Today is Sunday June 11...day #50...our last full day of segment three (Eastern Europe) before we start the trek to South America, the forth and last segment of our trip. We are in Zagreb, Croatia for two days and frankly, have been very pleasantly surprised by this very quaint, very European city. In fact, we've basically been blown away by the entire country of Croatia. It is a VERY beautiful, scenic country, great food, pleasant people and reasonably priced. It seems that the world has not yet discovered this place (with the possible exception of Dubrovnik) which helps in many ways. Long story short...we'd come back here for a more in depth travel through the country.
Some pictures taken from the ferry of the islands we stopped at along the way to pick up passengers.
Some pictures taken from the ferry of the islands we stopped at along the way to pick up passengers.
We left Korcula Island via ferry at 0900 on Saturday for an easy four hour ride up to the port city of Split. The port in Split was conveniently located right across the street from the train station so we stored our luggage for a couple of hours and found a spot for lunch and beers. Very nice, comfortable train ride in first class for an $8 premium and eye-popping scenery practically the whole, six hour trip to the capital city, Zagreb.
Pictures from the train ride:
Our hotel was only a few blocks from the station so we just hoofed it since it was flat, still daylight and was good exercise.
Pictures from the train ride:
Our hotel was only a few blocks from the station so we just hoofed it since it was flat, still daylight and was good exercise.
One glitch that arose the day before but not due to us: we received an email from our booked, confirmed hotel that our suite had "some water issues" and would not be available. They generously offered us the next step down...a basic king room...for a few dollars discount but when we looked at their website we saw that they actually had two steps up..the "crown" suite and the "presidential" suite. Didn't hurt to ask but as expected...those rooms were..uhh...not available. We insisted that we "required" a suite (knowing that they really didn't' have a lot of negotiating room) and that they would need to find us another hotel nearby with a suite that could accommodate us. Sure enough, they came through and put us up at the Sheraton Zagreb which probably is the nicest city-room we've stayed in over the entire trip! All's well that ends well!
Today, after a most excellent breakfast buffet we walked the city and were very impressed with the maneuverability and beauty of the place. We stumbled on a thirty minute organ concert inside the Saint Mark's church...a two-hundred year old spectacular church in the old town, Very inspirational. We picked out our restaurant for tonight and will UBER to the airport at 0900 tomorrow morning. Goodbye Croatia. What a beautiful place to end our time in eastern Europe.
Zagreb old town:
The picture below this picture explains what you are looking at.
Zagreb old town:
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| Not sure what is going on here, but it was a big production! |
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| St. Marks Church: Where we listened to the organ concert. |
The picture below this picture explains what you are looking at.
The Dolac fresh market, lots of fresh veggies and flowers, souvenirs and other this and that.
Playing around in the old town😂
One item of interest that has puzzled us... in most of these old European towns that we have visited, the walls are covered in graffiti. It really is a shame and we are amazed how these beautiful old city buildings have been desecrated with graffiti. We asked someone if it was gang graffiti and they said, "no just kids, but a lot of the building owners just don't have the money to keep cleaning it off". We didn't ask if there were any laws prohibiting it. At least the cathedrals and churches have been left untouched.
