Croatia Airlines, the Croatian national air carrier, has recently officially confirmed that it has introduced many new direct flights in their summer timetable.

New seasonal flights are being added from Zadar airport to Munich and Zurich.

The first regular flight from Zadar to the Bavarian metropolis is scheduled for 3 May whilst from 29 September airplanes on that line will fly twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Direct connection between Zadar and Zurich will start on 20 May and last until 30 September. This line will also operate twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays.

In the summer timetable Croatia Airlines will connect Zagreb with Istanbul on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Up until now Croatia Airlines had only been leasing seats on the flights of Turkish Airlines for this connection.

Return flights between Dubrovnik and Venice will also be established twice a week, on Thursdays and Sundays, from 19 May to 23 October this year. The aircraft which will connect these two pearls of the Adriatic is Dash 8-Q400, with the capacity of 76 seats. New flights will also be introduced from Dubrovnik to Athens (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays) and from Dubrovnik to Belgrade (Mondays and Wednesdays).

There will also be flights from Split to Hamburg (Tuesdays and Saturdays), and once again, the line between Rijeka and London has been established, with flights on Wednesdays.

Another novelty is that Croatia Airlines, in cooperation with SAS, will fly via Copenhagen to New York and Washington, starting from this summer.

Italian airline Air One, owned by Alitalia, will from 25 September this year introduce a direct line from Milano
Malpensa to Zagreb. It will fly three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Visit Croatia Airlines for more info and booking.

As I said in my previous post, the reason for this is high cost of running this ferry, as  it needs 62 crew members to sail while in winter month, there are only  in average 7 passengers that are using this ferry.

The author of the article emphasises this information is still unofficial, as official decision about future of this ferry line will be made at the end of February, when authorities will hold meeting with all interested parties.

So, for time beeing, if you intend to travel around Croatia out of June to October period, try not to base your travel plans around  Rijeka-Split-Hvar-Korcula-Dubrovnik-Bari ferry.

Join the conversation here : http://www.find-croatia.com/forum/index.php/topic,2186.0.html

During this period, in Rijeka and the entire Kvarner varioius events, concerts, exhibitions, theatre performances and celebrations will be held,. On January 30th, the Carnival Snowboard Session will be held in the centre of Rijeka, at which around 20 top snowboarders from around 10 countries will participate. This snow event is unique for its snow trail 200 meters from the sea for which 70 m2 of snow is transported into Rijeka.

The carnival is continued on February 6th, when the Rijeka Korzo (main square) will host the children’s carnival.  The climax of the carnival is on February 14th when the international carnival procession will be held at the same location. The competition in creativity, wittiness and originality, the fireworks of colours and shapes will result in a parade of hundreds of allegorical floats, thousands of masks and a great audience.

According to some estimates, the streets of Rijeka gather more than 150,000 participants from the country and all over the world during this event. Six centuries of carnival tradition in this area and the influence of the Venetian and Austrian bourgeois carnivals are the basis on which the renewed Rijeka carnival started to create is unique identity in 1982. Starting with three local carnival groups and 100 participants, it has grown into an international event, numbering today over ten thousand participants from various countries.

The number of participants and spectators has ensured the Rijeka carnival membership in the  Federation of European Carnival Cities (FECC)  placing it among the most significant in Europe.

The Rijeka Carnival has imposed itself with its uniqueness as the fifth season of the year – the season of going crazy and relaxation, and with its rich entertainment, sports and cultural program. More info on  Rijeka International Carnival web:  www.ri-karneval.hr

The international carnival procession, which is expected to gather groups from the Rijeka region, those from all over Croatia and abroad, is scheduled for 22 February.

The Queen of the Carnival will be chosen on 23 January, and the keys to the town will be turned over to the Mayor of the Carnival, Master of Ceremonies Toni.

The centre of Rijeka will see different events among which a snowboard competition that has also been announced.

Check more info at carnival site here

The motorway network in Croatia is becoming longer and longer, so it is now safe to say that this is a country having one of the most developed road infrastructures in Europe.

The construction of the remaining 14.5-kilometer-long sections of the Zagreb-Rijeka Motorway contributed to this. Last October, the construction of the full profile of the motorway connecting the Croatian capital with Rijeka was completed.

Thanks to this, visitors to Croatia,  arriving by road in the North Adriatic from European countries will have a more pleasant and faster trip than ever. In addition, the wooded and increasingly interesting Gorski Kotar, the Croatian capital city of Zagreb and other continental destinations are now even closer to guests taking their holidays in the North Adriatic, so they will be able to enjoy an even more extensive excursion program.

