The "train" ride from Zagreb to Zadar was not without trial. The railway system in Croatia is not only sparse because of topography, but also somewhat in disrepair due to the conflicts in the 1990's. So we based our trip, in part, on where we could get to by train. The two major train-accessible cities on the Dalmatian coast are Zadar and Split, and so we decided we'd bike between the two, giving us an extra option if we had difficulties with the ferry. We figured we'd take an overnight train for the 8-hour trip between Zagreb and Zadar, catch some Z's, and be ready to go in the morning. What we hadn't counted on was renovation along the main stretch of the track between the two cities.

We boarded our train out of Zagreb the evening of the day we arrived, again with our huge boxes. The compartments were six-person cabins and the train was uncrowded, so we had one all to ourselves. It would have been perfectly fine to travel those eight hours in our little cabin stretched out on the seats. But we could only doze for the first three hours. Once we reached Ostarije, we were herded off the train to a bunch of waiting buses. Our train conductor initially indicated that the bus drivers would probably not allow us to take our boxes! And then he said, well, they might, but for a hefty fee. But something caused him to become generous and he then seemed to indicate that he'd talk to the bus driver and try to get us and our boxes on for free. Which is what ended up happening. It was too complicated for two o'clock in the morning. It was made even more complex by the fact that the buses weren't all going to the same destinations. After heaving our boxes all the way across a large train-bus station, we found the buses. Somehow we found the correct bus and boarded, our boxes stashed in the baggage compartment below.

The bus was hot, stuffy, packed full, and otherwise rather unpleasant. It was hard to sleep because of being scrunched up in the small seats. And every hour or so the bus would stop at some outpost to let passengers use a toilet or stretch their legs. During these stops the cold night air rushed into the bus awaking anyone who did manage to drift off. I dozed when I could, but mostly I just stared out the window at the unfamiliar landscape drifting by in black and white. We were inland, somewhere. Completely disoriented, I had no idea of the bus route or the current location. We passed through small villages, and along long stretches devoid of obvious human habitation. Some of the villages were derelict, with entire blocks of buildings falling apart (or, rather, probably bombed apart).

Five hours later we arrived in Knin where we hauled our boxes across another transit station to an awaiting train. This one was, again, almost empty. We slept the last two hours into Zadar in a similar six-person compartment. At 7:00 AM we were in Zadar, the two of us alone on the train platform with our bulky boxes. The bright sun shone overhead in a flawlessly blue sky. We assembled our bikes and asked where to dispose of our boxes. With panniers attached, we were no longer awkward tourists wrestling bulky luggage, but instead were sleek travelers, able to cross cities and countryside on our own steam power, all of our necessities with us. We were free.

Our first destination was the historic center of Zadar, where we traversed narrow pedestrian alleys to an outdoor cafe for breakfast. As we ate, the fairly empty square filled with people. By the time we left around 10:00, there wasn't an empty seat anywhere. We left to search out the local hostel outside the center. Once we'd showered and napped, we headed back to the center in the afternoon to do some sight-seeing. This is St. Donat's Church. It was built in the ninth century from the stones of the ruined Roman forum which had existed on the same spot.

After wandering for a while, we settled along the "beach" to read and people-watch. There are apparently few pebble beaches along the coast, and even fewer sand ones. Most beaches are concrete. In the evening we ate pizza at a tourist-trap restaurant near the hostel and checked out the massive resort facility next door. Croatia has been rebuilding its tourist industry and is a popular spot for northern European vacationers. We were there too early in the season to be inundated, but it was easy to see how the coastal areas would overflow with people in just a couple months. We weren't particularly impressed with the resort. We then watched televised coverage of the Sweden vs. Netherlands game in the Euro 2004 soccer tournament -- along with the rest of the hostel clientele -- but went to bed when the score was tied at the end of regulation; we were sleepy.

The next day we were on the road by 10:00 AM and it was already quite warm. We resolved to rise earlier to take advantage of the cooler mornings. Our first day of biking would take us inland to avoid the major holiday road right along the coast. We would miss the views, but also the unending traffic.

Biking out of Zadar, we began to get the first glimpses that Croatia was more than just a vacationer's paradise. From 1991 to 1995 Serbian forces came close to capturing the city, controlling the surrounding low hills and suburbs. We saw signs warning us not to stray from the roads for fear of land mines and actual damage wrought in the conflict.

