Munich – Opatija

We started in Munich and through Austria and Slovenia we got to the northern Croatian Adriatic coast. Our first destination was Opatija. It is a small town close to Rijeka. One the most popular tourist attraction is Lungo Mare, a 12 km long seaside promenade from Lovran to Preluka. The promenade links many historic buildings and memorable places. Old villas and cottages on the hillside are really breath taking. On the way you are as well passing many beautiful bathing spots. We didn’t have time to get so deep into details as we stayed there only for 2 nights, meaning 1 whole day (which included Dario’s hair cutting and changing wheels of our car). However, our evening walks through the promenade were unforgettable and the sound of the sea put Zosia quickly to sleep 🙂
Opatija has as well a very nice city center. Among the buildings there are many old villas. Some of them are not renovated which makes them even more charming.
We rented a room in a house located on a small hill and from the terrace we had an amazing view of the sea and Rijeka. The beautiful terrace with palm trees and cats strolling through the garden made us soon forget about cold Munich. Through a small gate hidden in the trees was the way down to the shore. In a few minutes we entered a beautiful path to the sea. I had to pitch myself when I saw that there were bamboo trees everywhere. It was already dark but our daughter didn’t want to fall asleep before she saw the sea for the first time in her life. It was the reward after the long day of driving. Ufff, we were in Balkans now. Let the adventure begin.

Tips:
– As we didn’t have any experience in long car driving with an 8-months old, our planned 5-6 hours drive turned into 10 hours challenge. Rule number 1: Babies can sweat a lot even if it’s not that hot. So always have a body to change. Rule number 2: Most baby car seats aren’t really baby friendly, the synthetic material they are made of is absolutely not breathable. Although our air conditioner did a great job, after max 2-3 hours Zosia was all wet from sweating, especially at her back. Later we found a solution to it by putting a piece of material into the baby seat so it can absorb lots of the sweat. Also it is very easy to change it when it is wet. We as well put the seat out of the car into the shadow and let the wind cool it down.