The length of the Zagreb-Rijeka Motorway is 146.4 kilometers and it only takes 1 hour and fifteen minutes to travel the distance between the two cities. The motorway has 13 tunnels of the overall length of 10.3 kilometers and six bridges of 1.7 kilometers.

The Zagreb-Rijeka Motorway is part of the European E65 route and part of the pan-European 5b corridor going via Zagreb to the border crossing with Hungary (Goričan) and further to Budapest.

Concurrently with the opening of the remaining part of the Zagreb-Rijeka Motorway, the section between the Goričan border crossing on the Croatian side and the Letenye border crossing on the Hungarian side and the bridge on Mura were opened, thanks to which the full-profile motorway now connects Budapest and Rijeka.
The motorway stretches for 263.7 kilometers in Croatia.

In Hungary, where intensive work has also been done on its construction, the motorway is 232.5 kilometers long. Visitors from Budapest will now be able to reach the Croatian Adriatic in less than five hours by car, which will surely be another reason for the traditionally numerous tourists from Central and Eastern Europe to visit Croatia.

Read more about roads in Croatia and visit Autocesta Rijeka-Zagreb site at www.arz.hr

The construction work on the motorway began in 1971 and is valued at 660 million euros.

Also, the section of the motorway between Gorican and the Hungarian border and the new Mura bridge between Croatia and Hungary have been opened, so that now the Zagreb-Gorican motorway is fully operational.

As of 1 November, the motorway toll for this route will be HRK 60.

Prime Minister Sanader stated that this was the realization of a dream for the citizens of Croatia which could not be achieved during the period of Yugoslavian rule.
Croatia was not a priority in those times and could not lead independent politics as far as economics or any other aspect of life was concerned.

The proceeds of this year’s event will go towards funding young athletes.

The winner was the Kenyan marathon runner Issak Tanui. 

After the event, participants were treated to a huge omelette made with proscuitto and asparagus, locally called a fritaja. More info and photos here

The exhibition presents art projects by Darko Fritz dating from 1987 to 2007 and is therefore a retrospective in nature. Particular projects lasted up to five years. The exhibition explores possibilities of artistic usage of archival means (audio-visual media) and ‘pure information’ as an art form and has been conceived as a ‘movie in space’ within a gallery space. This is the first presentation of his works in Rijeka.

The exhibition presents the following projects:                  
The Imitation of Life Studio – 1987 – 1990 (group project: Fritz, Serdarevic)
Cathedral – 1988 (group project: Bakal, Fritz, Juzbasic, Marusic, Premec)                             
3 x Moscow Intershadow -1992                            
Theatre Time -1994                            
Keep the Frequency Clear -1994 – 1995               
Error Reports – 1995 – 1997     
End of the Message – 1995 – 2000                                      
XXX – 1997 – in progress (group project: p.sound remix:network art)
space=space – 1998 – 2003 (group project: 1999 Fritz, Arapovic)
time=money=time= – 2000 – 2001                                                              
Internet Error Messages – 2001 – in progress
Migrant Navigator – 2002 – in progress      

DARKO FRITZ (Zagreb, 1966) – Fritz studied Architecture in Zagreb (1986 – 1989), and at the Department of media art at Rijksakademie in Amsterdam (1990-1992). He exhibited at numerous group and solo exhibitions in Croatia and abroad, and his works can be found in famous collections (Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, The Museum of Contemporary Art  Zagreb, Museum of the City of Skopje, World Bank Washington, Museum of Arts & Crafts Zagreb, NSB Zagreb). He lives in Amsterdam, Zagreb and on island of Korcula.

More info about Darko Fritz’s art projects: www.darkofritz.net + www.mmsu.hr

This year’s Rijeka Carnival includes various exhibitions, entertainment programmes, theatre performances and the traditional procession of bell-ringers and merry-makers.

A Children’s Carnival Procession with some 5,000 youngsters participating is scheduled for 26 January and an International Carnival Procession on 3 February, which will be attended by more than 10,000 participants and 100 carts.

Sime Strikoman will be documenting some 5,000 Carnival participants.

The end of the Carnival will be marked with the traditional burning of the Pust – a man-like doll blamed for all the bad things and events of the past year.

