What a trip! For Easter school break we traveled south from Austria, through Slovenia and down to Croatia. Our destination was Poreč, a small town on the Adriatic Sea of the Istrian peninsula. The major landmark visible in many of our photos is the 6th century Euphrasian Basilica. Kino left his mark on the city - we left too quickly to get pictures of that.

We stayed at the Valamar Diamant, and while the weather wasn't the best we still enjoyed plenty of time at the beach, enjoying the playgrounds, and taking in the views. Since it's been a lingering winter in Salzburg, the girls really enjoyed all the flowers along our walks.

The girls celebrated their first Easter - in a hotel.

One day we traveled 45 minutes inland to Motovun, a walled medieval town on a hill 270 meters high.

Another day was spent on the Monvi, traveling south down the Adriatic Sea to the narrow cobblestone streets of Rovinj, whose history dates back to the Roman era, a town which used to be an island separated from the mainland by a channel that was later filled in 1763. We made a short stop in Vrsar before heading back at the end of the day. Vrsar, like much of Croatia, has a varied ancestory, having been ruled by the Romans, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, Italy, Jugoslavia, and today the Republic of Croatia.

And as usual, the dogs were along for the ride, although they seemed to barely tolerate their nightly accomodations in the car.

Finally, for the trip home we decided to take a different route, and traveled west through Italy. After an aborted attempt to walk through Trieste (too much rain and wind), we drove further to Udine where we enjoyed a long afternoon break.

That night back in Salzburg, after enjoying an evening dinner of fresh bread and cheeses from Italy, at Mimi and Opa's, we knew the trip was a success when we got in the car to drive home: all three girls starting crying in unison, begging to go back to our hotel on the beach...