Anniv8c

Like most of our touring trips, the structure of our six day stay in Croatia was very relaxed, with no planned outings during the day. It was particularly interesting for me to be in this area again, because the last time I toured here was in 1970 when we were on our way to Athens in a 1965 Gilbern 1800GT. I have also toured Europe extensively for many years in the 1949 Alvis drophead (owned since 1964) and my Daimlers and Jaguars, but never as far east as this. The one thing I did notice was that the roads are so much better now!

The day after our arrival would be a “rest” day for most of the group. A few went off in their cars, but most stayed around the hotel and explored the immediate area. There was a delightful coast path leading in both directions from the hotel beach and this was to be a popular choice. We set off quite late in the direction of Malinska and soon came across various members of the group having lunch at the first restaurant we reached. Needless to say, we decided to stop there as well and had a lovely relaxing snack. Later on we spent an hour beside the main swimming pool and had our first swim of the holiday.

Although informal during the day, the format for the evenings was that we all met up at about 7.30 in the bar for dinner at 8. The bar was in the open down by the beach, with great views of the sea and was the perfect meeting point for pre-dinner drinks. As always seems to be the case, there was lots of re-arrangement of tables and chairs! I sometimes wonder what the management must think of us. The main restaurant was on the same level as the bar, but three of the dinners were specially arranged “themed” events in our own restaurant on the floor above: more of that later.