Hiking, Hiking and more Hiking...

Day two of hiking the UNESCO protected lakes of Plitvice.  We got there right as it opened so that we could beat the tour buses that started showing up about an hour later.  And we had the park almost to ourselves, which made for an enjoyable 2 hours or so.  After that, there were people everywhere, and the narrow walkways and paths were so crowded I was afraid one of us was going to accidentally go swimming.  We remedied that by heading on an out of the way hike to a gorgeous viewing spot that almost none of the tourists knew about (I had read about how to find it online) and the 1/2 hour it took us to get there was well worth it in the end.  There isn't much else to say about the park, so I will give you the pictures but keep going past them, and I will post the video of the girls zip lining later that afternoon...

Ready to go!

Sorry for the picture overload but it is stunningly gorgeous, right?  I just couldn't narrow it down any further.  And we weren't done with our day yet.  We left the park behind and had a quick lunch before heading out to explore a bit more of the area that surrounds the park.  First thing we stumbled upon was this castle remains from the 11th century.  The area of Drežnik has almost constantly been under some sort of border dispute and battle for ownership given it's location.  The castle was repeatedly conquered, destroyed and rebuilt.  In 1917, the Croatian government places the remains under protection and started preservation efforts that continue to this day.  We spent a bit of time wandering around and hiking the area...

The girls had been so great up to this point.  Not once complaining about the heat or the hiking so we thought we would do something super fun for them.  As we were driving to the castle we passed a zip line spot so we drove back over and surprised them with a bit of a thrill.  Funny enough, Madhatter had just told us that the wish she made on the toe of the statue of Gregory of Nin back in Split (this is a thing) did not come true.  She had wished that she could fly.  And then she did!