25th May: Zagreb

Zagreb as a settlement has been around for 1,000 years when the king of Hungary established a town and cathedral. Today most of the old buildings have been rebuilt or restored as a result of earthquakes or fire, or just been restored for the sake of it. Nevertheless, the old centre is full of character and atmosphere.

The cathedral was virtually rebuilt in 1880 following an earthquake and is very elegant, but doesn’t take a nice photo at the moment as it’s covered in scaffolding- because it’s being restored!

So this is St Mark’s church instead. It has a roof featuring the coats of arms of Zagreb and Croatia. These could be mistaken for the local football teams’ crests put there by celebrating fans. It’s in a lovely cobbled square that also contains the Croatian Parliament building.

Opposite the cathedral is a set of statues in gold leaf of the Madonna and four angels. The gold is so bright it looks like the photo’s been touched up. Sculptures are from the mid 1800’s by an Austrian called Fenkhorn. 

The market is a huge affair and deals in the usual range of fresh veg and clothes. Around the market are numerous cafes containing many characters who are much more interesting to photograph than the onions and cabbage. The next photo is of a true Father Christmas face, but the chap behind is worth a look as he seems to be practicing for his next gurning competition.

The Croatian National Theatre is an example of the many splendid buildings dating from the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. It was opened in 1895, and as we walked along the far side we could hear some opera singers practicing. The mustard colour was quite popular in the city but maybe makes it look too much like a concert hall at the end of the pier.

There are many areas of green space, usually with a feature of some sort, perhaps a bandstand, a public building or a sculpture as in the next photo. It’s a modern work, and by the figure’s dimensions is clearly a warning to all against too much junk food.

Being the capital, there are numerous museums, one of which we had never encountered before: the Museum of Broken Relationships. We didn’t go in as time was limited, but I couldn’t help Googling it later to find out what it contained. Apparently anything from garden gnomes to underpants! “This is the vase she threw at Henry before she walked out” type of thing. Notice the sign is in English, so maybe they're targeting the UK divorce rate.

Zagreb feels like a city coming out of a recession (whilst the rest of us are heading into one!). The Homeland War is well behind them and Croatia joins the European Community next year. However, the legacy of the communist regime is still visible in this typical scene of Zagreb’s pretty rooftops from the high town. If you look along the skyline there are masses of utilitarian highrise flats. We passed them on the train into the city. The closer you get, the grimmer they look. But if you’ve nowhere to go, or live in some hovel, then they’d look great, so perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to pass judgement.

The train journey mentioned above was comfortable and cheap. The station was a 10 minute walk from the campsite, so very convenient and much less stressful than driving the 40 miles to Zagreb. It was a corridor train with compartments, so have a look at the photo and try to recall when you last rode in one of these. Remember the luggage racks you could sleep on?

May 20th: Plitvice National Park

The park was a pleasant 50 mile drive from the campsite and is Croatia’s premier National Park. From the start it seemed well organised, with different walks pre-planned so you just follow the letter for your chosen walk. We picked walk B. Pathways were either gravel, or wooden boards where the walk crossed water or swamp, so no muddy feet. Right at the start we viewed the highest waterfall in the country, and most spectacular it was too.

The park comprises 16 connected lakes, all at different levels. There is an average of about 10 metres between each lake so there are some incredible falls, rapids and rushing torrents where water flows down to the next level.

At several point in the walk park transport is provided as part of the planned route. We took a boat along the longest lake after eating at the fast-food point near the jetty. The boats are electrically driven so as not to disturb the wildlife, and provide a half-hourly service.

Speaking of wildlife, most of the big stuff makes itself scarce when visitors are around. In the northern part there are bears, wolves, lynx and boar. However, birds and fish are abundant, also some more unusual water-dwellers like this crayfish. But sorry, nothing for the barbie. Fishing is forbidden.

A road train forms part of the transport system so you can walk a lot further and then take the train back. It does seem an excessively rugged conveyance for ferrying walkers along a few miles of level tarmac road, and put us in mind of the vehicles we came across in Morocco that had crossed the Sahara!

The high level walk back gave us another angle on the park, looking down on the lakes. The waterfalls are less impressive at this height, but you can see how well the walkways are designed to take you right along the face of the falls and rapids. The visit is more memorable if you’re drenched in spray.

So another splendid day out, even though it took us a long time to figure out how to persuade the barrier to let us out of the car park. As usual, there were instructions nearby. In English. Don’t you feel a fool….

