So, three months after we signed all of the legal documents for The House in the solictors’ office in Rijeka, we found ourselves, on 1st March 2017, heading from our stop-over in Zagreb, to the village of Zrenj in Istria. A very good friend of ours had helped us to organise the transportation of all […]
All of our wordly belongings were being transported from Didsbury to Istria and we knew that we’d have a couple of days, at least, in the house, with only what we could carry in our luggage. So, no bed, no bedding, no crockery, no kettle, no towels. And, no TEALIGHTS! There was only one thing […]
So, here’s what happens when you get a bit cocky on your travels. This is a salutory tale, and if you ever come to visit us, we hope you avoid the rooky errors we made… We’d had two glorious days and nights in Venice, experiencing the festival and were due to collect a hire car […]
Since our first visit to Rovinj, I have wanted to stay in the beautiful Hotel Adriatic, a luxurious boutique hotel, located on the main square and overlooking the picturesque harbour. The official website describes it as being: Transformed from a place to sleep into a place for dreamers, Hotel Adriatic is an intimate space bringing […]
Fast forward a couple of months from the last blog, and Monday 5th December, saw us sitting in a solicitors’ office in Riejka, with the sellers, signing paperwork & taking possession of the keys to the house… Just five months after seeing it online for the very first time, the house was ours! The whole […]
Our second trip to The House, this time to view internally, was much less problematic direction-wise, as we were already becoming used to the Istrian roads. What had seemed like a very long journey and an isolated location the previous day, all of a sudden seemed a whole lot more accessible and whilst in a […]
So, we’d arrived in Istria and hired a car, with the intention of finding the house we’d spotted online. Armed with a map and sat-nav we set off, climbing higher and higher up into the Istrian hills. Although it was July, it was quite cool and a overcast, but we could still see the potential […]
So, we decided to take flights out to Istria and try and find the house we’d spotted online, but were getting still no responses from the sellers to our calls and emails. Bonkers? Yes, of course. But sometimes, you just get that feeling… Summer flights from Manchester to Pula were stupidly inexpensive – £60 return […]
It’s been a while since I posted about the new adventure that is the house in Istria. In fact, the last post just showed a photo of the keys and a glass of fizz… Yes, on Monday 5th December 2016, we signed all of the official paperwork, made the payment, and that was it. The […]
Opatija is located on the north eastern side of the Istrian peninsula, on the Adriatic coast. Opatija was the most fashionable seaside resort during the Austro-Hungarian Empire and many fine hotels, residences and houses were built there during that period. European royalty also stayed there then, as did famous celebrities such as the dancer Isadora […]
We do like to find unusual places to stay on our travels, and so on a recent trip to Rijeka, in Croatia, we were intrigued by Botel Marina – a unique boat hotel, moored in the marina, right in the city centre. The website describes it as a unique combination of “a boat with a […]
So, on Monday 5th December 2016, *this* happened. Meaning, it’s now all very real, indeed…