While we had several detailed maps of the area, the all differed on what roads existed and in what state of repair. We were trying to stay off the main road, and that meant a bit of navigational confusion. We biked right by a turn onto a "road" that looked like a small path, came back on a different road and missed the corresponding intersection again. After a couple of hours of frustration, we found the route we wanted. This is one of the many dead ends we encountered.

While examples of dilapidation and destruction existed, they were dwarfed by the many examples of brand new construction we saw throughout the inland. In most villages we passed through, the churches had been completely restored or rebuilt. Many other buildings were in the process of following suit. We discovered no deserted villages; they were all being resettled and rebuilt.

The landscape itself was stunning and teeming with life. There were wildflowers of all colors along the roads and butterflies just as numerous. We saw a couple snakes and learned from the roadkill that marmots and tortoises also inhabited the area. It was hilly, sunny, and hot. We made our way back to the coast for a late lunch in Biograd. There we avoided the hottest part of the day in the shade of a cafe's umbrellas. A few hours later we biked along the main road to Lake Vrana and the campsite nestled on its northern shore. We set up our tent, went swimming in the welcoming lake, showered, and ate at the campsite restaurant. Ben had grilled eel.

The biking the next day was through the agricultural inland. A mountain range rises up very quickly from the coast, sharply separating the tourist economy shore from the farmland on the other side. After grabbing breakfast in nearby Pakostane, we again decided to avoid the traffic of the main road by biking the bike route around the lake and following roads from there. The scenery was markedly different from that on the coast, but also beautiful.

The biking was relatively flat on the eastern side of the mountains until we had to cross them once again for the coast. We biked up them and down again into the seaside town of Vodice.

We ate lunch on some steps in the cool alleyways of Vodice...

...and cooled off with some ice cream on the shore.

We people-watched for a while and spotted a couple of motorcycles that Ben had heard about belonging to a couple biking around the world. After a couple hours we hit the main road (our only choice) to Sibenik.

The road was without discernable shoulders and while many vehicles gave us room, the tourist buses showed us no mercy, almost forcing us off the road a few times. We had to bike all the way around Sibenik to get to the campgrounds that we knew about. It turned out that one of them had gone out of business. A local woman had showed it to us when we explained what we were looking for. She said that no one would mind if we set up our tents on it anyway, but we were in favor of toilets, so we biked off to the other, bigger, more RV-friendly campground: Solaris. It happened to be hosting the "5th Annual Adria Camping Rally" and was absolutely packed with tourists and their RV's all the way from Scandinavia and Hungary to France and Italy. They said we could camp there if we could find a spot, and we nestled our tent in between a couple trees where RV's wouldn't fit. The silver lining was that the facilities were top quality and very clean. We washed our clothes and set them out on a line to dry (but it was too shady and they didn't). Then we biked into the nearby village of Siblace for dinner where we found only mediocre pizza and many mosquitoes.

The next day was bound to be a long one, so we got up early and biked into Sibenik on back roads. We found a bookstore and bought a roadmap of the local region. We wanted to visit Krka National Park. The weather was looking threatening, but we decided to chance it anyhow. We maneuvered through the busy streets of Sibenik and found the correct road out of the city and up -- UP -- into the countryside. We got out our rain gear when it started raining for a few minutes, but then had to stop again to put it away when the sun came out and we got hot in it. Ben got a flat tire and we had to stop to patch it. Then I desperately needed a bathroom while we were still in the populated suburbs and had trouble finding an establishment that would let me use theirs. Eventually we made our way close to the park. We were a bit concerned about where we would spend that night and so took a side trip of a few miles to check out a couple home-made "campsites": essentially just nearby entrepreneurial folks who let visitors set up RV's or tents in their yards and use their bathrooms. They weren't thrilling, but would do in a pinch if we stayed too long at the park or if the weather turned worse. We locked up our bikes at the park entrance and talked to a guide at the information center. She was pleased to talk to us in English; we were apparently the first Americans of the season (that she knew of). We then descended the steep ravine by foot into the main part of the part. The limestone of the Krka valley forms a multitude of waterfalls and pools. We followed the hiking trails that wander amongst these waterfalls and admired the beauty of the area.

We had lunch at the base of Skradinski buk and, after a bit more hiking, shed our clothing and went swimming in the pool at the bottom of the seventeen cascading waterfalls. Then it was back to the bikes and a fast ride back down -- DOWN -- to Sibenik. We biked on the major road some, on minor roads when we could, around the city, past the Solaris campground and along the coast to the Adriatic campground north of Primosten.