Croatia and a quick trip to Bosnia

After we spent the day hiking in Plitvice, we had some time that evening to explore. We decided to make the short half hour drive to the nearest town in Bosnia & Herzegovina which was Bihać. To be honest, I was a little nervous but mostly excited. 

It was a nice drive through the countryside.

We ate dinner in town with seating along the river.

Here we are amused that we're actually here.

We enjoyed a nice sunset and then headed back to Croatia.

The next morning we headed west toward the istrian coast in Croatia. There were lovely portions driving along the coast and through tunnels like this.

Here we are just enjoying the drive and listening to some funky music.

We stayed at this nice little Bed and Breakfast in a town called Buje. We rented bikes and spent the day riding over 30 km on an old rail trail.

It was fairly level most of the time and included some train tunnels. A few were kind of long and it was totally dark which freaked me out a little. We could have used some flashlights for sure.

It was a beautiful ride with lovely views and lots of olive vineyards like this one.

Also some pretty fun bridges like this one.

As we approached the end of the ride, we broke off the trail to climb the road to a little village called Motovun.

The bigger hill behind me on the left is Motovun where we aimed to ride.

 I thought this was such a lovely little house and taking this picture also provided a short break from the steep uphill ride.

Some of the switchbacks leading to the top of the hill.

Almost to the top!

So happy we made it!

The views were absolutely worth it.

And the food was wonderful. I got this truffle risotto since Motovun is famous for truffles and it did not disappoint!

After dinner and some great massages our host came and shuttled us back to the B &B as it was getting dark. It was such a fun day. 

I captured this photo on the steps of our cute B & B the morning we were leaving.

We drove to this  nearby artists village called Grožnjan where we perused art for the morning and picked out a few things. This was the road leading up to the town.

I just loved this door in Grožnjan. The color, the lion, the old stone surrounding it.. all so cool!