Kicking around Krk Town, Krk Island, Croatia
Zagan the motorhome is becoming surrounded on the busiest campsite we have seen so far on this trip. He’s peering over the roofs of other vans to see the sea on the terraced pitches of Camping Krk, near Krk town, on the island of …. Krk (N45.02140, E14.59250). After half a glass of pivo, Jay’s started calling himself Captain Krk. We don’t think we could be more Krky.
Yesterday morning Jay was woken by the heat of the sun on his back through the windscreen, the rain of the previous day had given up and normal sunny service was resumed. We packed up and hit the road to make the one hour drive north to the island of Krk. Soon we could see Krk bridge stretching across the blue waters below us, and as with all bridges (in my opinion) it looked much better from afar than when you are on it.
Zagan is category 2 – 46kn, which is around £4.60. You only have to pay to get onto the island, leaving is free
Very pleased that we didn’t need this road today, looks like it will be closed for some time
This will be our fourth Croatian island (third this trip) and each one is different. Hvar gave us a narrow, elbows-in heart racing ride along it, Čiovo never really felt like an island because it was so close to Trogir and Pag, well Pag was a cheesey, stony, windswept place. But all of them were chilled out, relaxing places you could spend at least a few weeks on, doing nothing. The vista that greeted us as we drove onto Krk was one of trees, lots of trees, trees as far as the eye could see, which is not surprising as Krk is the largest island in the Adriatic.
We pulled in and did a quick stock up at a Konzum supermarket (we’d already checked, no Lidl’s on Krk!). A huge advertising board told us it was the newest supermarket on the island. What we didn’t realise was there are several other ones by Krk town, but still we had a nice half an hour wandering around looking at cheap beer, wine and of course the food.
Back on the road and we were soon in Krk town, stopping off at the campsite closest to the town itself. We didn’t stop for long though when the receptionist revealed the price to be around €33 a night (€3.60 of those were for Charlie!). Wanting to be close to the sea so Jay can take advantage of snorkeling opportunities we headed around the bay to Camping Krk. Fortunately Liz and Phil had given us their 2016 ASCI books as in 2015 this was place a naturist campsite. This year it has undergone a rebrand, new name, new flash bungalows, new pool and, most importantly for us, now requires clothes.
Still a small FKK/Naturalist beach here but it’s empty at the moment, perhaps it’s still too chilly
The rest of the day was spent relaxing on our little piece of paradise, buying some lower chocks (which hopefully won’t hit the front of Zagan when we use them) from a fellow camper who was having a clear out, and consuming the best of the supermarket treats we’d bought.
Cornwall beer, Doom Bar, in Croatia, only £1.40 a bottle, we may have to stay!
This morning when the alarm went off at 8.30am I was up and at ’em. The campsite is another huge one and the season is starting to kick in, so are the ‘animations’, free activities that everyone can take part in. Today’s keep fit thing was a pilates class, so off I headed and met up with Monika who would be running the class. As it turned out it was only Monikja and me, so I had a one-to-one pilates session for free and a good old chat about Croatian life in between exercises.
Just when you think the sea can’t get any bluer or trees any greener, they do here on Krk!
The weather forecast is predicting rain again for tomorrow, so this afternoon we headed along the coast to Krk town, or rather that should be the City of Krk. Even though it is tiny it has a cathedral because it is the historical seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Krk. The 1.5km walk took us around a couple of headlands and gave us a great view of the city as we approached it. The city is ancient, and is one of the oldest in the Adriatic, protected by walls and a castle built by the Frankopan family over several centuries and generations.
The City of Krk and man-made beaches on the rocks
Poor beer delivery man, no cars in the town and it’s uphill from the car park.
We didn’t bother with maps, guides or plans, instead we wandered around reading the information plaques as we found them. I’m pretty sure we missed out the main street, but we didn’t mind as we had a great time wandering round the tiny alleyways and along the waterfront.
With an ice cream each to revive us (extra dark chocolate for Jay and lavender for me, and a tiny bit for Charlie) we headed back to the campsite. If you want to see more of Krk City, then this site has 360° photos of pretty much the entire place – better to see it in person, but enough to whet your appetite.
You can tell the Venetians used to run this place, the winged lion is here. Notice how they have built the bank around the other well in the square.
This statue shows where women used to wash their clothes in a corso, I think she has a couple of other attractions too!
As we walked along the coast we passed a lady with a bag full of wild asparagus that she had picked in the woods. We set out to find some. Tonight for tea we’ll be eating asparagus wrapped in Dalmatian ham – sadly our asparagus will be the stuff we bought as Konzum because we couldn’t find a single bit of it, I suspect the lady with the bag has had it all.
Fish for tea? I could see him in the harbour as the water is so clear
Tomorrow is 1st May, I don’t know where the year is going. From a sign in the town it looks like we’ll be woken by a brass band at 7am and things will be taking place on the waterfront all day to celebrate Labour Day. Fingers crossed the rain is kept at bay so we can go and join in. Charlie may opt to stay in the van though, he’s lying on my foot snoring as I type this, I think one trip to Krk is enough for the old fella these days.
Have a fantastic bank holiday weekend.
Ju x
Hi J & J interested to know how you manage cash on your extended travels. Presumably at the moment you are using Kuna but are Euros accepted. Do you just use ATM’s or mix credit card and cash purchases? Any problems anywhere? Chris
Hi Chris
We use a CaxtonFX card for Euro transactions or taking cash out in the Euro zone. Here in Croatia we’re using a Clarity Card to take out Kuna and to make purchases – note : there is no charge for doing this, but you are charged interest on cash withdrawals, so better to time those to be close to your statment date (that said it’s still loads cheaper than taking it out with our normals visa debit cards).
Most campsites are quoted in Euros, but we’ve only found one that actually takes them – it was run by a German chap, so he didn’t mind what you paid with. Pretty much everything else is in Kuna.
Hope that helps.
Ju x
I like the photo of Charlie who looks like a sniggering boy who’s just seen his first boobies.
Please give up the co-ords for the shop you got the Doombar from. Cheers, kindest…Wayne.
Hi Wayne
It was the Konzum on Krk on the 102 as you pass the airport:
D102
51513 Omišalj
Croatia
Cheers! Jay
Hi J thanks for the cash info. We use Fairfx which I think is similar to Caxton but it seems much less popular though not sure why.
In 2014 we stayed in the bay looking onto that bridge ( wildcamp)
We did have days in camps to top up with water and empty, the problem we had with staying outside the SYSTEM was we knew we should NOT.
Still it adds to the space of life.
We also had a German camper touring book which I could give the title of but have lent it out.
John
Was it a little blue book? We had copies of ‘mit den wohnmobil’ for Italy and Greece and they were fantastic for free camping spots!