Moto trip Croatia - Zadar

         Today is a special and very relevant and important day in our motorcycle adventure in Croatia. Today we are riding on the European route E65, also known as the Adriatic Highway 🛣️. The Croatian section of the Adriatic Highway is the state road D8, which starts at the border with Slovenia, crosses Croatia mostly along the coast through Rijeka, Zadar, Split and Dubrovnik and ends at the border with Montenegro. The total length of the road through Croatia is 643 kilometers. It is a paradise for motorcyclists and landscape lovers by any means of transport. A superb road, full of more and more breathtaking views, in the leftside the mountain, on the right side the Adriatic Sea, behind Rijeka, in front Zadar. We leisurely admired the landscapes, we stopped whenever we thought a certain place was worth a deeper meditation, we enjoyed every curve of the road accompanied by a clear sky, a bright blue sky ☀️.

        We stayed on a beautiful island called Vir 🏝️, located 40 km from Zadar. We chose to stay here because the prices were much lower than in Zadar and, besides, we really liked the idea of ​​staying on one of the Croatian islands from Dalmatian archipelago. We checked in around 16:30, changed and left for Zadar. 

        Around 6 p.m. we started exploring the old center, which is located on a small peninsula. The place is only accessible on foot for visitors, but there are large and spacious parking lots at each entrance. We chose to leave the motorcycles in the parking lot 🅿️ next to the Gradski most bridge that connects the new town with the old center and we entered through the New Gate.

        We walked around the whole peninsula, first on the bottom, and then on the top.

        We entered the Narodni Square which has its origins in the Renaissance period, a place that serves as a meeting point, with many cafes where you can stop and relax. 

        We did the same, finding the aROMA gelateria here and getting our daily portion of ice cream 🍦, which we enjoyed leaving the city streets for the moment and going out to the seafront, walking along it.

        We re-entered the old center right at the main entrance and the most impressive of the gates in Zadar, the City Gate, also called the Land Gate, located in the southern part of the old town in the small port of Foša. It was built by a Venetian architect in 1543 and is considered one of the most beautiful monuments of the Dalmatian Renaissance.

        We visited the Five Wells Square, which is the most important and representative place in the city of Zadar. The square was built in 1574 during the siege of the Ottoman Empire, and consists of a large cistern for drinking water with five decorated wells, and some saved parts of the aqueduct that brought water directly from Lake Vrana. After the danger passed, the square was surrounded by the Western Medieval Wall with the Captain's Tower, which rises to 26 meters, and by the Eastern Wall which holds the entrance to the Queen Jelena Madije Park, a park that we also visited.

        Then we climbed the City Walls from where we looked at the old town and the new town from above and walked from one end to the other. 

        After descending from the walls, we relaxed at sunset on the steps of the Sea Organ 🎹, a moving masterpiece by architect Nikola Basic. In my opinion, it is one of the most fascinating (man-made) attractions in Croatia. Through this sea organ you can listen to a unique music created by the waves of the sea. It is an instrument that has some tubes located under the marble steps and that create echoes on different notes and volume intensities depending on the power of the waves that hit them. It is an absolutely gorgeous and relaxing experience.

        Next, we walked through the Roman Forum, admiring the Church of St. Mary and the Church of St. Donatus, whose tower we also climbed.

        After having dinner at a restaurant in the area, we returned to the Sea Organ because it had been installed and we still had another creation of the famous architect to experience - Greetings to the Sun. It looks exactly like a dance floor 🪩🕺, except it is made up of 300 solar panels that change color creating various shapes. The creator says that these shapes of lights simulate communication with nature, presenting the planets of the Solar System and their orbits 🪐.

        We returned to our accommodation and started discussing what we would do in the coming days, what plans we had because the weather was expected to be capricious for the next few days in the places we were going to visit. The unexpected also has its charm because we couldn't have come out better than we did in the end ✌.

        If you have more time in this area, you can also explore the following attractions (which I wanted to see but had no time):

• Museum of Ilusions
• Museum of Ancient Glass
• Solana Nin Salt Museum
• Boat trip to Kornati National park