Wow, Cres!
Loaded up the car and took the ferry over to Cres from Krk, about a 20 min boat ride. I’ve visited Cres a couple of times before, but each time I headed south, continuing onto Lošinj, which is connected to Cres by a tiny bridge. From there, I’d push all the way to Veli Losinj and then make the return trip. It’s been about 4-5 years since I last did those rides, and I remember the middle part of Cres as a long, pretty boring stretch. Things only got a bit more interesting once I reached the villages Mali Lošinj and Veli Lošinj. But to be honest I don’t really remember much of those rides, and certainly not much of Lošinj island.
For this ride I wanted to explore the northern edge of Cres and a bit more of the villages on the island, just to see what it has to offer. Turns out, it’s a lot. In my last blog post I might have been a little harsh on Krk, in this post Krk is going to take another hit. Cres and Krk are Croatia’s two largest islands, and while I’ve always heard that Krk is bigger, that doesn’t seem to be entirely accurate. Either way, it’s close between the two.
But when it comes to cycling it’s not even close, Cres blows Krk out of the water, or at least the northern parts do. I guess you can say that Cres is a bit more limited when it comes to variation, as there aren’t to many roads to choose from (based on my limited experience), whereas Krk has a wider variety of routes across the entire island. But here’s the thing: I could ride the same route on Cres every day for four weeks straight and never tire of it – it’s that breathtaking. Besides, each day would feel different depending on the time of day, the weather, clouds, and visibility over the water. And there’s still the option of heading down to Lošinj. There is no picture I can take that does the beauty and how spectacular Cres is justice. It reminded me a lot of riding back “home” along the coast and the mountains there.
Istria
Day after Cres I loaded up the car again and headed to Istria for a ride.
The weather was great, though it was the first time of the year that I could feel autumn creeping in, unfortunately. Still, fantastic weather to ride in, but as evening came, so did the cold windchill.
Having ridden through Cres and now Istria for the first time this summer, here’s how I’d rank my cycling areas:
- The coastal road and the mountains back home.
- Cres (probably some recency bias here 😁).
- Gorski Kotar.
- Istria (it’s close between 3 and 4. Fortunately for me, there is still a lot of both regions that I haven’t explored yet).
- Krk (good as part of a longer ride starting from home. Or starting from the house on Krk, crossing the bridge to transition to the coastal road or up to Gorski Kotar. Also good for riding in the winter).
Some handlebar shots from last weeks riding on Krk
Grazie mille Luca e Angela per il caffè Kimbo (l’ho sempre voluto assaporare!) e i funghi 😁😀
