It rained the entire day we were on the island of Korcula, and the rain continued the next day as we ferried to Dubrovnik. Korcula was another nice island town, but we got impatient with the rain and our inability to explore by bike. The city of Dubrovnik received a lot of the bombing during Croatia’s succession from Yugoslavia, but it was rebuilt completely since peace was struck in 1995. Now it’s one big pile of tourism built on a 1000-year old foundation. We again got impatient off the bikes while we spent two days waiting for our ferry to Bari, Italy and then Ignoumenitsa, Greece, and we got so desperate for something to do out of the rain after exhausting the museums that we sat through The Da Vinci Code. At least it kept us dry.

We flirted briefly with the idea of continuing on to Montenegro (newly independent fom Serbia as of 10 days ago) but the logistics didn’t work out. We later talked to one cyclist who did the overland route through Albania and Montenegro and described the roads as horrible. He showed us one photo of a 19km stretch that took 10 hours with potholes that would swallow a bike.

So we leave Croatia getting only small glimpses of the true country behind the thick tourism facade. Perhaps it was the seaside route we chose, but everything seemed prepared for the tourist rather than the tourist having aaccess to the culture and place they were visiting. But perhaps that’s says more about the toursts who come in droves. But it was indeed beautiful and offered great cycling and a good start to our trip.

  Croatia