A City Reinvigorating Itself after Years of War, and Sunday Dinner with Papica!

After a great breakfast, and a leisurely one at that, we began to really learn about this city (and Croatia) as we walked and toured by a bus the different ‘pockets’ of Zagreb.  Old Town, Upper Town, Lower Town, different markets… you get my drift!  It is Sunday, so we were fortunate that things were not crazy busy (but they were busy!). 

Started with a visit to the Mirogoj Cemetery and it was impressive.  Imagine huge picturesque arcades where many many were entombed from the 1800’s till present day.  They also had the traditional ground graves too.  Seemed odd to be going there, but once we saw it, you understood why.

Then, we headed back to Upper Town, met up with a street closure and a spouting water main with workers trying to get it under control!  Many museums along the way, all kinds, but the one that piqued our interest was the “Museum of Broken Relationships”.  It was about just what the name implies.  Love affairs, Business affairs, Family relationships, on and on. 

We walked and walked, flower markets, farmer markets, tchotchkesgalore and steps!  Well, I did say Upper Town and Lower Town. 

We finished with a meal with Mrs Papica at her family home.  Now, it is their actual home, but she has a whole section (probably was the living room) arranged with tables where we ate a traditional Sunday dinner.  Food, Food, Food!  Homemade bread, cheeses, meats, pate… then a Chicken Soup with homemade pasta… then salad along with Duck (very moist by the way) and more pasta (not like our traditional noodles) all made in their tiny kitchen!  The little dog even meandered around our feet, a little cutie!

Many in our group opted for taxi’s to go home… Jer and I opted to walk and check out more areas!  This is the first long walk since I injured my Patella 3 weeks ago.. Sore knees tonight, but not too bad.  Resting up for tomorrows adventure now and fiddling with this…

 The Arcade of Tombs, under each large square are several people

How they put folks in the area... which is like a little room

These are the folks in there...

 The outside of the Cemetery

 The building, which is a school, is built on the brick/stones from the 12th century...

Jerry's gonna photobomb a friend!

Geocaching and a Little Explore All By Ourselves!

Took us a while to recover from the lack of sleep, but, by this evening, we’re feeling way better!  Meet our tour mates tonight and so far, they are a fun group!  Had a great cocktail hour followed by a very yummy dinner.  We’re all recovering from jet lag, so by 9PM, we were all ready to head back to our rooms!

Jerry and I walked about earlier in the day.  Found two geocaches and a nice little park (and it’s name:  The Botanical Gardens of Zagreb).  The gardens are in transition right now… not quite summer but not quite fall, just sorta a messy confusion.  Still, it’s always nice too see parks of green (and yellow, red, brown) dotted in cities.  Zagreb also has tons of fountains.

Pics today are not quite exciting, but none the less, still pretty!  Tomorrow we’ll be learning more of the history of this country.  And, wow, what a history.  This hotel we are staying at was at one time the place the Nazi’s chose for their headquarters in the area.  Surely, a very dark time for the Croatian people.

 Lots of turtles in the pond... and little fishes too!

This building was moved here... It's 128 years old... which in comparison is not that old when you look at some of their other buildings! 

 Doesn't everyone have a huge statue/gargoyle on top of their apartment building?

After a year of planning, here we go! First stop Zagreb, Croatia!

After a long day in airports and airplanes, (imagine about 24 hours), we arrived.  So tired, as I hardly napped, the guy with me, well, he had no problem at all!  I watched a couple movies, one documentary, read and snoozed for about one hour.  Trip here was comfortable with the exception of our landing in Amsterdam... 30 knot winds made for a bouncy return to earth.  The airport was filled was humanity as many flights had been cancelled or delayed.  Fortunately, ours was on track, but we had a four hour wait for that magic departure time!

Got to Zagreb, we're met by our driver who whisked us off to our hotel, The Esplanade.  Very historic, very nice and even had a little welcome sign in our room.  

Hunkered down to catch up on our zzzzzz's and will see what Saturday brings!

Did find out my sis had to say goodbye to her pup, Buddy... Hearts breaking even from here on the other side of the world.

 Airline Customers behaving badly... He was dressed in a full suit, socks and dress shoes... yuck!

Our Hotel

Fall is in the air here... more so than at home... but when we arrived the temp was 80degrees

Across the street from our hotel