasn’t much to see there except for the colosseum, built in 27 BC – 68 AD
It’s a very old town of course, over 2000 years old, having been controlled by the Romans, Venician, France, Hungary, Austria and Italy.
Finally we went to Porec, almost 2000 years old and set by the sea and protected from the sea by the small island of Saint Nicholas/San Nicolo. Some nice shops to look at, old buildings as is the norm here, and plenty of beaches.
We did some shopping, kids bought some T-Shirts, Tom with the ‘I’m with Stupid’ writing on, Jame bought one saying ‘You look better on Facebook’. Not sure how those will go down at school. Weather was nice though so we did at least dip our feet in the water, way to cold for swimming though.
Then, time to leave Croatia, back to Trieste and the flight back to Germany. Nice holiday though. Recommended.
You can see all our Croatia photos here: