Central European Water

The last few weeks have had a definite water theme. We started with a water park in Krakow. This indoor pool had seven serious slides, four of them started on the third floor, went outside then came back in. They included a black tube with worm-hole style lighting and two pitch black “racers”. Lots of active fun.

The next time we “swam” was in an outdoor bath in Budapest. We took the waters with hundreds of others. This mostly involves standing amongst people who should wear bigger bathing suits. The building was huge, old and beautiful. Inside were steam rooms and smaller mineral pools. We didn’t take pictures of either of these.
We next hit Rab Island on the northern Croatian coast. The pictures show the roofs of the medieval town center and of course Ben in the sand. It looks like we caught up with summer again.

After the beach, we went inland to the Plitvicka Lakes. This place is good enough to plan a trip around (though I’d throw in Krakow and a few others). A dozen or so lakes cascade down through a gorge. They are damed by travertine covered in plants and moss. The water comes over the dams in curtains, drizzles, stair-step cascades, inside tubes, chutes and pulsing squirts.

The Croatians have built raised wooden pathways that follow the contours without disturbing them. There are no developments on the lake shore. It’s all nicely done.
The pictures include one of our submissions for the Oregonian’s Travel section. We have a few others in case this one doesn’t make it.