Opatija to Seng to Plitivice Park

After two nights in Opatija we were off on a journey



to Pritvice National Park.  I thought it might be helpful to provide the map again to see our journey


We left lovely Opatija

and caught  a last glimpse out of the bus

We drove through Rijeka, the third largest city of Croatia.  This deep water port was contested through time with Hungary, Croatia and Italy all wanted to control it.  But we didn't linger here.

I liked this misty view along the coast.

Our morning stop was the pretty town of Senj, where pirates once lived.  Well they were  Serbians and Croatians forced out of their inland homes by Ottomans so I guess they felt forced into a life of crime in the 16th century. 

As we left the coast and climbed into the mountains i liked this misty view

and not far from our destination we had a lunch stop at a very pretty place

Sue and I split a sandwich and somehow ended up with hot milk instead of cafe late, a bit lost in translation.  Oh well!

We spent time looking for evidence of the Croatian Serbian war as this was an area on the border of what much later became Bosnia Herzegovina, in an even worse war with Serbia.  It is still a rather poor area, but lovely scenery.

Our bus dropped us off in the Plitvice Park and carried our bags to the nearby hotel.  Rick Steeves' guide described the park as Niagara Falls spread over a heavily forested  Grand Canyon.

 I found these maps helpful.  

It was really beautiful especially on this lovely fall day, but we had to share the beauty with quite a few tourists so I can't imagine what it would be like in summer!  Apparently the government has been warned by UNESCO that it has to limit the tourists here.  

We explored the Lower Lakes 

and it was quite spectacular.

I took many pictures

but chose only a few of my favourites

Here's a short video I took!

We took a lovely ride across this lake and climbed up the hill right to our hotel!  

Below is a sunset shot from our own little deck.  We had a nice dinner out with the group but I must have been worn out taking pictures 

but it was an interesting day and we were in a very different environment than on the Adriatic at Opatija.