Day 17 - Biograd na Moru to Zadar - Oh The Places You'll Go - 2025

April 27, 2025

Day 17 - Biograd na Moru to Zadar

Ronseal- Does What It Says On The Tin

Today was the first day that we were going to be taking the smaller inter island ferries in Croatia. It’s always a danger looking at online reviews, but what else are you going to do? Having crossed that Rubicon, we had a few seeds of doubt germinating as to whether the boats we needed to catch, and there were two today, would actually materialize.

Well, so far Jadrolinija is doing the “Ronseal” - both ferries arrived and left within the minute of their scheduled time. That gives us a reasonable amount of confidence for the next few days where we’re highly reliant on them.

We had one more ‘Ronseal’ moment later in the day, look for the picture on ‘the tin’.

Once our ferry worries were laid to rest, the rest of the short day was wonderful easy cycling on Pašman and Ugljan islands. Pašman was a short 15 minute ferry from Biograd and it was connected to Ugljan by a short and spectacular bridge. Ugljan to Zadar was another short 25 minute ferry.

The riding on the islands was mostly very very quiet roads along the coast with intermittent riding along ‘the highway’ that was more inland. Even with the highway sections, our fingers and toes would suffice to count the vehicles we encountered. Not only didn’t we see many vehicles, we didn’t see many cyclists either. That may have been due to the very uncharacteristically early start we had today.

When we were boarding the ferry to Zadar at Preko (on Ugljan) there were at least 8 cycle tourers getting off, so it still looks like this is a pretty popular touring region, and from our day, we can see why.

With another nod to that Beaufort guy, there was another Fresh Breeze, but it was blowing from the NE and then trended SE. We were mainly travelling NW so it was either a side or slight tailwind, all good.

We were checked into our central apartment in Zadar shortly after 1 pm, got ourselves cleaned up and had a nice lunch and wander around town. There was a large celebration going on, which we found out is a traditional event one week after Easter (I’m once again demonstrating my utter ignorance of Catholicism).

It became very evident that Zadar was pretty devastated during WWII and a lot of the reconstruction had that (now classic) ‘50’s cement block’ architecture intermixed with the much older building stock. In some ways this gave a more ‘real life vibe’ to the place than the more preserved / restored Split and Šibenik. Notwithstanding that, it was still pretty crowded with tourists (like us). Even with the crowds we did manage to spend about 20 minutes just chilling on the steps of the ‘Sea Organ’. If you need to relax and just let your mind wander, go to Zadar and sit here for a while. You’ll love it.

For the second Sunday in a row we also threw caution to the wind and decided to ‘wing it’ for dinner. We left it even later than last week and at about 8:10 we settled down at a nice table at 4 Kantuna. Another Ace for the team, great dinner and by 8:30 there was a substantial line of even less prepared people lined up in want of a table. Pity the fools.

GPS paused on the ferries so the 35 is accurate!

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Just another gorgeous morning on the Dalmatian coast

Our first Inter Island ferry approaching

K checking out the details - and yes your ticket is good for any ferry that runs today.

…. And look who’s coming along with us! Only 100 more to go. He was a very nice boy.

A few hours from now he’d have full sails up.

Lovely beach riding along Pašman. There we’re several interesting sculptures along the way.

The lack of traffic allowed for shots like this

Our other ‘Ronseal’ moment. You appreciate the truth in advertising.

Main square in Zadar with preparations for this evenings festival underway, strategic camera positioning to just get the main landmarks in the shot

The main stage area with a traditional choral group performing

The central square with preparations underway for this evening’s festival

In a park at yet another church, there were a series of serious busts of serious guys (I think they may have been bishops or some such). I think this guy looks like Lanny McDonald.

You can’t see them moving, but at 3:45 pm (to me a pretty random time) this bell tower was in full operational mode. We could see at least 8 large bells pealing away.

…. Back to the apartment for some down time before dinner … this odd placed post actually set up quite a nice bike parking place.

and a very nice Malvasia from Istria (we’ll be there in a couple of days). Great story behind the label as well, there are 12 dots / circles on the label, each one a relative representation of the rainfall in each month of the year of this vintage, in this case 2022. You didn’t want to be there in December!

After a few tours you learn a few things … how to fix a flat in the rain; always have a few snacks in your bag …. And … NEVER wait until after 8 to start looking for a table.

SOTD

Yeah, you learn a few things after every tour, a great lead in to :

You Learn, the classic from Alanis Morissette

I recommend biting off more that you can chew to anyone

I certainly do

I recommend sticking your foot in your mouth at any time

Feel free

Today's ride: 36 km (22 miles)
Total: 854 km (530 miles)

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Bob KoreisWas raised in a Catholic family and don't remember anything special the Sunday after Easter. When I searched, most sites don't list anything for this day. However, I did come across this:

"Divine Mercy Sunday (Sunday after Easter)
Instituted by St. John Paul II, this day emphasizes God’s boundless mercy, inspired by the visions of St. Faustina Kowalska. Many Catholics pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet."

Faustina was a Polish nun. Given the relative recency, It's possibly not something celebrated in North America.
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3 days ago

Lyle McLeodTo Bob KoreisThanks for the research. It may be just a Zadar thing. So many places have their own individual little rituals and celebrations wrapped up in some sort of religious cloth. If we were here longer I might dig into it, but we’re off to Pag to discover some of their quirks!
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3 days ago

Glenna JefferiesI think the 8 days beginning on Easter Sunday are referred to as the Octave of Easter, but not taught as a 'thing' in North America. However, in Calgary anyway the Catholic school system did have their spring break as Easter break and it begins on Good Friday for a week, so would encompass Easter/Octave week, celebrating the resurection.
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2 days ago