A week of summer in Croatia & Ljubljana

Our summer holiday this year was in Croatia to coincide with my great friends' Dunja & Marcus wedding in Rovinj. We had about 10 days off.

On Thursday we flew to Ljubljana and drove straight to Rovinj. The drive there was lovely. Slovenia has lovely green scenery. We made it in good time, but then spent an hour (!) driving around a one way circuit of the car-free town of Rovinj trying to find our accommodation. Eventually we made it to our cute little Airbnb in the old town, our home for the next 5 nights. That night we had a late dinner at Balbi, a great restaurant right by our apartment that we went back to twice afterwards. We met Dunja and Marcus and a few friends nearby for a drink to get the festivities started.

Friday was a relaxing day with a sleep in, wander around the town, [a fairly average] lunch, drinks with various members of the wedding party at Hotel Adriatic on the town square, and later at the beach bar for the first of many stunning sunsets before dinner at a restaurant by the port.

Balbi Arch

The port of Rovinj

Let the holiday commence!

First breakfast on the square

Spritz time

First sunset

Saturday, the big day, arrived! I was up early to meet Dunja for breakfast at her hotel. The rest of the morning whizzed by with hair and makeup for all the ladies, getting ready in Dunja's hotel room surrounded by bubbles and photographers, and on to the church for 3pm. The service was lovely. I did a reading of Springtime Rhapsody from Solomon. The whole wedding party was then escorted by a mariachi-style band down the hill through the village to the port. The locals all stopped to watch and popped their heads out of windows to enjoy the scene. It was great fun. Most of the guests then took the ferry to Red Island where the reception was held. We followed shortly afterwards once the photos were finished.

Early morning in Rovinj

One of the few pics I have of us

Bridesmaid duty

The mariachi band & bridal party walking down to the port

On the ferry going to the reception

The reception was beautiful. Cocktails and canapés were served by the water, we had a fantastic meal and the speeches, DJ and even a lamb spit roast at the end. We took the last 4am ferry home with the bride and groom and a boat-load of guests.

The reception

On Sunday we had a late start and breakfast in the square, then it was onto the recovery BBQ at hotel Monte Mulini. It was a beautiful setting on the lawn overlooking the ocean. Cocktails and bbq were served all day long and at 10pm there was a great view of the fireworks from the festival in town. Ollie and I had a late dinner with Dino (Dunja's brother) and his friends at an italian restaurant in town and kicked on for a few drinks at one of the bars on the edge of the sea wall. It was another very fun night.

At the BBQ

The wedding party continued on Monday.  Ollie and I had breakfast at the Hotel Adriatic and joined a bus-load of guests for a wine tasting. We drove to Kozlovic winery for a tour and had the most generous wine tasting ever. We tried several glasses of all of their local wines with plates of cheese. It was sunny day in pretty surrounds. Late in the afternoon we drove on to a charming small hill town called Motovun (not dissimilar to the hill towns of Provence). Back in town a bunch of us shared fresh grilled fish and pasta for dinner at Puntulina.

Time with the bride and groom

Kozlovic vineyard

Motovun

Motovun

Motovun

Motovun

The official wedding events were all wrapped up and on Tuesday we switched Airbnb apartments only a few minutes walk away in the old town, and explored a bit more of Rovinj, had breakfast at a new spot, and relaxed at the Mediteraneo bar on the sea wall. We couldn't resist having a long lunch at our new favourite restaurant, Balbi, again - I thoroughly enjoyed my mussels and rose. We finally had our first chance to hit the beach and we spent a couple of hours down by the water that afternoon winding down from all the wedding excitement. Cocktail hour was at Hotel Adriatic and we had a mixed grill for dinner at a restaurant called Santa Croce.

The next two days were our much-needed beach days. We spent them on sun loungers at Mullini beach. At the beach bar we ordered salads for lunch and drinks. The water was lovely, especially on the second day. We played scrabble, read, wrote postcards and relaxed. At the port each evening we could watch the sunset over the ocean with a a couple of beers from the shop. One evening there was a folk band busking in the square which was fun. On Wednesday night we had dinner at Rio - cheese ravioli and fresh sea bream, and on Thursday at Balbi again, this time pasta marinara and fresh sea bass.

Chilling out post wedding

Tuna salad at the Mulini beach bar

Gelato time!

Dusk in the main square

Folk tunes at sunset

Sunset

In and around Rovinj

A cute spot for breakfast

Down at the local beach

Lunch at Balbi 

The local cafe

More fresh fish!

On Friday we probably would have loved to be back at the beach but we had planned to spend the weekend in Ljubljana. We had a last coffee near our apartment and picked up the car for the drive back to Slovenia.

That afternoon in town was the Open Kitchen market with lots of food and drink stalls set up in the old town square. It was so vibrant and lively, we had drinks there in the afternoon, checked into our Airbnb and went for a walk around the old town before heading back to the market again for dinner. Later we even got chatting for a while to some of the owners of a local vineyard, Istenic, while sampling their sparkling wine.

Ljubljana

Lunch time

Open Kitchen

A view of the castle

On the famous dragon bridge

On Saturday we got up early for breakfast at the cafe nearby. Lake Bled was our destination, a short drive away. We spent the day there walking up to the castle, around the lake, and Ollie rowed us to the island in the middle the lake. After lunch we decided to ditch our plan to see another lake, and relax by Lake Bled with the locals sunning themselves on the green banks. We had a quick dip too which was fun. For our last evening we had a few drinks in town and dinner at a great restaurant for carnivores. I had the suckling pig.

Boats on Lake Bled

The castle at Lake Bled

The fairytale Lake Bled

Roof tops

This reminds me of Slim Aarons photographs of the rich folk in Palm Springs.

Action shot!

This is where we swam

The panoramic shot!

I took a million photos of the Lake and the island in the middle, so here's another one!

For our last day, we walked up to Ljubljana's castle. It didn't take long to explore so we settled in for a nice long lunch at the restaurant in the castle's courtyard. The menu was good and we tried traditional dishes with a modern spin. It was a lovely way to end our week holiday before taking the funicular back down the hill and heading to the airport back to London.

View of Ljubljana old town