After a good night sleep we woke up early and loaded the bikes. We planned to arrive in Plitvice National Park before it got dark and we had to move fast in order to cover a distance of 250 km. On the way we stopped at the town of Sibenik which should be very beautiful according to what we have read. Indeed, after driving 90 km from Split we were at the hills of Sibenik that offered an amazing view. Heading down to the historic center we spotted a nice cafe where we could park our bikes. After a while two bikers from Austria stopped there and we chatted for a while. The old town is very beautiful and also very quiet maybe due to the fact that we arrived during noon. There many picturesque places in the town but most impressive is the St. James Cathedral that was built in 1928 a period of blooming for the town. After we ate something light we continued our trip.
Although the largest part of the route was on the highway (Split to Zagreb) we went through a nice landscape with lakes as we drove at higher altitude. There we met the first raindrops just a message for what was coming. Following the signs to Plitvice National Park we drove into an amazing landscape surrounded by fir tree. The quality of the road was relatively good and we encountered a number of amusing turns. We could see the black sky ahead us and the rain came earlier than we thought. It was so heavy that we could not see 2 meters in front of the bike. Since there was no place to stop we kept on driving slowly and very carefully with the alarm on. Fortunately, after about 1 km we met a restaurant and stopped. Of course we were already soaked and had to change clothes. We were disappointed because they did not let us in the restaurant with the excuse that it was reserved for an event, thing that called our reprovingly comments. At least they allowed us to use the toilet and we could change to dry clothes. Then we had a hot soup that seemed more tasty than it was at that time and continued. After about 30 km we arrived at Plitvice and visited a tourist office where we had read that they could indicate us a place to stay. So they communicated with the owner and we started looking for the house. The sun had appeared through the clouds and enhanced the beauty of the scenery. A full rainbow also came out as we arrived at the house. The owners were very friendly and offered to dry our wet clothes in the machine. The houses were modest but cute. As soon as it got dark we visited a local restaurant and had a delicious dinner. We went to bed early as we were advised to visit the park as early as possible in order to avoid the crowds.
