Zagreb

Last night we were at a national park and didn't have internet, so if you were waiting, with baited breath, for our blog....sorry about that!

When we left Split, we visited three more cities on the Dalmatian coast, two of them from Roman times, and the other started by the Venetians.

We made it to Plitvice Lakes National Park at the end of the day (that's where we had no internet).  This morning we took a short boat ride and then a 1 1/2 hour walk through the park before boarding our bus for the two hour ride to Zagreb.  Zagreb is the most western city we've been in on the Baltic Peninsula.  It's sometimes called a "Little Vienna" due to the influence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

After we toured the city it was time for our farewell dinner.  We said good-bye to two of our tour participants tonight and we will say good-bye to our tour leader tomorrow morning when we head to Slovenia.

Trogir was an interesting medieval city built on a small island.  In 1380 the Venetians built this castle at the Baltic entrance to the harbor to protect the island.  Originally there was a most around it.  It was never taken in battle.

In Sibenik we visited the cathedral of St. James.  It is the only Renaissance building known that was built using pre fabricated elements!  It was built by the Venetians in 1431 using a new technique of fabricating sections and then bringing them here and erecting them.

 Originally it was thought that Zadar was founded by the Venetians, however during WWII the town was heavily bombed revealing an underlying Roman town!  Here you can see the foundations of the Roman forum, the Venetian meeting house (yellow), the tower of the Orthodox church (Croats), and the Bishop's church (Napoleon used this for stabling horses - it was never rebuilt after this - it is the concrete structure)!

The park had some beautiful woods, lakes, and falls (we could see the start of fall colors here).  Here we are are one of the larger falls.

Looking down at the valley from above you can see 5 different falls below.

Zagreb is built around 8 different parks.  They all have fountains, statues, gardens. etc.  Quite lovely to stroll around in.

The main cathedral is undergoing repairs.  In the courtyard you can see the remains of the inner defensive wall built in the 14th century to protect the cathedral from the Ottomans.  The statue out front was added in the 18th century when they took part of the wall down so you could see the cathedral.  The square is surrounded by 16th and 17th century Venetian buildings.

The main town square is a mixture of old and new.  In this shot you can see buildings from the 13th, 16th, 20th, and 21st century!