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Rovinj to Porec + Groznjan
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Saturday 23rd September 2023
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We left Rovinj very early
this morning for the short voyage to Porec. |
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We arrived
before 8:00am and docked next to a casino. I didn't think it would
get many takers from our ship. |
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Another
rather elegant looking hotel on the other side of the harbour. |
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Looking
back towards the entrance to the harbour. |
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The area around the
harbour looked very pleasant. Being fully pedestrianised,
we had to walk around to the other side to board the coach
for our excursion today. |
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We didn't
know it yet, but we were to cover quite some distance today! |
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There had been another
late change to our itinerary. We were supposed to visit
the hilltop village of Motovun (seen here on the right just
above the Tomaz wine estate which was also on the itinerary)
and also to have a lunch stop at Konoba Jadruhi (centre
of the map). We were told that previous passengers had experienced
difficulty getting up to Motovun because only public buses
can be used and there weren't enough of them. Furthermore,
we were told that the best aspect of the village was to
see it from the bottom of the hill, which we would still
do. The replacement itinerary (for which we were the guinea
pigs) was to take us to another hilltop village called Grožnjan.
Our coach would be able to go all the way there without
relying on public transport. It sounded like a good plan
and indeed we enjoyed the day very much. The only downside
was that it required much more time spent on the coach,
probably twice as long compared with the original itinerary. |
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Setting off from Porec
we drove north along the coast to Novigrad... |
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...before
turning inland and passing an interesting looking town called Buje. |
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Our coach
in the car park just outside the hilltop village of Grožnjan. |
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The views
were a little disappointing... |
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...but
the village itself was quite charming. |
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We were
given plenty of time to see it all. |
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For a
few minutes, the mist lifted, revealing the valley beyond. |
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It was coming up for
lunchtime and we were told it would take about twenty minutes
to get to our lunch venue. Well, twenty minutes turned into
almost an hour and by the time we arrived, we were very
hungry. Konobo Jadruhi is an agritourism establishment with
accommodation and a restaurant specialising in Istrain cuisine.
We were so focused on the food and the pleasant company
of our fellow travellers that we forgot to take any photos,
but I did find a few taken by somebody else which gives
an idea of the place. We were all seated in the area to
the right. There was plenty to eat (including ox) and drink
(white wine wasn't good, but red wine was better) and we
left feeling full. Time for a little snooze on the coach
perhaps. |
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After what seemed like
another longish drive, we drove past Motovun. It was certainly
picturesque. |
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Not far from Motovun,
we stopped at the Tomaz Winery where we were expected and
where we would be doing some wine tasting. |
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From
the terrace, we enjoyed the views of the beautiful, gently flowing
Istrian countryside. |
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We also
enjoyed the wine we tasted. |
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It was late afternoon
by the time we arrived back in Porec, but we nevertheless
enjoyed the stroll back along the harbour to our ship. |
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After our large lunch,
we didn't want a large dinner. We spotted "Pizzeria
Napoli" and decided to try it for dinner. We both had
a pizza which was delicious. A couple of our fellow passengers
saw us seated outside and we invited them to join us. We
had a very pleasant, chatty evening with them. |
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After dinner, we strolled
through the town and ate some lovely ice cream. (We hadn't
had a dessert after our pizza). We were pleased that we
would be having a guided walk tomorrow, because it looked
like a very interesting place. |
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