CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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From Rijeka it runs 1695 km to Rijeka; allow about 25 h 15 of riding. The stops in between: Zadar, Split, Dubrovnik and Kotor. It crosses from Croatia into Montenegro - carry ID and check the toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
A coastal grand route from Rijeka, Croatia to Ulcinj, Montenegro, via Zadar. Key character: Adriatic cliffs; islands; historic towns. Surface: paved.
Rijeka is a port city that does not try to be pretty, and that is its charm. It lies at the head of the Kvarner Gulf, where the mountains come down steeply to a deep harbour, and it has been a trading city since Roman times. Under the Habsburgs it was Fiume, Hungary's sea gate, and between the wars it was Italian, briefly the plaything of the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, who occupied it in 1919 and ruled it as a self-styled commandant for fifteen months. Today it is Croatian, and it is the third largest city in the country.
Read the complete Rijeka write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rijeka is where the day begins. Next is Zadar.
Alfred Hitchcock is supposed to have said that Zadar has the most beautiful sunset in the world, and the people of the town have taken him at his word. The city sits on a narrow peninsula on the Dalmatian coast, with the sea on three sides and the island of Ugljan across the channel, and the sun drops into the water in a long fire of orange and pink. The best place to watch is the waterfront promenade at the end of the old town, where a pair of modern works of art, the Sea Organ and the Greeting to the Sun, turn the shoreline into an instrument and a light show.
Read the complete Zadar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zadar comes up 140 km in. Next is Split.
Split began as a retirement home. The Roman emperor Diocletian, born nearby, built a vast fortified palace on this peninsula around the year 300 and retired here after abdicating, to grow cabbages, so the story goes. After the Roman world fell apart, refugees from the nearby city of Salona sheltered inside its walls, and over the centuries the palace turned into a town. Today you walk through the Golden Gate, the Peristyle and the old cellars, and find cafés, shops, apartments and washing lines inside what is, effectively, a Roman building, with the emperor's mausoleum converted into a cathedral. UNESCO lists the palace and the historic centre.
Read the complete Split write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
279 km in you reach Split. Next is Dubrovnik.
Dubrovnik was once an independent republic, called Ragusa, and it lasted for centuries by being clever. It was a small city-state that paid tribute to bigger powers, traded with everyone, banned slavery early, and kept a splendid ring of walls that still surrounds the old town. Walking the walls, about two kilometres of stone with towers and bastions, takes an hour or two, and offers views over terracotta roofs and a glittering sea. In 1991 and 1992 the city was shelled during the Yugoslav war, and the damage has been repaired, though a few signs remain. UNESCO added it to its list in 1979.
Read the complete Dubrovnik write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dubrovnik, early in the day. Next is Kotor.
The Bay of Kotor looks like a fjord but is really a drowned river canyon, a series of linked basins surrounded by limestone mountains that rise nearly straight from the water. Kotor itself sits at the innermost end, a walled town tucked under a steep cliff, with a fortress that climbs the slope behind it in a zigzag line of walls. It was a Venetian possession for centuries, and its narrow lanes, stone churches and small squares have kept their medieval layout. The Cathedral of St Tryphon, from the twelfth century, is the main landmark, and cats are everywhere, as the town's unofficial mascots.
Read the complete Kotor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kotor sits at 559 km, about halfway. Next is Ulcinj.
Ulcinj lies on the far south of the Montenegrin coast, almost at the Albanian border, and it has a different character from the towns further north. The old town sits on a rocky headland above the sea, and for centuries it was a base for corsairs and traders. The population here is largely Albanian, minarets share the skyline with church towers, and the cafés serve strong coffee and sweet pastries. The Cervantes legend says that Miguel de Cervantes was held captive here, and the town likes to remind visitors that Don Quixote's author may have been a prisoner in its harbour.
Read the complete Ulcinj write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ulcinj comes up 699 km in. Next is back through Kotor.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kotor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
838 km in you reach back through Kotor. Next is back through Dubrovnik.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dubrovnik write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Dubrovnik, late in the day. Next is back through Split.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Split write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Split sits at 1118 km, late in the day. Next is back through Zadar.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zadar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Zadar comes up 1257 km in. Next is Rijeka.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rijeka write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Rijeka. That is the ride.