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Ill fares the land
‘Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, where wealth accumulates, and men decay.‘― Oliver Goldsmith
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Affordable dining at Konoba Galija near Vrana National Park
On our cycle tour to Vrana National Park we had to find a place to lunch. After visiting the park the route took us past the Maskovica Heritage Hotel which also has a restaurant. The hotel is located in an old medieval building and is part of the national heritage. We stopped to have a look at the outside and the inner courtyard but decided not to have lunch hear even though the menu was attractive. We were simply not dressed for the occasion. Heading back to Sveti Filip we passed Pakostane and ended up having lunch in Konoba Galija.…
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Birdwatching in Vrana National Park
While in Sveti Filip we biked to the Vrana National Park. This is Croatia’s largest natural lake. After many days of cycling the kids had opted for a day off at the beach and we cycled by ourselves. Instructions at the start of our tour were a bit fuzzy so we lost some time navigating through Biograd but after that it was fine. There were 2 alternative routes and we opted for an off road section. This turned out to be very bumpy so half way we decided to follow the remainder of the on road alternative which turned out…
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Hidden Gem: San Marko Konoba Restaurant Review
During our stay in Croatia we also visited Pasman island by bike. This bike tour was one of the most bike friendly we did with some dirt road sections and fewer pedestrians to navigate. We had some luck while following the coast to find a place for a swim that had chairs under trees that belonged to an apartment but were not occupied. We opted to go for a swim instead of sticking to the complete bike route. We had enough exercise in the heat with a few steep climbs when the road had to leave the coast and go…
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Hotel Villa Donat in Sveti Filip and Vanilla Beach & Grill Bar in Sveti Petar, Croatia
While in Croatia this summer we stayed in Zadar for a few days and then moved to Sveti Filip I JaKov to the Hotel Villa Donat. The hotel is a short walk to the beach but if you prefer you can also swim in the outdoor pool. Rooms are quite modern but the hotel does have a bit of a former Eastern bloc atmosphere to it. This is most obvious in the restaurant which is a buffet with the bar being in the next room and requring guests to go over to get drinks while having dinner. The restaurant and…
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My Strava 2025 Running Summary: Achievements and Goals
This week I got my annual Strava summary for 2025. Of course I already knew that compared to the past 2025 was a good year in terms of activity as it was the first time I reached the 500k running target. But seeing the statistics compared to the previous years it puts it in another perspective. To begin, since I joined Strava somewhere in 2017 I actually managed to run 500k in a year twice before. These were the covid years 2020 and 2021 where we were all forced to stay at home a lot. There was more time and…
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Growing Herbs at Home: Update on my Experience with Auk Mini
Last May I bought an Auk mini and planted some basil and parsley. As mentioned in another post growing the plants turned out to be as easy as claimed on the Auk website. The plants also lasted a good while : we finally decided they were over their peak in November. Partly this was because of maltreatment from our side during the vacation period with not enough cutting followed by not administering the advised amount of nutrients. Still, we had roughly 5 months of joy from the plants, offering multiple cuttings each week. And especially the taste of the basil…
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If on Ugljan looking for food, consider stopping at the Konoba Ugljan
During our vacation we went for a bicycle ride on the island Ugljan starting in Zadar. We took the ferry in Zadar to the island and then cycled around on the island. The city of Zadar has some bike paths but they are not in very good shape, often very narrow with a lot of holes and bumps and used in 2 directions. Also, they are not well indicated so it is not always clear if you are on a bikepath or a footwalk. In the marina we were biking according to instructions on bike paths crowded with pedestrians. Same…
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Biking from Zadar to Nin: Great Food and Scenic Stops in Nin and Vir in Croatia
While in Croatia this year we went on a number of bike rides. On the first one we cycled to Nin and as we arrived there around lunch time we looked for a place to eat on Google. We picked Trattoria Peperoni’s. It was an excellent choice. We could sit outside in the shade and had good pizza and Greek salads. The place was crowded with tourists but staff was still super friendly and service was smooth, we didn’t have to wait for our orders for long. After lunch we continued our bike ride to Vir where we stopped for…
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Unexpected Delays on the Road to Zadar: A Travel Story
On our last leg to Croatia from Maribor to Zadar we were expecting an easy and relatively short ride of 400km. We could not have been more wrong. After 50km towards the border the gps started to show alerts about traffic jams ahead and delays increasing into the +2 hours range. We decided to exit the highway and take smaller roads to avoid the traffic jam. That worked well but the roads in Croatia are not really made for making a lot of headway, endless changes in speed limits without any obvious reason seem to be there to make you…

