Monday 5th September–Zagreb, Croatia

There was a deluge of rain this morning so we had to postpone our planned trip into Zagreb.  The campsite offer a shuttle bus at 09.30 to the train station and then back again at 16.30 but it was absolutely pouring at that point and we didn’t fancy a day in Zagreb in the rain.  By early afternoon the skies brightened so we drove into the city.  We managed to park in a car park fifteen minutes walk from the central square.  The cost of parking being the equivalent of one euro for the day.
Zagreb Tourist Information brochures are top notch.  We got two different glossy pocket guides that reminded us of the DK Eyewitness guides but they were free as were the city street maps which we’ve had to pay for in other cities.
Ban Jelacic Square is at the heart of Zagreb.  It’s a huge square with plenty of room for outdoor concerts and fairs (there were a couple of stages set up when we visited and a band was tuning up on one of them.  We waited for a while but the tuning was a long process so we wandered off).  The statue of Ban Josip Jelacic stands in the centre of the square.  Apparently, “under the horses tail” is a popular place to arrange to meet people.  The statue was removed by the communist authorities in 1947 but a public petition secured it’s return in 1990.

                     Ban Josip Jelacic

Every city we visit has Museums and we can’t visit them all (Vienna alone had over forty)but we thought we’d try and experience some of the quirkier ones.  That said, the Mushroom Museum in Zagreb, with over 700 exhibits, didn’t tempt us but we had made a note that a‘must do’ whilst we were in Zagreb was to visit the Museum of Broken Relationships.  The museum was originally set up by two artists after their relationship broke up.  It has won several awards and now exhibits come from all over the world, mementos that remained after the end of relationships.  We spent over an hour looking for the museum,following tourist sign post pointers that seemed to lead us in circles, checking reference points on the map and having several arguments on the way.  We were beginning to wonder whether the truth behind the Museum is that it doesn’t exist but you’ll stretch any relationship whilst you’re trying to find it.  In the end we gave up, but apparently it’s definitely there, somewhere.

                                                                                                       
Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Zagreb

         

                                                                    The fountain in the Cathedral square

                                                                   
Exhibit outside the Croatian Museum of Naive Art, Zagreb (approx 4ft high)                              Zagreb street scene

                                                                    

Life size statue in the Dolac food market (complete with fresh sun flowers!)                          A tactile plan of the whole city in bronze miniature

Camping Zagreb is unique in our experience to date in that it has a truly thriving restaurant attached with a really lively buzz about it.  Not only that, it serves terrific wood fire baked pizzas.  The gorgonzola and pear pizza was absolutely delicious.