Nice breakfast in the hotel with lots of choices. They even had smoked salmon but, alas, no bagels.
We got into the bus to tour the city. As I previously said, the downtown is largely early 20th century middle European city, looking like a mini Prague, but not as pretty. The main square near our hotel has a statue of Tomislav, the first King of Croatia in 925. Over the next few centuries, they gradually became subjected to the Venetians, the Ottomans, The Ottomans, the Soviets, etc until they became a free country again in 1990.
We saw numerous government buildings, and wound up at a major cemetery, Mirogoj, designed by Hermann Bolle in1876. This was interesting in how the entrance gates and close in edifices were designed. Behind the main church was the tomb of Franco Tudman, the first president in the 90s after independence.
From there, we went back to downtown, to see the Church of Saint Mark with a very distinctive roof, and the Cathedral. We walked around a bit and came upon an apothecary store dating to the 13th century. It is thought that Dante's grandson was an original proprietor.
We broke for lunch and got something at one of the numerous street restaurants. After lunch we were on our own and went to the Museum of Broken Relationships. Very weird, chronicling people's views after breakups and other partings. Anyone can contribute an item with a story. Keys to an ex-lover's car, police reports of a rape, suicide notes, an ax used to break the furniture of a lover who moved out. I was glad I'm still with my first wife and didn't have anything to contribute.
Dinner down the street at a tourist/tour bus restaurant. Very mediocre. Salad with a slab of beef over it(?). Turkey, ham and cheese fried in a thick batter. Nondescript cake for desert. The best part was when we ordered decaf coffee afterwards and had repeated to us "coffee without coffee"!!!
Tomorrow we go to Slovenia and wind up in Ljubljana.
Thoughts on Zagreb: a nice enough city but when the cemetery is the high point of the tour, one has to wonder.
Ann's thoughts on our day in Zagreb
The local guide on our morning tour was very good, his command of English impressive. He had studied at the Zagreb University which, as he explained, was very affordable. A year of tuition, room and board costs about what a meal plan costs at a US college or university -about $1200 a year!
I guess Steve didn't think much of the gyro he had for lunch but the pizza and caprice salad I shared with the two tour members we ate with was delicious. I do agree, though, that dinner was pretty lame.
One thing that really put our day in Zagreb in perspective for me was the conversation we had at breakfast with a couple from Australia who had begun their Croatia trip in Dubrovnik and were ending it in Zagreb, the opposite of what we are doing. They explained that Slovenia and the Dalmation Coast we will be traveling too is absolutely breathtaking and a whole lot more interesting than Zagreb. On to those sites from here!
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