Day 12 – April 27 Wednesday
Another great breakfast at the Vienna Hilton then on the road at 7.20am again. Today we drove out of Austria & into Slovenia where we stopped at Maribor for lunch. This is a fairly run down city, long time under socialist rule & need money for restoration, though lots of lovely old buildings. Most of the shops were closed as it was a public holiday in Slovenia, “Heroes Day” so Maribor was like a ghost town. We had an hour & a half to wander around. We made our way slowly down to the river & had a look at some of the medieval fortifications before wandering back up through the old town to the old church where our bus was parked. We had an ice cream for one Euro, the cheapest we have had for a long time, & it was so nice, very tasty.
We drove out of the European Union state of Slovenia & into Croatia, so passports leaving Slovenia, then through no-man’s land & passports again entering Croatia. Slovenian buildings & farmlands were noticeably less affluent than Austria, well Croatia was another step down again. The Croatian farmers are noticeably less affluent than the Slovenians. A short drive & we were in the capital of Croatia, Zagreb, where we booked into the Sheraton then headed out for a tour of the city with our local guide Jelena. The buildings in Zagreb have a lot of graffiti on them & it really detracts from the feel of the city, its as if no-one cares. A lot of the old buildings are in a very poor state of repair & some are falling down from neglect.
Jelena is a great guide, telling it like it is & took us on a bus tour of the “new” city & a walking tour of the historic “old” city, on top of the hill with the fortifications. The old city is very interesting, buildings dating back to the 17th century still in everyday use. Some of the old fortifications are still evident, such as towers & thick walls, as well as one of the city gates, complete with a shrine. We walked up to an old church with magnificent coloured Hungarian tiles on the roof, next to the Croatian parliament building. There were police all over the place, both uniformed & plain clothes in their BMWs. More walking through the cobblestoned streets & we came to the top of the funicular station with access down to the “new city” & a great view over the “new” city. It’s called new but it really is old as well, a lot of 18th & 19th century churches & stately buildings, although in poor repair mostly. There is a program of work with restoration of these buildings, but it is slow & costly. The main cathedral has just about had its restoration complete & looks absolutely magnificent, it is a stunning church both outside & inside, though a church service was in progress so we only looked inside, rather than explored. Next to the cathedral was an old city wall, complete with an old clock. As we were walking around a man with a long stick was crossing our path lighting the gas lamps still in use around the old city.
Back into the bus & our next stop was an old restaurant where we climbed up a spiral staircase into a tight 1st floor dining room where we were greeted with a delicious liquor. The food was fantastic, an entree of delicious ham (everyone agreed it’s the best they ever had), a main of pork chops & potatoes with parsley followed by a lovely apple strudel, all washed down by a local Zagreb beer/wine/soft drink (as many as you wanted).
Back to the motel & free high speed cable internet kept me up late catching up with emails, bills, etc before an 11.30pm lights out.
Trekkin 