Pero and his bike

srijeda, 09.12.2020.

Istria 2020 - Part Two

You can come back on the first part of this travelogue here.

You can see the map of the part two of the journey here.

I went back along the road by the sea towards the camp, those few hundred meters, and filmed another of the camp beaches, which was more tamer and even looked like a real beach.

I turned the lens of my camera a little to the right towards the “open” sea, I caught an interesting little boat.

I was returning to the town on another, parallel road and came across an interesting thing, the last in the current depiction of this interesting town. This does not mean that there was no more of it, on the contrary! But I have to leave something for another time.
That interesting thing was the church of Our Lady of the Sea.


According to Wikipedia Naval Church of Our Lady of the Sea built for sailors of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in Pula. It was built on the hill of St. Polycarp in Pula in 1898. The whole church is built of alternating rows of white Istrian stone from Brijuni and marble of some kind of red colour extracted in the quarries of Oprtalj and Brtonigla. The solemn inauguration was also attended by Emperor Francis Joseph, from whose treasury the church was financed. The anecdote says that during that visit to the church he scratched on a marble pillar, to which of course those present (as it already is) anxiously asked him if he did not like the church. Francis Joseph's answer was, "I'm just checking to see if it's under the gold, given how much it cost to build the church."
From the first meeting with her, while I was here in the Navy, I was impressed by the preservation of the entire building. I admit that even then, and today too, it looked beautiful to me, somehow monumental.
But don't discuss the tastes, so here are a few details and judge for yourself.



That the church has connections with the sea and sailors is indicated by the carved naval knot.

Okay, I waited until half-past two, I guess now the sun is the hottest, so I can continue the journey (a little sarcasm towards myself).
To realize that it could be worse from this heat,
showed me heavy traffic and perfidious uphill. The uphill was too gentle to walk, and yet too steep to drive. So I mastered it just like that, a little on foot, a little by riding. That it was not so hot, probably I would ride it without any major problems, but like this ...

During one of the countless short breaks, I stepped into the shade that was right next to the yard of a house. In the yard, the "man's best friend" enjoyed the attention of his owner.

That uphill from Pula will never disappear. Maybe it reduced its slope a bit, so I drove, although not at a very high speed. But that's why I was sweating profusely, as well as I consume fluids. I took a short break, just to calm my breath and take a few sips, preferably in the shade, of some sort.
But to finding shade was not easy at all.
I was all bathed in the sweat of my face (and body). I looked longingly at the houses of the settlements in front of me, holding that it was Vodnjan. While I was promising myself a longer vacation in that place, I gathered strength and increased the pace to get to that place as soon as possible. And I arrived, but not in Vodnjan, but in Galižan, a place 4 km before Vodnjan.
After the surprise astonishment ensued, then despair, then calm, and finally reconciliation. I accepted this as another of the Supreme temptations and headed straight through an unexpected place.
The more I entered the place, the street was narrower and narrower. In the end, a very narrow street went between the old houses of the place.


From about halfway to that, still unreachable Vodnjan, together with the railway, I went under the overpass of an access road to the highway called the Istrian Y. Somehow at the same time as I was preparing the camera to capture the scene, I heard a passing train. It was more like a railbus, at railfan known as the Swede (because it was made in Sweden). In me, that vehicle caused sadness - that's what the railway in Istria was reduced to, a poor little bus.


With patience and perseverance, both abundantly drenched in my sweat, I drove to the first houses of Vodnjan, long-awaited.
I was first greeted by a new, lavish bike path, unfortunately not overly long.

I gradually entered the old part of town through the narrow streets. The impression of street narrowness was enhanced by tall houses.


Confusingly interesting to me was a traffic sign at an intersection ordering me to turn right, although the abundance of tourist signposts behind it suggested that it would be good to turn left.

As a true decent citizen, I followed the first one who does not tolerate disobedience.
And I finally arrived at the main square of the place.
I first renewed my liquid supplies. From a cold, dewy bottle, poured the contents into my thermoses, and calmly set off to tour the square.
The town square, today's Narodni Trg (People's square), was built in 1808 after the demolition of the castle, which was located here. When the castle was demolished, a large square surrounded by palaces was built, which still adorns it today. In 1910 a municipal palace was built on it in the neo-Gothic-Venetian style.
(Source: https://vodnjandignano.com/hr/gradski-trg/stranica/105)
The town hall was beautiful to me! (Perhaps because of the surprise, because "not in a dream" I did not expect such a magnificent building in this small town).

Across from the town hall is the Bradamante Palace which was the town hall until this one on the above image was built.

Before leaving the square, I filmed another building, but I did not know the year of construction or its purpose.

From this People's Square, or City Square, to the next, Parish Square, I walked down a narrow alley, called Casello Street.

This square is dominated by the large church of St. Blaise
According to Wikipedia, the church of St. Blaise in Vodnjan, a Roman Catholic church dedicated to St. Blaise. It was built from 1760 to 1800 and is the largest church in the wider area. The height of the church tower is 60 meters. The church has ten altars, 24 paintings and 18 sculptures. The church houses a collection of relics and mummies of saints.


Typically for this area, the tower is separated from the church. Nonetheless, it is really impressive.


But for me, this square was, at this moment (hot afternoon), especially interesting because of the great shade (visible on the left in the image below).

And not only that! There was a bench in that great shade!

