Penguins Bike

Day 33 - Seven Hour World Cup Ferry - Cres, Croatia to Zadar, Croatia

July 19, 2026DavidSarah

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.

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.

We had an emergency lunch at this tiny church. Everyone was hangry.

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.

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.

Almost to our destination there was an old military base. Is it illegal to photograph a "no photography" sign?

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.

There were five? intermediate stops on the ferry. Not pictured, but the whole nose of the boat lifted up!

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.

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!

Day 32 - Island Style - Pazin, Croatia to Cres, Croatia

July 18, 2026David

July 18, 2026 - biked 68 km (42 mi), ferry'd 6.2 km (3.9 mi) - biked 1112 km (691 mi) total

Little bit of a rush today; we've got a ferry to catch! Instead of doing the main EuroVelo 8, we're going to do Croatia by island so we get scenic views and don't have to deal with as much traffic. So we cut straight across the Istrian Peninsula to the ferry to the island of Cres.

We some wonderful country backroads on the way, then some grueling highway shoulder hills with epic views. We stopped for water in a town with a church that has a relief of "St. George" but actually it was an old Roman god. They were so excited to find it they built a church there.

We had to bust for the ferry, though, and rolled right on and then it immediately left. We were both pooped but had to rush.

The island provided no relief as it was another 10 km of relentless uphill up to 500 m, then another 10 km right back down again. It did provide spectacular views. At the top was a saddle where you get to look out over the mainland on one side then the peninsula on the other. Truly a highlight. Then every few turns on the way down revealed new island views. I recommend traversing Cres for the views at some point.

I was hoping to set up camp, then walk into the town of Cres and we could get our first restaurant meal of Croatia. We went to Camping Kovačine and it was the most mega camping resort we have been to yet. Not like we had much of a camping choice, it was the only one on that part of the island. There are 500 camp pitches and one million kids on scooters and a live band and grilling outside restaurant. And it's a 10 min bike outside of the real town. So we listened to the guitarist play Radiohead and some Italian song everyone knew the words to and ate čevapčići and grilled veggies and watched the sunset.