Day 34: Zagreb to Zurich

We had an early morning flight from Zagreb to Zurich.  The Alps were clear and beautiful

Luckily we were able to check into our hotel in the morning--the Central Plaza Hotel on the River.  Here's a shot of our hotel and the view across the river.

Unfortunately it was Monday and all the museums were closed.  We did a lot of walking around town. 

We spent most of the afternoon on a boat ride on Lake Zurich.  Very relaxing.

We ended with a fondue dinner out on a terrace.

What a great trip this has been.  We fly home in the morning.

Day 33: Plitvice Lakes and Croatia Winning Soccer Match

We went on a small group tour that turned into a private tour to Plitvice National Park.  The lakes and waterfalls are magical.  We hiked for about 3 hours.

This guy was also hiking--taking a lunch break with his people.

We were able to take a boat across one of the big lakes.

These two shots were taken from up above.

Back in Zagreb we had a wild evening watching Croatia beat Denmark in the World cup.  We had a great celebration with tons of other folks on the main square.

This was a great ending to our time in Croatia.

Day 31 & 32: Zagreb

 We took a tour of the lower and upper town that was informative and enabled us to see many parts of Zagreb.  This building is the Esplanade Hotel.  In the 1920's to was used as a stop-over hotel for the Orient Express.

The guide took us up to the Mirogoj Cemetery.  It seemed weird, but it was really pretty amazing.  Catholics, Jews, Serbian Orthodox, and Muslims are all in the same cemetery.  The walls that surround it are stunning.

There was even a Star of David on one of the domes.

This sculpture of Moses is on the Holocaust Memorial.

We did a lot of walking the old town.

The old town is really charming.

There were a huge system of caves underneath the mountains of old town.

On Saturdays they have this ceremonial changing of the guards.  I wasn't expecting the horses.

The next day we went to the farmers market. 

Like we saw in Slovenia, Zagreb has it's crest on the man hole covers of old town.

The highlight of the day was going to the Museum of Naive Art.  Here are a few paintings from one of Croatia's most important naive artist, Ivan Generalic.

We've been eating dinner watching the world cup on huge screens, all around town.

This guy had enough!!

Day 30: Zagreb

I've been pleasantly surprised by Zagreb.  I'm not sure what I expected, but not the Vienna style buildings that are everywhere in the lower town.  The Austro-Hungarian Empire ruled Zagreb so the architecture should have been expected.  Here's a sampling of the buildings.

This one looks art nouveau.

Here is Art Pavilion and the Train Station.

There is a u-shaped series of parks that are great for strolling.

We ended up at the Modern Art Gallery.  There was an Albert Kinert Retrospective (Croatian Artist) which we liked a lot.

The permanent collection was great.  It was surprising that in a few rooms they hung a number of pieces by different artists together.

A few of my favorites were these>

This one is by Munir Vejzovic.

This one is by Petar Dobrovic call the Island of Hvar, where we visited.

We ate dinner at a lovely restaurant, Vinodol, recommended by our hotel.