Zagreb, I love you

I am glad for a late start today because the rain does finally let up for my first tour which is a general city tour. The tour starts in the park Zrinjevac, one of seven city parks. Our guide talks about the upper and lower cities and Kaptol.

One of the sights is a meteorological box in the park. We are told how it was donated by a local. It holds information on things such as temperatures, sunrise/sunset schedules and more.

We go to a parking lot that once was home to a magnificent synagogue. When the nazis took over the city the religious building was destroyed brick by brick and cheered on by the nazi party. Also as a result of the nazi occupation the population of Jewish people went from around 11,000 to about a few hundred today. Most were sent to concentration camps, some in Croatia, and some migrated to other countries. The city has made sure the Jewish synagogue today profits off the current lot in order to one day build a new home. However due to the small numbers in the city it is unlikely that is happening anytime soon. Along with the Jewish people, the Romani and Serbs were also persecuted at the time of the war.

Our guide tells us about the statue in the main square, a leader on a horse that originally was overlooking the town in the opposite direction (looking at upper town). During the communist time of Yugoslavia the statue is removed from the square. Thank goodness it is not destroyed and kept safely in a museum. After Croatia becomes independent again the statue is returned to the square but this time pointing in the opposite dirtection because most of Zagreb now exists in that direction and the statue is overlooking the city.

We are told about the performance artist Tomislav Gotovac and the filming of “Zagreb I love you” (I later see this in Graz, Austria in a museum). There is a sidewalk plaque with a footprint noting this moment but I forgot to take a picture.

We walk over to Dolac Market which is normally bustling but due to the constant rain only a few vendors are set up today. We learn how women called Barica would traditionally sell the produce at the market. We also learn the origins of the traditional umbrellas of the city. It of course has love story origins but now you can see example of these umbrellas all over the market.

We stop by the Zagreb Cathedral, closed due to renovation.

Our guide takes us over to the tower near the funicular. It is close to noon and just in time to hear the cannon fire. One man does this job every day at 12:00 noon. It is very loud.

We then take the funicular up to the upper town. It is said to be the shortest funicular in the world.

In upper town many of the street lamps are still gas powered. There are people who come every night to light them as well as blow them out in the morning.

Ahead is a beautiful church, St Marks, from the 1300’s but the tiles the 1800’s. It is mostly covered in construction but the tiles are still visible. We learn that all these “under renovation” buildings are a result of a bad earthquake about 3 years ago. Only one life was lost fortunately because most were on lockdown and not at their place of business due to covid. The repairs needed to all their historic sights are in the many billions so it might be a while before we see Zagreb at its finest again. Hidden behind the screens I can tell there are some pretty impressive sights here.

Finally we end up at the little gate that has been turned into an alter to the Madonna since it is the only thing that is not destroyed in a fire.

As we say goodbye it starts pouring again. We run off in our different directions. I want to grab a quick lunch so I order a prosciutto and cheese sandwich from Pigvin. I eat my sandwich under the over hang until I see the rain lighten. Then I fight the winds as I walk back to my room with my sandwich. I think this is when my poncho gets its first rip. It is getting a workout today.

Art installation around town of solar system

After a couple hours of rest I contemplate bailing out of my afternoon tour because it is cold and wet and I am tired. I force myself to put my poncho back on and go back out for my afternoon tour : Communism & Croatian Homeland War Tour. I have never been particularly interested in history or wars for that matter. For some reason I cannot get enough of these tours during my time in the Balkans. While much of the history is way in the past, I think things are so interesting to me now because we are talking about a conflict that happened during my time, when I was old enough to be aware of the extent of what was happening, but I did not. I was a teenager not really concerned with what was going on in the world and the USA media and education system didn’t really seem to be concerned either. We only really learned of conflicts when they started affecting Bosnia. There were many conflicts going on in Croatia I knew nothing about.

I also didn’t know how much Croatia flirted with fascism in the WWII. They basically were a puppet state of Germany. They thought aligning with nazis would give them status as an independent state but what they found is that they were just another occupied territory.

