Tdiddy12

It's been 5 years since we have traveled in Europe, mainly due to Covid and probably as long since my last Trip Report but I am attempting to kindle the fires again. I haven't figured how to add pictures from my IPhone after the fact of writing on my MacBook so I may not have a lot of photos. Will accept any suggestions. We traveled from Los Angeles to Zagreb on KLM. 20 years ago when we traveled to Europe on KLM we decided that KLM stood fro Keep the Liquor Moving. Baileys after dinner, and cocktails during the flight. That apparently has stopped. We upgraded to Economy Comfort and was well worth the extra cost, it was probably the best trip across "the pond" in many years. Very easy boarding, quite civilized, and we used facial recognization for the first time in my experience. This was in Los Angeles, there were about 4 boarding stations and you went up to them, smiled into the camera and you were through. At first it was, how cool is that, then the thought occurred that somewhere, my digital face is all being recorded. So much for that "bank job" I had planned. Landed in Schipol and found out Croatia Air was delayed by two hours. Ah Travel.

We are staying at A8 B&B, pretty close to the main square. Check in was done through What's App, put in a code for the front door, code for second door and there was the key to our room. Very easy peasy. Went to Heritage sandwich shop around the corner. Excellent, I had the Istrian Pearl, with prosciuto, cheese and a truffle sauce on a delicious flatbread. Only two tables and started to rain so the owner gladly packed up our remaining sandwiches to take back to the hotel. Did a little stroll around. I think the historical district is smaller than some but very nice. Lot's of activity, looks like they maybe set up for a concert later.

So first night, wacked out, but feed and off to bed. Looking forward to writing more.

Tdiddy12

Day 2 - Zagreb
After trying to go to sleep at 8PM, we both woke up at 4AM! Breakfast is at 8:30AM so we start to plot our day. We are going to follow the Rick Steve's tour of Upper and Lower Town. Started at the Jelacic Square, the main square in the city with the big statue of Josip Jelacic.

Josip Jelacic was an early governor and hero of Zagreb. This statue was hidden during the Tito years.

Our next stop was the Octagon shopping gallery with a beautiful domed, glass ceiling. Right out side on the square is a statue of Nicola Tesla, seen here wondering how Elon Musk stole his name.




Now we move on to Gradec or Upper town. You can walk up numerous steps...or take the funicular. We chose the funicular which drops you right in front of the Burglar's Tower, one of the original Towers built after King Bela IV decreed towns had to protect themselves from the Tartars.



Zagreb has an amazing amount of museums for a city this size, many of them unique. The Museum of Broken Relationships, too soon Ben and Jennifer? We chose to go the Croatian Museum of Naive Art. About the same time that Picasso was going Cubist, there were peasants in Croatia, who after a hard day working on the farm came back to the barn and did some painting. Some of it is very colorful and they were very talented although not famous.


After the museum we strolled down the street to St. Mark's Square with the bright church across the square. This is where we saw our first evidence of tourists crowds. There must have been 6 or 7 different walking groups, then a tour bus rolled right in front of all of us so the passengers could take their photos.

So far Zagreb has been vibrant, fun, and great for people watching. I've never seen so many sidewalk coffee bars and real bars along pedestrian streets, although there are food bikes from a company called Wolt or Wolk that are always buzzing right pass you like some lost Lance Armstrong. Also a lot of the city is under scaffolding from the 2020 earthquake. Still you can see many beautiful buildings from the Baroque or Hungarian style. There is however a lot of graffiti. Not the nice stuff I am used to in Mexico, mainly just tagging which is a shame. It's almost only on the ground level which leads me to believe there are a lot of short taggers in the city. It is still a real treat to discover a city we never really thought about visiting. I think you should put it on your radar.

KarenWoo

I am really enjoying your photos and report about Zagreb! We spent 2 nights in Zagreb in 2019, and we really enjoyed it. It's an underrated city, IMO. Including a visit to Zagreb makes your itinerary so much more interesting and diversified because Zagreb is very different from Split and Dubrovnik. We also visited the Museum of Naive Art. It is so interesting, and we loved all the paintings. In fact, I am pretty sure I took a photo of the same painting that you posted.

We really liked the street art, too. I took photos of some political street art. And I have a photo of a large man lying on the ground surrounded by books. Fascinating!

Looking forward to the rest of your report. 30 days! Wow! Lucky you to have spent so much time in a wonderful part of the world.

