Croatia offers the sports enthusiast an endless variety of outdoor activities and adventures.  Over the last few weeks we’ve enjoyed the beautiful scenery and created our own triathlon, featuring stair climbing, biking, and kayaking.

Stair Climbing in Croatia

The walls of Dubrovnik, fortified in the 15th century, offer a mile and a quarter scenic stroll around the old city.

Stairs abound  — first we had to climb up to the wall, then up and down along the wall.

Luckily there were no cruise ships in town when we took our stroll on a late afternoon. So, we enjoyed relative peace and quiet as we peered down at the red tiled roofs of the old city.

Of course, we had a change to practice our favorite position.

The scenery along the walls was breathtaking, and we were also reminded that many people and animals live within the walls.

We also climbed through the wall to the Buza bar, where we enjoyed an overpriced beer and watched the sun set.

The “street” listed for our AirBnb, was actually a steep stairway.  Houses and apartments cover the hill above Dubrovnik, and all the up and down streets are not streets at all — just pedestrian stairs. We trekked up and down these stairs every time we wanted to get back to our apartment.

But, the trek was worth it!  Our apartment had a lovely deck for watching the sunset and enjoying calm morning coffee.

Ed found even the shorter Dubrovnik stairways to be visually compelling … he had to wait a bit for tourists (and locals) to get out of the way of his shot.

The stairways beckon — by day or night!

On the island of Hvar, our AirBnB was also located up some steep stairs above a beach. it offered a spectacular view from the deck.

On Hvar, we hiked to an abandoned village and saw this interesting  800 year old shelter for farmers. It has survived all these years, with no cement or grout. It’s able to move a bit during earthquakes and the central key stone holds the building intact.

We hiked a bit more and had amazing views of Croatia.

Stairs in Montenegro As Well

Our stair climbing continued into Kotor, Montenegro, where we encountered another walled city, with lots of opportunities to climb stairs.  

This “Great Wall of Kotor”, built between the 9th and 19th centuries, reminded us of the Great Wall of China.

Kayaking

In Dubrovnik, we joined a group led by Adriatic Kayak Adventures and kayaked between Lopud Island and Sipan Island (both are just a ferry ride away from Dubrovnik.) Before getting into the kayak, we learned a few tips on stroke techniques, donned our life jackets and kayak “skirts”, and headed into the water. We are glad to report that we did not capsize and held our own among the other kayakers (who were all in the 20’s or 30’s.) We learned that a 81-year-old couple from California had recently completed a 7 day kayak trip with our guide. Now that’s aspirational!

Biking

On Sipan Island, we traded the kayaks in for Trek Bikes.  

The bikes had a very familiar feel, and we enjoyed the scenic ride among the olive trees and vineyards. The 250 residents of Sipan Island are proud to be in the Guinness Book of Records for having the most olive oil production per capita than any place in the world.  We sampled the local production and it was delicious. We ended up on the other side of Sipan Island and admired the view.

On Our Next Visit to Croatia

We will expand our Croatian “Triathlon” to many move adventure sports that we witnessed, including:

Paddle boarding with white lab.

Sun bathing with a white lab.

Walking with golden retriever (don’t tell Sydney!)

But, alas we had no pets along for the ride.

We could have played water polo directly off the shore in the charming town of Cavtat (apparently many members of the Croatian National team have trained here.)

But alas, we had no water polo ball and no “speedos” (which was definitely a good thing…)

To round out our fitness program in Croatia, we  exercised our upper bodies by lifting steins of the local beers and glasses of delicious wine that perfectly matched the grilled local fish. 

After all of the exercise on this trip, our next destination will be more foodie experiences in Istria. As they say in Croatian: živjeli!