Summer Holidays July 2016

This summer we had a holiday in Rovinj (Croatia) with Auntie Bec and family, plus the NZ Doblanovic family, who are Blake's friends since childhood. Marco Doblanovic is actually from Rovinj, which is how we knew about the place.

 

 

We drove from Basel and as it's a ten-hour-drive, we stopped off halfway there for a night in Verona, Italy. Verona is a lovely place and we enjoyed our flying visit.

 

Next day we set off for Rovinj, what a beautiful place! Traditionally a fishing village, it's now well set up for tourists, with lots of restaurants, shops and bars, and plenty to do and see.

 

Catching up with the cousins and gang was fun

It was very hot with temperatures in the 30's every day. The only thing for it was to get in the water!

The sea was beautiful, clean and clear - it was amazing to watch the fish swimming beneath you.
We also found this little creature crawling up the rocks.

 

Benjy and Bastie excavated the beach.

 

You're never far from somewhere selling beer in Europe and Croatia is no exception

 

Cousin Daisy with Georgia and Isabella.

 

Cousin Zach

Marco is your archetypical hunter and fisherman and it didn't take him long to spot and capture some interesting sea-life.

 

Jumping off things and diving were the favourite daily activities.

Then Marco lead us to a massive cliff and suggested we all jump off! The kids were keen anyway.

Benjy jumped to my amazement!

 

 

Whoa, that's a long way down!

Marco took the award for most stylish jump, with his superman-triple-point-pike

 

 

 

The ladies were just as ballsy as the fellas.

Rovinj is situated picturesquely on the end of a peninsula and offers a million photo opportunities.

 

Anyone for some over-priced tourist tat?

 

 

Our apartment was opposite a bar but high up enough that the noise was not a problem - how very convenient!

We hired a boat for a day trip which was lots of fun.

 

Anchor down, jumping time again!

 

Uncle Andy wowed the crowd with his backwards flip!

The Ellis-Mackie Crew

 

 

The Full Holiday Kid Crew

The week was over in a flash, then it was time to say Ciao and head back to Basel, stopping off in Slovenia on the way home.

 

 

 

Lake Bled in Slovenia is a storybook-beautiful place, recommended to us by friends. A medieval castle sits atop the cliffs and there is a 14th century church on an island in the middle of the lake.

 

This church is reachable only by boat and has 99 steps to climb to the top, which, by tradition, the man is supposed to carry his wife up. Blake offered but I declined.

 

We did a bike tour around the lake, which is only 7 km, so perfect for Flynn to manage.

They've made part of the lake into a swimming baths. Basically just cordoning off an area. The kids loved it, especially since there was a diving board.

 

 

 

 

It was only slightly disconcerting that massive fish were in there too. You can't tell how big this is from the photo, but they were longer than 40cm and very fat.

 

This rig was very popular with the kids but was in fact fairly dangerous. Little kids were being catapulted off into the deep water by the big ones and they often struggled to climb back on. In any case, ours survived.

That's what brothers are for!

There was a lot of icecream going down!

Top of the 99 steps to the island church

Blake and the boys are bored by castle visits so I walked up the cliff and checked it out by myself. What a view!

 

The original castle buildings are from the 10th Century!

 

After Lake Bled we drove a few hours and then spent one night in Austria to further break up the trip. We had great holiday made even better by the kids coping fine with all the driving.