Plitvice Lakes

UNESCO has named several hundred places as "world heritage sites" (http://whc.unesco.org/) and the Skocjan caves (www.park-skocjanske-jame.si) is one. Plitvice Lakes (www.np-plitvicka-jezera.hr) is another. One guidebooks says it is Niagara Falls diced up into small pieces and placed inside the Grand Canyon. It is an 8 km string of 16 beautiful turquoise lakes each dropping in altitude by 10 to 100 feet between lakes. Between each pair is a multitude of waterfalls. It is very impressive. The park is well done. They have build miles of wooden decking trails that go all over the park and get you right up to the waterfalls.

Our first impression was not good. We went to the entrance and saw a LOT of tour buses. We took the trail down to one of the lakes and the walkways were so busy you could hardly walk. It was single file each way for blocks.

We stayed overnight at a park hotel and went to some of the upper lakes early (well around 8 when the first boat to take you across starts) and they were lovely, not at all crowded and breathtaking (see pictures).

The hotel was full and so we had to get a "superior" room (about $110). It was a large room, with, get this, two bathrooms, one just a toilet and sink. It had a nice balcony and lots of room. I liked it.

This post is a bit short but I am trying to get the rest of the trip blog done and then I might come back and add more details. We will also be putting up a web site for more of the pictures.