Tdiddy12

Thanks Karen, I used your Trip Report and it really helped me. We have one more day here then off to Ljubljana.

Tdiddy12

Day One Part Two - After visiting St. Marks Square we made the transition from Upper Town or Gradec to Lower Town or Kaptol. First you go through the last remaining town gate, Stone Gate. There is a portrait of Mary that survived a fire in 1731 and it was placed inside the gate. It is quite a visited and sacred place. Mary is now enshrined behind a fancy gate and there are plaques all around honoring people who've passed.

Entry to gate from the Lower Town side

Pews where generally there are people having a moment

Mary behind her gate

After heading into Lower Town you have to go to Tkalciceva Street. This is the happening street in Zagreb. I took these photos about 7:30AM but in the afternoon and evening it is packed with people. Row upon row of restaurants down the whole street. We ate at Pivnica Mali Medo. Solid food, indifferent service, but you are there to people watch.

This restaurant runs along 4 or 5 store fronts

So quiet in the morning!

Nice street pic

Took a short cut off of Tkalciceva up to the Cathedral, shrouded in scaffolding.

Can't get inside or near the front

Part of the old city wall next to the Cathedral. The cars are new

Final stop is the Dolac or Market. As you get close to the Market you can see people walking down the streets pulling their canvas bag/carts to load up at the market. It is really cool given our weekly drudge to Ralph's grocery store to load up the Acura. It is all about community and that is very enjoyable. I'll add some pictures later.

KarenWoo

Tdiddy12, are you writing this 'live"?

I love reading trip reports of places we have visited because it's a wonderful walk down memory lane for me. I recognize many of the scenes and places in your photos!

Tdiddy12

Yes, we are here now and leaving tomorrow for Ljubljana

Tdiddy12

Pictures from the Dolac, Market.

Woman guarding the Dolac, next to woman leaving the Dolac

Here's a Zagreb shopping cart

Lot's of aisle's

Fresh Produce

Tdiddy12

Flowers Anyone?

Tdiddy12

Day Two - Zagreb
The plan was to take the bus to Samobor, however the internet didn't give us good information and the only available time was 2:30PM in the afternoon and we elected to pass on the trip. Next time. So we walked around our neighborhood and ended up at the Archaelogical Museum.

Our Hotel, A8 B&B

Photos from around the neighborhood, buildings on our street and the park




Scenes from the Museum. A pretty nice collection in an old building that was previously an museum and at one time a private residence


Egyptian Jars to store your innards for burial

Old elevator, clasStsic, even had a little bench in it

Stairwell with amazing marble and metal design

Front of the Museum

Although not the day we had planned it was still fun to spend some more time walking around Zagreb




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Tdiddy12

A Trip around the Green Horseshoe - There is an area in Zagreb, I believe designed by a man named Lenucci, called the Green Horseshoe. It is a fairly large but easily walkable area with many National buildings, the Art Pavilion, National Theater and just plain really cool buildings. Then a number of great gardens. The bottom of the Horseshoe is anchored by the train station and the Botanical Garden. If things were open, you could easily spend two days or more just going the museums. Unfortunately there was a lot of earthquake damage and many things are closed and behind scaffolding. Here are some photos of this area!

The National Theater at the top of the Horseshoe

St. George the dragon slayer, TPYAT posted this on her great Trip Report from a couple of years ago.

National Archives

Detail of National Archives

Statue of Marku Marlucci, don't know who he was but they must love him, he has the biggest sculpture on the Horseshoe

Hotel Esplanade at the bottom of the Horseshoe

Train Station

Entry to Botanical Garden

This is the Art Pavilion but it is covered in scaffolding

Tdiddy12

Statues, Statues, Statues - There are so many statues around Zagreb. At least two St. Georges that I saw, and about 10 different famous, historical figures sitting at a table, which is called Sit and Meet which apparently was set up by the City Tourism board?

Adelaidean

Enjoying your photos and the report.

KarenWoo

I remember walking around the Green Horseshoe area and admiring the beautiful buildings. But I didn't know it was called the Green Horseshoe. Learn something new every day! I do remember there was a free outdoor movie night at one of the parks when we were there.

I also remember seeing lots of statues, but I don't remember the "sit and meet" statues. So interesting and so cute!

