Novalja to Zadar

Today we decided to call this year’s tour The Amazing Race Croatia. First there was the Bora wind to get through on the way to Pag and today we had to resort to crossing rocky barren fields while pushing the fully loaded bike, looking for another trail as a section of the one we were following had been washed away. There wasn’t a direct road to follow from Novalja to get off the island, only a very long round about way so instead George found a gravel path short cut that took us directly to Pag town and off the island. He carefully checked said gravel path on google earth and other cycling sites to make sure it was decent prior to going there. But beware of shortcuts, always believe the actual terrain and forget about the map. We did eventually find another almost rideable path that got us back on track luckily, otherwise we would have had to climb back up to the main road…

We stopped in lovely Pag town along the beach front for a refreshment and rest. We eventually crossed the Paski Most (bridge) that takes us off Pag and back to the mainland. My sister Margo, brother in law Dean and cousin Zane also crossed this bridge back during their May visit. The rest of the ride to Zadar today was less eventful thankfully although still hard work with lots of hills to climb (one daunting 9% grade) and moderate traffic on the usual shoulder-less roads here. We think that the difference here is that there just isn’t the same infrastructure as in western Europe where there are many road options, often 3+ choices from the A route down to small roads. Here there’s only one, maybe two route options so the roads are crowded. The drivers are not great either, much less patient than we’ve found in previous locations, and they drive too fast and don’t give us space. Overall we wouldn’t likely return here for cycling, Croatia just isn’t bike friendly. However it is very scenic and we enjoy it when we are off the highway.

We arrived in Zadar feeling bagged so stopped at a lovely cafe just before entering the old centre for a cold refreshment and reboot. We then came across the pedestrian bridge into the centre and found our new apartment within the old walls and it’s perfect! We cleaned ourselves up and headed out to refill the lost calories at a restaurant called Pet Bunara (Five Wells) where my sister, brother in law and cousin had a meal back in May. It was delicious!

The next day was our Zadar tourist day. Zadar is similar to other cities we’ve visited recently in that it is a very compact old centre so never too far to go. We found many lovely Trgs (piazzas), churches, a tower to climb, roman ruins and a nice cafe too. Unfortunately it started to rain quite heavily about midday so we headed inside for the afternoon siesta time, a favourite time of day for George. We have been quite lucky weather wise, no riding in the rain yet other than very short lived light rain. After the rain stopped we completed our walking tour and saw/heard the Sea Organ, a very cool waterside installation with air pipes under the walkway that produce notes initiated by the wave action. There are seven sections with 5 pipes each section. The seven sections are supposed to be the notes of a diatonic scale. The sound it produces is very calming and mesmerizing and quite the tourist draw. Right beside this is a large solar panelled circle also embedded in the walkway that lights up at night after spending the day absorbing solar energy. Both of these installations were the creation of a man named Nikola Basic and he won an award for urban public space design in Europe. Two very inspiring and interesting creations. We quite enjoyed our day here in Zadar, lots to see and do.

Tags: 2023, Adriatic North