We arrived in the Capital of Croatia - Zagreb, to beautiful weather - about 90 F - which was quite welcomed to help dry out our soggy Irish clothes! About a 30 degree difference from Dublin, so took a little getting used to, but it was awesome.


The city of Zagreb is like many European cities of fairly decent size. Many old buildings and monuments, and a train system that looked like something left over from the Cold War era. With the architecture tying back to even it’s Austrian roots, this is really a beautiful city.


After we got settled, we took a walk to one of the local parks. In the evenings in the summer, there is music and dancing - mostly old music - from the 50’s and 60’s - and really fun to just sit and listen, and to watch the (generally older) couples who knew the moves.

And if you got there early, you could use the mats on the ground to learn a few steps yourself!


We had a few extra days in Zagreb, so we decided to take a day trip to see part of Slovenia. From Zagreb to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, was about 90 minutes including the border crossing. The country is not quite land-locked, but has a fairly small coast that borders both Italy and Croatia. From Ljubljana, it is about a 60-90 minute drive to any of the neighboring countries - Austria, Hungary, Croatia and Italy. It’s location and the natural beauty make it feel like a great spot for a longer visit in the future. And from what everyone said, they have one of the best Christmas festivals around, so maybe one day(?)


On the drive to Ljubljana, you could see a continued increase in influence of Austrian architecture as we passed through several small mountain villages. Once in the city of Ljubljana we took a ride up the Funicular to the Castle. A Medieval Fortress originally built in the 11th century, and remodeled/renovated through many centuries, it is quite a beautiful place, and is now used for many local functions.


The city of Ljubljana is famous for dragons, with several legends from the Greeks and Jason and the Argonauts (Jason killing the monster, which eventually became known as a dragon), to (the much more believable?) St. George, slaying the dragon (representing paganism), and bringing Christianity to the city. Anyway, it is all interesting, and you can tell they love their dragons here!


We did a walking tour of the castle and then of the old town area, which is beautifully situated on the river that runs through the city. Some great buildings and markets, and of course many wonderful cafes for a bite to eat.


After the city tour we headed up to Lake Bled - a small lake about 45 minutes from Ljubljana, in the mountains and only about 10 minutes from Austria. A beautiful place, with a castle on top of a cliff, and a lake with trails all around.


After a full day in Slovenia, we head back to Zagreb. Our friends from Seattle (Connie and Paul Petrovich) arrived the next day to spend a few weeks in Croatia, and to see if they could find out a bit more of Paul’s family history here. We did a walking tour of Zagreb with a guide to show us around the city and provide a bit more information which was great. And we rode the (very short) funicular from the lower city to upper city (maybe 6 stories up?), just in time to hear the cannon fire right at noon as it does every day.


Some beautiful places to see throughout this city, with many museums, a Cathedral and City Hall amongst them.


So, now finished with Zagreb, we head next to Split, but to get there we will take a day trip visiting Plitvice Lakes National Park.

More on that in the next post.


Check out the rest of the photos in the album.


All the best,

Tim & Eileen