Touring Zagreb

After a full breakfast at the Sheraton, we headed out for a tour of the city. Our local guide (Elena?) was wonderful. She spoke in very clear English and did not over explain what we were viewing. The entire tour was on foot and took over 2 hours. It was interesting that we were only a few blocks from the central square. Many buildings in the city show damage from the most recent (5.2?) earthquake. That followed another major one about 170 years ago. It seems that they are constantly rebuilding. Some buildings only showed minor damage with the facades having been damaged. Others are under complete renovations with tarps and scaffolding covering entire structures.

The city has 2 large u shaped street street structures with public buildings anchoring sections of it. It is called the green way as large trees can be found along the streets. As we walked through a park, there was a small meteorological station built years ago. It showed the temperature, barometer, wind etc. Despite the age it is still active and once a week the data recorded on paper is changed. The central square was a busy place which is part of the new town. A flower market was located at one end. Throughout the morning we encountered many tour groups. We saw not only groups with “whispers” (individual hearing devices) but large groups of children as well. From the activity, the number of souvenir shops, etc you begin to appreciate how important tourism is to a city.

From the central square we took the funicular to the Upper Town which is the “old City”, the original part. It contains many churches, palaces, museums, galleries and government buildings. The ride up (66 seconds) provided nice views. It has retained that old world charm that we see in older parts of cities. Nicola Tesla was from the area and at the turn of the century tried to convince the population to change from gas to electric street lights. It did not happen and today the gas lights remain in operation.

Making our way down the hill back to the main square we passed the Cathedral which is one of the tallest building in the city. It is under complete renovation for the 3rd or 4th time in history. It is only open for services so we did not visit. We found ourselves back in the main square where we started. The afternoon was free to rest explore etc before our trip to an restaurant for dinner. We took the opportunity to have a drink in a local outdoor bar where we met others from Senior Discovery. We headed out by bus for dinner at a local restaurant. The place was interesting in that it had lots of books on cooking. The small establishment had been around for about 200 years. We had some traditional fare to eat along with a local wine. Headed to Slovenia tomorrow about 150 kilometers.