Today I visited the castle out my hotel room door and spent much of the day on island preserve just a 1/2 mile off from Dubrovnik called Lokrum. This island has several walking trails and swimming spots around the island. It has an interesting history as have a monastery for nearly 1000 years and then…

Today I ferried from korčula to the major tourist destination of Dubrovnik. This old castle wall city is a massive old city that is several square blocks filled with restaurants and shops and many apartments. In every nook and cranny is another tiny restaurant with seating in tiny alleyways with room for 1 table width…

Another full day of exploring the old castle and walking the tiny street corridor. I took some empty hiking trails nearby and found an older very large water catchment system to harvest rain water at the top of the hill above the city. They must pipe water over to the island now. Went biking to…

Another island that is an hour ferry ride from Hvar. Another big island maybe 20 miles long with multiple towns. The famous feature of this island is that Marco Polo, the early explorer, came from this island. They have many Marko Polo shops all over town. This town like other Croatian island towns really shut…

Explored more of this large 50 km island by walking the tiny and empty ocean trail. Summer just ended last week and everyone and every business seemed to have left these smaller towns. I was able to stop and swim at amazing coves and beaches and do some water coloring. A usual event I noticed…

Today I ferried from split to the island of Hvar. It turned out to be day 2 of a major Spartan hvar sporting event. Similar to the tough mudder in the states, this competition involved hilly running with many other rope climbs and carry 40 lb weights up steep rocky slopes and jumping over fire…

This Saturday morning I walked to the far end of park Marjan where the island jets out into the water. Many folks out running and biking on the weekend and getting out before the heavy afternoon rains. I did some water coloring but the sun disappeared before I was able to swim in the clear…

After a very long 14 hour journey by bus from Kransta Gora to Split Croatia, I arrived in the dark with another 30 minute walk across town to my apartment place. This is a busy tourist town but offers some really unique old castles and buildings converted into a town center. The coast is filled…

Slovenia and Slovenians have some unique characteristics that I have not seen in any other country. First, as a whole, they are extremely neat and tidy about their homes, yards, parks you won’t find any trash and they even hide their cars behind wood piles so you see the rustic old villages without cars. The…

Yesterday I finished the 16 stage/day Juliana 270 km trail by looping all the way around back to the starting point of Kranska Gora. Another wonderful day of hiking thru Italy from tarvisio on empty bike paths and empty mountain trails. Celebrated the completion with a double gelato in town. In the whole 14-16 days…

An interesting hike today where the trail crossed typical Slovenia farms but also followed steep river canyons and slot canyon gorges straight up into the Italian alps. The trail had several tiny and high suspension bridges, an old military tunnel thru the rock and sections of trail so cliffy falling into a steep river gorge…

A nice longer day of 23 km and 625 meters elevation ascent. Hiking along the sači river which is this amazingly clear blue green river with white rocks. The trail crosses the river on these small suspension bridges that bounce when you walk over them. Ended up the day at a hostel in Bovec, a…

A easier day of 23 km and 200 meters of elevation. Today I combined two stages into one and went from Most na Soči to Kobarid thru Tolmin. The morning started by meeting up with a cyclist couple with young child from Italy and another hiker from France for coffee and breakfast at an outdoor…

A nice hike today with only 700 meters elevation and maybe 18km. Passing thru more high alpine villages and only seeing an elderly person walking with a cane up a very steep road with a bag of groceries or harvests from their garden a farmer passing in a tractor. Some crazy goats still out in…

Another day of 1000 meters of elevation and about 16 km hiking. Some very steep sections in parts where the rocky soil makes it easy to slip. The trail is often narrow and drops off a few hundred feet as the mountains are just almost vertical everywhere. The trail is empty of hikers and towns…

A longer day combing two trail stages in one day. About 28 km and 1000 meters of ascent and decent to the town of Prodbrdo. This town at the bottom of a very deep narrow canyon has options to put your car on a train car and go thru a mountain tunnel. Driving into these…

A longer hike of 24 km mostly a descent of about 1000 meters to a wonderful lake and town of Bohinjsko Jezero. Another stunning day of hiking with tidy farms that were empty of the summer cows and villages almost completely quiet. The busy summer season ends quick in mid to late September and places…

A longer 21 km day with almost 1000 meters of climb. Climbed out of the busy tourist Mecca of Bled and quickly ascended high into the mountains into some very steep trails and the national park areas. Climbing thru caves and passing cow farms that had finished up for the season. Today I saw three…

A shorter 17 km hike with little ascent today to reach the very popular international destination of Bled. This town with the lake with the castle island feels like an expense ocean town in Italy or France. It does offer a lot of swimming and boats you can rent and row around or a nice…

A shorter hike about 20 km and 450 meters of climbing which was all at the end of the day. The trail sends you straight up a very steep mountain to a mountain cafe at the top where I stopped for a drink and apple roll. My hotel turned out to be over 3 km…