Weddingbee Blog

We kicked off our Croatian honeymoon adventure in Zagreb, headed to Riejka and from there spent time in Pula, Porec, Rovijn, Opatija and Krk. Read all about Part 1 here!

We left Riejka and headed inland, to spend the day at the Plitvice Lakes National Park. We drove first to our accommodations for the evening, while in the Plitvice Region. We were excited to see that we would be staying in a cabin adjacent to a bed and breakfast.

Our cabin is on the left - so cute!

The inside of our cabin - Mr. HC and I were both big sleepaway campers, so this was fun to reminisce for a night!

After we dropped off our bags, we headed to the Plitvice Lakes National Parks. I did not know what to expect. I’m not exactly, how do you say… into nature?, but this came as a highly recommended excursion by a close friend of mine, and we didn’t want to miss it.

I’m not sure I can convey in just words and pictures how absolutely magnificent the Park was. It is a series of 16 interconnected lakes and waterfalls, and it is just stunning with every turn. If you are going to Croatia, please, do not miss this!

We followed route C, which takes about 4 hours - we started off walking on a path, took a boat across a lake to the second half, walked the more “rugged” hiking part of the trail, and then took a bus back to the parking lot. It took about four hours and it was wonderful!

And we’re off! (I’m not going to do too much narration through the Park pictures, just enjoy the natural beauty!)

We arrived to see a huge waterfall. Much much bigger than Niagara Falls!

We found a bear cave, so we had to take some pictures.

I tried to capture how clear blue the lake water was in this picture. The natural colors were simply gorgeous.

Map of route C - we did it! (So it’s not the most flattering picture of me…it was HOT, we had been walking for 4 hours, this is the best I could muster!)

One last photo op at the edge of the park, before we headed back to our cabin for the night.

After we left the parks, we were hot, exhausted and hungry. We showered, headed out to dinner, and turned in early to prepare for our long drive the next morning.

We woke up in Plitvice, ate breakfast, and drove two hours south west, back to the coast, to the small city of Zadar in Northern Dalmatia. Oh yes, and it was my 25th birthday!

We checked into our hotel and it was a fabulous hotel! It was really much more of a resort on the beach. We were surprised with a tote filled with beach towels and flip flops that we would be happy to use in our first visit to a Croatian beach.

Our hotel room with the tote!

Another balcony - love it!

We headed into the Old City of Zadar, a city built on Roman ruins on a peninsula surrounded by the glistening Adriatic Sea.

Though you can’t see it in this picture, Zadar is home to the world’s only Sea Organ - a system of under water pipes and whistles that makes deep musical sounds when the movement of the sea pushes air through it. It is a beautiful sound!

Right next to the Sea Organ is the Sun Salutation - a series of solar panels in a formation like the planets that collects energy that is used to power much of the city.

We walked around and saw some of the gorgeous architecture. This round church is an iconic landmark in Zadar - built right on top of Roman ruins, with some exposed, it is a beautiful and very historic building.

We spent most of the day exploring the old city of Zadar until we were finally so hot, we decided to go back to the hotel and spend the rest of the afternoon on the beach. We were about to learn that “beach” isn’t as ubiquitously homogenous a term as we once thought.

Here we are, laying out on the beach at our hotel. You will notice that it is not sand, but rather grass that we laying on! The Adriatic Sea is salt water, the beaches are rocks and pebbles, up to the coast line of stone, and then grassy areas. The water here was just so beautiful, and it was nice to swim and not have a bathing suit full of sand!

As I mentioned earlier, I don’t love nature, and after a little while of sitting in the grass, we moved to the beach chairs by our hotel pool to read. We ordered some champagne before we changed for dinner to toast to our first week of marriage and my birthday!

Our dinner was actually included with the room, and we enjoyed a beautiful dinner on the hotel patio, as we celebrated and relaxed in Zadar.

There is no rest for these travelers! Stay tuned as we wake up early and head south down the Dalmatian Coast!