The history is very complex and I would not do it justice trying to explain it. If you are interested look for resources on Croatia during Austria-Hungarian/Venetian era, during WWII, during communism (Yugoslavia) era, and during the war of the 1990’s fight for independence. Also as all my tour guides say look for non-biased sources and sources from different points of view….in the 1990’s in particular Croatian, Bosnian, and Serbian point of view (looks like I need a trip to Serbia in my future). Also as hard as it is don’t ever “take sides” in a discussion with a local. There are many perspectives that we cannot imagine. Basically we know nothing.

During this tour we stop in the bomb tunnel again. I learn that it was used once to host a rave and as a shelter during the wars of 1990’s.

The tunnel entrances were not convienent for everyone so we finish our tour in a bomb shelter in the basement of a local resident. There we get a in depth explanation of the history of communism (more Tito) and watch a movie about the war of 1990’s. Overall the tour isvery informative.

I am wet and tired and want to call it an early night. I pick a restaurant that looks good enough after I discover my first choice is actually a fancy Michelin place that is booked up more than a week in advance. At the local restaurant I have more Strukli and a big seasoned meat burger. The food is tasty but very filling. I can’t keep eating like this; I need to start asking for to-go boxes. Balkan people love large portion sizes.

Tomorrow I head to my next country in my Balkan adventures – Slovenia.

Times that could have ended badly part 1

After visiting the wonderful Guggenheim in Bilbao I decided to spend the afternoon up on Artxanda. They have a funicular to take you up. I have been using maps.me downloaded on my phone which has been mostly helpful but can only do so much when you start off walking in whatever direction you feel like it. I end up walking up this pedestrian walkway that no one else is using. After going uphill for a while I understand there is probably a reason no one is using it, because it is a stupid way to go (up and down stairs multiple times). Also, being up on a deserted walkway which could have been a terrible idea (for getting robbed, etc).

Didn’t get any pics of the murder walkway but if you go up this bridge away from Guggenheim and keep walking up and right.

At least I had this view.

My view while trying to find the funicular.

Finally found the funicular.

There is a line, it is a little confusing to see who is in line to buy tickets and who is waiting for the funicular because the line was blocking both. I pushed my way up to the ticket booth and then got to the back of the regular line.

The funicular arrives and people shove their way in. There is no crowd control so many of us are left on the platform when all the cars are jam packed. The tram sits there for many minutes. Eventually the driver from the train comes out to yell at us to move back behind the gate, but no one is moving back to make room for us. I guess we just shove people back?? It is a mess and people are irritated. Eventually we shoved our way behind the gate. I definitely “lost” my place in line but I decide to let it go. We are in close quarters waiting for like ever for the next train and the jerks next to me are watching a video on their phone very loudly right next to my ear (I actually keep my cool).

But finally we go up and get to see the great views from the top.

The top of the mountain has walking trails and places to picnic. I come unprepared for either of these activities so I don’t stay up the mountain long.

Bilbao funicular ride on the way down

Instead of going through that nonsense with the crowd and the funicular I decide to walk back down to the city proper.

No one else walked down. I once again walk on a deserted walkway.

This map is not helpful.

This sign doesn’t even have where I want to go on it. No help either.

At least I can see the city. I’ll just keep going down in the general direction I want to go (still alone).

Then I end up taking these steep stairs through a neighborhood.

I see the funicular so I am close to the station. I soon find my way down and see people again.

I am safe, it is daytime, but I really need to stop taking these secluded urban hikes. Not such a great idea when you don’t know a city well.

July 4th on a mountain and in the spa

The next morning we decided to visit some nature and do a hike since that was a main reason for visiting this region. After doing some research we narrowed it down to taking a trail at the edge of town or going up the local mountain Merkur Mountain. We chose Merkur mountain because I wanted to ride the funicular.
First breakfast in our cute breakfast room at the hotel.

We found a bus that took us to the bottom of the mountain where the funicular starts. For some reason I was able to convince my husband to take the funicular up and hike down. He must have felt guilty for the long hike a couple of days prior.
At the bottom of the funicular there is shop to buy snacks, gifts and I guess booze for the mountain.

We took a couple minutes to look at another less than useful trail map, and then we got our tickets and went up.

