Day 22 - Cres to Pazin - Oh The Places You'll Go - 2025

May 2, 2025

Day 22 - Cres to Pazin

A Tail of Two Cities - A Game of Two Half’s - Both Sides Now, Take your pick

Today was our last day of island hopping as we would be leaving Cres and getting back to the mainland on the Istrian peninsula.

As I’ve done on all of our ferry rides so far, I pause my Garmin Forerunner watch so it doesn’t record the ferry as part of the ride. There’s a small detail that has to be attended to when doing this, and that’s to recognize when the watch is vibrating after about 10 minutes, and push a button to continue the pause function. If you miss this the watch goes into ‘auto save’ and that’s it. The recording of the ride is done but at least it’s saved.

That’s what happened this morning and therefore we’ve got two maps to look at, the one before the ferry and the one after. K’s watch (or more correctly, K) worked properly and did the correct pause but we couldn’t figure out how to share her ride with my garmin account and we weren’t going to waste precious time and almost certain agro with Garmin help websites to figure it out. So two maps it is.

This is also a really good metaphor for the day. The two rides looked like they would be the same but they were distinctly different, both in terms of the ride and the nature of the places we were riding through.

We started the day in the Croatian Islands that are so well known to so many tourists, and we finished the day in a large interior town /city that was very familiar to us as the Croatian we saw on our 2017 tour, and totally alien to 99.9% of tourists who come to this country.

Let’s start with the first half.

Part 1 Cres to the ferry - wonderful ride

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We knew we had a big climb to make the ferry this morning . We’d start right about of the gate and climb 440 m in about 16 km’s and then have 11 km scream down to the ferry. Breakfast, a very good breakfast, at our hotel / apartment didn’t start until 8 so we were 95% packed up and ready to go before this (very unusual for us). It was a perfect morning, yet again; cloudless sky, little or no wind and beautiful views out onto the water.

Once we were well fed we finished the remaining packing, loaded up the bike and set off a few minutes before 9. There was a slim chance that we could make the 11 am ferry, but we were resigned to the more likely situation that we’d miss that one and have to wait around for the 1 pm one.

The ride was beautiful and we were both feeling pretty strong. As noted, the weather was perfect as was the road. Excellent pavement, good consistent and moderate grades for climbing and almost no traffic for the majority of the ride. This road really only goes to the ferry so the traffic, tourists on motor bikes, camper vans and cars pulling trailers, came in one bunch each way.

We ended up at the summit of the climb at 10:38 and realized that we had a good shot t making the 11 boat, so we took off downhill. K laid off the brakes (she’s fast uphill, slow downhill!) I kept the camera stowed and we rolled onto the ferry at 10:58 - the last vehicles to be loaded on a completely full ferry - and it raised the loading plank to departed at 11 sharp.

A big win for the team as this was far better than sitting around the terminal for a couple of hours and guaranteeing a late arrival in Pazin.

So it was goodbye to the Croatian islands and Dalmatian coast. It’s been lovely. Beautiful old towns, great beaches and amazingly varied terrain and landscapes, great food and selection of restaurants - and probably the best time of the year to be here. July and August would be hot as hell and the tourists crowds - hum, trying to think of what’s worse than hell???

Part 2 - mainland ride. It was hot! Screwed up and missed the first km of this section

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Now for the second half(ish) of the rides. On surface this looked like it would much the same as the first half but with two 300 - 400 m climbs through similar country side.

It started out this way but the differences soon became apparent. First was the heat. By the time we started the inevitable climb out of the ferry terminal the sun was really gaining intensity. Second was the road grade. Similar to our 2017 experience in the interior, 10%+ grades seem to be the norm and we were hit with a 14% one right out of the gate, in full sun with no shade for respite. That climb done, it was nice riding along through Plomin (and it’s massive coal power plant) before dropping down to almost sea level again at Vozilici. From there it was a 450m climb through intensifying heat to Gracisce before our final downhill into Pazin.

It was when we were going through these towns that we realized that we were back in the Croatian we knew from 2017. First, there were no tourists around. Second, the towns had few if any restaurants/ cafe’s or services. We luckily found a very small and very very tucked away small market store in Vozilici where were able to cobble together some lunch and COLD water.

It was a tough ride with the hills and mainly the heat, and by the time we arrived in Pazin, the regional capital, we were sweat soaked and salt encrusted. Quite a lovely sight, and probably smell. We found our quite nice apartment and got our selves in (codes supplied via WhatsApp - you almost never see a person anymore). It’s in the old part of town in a pretty old slightly run down building (in a charming way) and got cleaned up and ready to set out for dinner.

