Zagreb & Pltvice: Day-1 and 2 in Croatia

We landed in Zagreb, Croatia on a rainy Saturday afternoon in July 2016. This being our first trip to Eastern Europe, I was getting a "Kings Ottokar's Spectre" vibe. Like Tintin, we traveled via Frankfurt, Germany. Unlike Tintin, the pilot did not throw us off the plane! We landed in Zagreb and took a taxi to our hotel - Double Tree - in downtown Zagreb.

View from the hotel room

The city seems to have elements of both Eastern & Western Europe in it's character. There are parks, cafes, cobbled streets, cathedrals and museums, with a tram line running through it.

"Ulisca Grada Vukovaara" street

Our first destination was the Zagreb Cathedral, or the "Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary" which is usually the top tourist destination. Even though it was a weekend, the place was not too crowded.

Zagreb Cathedral

It's a lovely Gothic-style church, somewhat similar to the Notre Dame in Paris. Two tall spires flank it, with statues and carvings all over the entrance.

Statues at the entrance

Fountain at the cathedral square

We then walked down to the Ban Josiph square. Ban Josiph Jelacic was a 19th century Croatian Army general.

Statue of Ban Josiph

We then walked around the Zagreb "Upper" Old Town, climbing up the steps leading to the Saint Mark's Church. On-route we had a chance to view the Zagreb skyline.

View of Old Town

There was a wedding in progress in the church, so we couldn't get a good look at it due to the crowds. There were some interesting museums and art galleries here, but most were shut for the day, as it was late evening now. We continued on to the "Museum of Broken Relationships" (which was not worth a look, IMHO) and then rode a cable car to come back to the lower town.
It was now time for dinner. A quick Google search showed that the Vinodol Restaurant, was highly recommended, so we headed there. We were not disappointed - the restaurant was large and comfortable, the service warm, and the food great. This was our first experience with Croatian food, which we found to be both good in quality, and large in quantity!

Almond-crusted trout with grilled vegetables

We hailed a Taxi back to the hotel. The driver was a friendly Bosnian, who recommended a Bosnian restaurant called "Gladne Oci". His point was that it was great value for money - i.e. a whole lot of food for reasonable prices. We noted this down, and decided to visit it before flying out of Zagreb.

The next day, we had booked a tour to Pltvice National Park. Pltvice (pronounced "Plit-Vicee"). This is among the top-10 tourist destinations in Croatia. It's a large park with turquoise lakes, waterfalls and crystal-clear streams, set among green cliffs and meadows. Our guide and driver (both named Marko), arrived at our hotel at 7:00 AM, and picked us up. There were more tourists in other hotels, but it was a large spacious van, which was quite comfortable. It was about 8:00 AM till we hit the highway out of Zagreb. As we left the main express-way, we first crossed Karlovac, a town with the "Open Air War Museum". This is a collection of tanks, armored cars, and shot-down fighter jets on display in a small meadow. We didn't stop here - Marko suggested that we cover this on our way back. Further down, the route was more scenic - small villages with quaint cottages and mountain streams, and old men driving Yugoslav-era tractors.

Soon, we reached the park, and stood in queue to get the tickets. There was a bit of a crowd (it was a Sunday, after all), but we got inside in decent time. Once in, we walked down a trail to the first of the spectacular views.

View of the cliffs in Pltvice.

We continued along the trail, which led us downwards, towards the turquoise lake and waterfalls.

Walking towards the water

At one point, we had to board a road train (more like a bus pulling two carriages behind it). Marko soon realized that two of our tour mates was missing here. So while he went back to look for them, we headed into the restaurant to grab a bite (the Double Tree Hotel does not serve breakfast before 7:00 AM on Sunday, so we were both hungry). We had lovely cheese strudels here. Soon, our missing companion were back, and we were on our way again.
We continued walking through the woods until we reached some of the streams. Here the water was clear enough to see the fish swimming in it.

You can see the bottom of the stream here!

A few wooden bridges led us across a lake, and right at the foot of a series of waterfalls.
Here's a video shot of the waterfall.




This was the last point of the trek through the park. We then headed back to a rest-area for lunch. We crossed the lake on a boat to this rest area. After a quick lunch, we had time to rest on the grassy banks of the lake.

Resting tired feet after the trek. Love the feel of the grass on bare feet.

We headed back to Zagreb, and this time, stopped at the War Museum in Karlovac. The "museum" open-air, and just a collection of tanks, armoured cars, planes and anti-aircraft guns.

War Museum

The war in question here was the Serbian vs Croatian war of the mid-ninties when Croatia broke out of the Yuguslav Republic. This particular village was severely impacted, Marko told us. It's great to see that a war-torn region is now back to normal. The pub beside this museum have the village folk drinking beer and chain smoking like nothing had every happened here!

After this, it was a quiet ride back to Zagreb, and were dropped back to our hotel. We tipped our guide Marko - I think we tipped on the higher side, as we were not too familiar with the Kuna currency yet!