Tdiddy12

Last Night in Zagreb - Just as we are getting over our jet lag, we have to move to Ljubljana. We had three great nights in Zagreb and the last night was no exception. First dinner at Bestija, which is down this little alley. Pretty non-descript location but great food. I had risotto w/ prawns and my wife had eggplant. Both were delicious.

Look for the neon sign off of Masarykova St

Are you sure it's down this alley? Seems sketchy...

OK, here it is!

After dinner we walked to the National Theater to see it lit up at night and then through a bunch of side walk cafes to our final stop at Jelacic Square.

No shows tonight, but still lit up beautifully

Happy Croatians on a Saturday night

This is one of many streets where people enjoy a drink and friends.

Looks quieter than it is, generally lots of tourists

Josip Jelacic looking out over his peeps

Zagreb is a great city. It was not on our radar at all, but in conversations with people on Fodors we decided we had to add it, so glad we did. Easily walkable, a lot of it is closed down due to the earthquake. Give it another year and hopefully it will be wide open. People are very friendly here and speak really good English. They are coal burners (smokers) though. I swear I saw a baby smoking, when people sit down the first thing they do is light up a cigarette which we don't have much of in the States. But when in Rome! Tomorrow off to Ljubljana!

Tdiddy12

Train to Ljubljana - We went back and forth trying to decide whether to take the train or a Flix Bus to Ljubljana. Flix Bus got pretty good reviews, but I read that you do have to stop at the border for what can be like an hour. Also had read that the train was crowded and hot. I went to the train station and found out the price...9E each! That seemed really cheap so we opted for the train, plus we don't often get to ride a train in the States. Got to the station early, seemed like a lot of people. The train only has three time options, one in the morning, one early afternoon and then a late afternoon trip. We decided on the 12:50PM train, but it looks like the ticket is open ended, no time on it.

Train pulls up, everyone crowds off, then everyone crowds in! We went along the car and it seemed that there were little private cabins, not open sitting. Do we have a ticket for these? Decided to risk it, so we grab a cabin, just us and sit back to enjoy the ride. Conductor came by later, stamped our tickets and not a word. Great train ride through some beautiful country. 2 hours and we are in Ljubljana, Slovenia!

Station at Zagreb, a little bit up but the entrance looks nice


How private "cabin" looking out toward the aisle


Looking out the window. There was some air conditioning and you could open the window above the picture window. Plenty of storage overhead for our bags


Welcome to Ljubljana


Obligatory Statue across the street from the Train Station

Adelaidean

Glad you’re including your transport and those logistics details, so helpful.

KarenWoo

We took the train from Zagreb to Ljubljana, too. This was in September 2019, and the train was not hot, and it wasn’t crowded. We had our own private compartment like you, Tdiddy12. Same price, too!

I hope you are enjoying Ljubljana as much as we did!

Tdiddy12

We are really enjoying it. I thought Zagreb was great, but as you stated, Karen it's quite different than Ljubljana. Ljubljana is like Disneyland for architects. So many amazing buildings and sites. I hope to upload some pictures soon.
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Tdiddy12

Ljubljana - We've been here for three days now counting the afternoon arrival. We had read that you could be scammed by taxis at the train station, who ever heard of such a thing, scammed by a taxi driver. There were actually a lot of taxis at the curb, but no drivers? Rick Steves says it is about a 20 minute walk to our hotel, Hotel Mrak, so we decide to walk down Miklobeseva Cesta to the center of town. Walked past some amazing buildings. There was an earthquake here in 1895 so a lot of the town was re-built in the Art Nouveau style, similar to Prague.

How do you describe the difference between Zagreb and Ljubljana. Right out of the gate, Zagreb is easier to spell and pronounce! Zagreb is about 3 timies bigger and more of a working city. So in the pictures I posted of Jelacic Square, with the big statue of Josip, you don't see the trams / metros that run all day with people getting on and off, rushing to work or school or where ever.

The next big difference between Zagreb and Ljubljana is the River. The Ljubljanica runs right through town and that's where a lot of charm of this beautiful city resides.





Cobblers bridge by Jose Plecnik

A lot of river boats up and down the river for an hour tour.

Bridge on the south side of town, not sure of the name

Kind of reminds me of Bruge although a river not canals

One part of the Triple Bridge, again by Plecnik

A nice shot, I loved trying to get the reflections in the morning

Entry to the Dragon's Bridge, a total of four with the same design

So as I said the river becomes a great focal point with cafes up and down. It's much smaller than the Seine so much more intimate.