Once again, this was our Croatia from 2017. There were two restaurants that appeared to be open, and thankfully they were both essentially on either side of our apartment. We chose “Buffet Bunker”which served up burgers and beer - perfect for tonight. The other choice was ‘Peperone” which served up- guess what - pizza and falafels.

Continuing the Deja Vu experience, we were the only folks in the Bunker, save for the waiter / chef and a couple of his friends who were drinking/smoking/chatting away with him. It was a very relaxed and cool place in a comfortabley bohemian slightly ramshackle way - good but sooo different than the beach resort vibe of the islands.

The beer was cold, the burgers good (and not radioactive like K’s from 2017 in Slavonski Brod) but this seemed so much like that ‘other Croatia’ that we were getting a bit nostalgic. This was reinforced as we went for a wander around the town and saw many groups of people sitting outside a numbers of bars and cafe’s smoking & drinking … with not a scrap of food in sight.

In some ways it was comforting to see that the real soul of this country hasn’t changed. We really liked that Croatia in 2017 (once you figured out how to get something to eat) and it looks like it’s still alive and well away from the tourist led costal veneer.

With that, it’s back to the coast tomorrow to Porec for our last night in Croatia. Then it’s part three - Slovenia (with a little bit of Italy again as a prelude)

Off we go for our last day of island riding. It’s been a great stay in Cres.

We started climbing immediately and it didn’t take long to get some decent elevation. Here's looking back on the Krk to Cres ferry we took a couple of days ago.

Perfect roads, perfect gradients and perfect weather. If you have to climb, this is what you want.

A really good shot of the road gradient. Nice job of civil engineering!

Nice rolling terrain as we made our way north to the ferry. It was about now that we realized that we had a shot at the 11 am ferry. Not many more pics as a result

On the boat 10:58. Enough room to squeeze us on!

Climb 2 of three underway. We saw a couple of groups of cyclists heading towards the ferry

Beautiful water colour at the Plomin coal ship dock

The massive Plomin coal fired electrical plant. The stack is the tallest structure in Croatia at over 340 m. It doesn’t look like the plant is currently operational and I couldn’t find a definitive answer on that after some cursory searching.

Lunch at Lori’s market in Vozilici. We met Gregr from Slovenia. He started the morning in Rab (on that 5:45 ferry) and was riding through to Porec today. Nice to share a lunch spot and a good chat with him.

Our little ‘saviour’ store. We rode by it the first time and had to circle back as google insisted that it existed. We also noticed Gregr’s bike parked out front!

More what seemed like endless uphill. Nearing the end of the last climb (450 m). The gradient was good here, about 6% but the sun was intense!

Almost at the summit. At least we have a clear point to shoot for.

That’s it, almost 1400 m of climbing done for the day. Downhill to Pazin from here.

In Pazin, the entrance to the building where our apartment is.

Pretty nice and big apartment, Kitchen, big living room and two bedrooms! Great location too.

At the Bunker … Croatian ‘One finger up’ salute. Another obscure reference for us from our 2017 tour.

Very friendly street kitty … one of about half a dozen hanging around a small park …..

Turns out there’s a lady who runs ‘a cat hostel’ for them around the block. It’s a big world out there full of interesting people! All good.

SOTD

Both Sides Now , Joni Mitchell

This is really a far to beautiful, and serious, song for the way I’m flippantly using it here, but we’ve seen both side of Croatia now, and we probably really don’t know this place at all.

Here’s the ‘original’ 20 year old Joni version. Amazing that somone that young could write something this profound and wise.

And if you get a chance, have a look at Joni’s performance of this at the 2024 Grammy Awards, the first time she ever performed at the Grammy’s. If you don’t have a tear in your eye by the end, you may not be human.

Today's ride: 67 km (42 miles)
Total: 1,072 km (666 miles)

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Scott AndersonI recognize this scenario! We raced to catch the ferry off of Cres too, and did a bit better than you - Rachael raced ahead to ticket us and I came in last but with five minutes to spare.
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3 days ago

Lyle McLeodTo Scott AndersonK bought tickets online the night before. We probably would have missed it otherwise.
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3 days ago

Karen PoretLove this running story of two similarities a few years removed! True CB stuff! Like you all..legends! 👍
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3 days ago