Hey look at this water fountain first –

After we entered the funicular, a guy hurried on with a huge pack of stuff. Was he a backpacker? Was he going to camp on the mountain? We came to find out that he is a paraglider and the top of the mountain is a popular paraglider launch location.

So we got some drinks at the cafe and watched the hangliders for about an hour. Hike=delayed.

It was also at this point that we realized we accidently booked too many nights in Baden-Baden. We were supposed to leave for Munich the next day. We were too late to fully cancel so we had to pay a fee to get out of the last night. I am usually much more prepared for traveling than this. I guess it got confusing because my husband booked some hotels and I booked the other. I guess we had a miscommunication. I was looking forward to leaving the next day to go to Munich. Our stay in Baden-Baden wasn’t terrible but I wish we would have picked another black forest town.

Back to the hike…..

We finished our drinks and started the journey down the mountain. We of course did not stay on the main road since it was boring. I made sure to keep my husband in check so we didn’t get too much off the beaten path and get lost…or end up miles away from where we needed to be at the end.

Some growing that looked like yummy dim sum

We crossed the path of the funicular a couple of times on the way down.

The walk down was relatively pleasant with the exception of discovering the bastard bugs of Germany. They aren’t quite mosquitoes but they bite like a MFr and fly off pretty quickly. Not quite a horsefly but painful bites that welt up afterwards. They only attacked me somewhat on this mountain but they really got me later in the trip. Should have worn more bug spray!!

At the very bottom of the trail we found where the para-gliders land.

After we got back into town we decided to eat a late lunch at an outdoor cafe where we once again had terrible service. Not really loving the hospitality of Baden-Baden.
We went back to the hotel and changed into our suits and picked a thermal spa to do some relaxing and swimming at. There were two big ones in town and they were both pretty close to our hotel. One was with no suits and one was with suits. We aren’t prudes but I just wasn’t up to sloshing around a bunch of nude people. We ended up attending the Caracalla Spa . See Rick Steves colorful explanation of the spa below.

You pay for admission at the front and then get a wrist band that controls a locker and allows you to purchase things at the cafe if you wish. I saw people bringing in food and drinks. I wish I would have brought water to drink. No water fountains that I could see and the swimming and sweating got me thirsty. Once we changed we locked our things in a locker and grabbed our rented towels (I will guard these with my life, well sort of kidding).
The way the spa is layed out there is a large indoor area with heated pools with jets at different places, hot dip pool (short visits only), cold dip pool, saunas, and an aroma therapy sauna room. Outdoors is two major pools. One has a lazy river of sorts with some massage jets. The other pool has a number of jets and waterfalls. Upstairs is the nude only sauna, which we never visited.
Since it was still pretty light out (early evening) we decided to start outside. I tried the lazy river pool and let the current pull me along for a while. That got pretty boring quickly so I moved over to the waterfall pool and found a jet to massage some sore body parts. Basically the jets will run for a while in an area and turn off, then they start running in a different area. So it is a game of where to move to next. All in all I got a pretty good water massage on my back neck, thighs, feet and calves.
Next I tried the indoors and decided to try a personal sauna room. A couple minutes in there I got slightly claustophobic since I am not a big sauna fan. I decided then to try the aroma therapy room. It was a good sized room and people seemed to feel very comfortable hanging out in there. I got hot and had a hard time breathing. In addition I was afraid the smells would cause a migraine as sometimes strong scents do to me. I hit the shower and tried the indoor pool. I got some more neck and leg massages while I was there and also hit the hot and cold pools. After a while I was done and tried going back outside. To my surprise there was an instructor teaching a water zumba class. I joined in and tried to do my best Despacito moves in the water. After a while thirst took over and it was time for me to go. Fortunately my husband was done too and we changed and went back to the hotel to clean up for dinner.
So many bad experiences eating at Baden-Baden I had little hope for our dinner choices. We decided to go to the tourist looking outdoor cafe around the corner from our hotel, Prager Stuben. It was a quite cafe with very attentive service. I enjoyed the Czech inspired dish I ordered: Pork in Sauce with a side of dumplings. Very good. So happy this ended our stay in Baden-baden. Now off to bed for traveling the next day.

Only good dinning experience in Baden-Baden