Day-7  May 22

Split (Croatia) to Opatija(Croatia)

Looking out of our window into the street, a warm, sunny morning welcomes us. With more than 400kms to cover today, after a nice & enjoyable self made breakfast from our pantry supplies, it is time to hit the road.

We shun the coastal road and straight gun for the less exciting A1 Motorway  to cover the distance swiftly doing constant speeds of 140 kph and beyond… that takes us mostly inland on silky smooth tarmac with huge mountains on either side for most of the ride with the occasional tunnels thrown in.  

The tunnels in Croatia are all well lit, unlike Bosnia & Montenegro where many times you just ride into a dark hole!  As for our bike, I must admit the new liquid cooled BMW R1200RT is a blast to ride and I just have to exercise caution when required on the right wrist to avoid any encounter with flashing blue lights in my rear view mirror & the resultant contribution to the local govt fund!

Riding along we stop for lunch and refueling our bike at a rest stop along the motorway near Gospic. Some more bikers were also taking their break there. The eatery had more of quick bites & snacks and hence after a quick lunch and we are back on the road heading northwards.

We get off the motorway at Otocac and merge onto a twisty B-Road passing some nice scenic lookouts, also get passed by some friendly local bikers who are aggressively enjoying their local bikers playground. We continue cruising and cross the small town of Melnice

After a while we touch the bigger town of Senj from where we are back on the scenic Adriatic coast and yet again continue on our beautiful roller coaster ride snaking our way along the fantastic ribbon of asphalt

We soon pass the major port city of Rijeka and finally arrive into Opatija, our route destination for tonight, but due to non availability of rooms, we will be staying a little further at the town of Lovran.

Here, we are booked at the ‘Pansion Stanger’, so the GPS obediently takes us to the place. There is a huge dog there but it is secured so myself & wife although a lil concerned are ok. My wife murmurs on the intercom- I did not see any mention of this big dog on Tripadvisor!!  We park our bike and an elderly gentlemen comes smiling and I say we had a long ride and complement him saying Croatia is so beautiful and blah blah…all this while he is smiling and just standing there. So I was wondering why is he not saying- OK, I show you your room etc…! Then he said you have booking in Pansion Stanger. I was saying in my head- like yeah obviously or else what makes you think we are risking ourselves with that huge dog in somebody’s house? He then politely told me that there are 3 Pansion Stanger in that town and the one we are looking for is another 3 kms ahead. While I was wondering it must be difficult to share your famous name with other people, I could see thru a corner of my eye, my lady was already half way thru climbing onto the bike as she was more than glad to atleast get away from that huge dog!!!! We continue as per his directions and arrive at our Pansion.

Dropping off our stuff at the B&B, we back track about 7 kms to Opatija. Located in the Gulf of Kvarner and known for its mild winters and bearable summers, Opatija is an absolutely charming tourist destination in Croatia. With a clean beach & assorted eateries and other shopping attractions located on the waterfront, you can spend quality time here.

We visit the few local attractions- The Maiden with the seagull, the marina etc and after an early big burger dinner at one of the seafront restaurants, we ride back to Lovran and call it a day.