Rijeka Carnival home page : http://www.ri-karneval.com.hr/Home.aspx?PageID=1&gohome=true

Dual carriage highway section from Kikovica to Oštrovica opened >> The 7.4-kilometre dual carriage highway section from Kikovica to Oštrovica, worth 276 million Kuna, a section within the Rijeka – Zagreb highway, was officially opened last week by Croatian Construction Minister Marina Matulović Dropulić.

The Rijeka-Zagreb highway has now 110 kilometers of dual carriage highway sections, and the rest of 36.5 kilometers should be build in 2008.

The minister said that the 20 percent of the newly-opened section were viaducts and subways.

The construction works carried out by Croatian companies took 16 months, a shorter time period than planned.

More info on Rijeka – Zagreb Autoput official site http://www.arz.hr

The hotel is located at a much-frequented location in the very heart of the city, right next to Rijeka’s well-known Korzo promenade, in the city centre with many shops, offices, museums and cultural monuments, only a few steps away from the Adriatic coast.

The Hotel Bonavia is one of the busiest hotels in Rijeka, but it has more than just its location to thank for that – it also has a long tradition behind it and a high level of services on offer.

The hotel boasts a four-star rating and offers 114 luxuriously appointed rooms and seven suites, including a presidential suite.

Besides its classic tourism offer the hotel is also targeted to the organisation of conferences. Rijeka is sought out more and more as a congress destination, and the Hotel Bonavia’s offer of three multi-functional conference halls definitely fits into this concept.

The cuisine offered by the hotel’s restaurants is well suited to the needs of larger conference groups.

More info on Rijeka and Hotel Bonavia at Grand Hotel Bonavia web site: http://www.bonavia.hr/ and Adriatic Luxury Hotels web site: http://www.als.hr/

“Peek and Poke” is the name of the latest museum opened in Rijeka. This newly opened museum of computers and calculators is the first of its kind in this part of Europe.

The people who conceived this museum actually like to say that it is in fact a retro computer club with a permanent exhibition in which those interested can come into contact with the earliest examples of the technological industry.

And this is why this retro computer club also has an educational role as many young people can find out how work was done on computers in the not-so-recent past.

There are many old specimens at the Peek and Poke club such as the Apple II model at which the older generation gained their first computer knowledge and skills. A special focus was given at the museum to Croatian-produced models such as the Galeb, manufactured in Varaždin in the mid 1980s. Also presented is the Orao model, which was in those years a typical classroom PC in Croatia.

The museum currently features about a thousand exhibits – computers and calculators with a fair number of surprises among them. One of these is certainly a computer produced by the Phillips Company that years ago won a NASA sponsored competition on the occasion of the launching of the Space Shuttle, and that has the form of an astronaut’s helmet with visor.

Among the most valuable models are the Interact manufactured in 1978 and the Hektor, built by students from a British university (of which little else is known), and we should certainly mention a model identical to the one that Andy Warhol used when producing his computer portrait of pop singer Debbie Harry.

More info about Rijeka + City of Rijeka Tourist Board http://www.tz-rijeka.hr/

Opatija has the oldest tradition of tourism, dating back to the year 1844 when Rijeka aristocrat Ignacio Skarpa built a
summer residence frequented by numerous guests. That was followed by the construction of the many hotels of Opatija, the oldest of which is the Kvarner, built in 1884, the first modern hotel on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea.

The other Rivieras of the Kvarner area also boast a long tradition – the island of Cres has a legacy of 162 years of tourism, the Novi Vinodolski Riviera boasts 129 years of tradition, the island of Lošinj 122 years, the Crikvenica Riviera 119 years, while on the mainland Gorski kotar has a 133 year old tradition in tourism.

Primorje-Gorski Kotar County currently offers tourists 150,000 accommodation units, which is about 20 percent of the total tourism capacity of Croatia.

Of that number 30,000 beds are offered in the about 80 hotels and hotel resorts. The area also features some 50 camps, 12 thousand guest houses offering lodging and the like. The Kvarner area is exceptionally attractive for sailors – 19 nautical tourism ports attest to this fact, including 8 modern and well-equipped marinas with almost 3,000 sea berths and 2,000 berths on land.

The Kvarner area s a favoured destination for many tourists –that this region accounts for about a quarter of the total tourism turnover in the country bears witness to this fact. Alongside vacation tourism – still the most frequent motive for tourist arrivals– a growing number of visitors are following tourism tradition and coming outside of the peak summer period. The wide range of offers and content related to the customs, the natural surroundings and recreation, is drawing tourists throughout the year.

