Hvar, Croatia

We didn't have any big plans for Hvar and google introduced us to an electric bike shop that got great reviews so we decided to give it a try! I reassured my daughter that we could just go for a short jaunt, turn around whenever we got tired, and then head back for a swim.

The bike shop had us scan a QR code for an 'easy' 90 minute route, looping in a circle back to the main town. The adventure began in the lavender fields that surround the town of Stari Grad and Hvar’s central areas. The e-bike was a welcome surprise. We could relax and enjoy the scenery without feeling like we had to do much work at all. Soon we started working our way uphill and headed up a winding mountain road. I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable the ride felt. With its battery-powered assistance, biking up a reasonably steep incline felt no harder than a gentle hill. Still, we were getting tired by the time we neared the top about 45 minutes later. We were grateful for an adorable little family run outdoor cafe offering cold beverages and snacks. We stopped in for some lavender flavored lemonade. My daughter even tried the local specialty with bee pollen sprinkled on top.

I can't say that the lemonade was the most delicious, but the views were stunning and we enjoyed our time there immensely. From there it was only a short 10 minute ride to the top where we had views of the water both directions. We stopped to soak in the scenery and snap some shots of our well earned viewpoint.

As we pulled out of the viewpoint, my GoogleMaps briefly indicated that we should go back the way we came. However, there was only one road and I was certain that the route we had been given made a circle. I pulled to the side of the road to discuss with my daughter when google 'recalculated' and pointed us down the hill to the other side. It was an exhilarating ride down, reaching speeds of about 40 kph. It was also quite a long ride. We reached the bottom of the hill another 40 minutes later and were grateful to know that we only had a short distance to travel to get back to town.

It was then that Google Maps told us to enter a parking lot and turn around, trying to send us back over the mountain from which we had just come. It was a single road with no turn arounds and apparently our mapping app decided that 'turning around' wasn't an option until we got to the bottom!

Unfortunately going back over the hill wasn't an option. By this point, we were both hot and tired. The allure of the E Bike assist has worn off slightly and we realized that we were still doing enough of the work ourselves that it just wouldn't be possible to make it all the way back up and down the mountain in that heat. I checked google again and 'recalculated' to find that we could travel about 20 kilometers along the coastline instead. This route seemed more in line with what the bike shop had described. They had said we would need to be on a main highway for a short while, but it would soon branch off onto a less busy road.

We set off on the highway with renewed confidence that we were getting close. My daughter was getting particularly hungry and tired, but I reassured her that we didn't have far to go, maybe only another 30 minutes or so. We biked onwards, but the highway continued without any sign of a smaller road that would follow the same route. Eventually the highway led up to a tunnel with very little lighting and no shoulder. We pulled over to the side of the road to problem solve as there was no way to safely go thru the tunnel with cars behind us traveling at highway speeds, no lights and no shoulder.

I gave up and called the bike shop. The attendant seemed shocked by where we were at. He said that the only safe way back would be to travel back to the base of the mountain and go up and over the other side. I looked to my daughter and knew that she didn't have another two hours of riding left in her, debating what to do. 

At that moment, a local fireman who had been pulled to the side of the road as well came over to ask what was going on. I gave a brief explanation and the bike shop asked to speak with him. They chatted animatedly in Croatian and the fireman handed me back the phone. The man from the bike shop explained that the fireman would follow up thru the tunnel so that we could bike safely and we hung up.

After hanging up, the fireman said that it would just be another 20 minutes or so because they had to CLOSE THE TUNNEL. This was not what we had anticipated or intended... closing down a major highway on the island was not on our 'to do' list for the day. At that point though, I didn't have another plan. It seemed the guys had it all worked out and were happy with the solution so we waited... and waited... About 30 minutes later, the fireman gave us the go ahead to start biking and explained to us that he had talked to the car behind us who would follow us through.

We set off as fast as we could manage, with a parade of cars behind us. I'm not convinced they all go the full plan explained as when we reached the other side, we received a cacophony of honking and dirty looks. I'd like to take the opportunity now to apologize to any drivers on Hvar that day that we kept waiting!  Thankfully, or perhaps not, depending on your perspective, they had only 'closed' the tunnel for about a minute to allow some particularly large trucks thru. As we biked, vehicle traffic was flowing in both directions, albeit slowly behind the two exhausted gals trying to frantically bike out of the way.