Day 14 9/9/2018

Part 1 Morning map studies.

The first sleep in and I mean a real sleep in and we are raring to go and find out what this city of Zagreb is made up of , but first a little breakfast.

The tour master is back in the drivers seat and has study the places of interest and torn the map out of the Croatia guide book and with back pack on, sunnies the

on ,map in hand, we are off.

We start our tour at the statue of 1 Ban Jelacic the former Governor in 1848, you know you got to start somewhere. This the first photo in the album and then all photos will follow in order of places visited. 2 Dolac Markets, the market are like our farmers only on one level and nicks and naks on the other, the fruit and veg were specular. So good we brought bananas and pumpkin seeds. There was every kind of fruit and veg you could name . The second level was more like any market we would visit in Newcastle or Sydney .3 TheChapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary , this survived and earthquake back in 1880 and world war 2 although damaged in both the repairs have brought it back to its elegance’s . 4 Kaptol Square, surrounded by 17th century building. 5 The stone gate was under repair, we got close as possible with back hoes and other machinery moving around us but photos were harder to come by. The search and find had worked up a near on unquenchable thirst, so not wanting upset the tour guide I relented to a refreshment stop.it was on our way and it was a new place so tradition always comes before exploring ,2glasses of Chardonnay please ,we relax and watch the world go by.

A good half an hour had past and we really didn’t want to move ,but being the true explorers that we are it is onward . We hadn’t gone far when we heard some military drums coming from behind ,sure enough about 12 dressed army personal were march towards us I have a small movie of this,I hope. Wether by good fortune or luck they seemed to be going to our next number of our tour number 5 St Mark’s church, this church has a beautiful tile roof in the Croatian colours , from 6 the Sabor ,the country’s parliament and 7 the Banski Dvorak the presidential Palace are just a stone throw from each other.

The four following place of interest 8 Mestrovic Ateleir studio belongs to Croatia’s most famous artist Ivan Mestrovic, 9 Croatia’s museum of natural was about failed marriage 10 Galerija the contemporary art exhibition was closed being Sunday ,10 Jesuit church os saint Catherine for me it is JBC or just another bloody Church. 11 was a tower built in 1888 got some fine photos from any of the 360 degrees available. 12 There is a funicular that was also constructed 1888 takes less than a minute to rise and It would be an even money bet if I was to jog down when it started who would be there first .

So that is the morning in a nutshell , for us a great experience but wait there is more to come.

Part 2 The afternoon trek.

We break from our exploring ,have our snacks, rest our leg and begin again this discovery of this city.Again the master tour guide is in control and we backtrack to find our bearing it works a treat, no arguing. We a heading to botanical gardens right up the other end of town but before we have gone more than a kilometre we come to a park area we’re there I’d a food music and wine festival happening. Again this a new place so tradition must be met so first we buy and Ice cream for me, a cream cake for Shirley, then me as it was to big for that pelican . It was a big festival the food smells were tantalising so before we continue the adventure food and probably with the same importance a wine would need to be taken in. We ordered a Slavic burger , then bun made like pedi bread toasted as per order, a patty the size of a dinner plate, and chilli mash as the base, sweet potato and chilli base, cold saw topping , and finished with sour cream , huge, monstrous , but very very good feed both of us easily, add to that a refreshing white Chardonnay not as good as this morning but it completed the tradition.

Full as googs ,we find it hard to get going but we only have today to finish this trek as we move on tomorrow, so forward to the botanical gardens. We have walk near on 8 to,10 is in 35 degree heat and by the time we get there we are stuffed, what is worse it is not that fantastic so we roam around, I see turtles in the pond as well as fish, some flowers not many, and of course a variety of trees which is the custom for gardens.

Really hot now heading back to recapture our strength as we will need it as we are going to find a new place to continue the tradition. So We hope that this adventure give you insight to our day and our tour, we move to Plitvice lakes.

We always hope that you are all ok so if you receive and email from one of us please reply as we still worry even though we are hundreds of miles away.

Love you all

John and Shirley