Opatija

A mildly early start today - we're heading back North, from one end of Croatia to the other.  It's one of the longer day's drives that we do touring - just under 400 miles.

Unfortunately we can't tour Bosnia - our State Dept. says there's some "concerning" things happening there right now.  However, we do get to cross a 6 mile coastal section of Bosnia, as that's the only way, other than by multiple ferry legs (which we did heading South) to cross back to the North.  There is now a bridge to avoid the Bosnia crossing, but it's only 99% done and won't be open to cross for about another month.

Both border crossings were non-events, as they just waved us through.

The driving is easy - little traffic and safe/comfortable highway.

We see many Germans on their Summer vacations, renting little motor homes.

3.6 mile tunnel through mountains.  There were many tunnels, most shorter.

There were also multiple versions of this (below) - crossings for wildlife movement - it seems Croatia is another country bolstered by European Union funding to modernize the country.

We're here!  Opatija!  Mostly a locals, or adjacent country people, relaxing on the Adriatic Sea.

Rubbing da belly for good luck, it's what tourists do.

Giant potatoes, truffles, petrified bread, old cheeses, roundhenge???  Whatever it is, we found it!  We're going with "teacher with pupils", maybe even sitting stones for the real versions.

Coastal themed church altar.

This was a very low-key coastal town, no gigantic yachts or gaudy clubs "littering" the scenery.

Nice open-air theater with stage events, but also serving as a movie theater with current Hollywood movies.

A Porsche Taycan, a $90,000 purely electric 4-door high-performance sports car.  We just saw a documentary showing the development of this car, which began sales in 2020.  This would have been a fun drive to make our miles today, but we'd been about 100 miles short on range without plugging it in somewhere (we have seen a good number of plug-in stations, even along the highways at rest stops).