October 13, 2015

 

 

 

Most Memorable Day (so far) at Plitvice Lakes National Park

Let’s clean up some housekeeping before we get to the meat of the day.  We know that we’re good for about five hours of steady walking before we would like to take a break or get a change of scenery.  That means we are not up with the backpackers at breakfast but are good for 9:00.  That gets us on the road to the park at 9:40 which is just about right.  We find parking right away, head to the park and pay our 220 kuna to get in the door and we’re off.  More to follow.

Later we stopped on the way from the park to the hotel and picked up a couple cold beers so we could put up our feet and relax before dinner.  What a day!  At dinner John had the truffle and parmesan pasta with balsamic (unbelievable with real slices of truffles) and Mary had a big burger with fries.  We washed it down with a nice local chardonnay.

Now, here’s what we’re going to do to explain our day.  We are each going to describe our feelings and then let the pictures do the talking for us.  They will still not do it justice so google it or find Plitvice Lakes on YouTube.

John:  We are lucky people.  We have explored all of the Hawaiian Islands, snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef, drove to Milford Sound New Zealand at sunrise, viewed Europe from the top of Mont Blanc, drove the Pacific coast highway from San Diego to Vancouver, spent October in New England and sipped wine in Napa, Bordeaux, McLaren Vale and Burgundy.  We are lucky people.  But we have never had such a dramatic natural experience as our visit to Plitvice Lakes National Park in Croatia.  Our species seems to be enamored with the meeting of land and water and we have never seen anything like what we saw today.  Our pictures are only the beginning and none of them are repeats—they’re all different locations as 16 natural lakes drop their overflow down to the next lowest in line.  Each one more dramatic than the last.  Maybe we’re lucky to have had a month of rain before getting here to maximize the amount of water tumbling down.  This is the best visual experience I have ever had in my life.

Mary:  Yes, we are very lucky people.  My favorite park has always been Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island but that has now been replaced with Plitvice Lakes National Park.  As John said, every step was another breathtaking sight with hundreds of waterfalls.  The changing colors of the trees, the turquoise color of the calm still lakes and the pristine white of the roaring falling water was almost too much to take in.  The only missing component was sunshine.  But even with gray clouds overhead our time spent in the park was majestic to say the least.  Yes, we are VERY lucky people.

OK then, that being said we will let some of our pictures tell the story.

What did we learn today? We shouldn’t blow off an experience because it is unfamiliar to us.