In Opatija, for example, a well-known congress destination, the infrastructure, quality of services and additional facilities of the hotels makes them ideal hosts for numerous international and national-level congresses, many of which have been held there for many years running. Healthcare tourism has also been developed here, thanks to the favourable climate and to tradition – more and more often a reason to come to the Opatija and Crikvenica Rivieras and to Lošinj, where expert staff has joined forces with the advantageous climatic conditions.

Most of the hotels in the area also feature high quality wellness facilities and the option of a therapy particular to the area – long walks in the fresh air on well-maintained promenades. Opatija’s Lungomare, for example, is 12 kilometres long.

Besides a wealth of possibilities for excursions and active vacation options, there are a number of fascinating events held throughout the year in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County. After the autumn Marunada chestnut festival in Lovran and the Olive Days in Punta, November features wellness programs, while December will be marked by winter fun in Gorski Kotar and by Christmas concerts and exhibitions in many townships and settlements…

An invitation to bring in the New Year in the sun – which numerous tourists have accepted for years now – is joined by the New Year’s World Cup in underwater fishing held in Mali Lošinj.

February is traditionally remembered by the exceptionally attractive Rijeka Carnival which will run from January 17th to February 3rd in 2008, and much more, while the coming months will feature the always popular seaside promenades or hikes in Gorski Kotar, the Asparagus Days in Lovran, bicycle tours of Kvarner, the Chivalric Games of Rab, fisher’s festivals, organised excursions, music events and more.

In short, there is plenty of fascinating content year-round that at tracts visitors to this diverse, fascinating and beautiful area.

More detailed info at Kvarner Travel Guide and Gorski Kotar Travel Guide as well as at Primorje-Gorski Kotar Tourist Board http://www.kvarner.hr/

As of this autumn, along with the existing attractions, tourists can also tour the new Heritage Museum (Zavicajni muzej) in Martinovo selo. Situated next to an attractive mill, the Heritage Museum portrays a rich ethnological collection of the entire region – especially attractive is the kitchen, which appears to have sprung forth from the 18th century. Tourists will be able to see a collection of old implements, weapons, folk garb, clothing, traditional decorations, tools and household utensils.

Old paraphernalia, customs and trades, which tourists can see for themselves if they visit an old blacksmith‘s shop in Dražice, are just a small part of the tourism offer in the Grobnik area. That is precisely why several new specialised guidebooks are in the works, like a guidebook for cyclists, already in print, and brochures that will acquaint alpinists and interested hikers with the most attractive outdoor locations in the area, among which are most certainly the Rjecina River, which has become a favourite place for gatherings of fishers and excursion-goers, and the alpine house on Hahlic.

More info : About Kvarner & about Rijeka + Gorski Kotar + external links: Primorje-Gorski kotar Tourist Board http://www.kvarner.hr/ & http://www.jelenje.hr/

The new double-decker bus has been introduced for Rijeka sightseeing.

This cute and colorful visitor’s bus, with an open-air top deck, takes up to eighty people on the tour along Rijeka and Opatija tourist spots . Earphones are also installed to enable visitors to select the tour language of their choice.

The sightseeing tour starts every day at 9am, 1pm and 5pm. The bus will travel on the Opatija – Rijeka route with each tour lasting about three hours during which visitors will have an opportunity to get to know the key points of interest in both towns.

The bus has a recognisable appearance as it has been painted over in Rijeka motifs. Tickets to ride this special double-decker are available at the Rijeka Tourist Information Centre as well as on the bus.  

More info at Rijeka Tourist Board web site: http://www.tz-rijeka.hr/

The Carnival features street parties, concerts and contests for the best “ugly mask” leading up to the parade, when floats cram the streets of Rijeka.

Traditionally, during the Carnival, the mayor of Rijeka will hand over the keys of the city to the carnival representatives.

Rijeka Carnival will run from January 17 to February 21.

The first section of the new motorway, the one that connects Bosiljevo and Vrbovsko,  is expecetd to be open for traffic by the beginning of the next summer.

It is also expected that new Rijeka – Zagreb motorway will be finished by the end of 2008.

This part of Rijeka bypass was due to be opened in July, but was postponed because of the land slide on some sections of the road.

New Rijeka bypass is about 8.5 km long, includes 13 viaducts and 3 tunnels and due to its complex construction works was one of the most expensive road sections in Croatia.

The continuation of the construction works on the new stretch of the bypass (to Krizisce) is expected to start next spring.