I felt like a desperate man in the desert who finally finds an oasis or a shipwrecked man who, also finally, finds land. The right thing at the right time! I couldn't have wished for better.
Realizing this as a gift from God to my perseverance in that temptation of driving through Galizana, I indulged in the pleasure that followed. I lay down on the bench with my hand around my bike. In the shade of the trees, about ten meters from me, were the tables of a cafe where two pensioners were lively discussing a topic known only to them. Strange, but at that moment, their discussion gave me confidence and serenity, though I neither listened nor understood what it was about.
The sound of the wind blowing through the leaves of the tree it seemed to me like a gentle and quiet but effective lullaby.
In a word, I fell asleep like a baby.
There is no presidential suite, five-star hotel, or a luxurious four-poster bed that could, at that moment, give me the pleasure of physical rest and mental relaxation that a wooden bench in this environment gave me.
The dream, or as it would it be called, lasted about 20 minutes. But 20 Divine Minutes!
I opened my eyes with the feeling of a completely different person. Rested, encouraged, strengthened and relaxed, I got on my bike and moved on.
Just before I left, I filmed a scene across the bench

Riding through a maze of narrow streets, a kind of passage appeared from the side, which I filmed.

I had to go through the last narrow street, to get out of this small town.

First I crossed the railway, and then the Istrian Y motorway.


It was about 5 in the afternoon, the sun was already fading in its heating, the shadows were longer, so they were falling (more and more often) on the road by which I was riding. Besides, the uphill became milder so I could, almost “normally” ride. And maybe it all seemed to me, because that dream revived me, so everything was easier and more bearable for me.
The road became a real, wide main road, but the environment was not very interesting, so I let my thoughts wander wherever.
The board, which informs me that I am entering the place of Svetvinčenat, brought me back to reality.

I came to terms with the fact that night would catch me on this journey, so I gave up the (excessive) rush, so I decided to stop by this place for dinner.
Two sights impressed me in this small place.
First is the old castle.

According to Wikipedia, the Grimani stone castle, the best preserved in Istria, stretches across almost the entire northern side of the town square. It is the largest building in Svetvincenat. For centuries a symbol of the place itself. The first fortress was built at the beginning of the 13th century, but the turbulent years of war resulted in the frequent destruction, and then the restoration and change of appearance of the castle. In addition to appearance, the owners of the estates also changed. After the bishop, the Castropol family and the Morosini family, the patrician Venetian family Crimani di San Luca became the owners of the castle. The current shape of the building was given in 1589 when Marino Grimani restored the burned castle according to the design of the Venetian architects Scamozzi and Campagne
Another attraction is the old church on the main square of the place.


According to Wikipedia, in the eastern part of the town square, there is the parish church of the Annunciation of Mary, built in the early 16th century from local carved stone. Although the exact time of the church's origin and the name of the architect are not yet known, according to some similar architectural details made in Istria, it can be concluded that its construction began at the end of the 15th century and was completed by 1529. That year, Pietro Morosini, the head of a Venetian family whose initials are on the coats of arms carved on the front of the church, died.
Not far from the church, in the thick shade, I had dinner in the form of a pizza on the terrace of the pizzeria.

Dinner was pleasant for me, the shade was pleasant for me, the general impression of the old, and unexpectedly large, square in this small place was pleasant for me, so because of all of that pleasants I stayed pleasant sitting long, much longer than expected.
I continued towards Kanfanar along a road that was “less important”, i.e. of a local character. Traffic is zero, the asphalt is good, but what especially marked this ride to that Kanfanar is - shade, nice quiet, fresh, heavenly shade. Finally the heat subsided, so I got into pleasurable part of the summer day that always lasts too short (again that cruel truth that “everything beautiful lasts a short time, no matter how long it lasts)”.

I didn't stay in Kanfanar for a long time, just because of one shot, to have some kind of memory of this place.

Arriving on the road by which I was driving in the opposite direction this morning, the Limski Channel appeared in front of me, into which I quickly descended. It seemed to me too fast due to the short duration of pleasure. Now the harder part remained - the uphill. The sun had already gone to rest so I was at that border when the day didn’t completely disappear and the night didn’t completely cover the surroundings.

And while I was enjoying the dusk, I was mastering the uphill on foot, pushing the bike. I did this on the left side of the road, so that watching the channel, which was on my left side, became a kind of mental preoccupation that would hasten my sense of the passing of time.

I used the last rays of light of the day and filmed the channel once more. The picture is blurry, but I hope it gives you a general impression of the atmosphere in which I was at the moment.

Till the end of today's trip, I still had about ten kilometres of driving on a very local road on which there is no traffic (there is not even a line in the middle). The night finally swallowed the last ray of light, so I got a unique opportunity to practically try out the new bicycle lamp purchased at the Lidl store.

As you can see from the picture above, the lamp is an excellent, real headlight of a (larger) motorcycle.
And finally, after 14 hours, I arrived where I started this morning. In the meantime, I passed 122 km. It’s not some average, but I’m very pleased. I wasted a lot of time admiring the old architecture of Istria, and I was also hampered by the (too) great heat.
Anyway, I am proud of myself, overjoyed by my new knowledge of the largest Croatian peninsula. And this realization brought a grain of unrest into my soul that will discreetly, gently, and considerately, but patiently, constantly and persistently warn me that I should visit Istria a few more times.
By bike, of course!

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