Today we say goodbye to Pula and head down to Zadar. It's a beautiful sunny day (again) for the four hour drive. As we head east across the peninsula, we have snow capped mountains to the north, and rugged escarpments to the south. The landscape is quite dramatic. Not quite the non-descript scenes we encountered on the drive into Istria. There are broad flat valleys surrounded by rocky ridge lines. The road sweeps over rivers on bridges some 300m high. Long sweeping tunnels which burrow through the mountains. The level of engineering involved in the highway construction makes our main roads department look like rank amateurs (and out Bruce Highway look like a veritable goat track).

A very curious thing happened about an hour into the drive (no not another fine) . The temperature had been a balmy 12C since we left Pula. All of a sudden as we crested a small rise and descended into a valley, the temperature plummeted to -2C. The fields were covered in frost. And the windows started to ice up. It was extraordinary. I've never encountered such a drop in temperature without being in an alpine mountain range. This subzero temperature continued for about another hour, until we climbed out of the valley, and the temperature went back up to 12C. Weird.

It's not long before the clear blue waters of the Adriatic Sea appear on our right. The scene is so picture perfect. A scattering of snow covering the ground, clear blue skies above us, reaching right down to the blue waters of the ocean. Dotting the coastline are small villages and ports. Who knew Croatia would have such breathtaking scenery.

Finally made it into Zadar. We only have one night here as we want to push on to Split tomorrow. Still, more than enough time left in the day to do a leisurely walk around the town center to get a feel for the city. Maybe find a cosy bar for a glass of wine or two. If we like the place maybe we'll stay on our way back up to Zagreb and Budapest.