Penguins Bike

Day 29 - Seven Hour World Cup Ferry - Cres, Croatia to Zadar, Croatia

DavidSarah

July 19, 2026 - biked 65 km (41 mi), ferry'd 100 km (62 mi) - biked 1177 km (731 mi) total

Finishing up our first island out of 1,244 islands total in Croatia! We're using a long ferry ride at the end to get a skip further south down the extra long gorgeous coast of Croatia.

We biked all day and then at 4:30 caught a 7+hour ferry to Zadar. The final World Cup game between Spain and Argentina started at 9pm. Sarah asked one of the guys if they would air the game but he shook his head no. We weren’t gonna get off the ferry until 10:30 so Sarah would miss most of the game. Yet, Croatia being a soccer nation and maybe something missed in translation, but at 8pm the TVs turned on to capture the pre-game action. We were able to see the first half at least.

The rest we saw through bar windows as we biked to our campsite, arriving at 11:15pm. Sarah was able to catch the overtime from a laptop from a friendly neighbor, but opted for a shower which made her miss the Spanish goal for the win.

Long day, but not as long as the faces of the Argentinian fans.

Starting out the day!
Lots of cute small boats on the way into Cres.
Cres is one of those harbor towns with a ton of restaurants. This would have been more of a zoo to bike through midday.
Rolling hills on the island of Cres. Very arid.
The wine tasting told us the beach in Lubenice was amazing. But we had no time and it was a giant hill to get there and back. Lubenice means watermelon, so I assume this was a delicious beach.
Sarah keeps climbing.
We had an emergency lunch at this tiny church. Everyone was hangry.
But the sandos were good.
Lunch bike.
We feel much better. It seemed every named place on the map on this island was just a church. All identical with two bells. Imagine hearing the bells in the olden times. They all still had service one day a week.
Bombing down the hill towards Lošinj, the next island over a small bridge.
Water break in the town of Osor.
Osor cat.
There was a small cathedral here with a string concert practice. They said the actual performance was tomorrow. There were all these TV trucks and cameras setup; it'll be on TV!
We went swimming. This is the only photographic evidence.
Leaving Osor.
Climbing again
Almost to our destination there was an old military base. Is it illegal to photograph a "no photography" sign?
The end. Mali Lošinj.
Another cute harbor town. But we were in a rush we had to get the one ferry a day from here to the mainland. But we couldn't find a ticket office. Turns out it closes at 1pm even though the last ferry is at 430pm.
Prepare to spend seven hours on this ferry to Zadar.
The pope was on this boat?
Bobby was not there.
The salon looks like this.
Very intimate sitting couches.
Always eat
Communication board.
There were five? intermediate stops on the ferry. Not pictured, but the whole nose of the boat lifted up!
Flow state
Is that another island over there?
These people were waving vigorously.
Incredible ferry sunsets.
Flow state.
Sarah pretending to take a selfie but really we are lusting after this shrimp print resort set.
What good luck, we were trapped on a ferry for seven hours during the world cup final and they put it on. Sarah was ecstatic. David was excited to see Tom Cruise.
This was not used but I can only imagine how fun it makes any emergency.
Some sailors wore polo shirts, some wore striped shirts. We're not sure who were in charge.
Gotta bike 6 km more tonight...
Through a sketchy oil tanker port.
The campsite was full? Idk the guy just told us to set up our tent kinda on the path. But we were 10 m from the sea!