18th May: On to Zagreb

We’ve moved on to the Zagreb region, to a lovely, quiet riverside site 40 miles from the city of Zagreb, the Croatian capital. The nearest town is Karlovac 8 miles away.

The campsite pitches are generous, as shown in the photo. Pitches can be quite small in many foreign sites so neighbours end up being too close, and it also doesn’t allow the sensible UK fire protection gap of 6 metres.

Another odd phenomenon is known as the “herd instinct”, where some campers pitch as close as possible to your unit regardless of available space. It might make a good subject for a medical book: “The Psychology of Camping”.

The river really is this turquoise colour. It’s about 50 metres away from our caravan, just far enough should the heavy showers of the last few days cause a sudden rise in level. We were nearly flooded in Alconbury in 1998- many of our friends were- so we’re a bit wary of rivers and heavy rain.

The site used to be approached by crossing the longest wooden bridge in Croatia. This is currently being replaced by a super new concrete road bridge. A welcome local improvement to be sure, but the photo shows another, sadder angle; the last bits of the ancient old structure being engulfed by the concrete juggernaut. I’m certainly not against progress, but there is a price to pay.

For comparison, you might like to see the complete old bridge a few years ago before the “modernisation” (photo from the internet).

15th May: Primosten and Trogir

Today we decided to make a tour of the coast south of Šibenik. First stop, for morning coffee, was the island town of Primosten, now joined by a short causeway. Cafés with decent coffee, cakes and ice cream are available everywhere in Croatia at reasonable prices, so we quickly found one on the quay and sat in the sunshine. It’s a very pleasant place, but not that old. The best general view was from a lay-by after leaving the town.

In 30 minutes of driving along the lovely Dalmatian coastline we arrived at Trogir. It is also an island town, joined by a bridge to the mainland, but this one has a long history going back to its founding by the Greeks in the 3^rd century BC.

The main square is particularly pleasing and dominated on one side by the Venetian-towered cathedral dating from 1213. A master mason called Radovan carved many fine figures on the frontage, and also an inscription in which he describes himself as “most excellent in his art”. Talented, yes: modest, no. This is the building.

Facing the cathedral is the town clock and loggia, an open-air gallery containing an intricately carved 15^th century frieze  (not by Mr Bighead this time). We went in to see the carvings and to take photos of the cathedral.

The loggia was quite crowded, and the reason was soon apparent: a choir was about to sing. This was a klapa choir, an ensemble of between 5 and 10 men singing traditional Croatian songs. Almost every town or village has such a group.

The choir struck up, performing as klapa choirs do, without musical accompaniment. The singing was most professional and the harmonies exquisite. So impressed were we that we bought their CD afterwards. This is the choir, Klapa Tragos, in front of the frieze. Out of curiosity you may like to hear them on You Tube: if so, click the following link:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE-vRRB72_4

The town still has some of its defensive walls standing, but most were demolished by Napoleon’s men in the belief that allowing the sea breezes to waft through the town would blow away the endemic malaria. Simple logic often works, a pity not this time. Anyway, here’s the Town Gate in a part of the wall that has survived.

We had been expecting Croatia to be poorer than it has turned out to be. Maybe we will see a different side later, when we go inland away from the tourist areas.  We did however see a beggar today, but this had more to do with the presence of tourists than poverty. She was quite well dressed and had a bowl in her left hand that she shoved under diners’ noses as she darted in and out of the restaurant clientele. Deserving or not?

We had already eaten by this time, in the narrowest alley possible that still had room for passers-by. Again, beautifully cooked pizzas, and great value.

So we trogged back from Trogir to Camp Marina via the more direct inland route, passing through lush green hill country. It was odd that we didn’t see any cattle, sheep or goats grazing, but there weren’t many houses either.



Šibenik Town

Camp Marina is about 8 miles from Šibenik, and we visited the town several times. It has over 1,000 years of history and was founded as a Croatian fortress town, but it isn’t a holiday resort. The old town is full of narrow alleyways and is built on a hill, so plenty of legwork is necessary to check it out.

The most noteworthy area, as often in ancient places, is around the cathedral. The steps leading up to the square, the square itself, and the cathedral, are built in white stone that gives it an almost new look. You could imagine (apart from the power cables) you’d been transported back 500 years to when it had just been completed.

The lunchtime snack we had in a café overlooking the small port was also noteworthy. We ordered four cheeseburgers, which were a long time coming. We joked that they were baking the buns, as you do. Well they were, but the most extraordinary buns ever. They tasted somewhere between bread and a pizza base, and were huge- and delicious. At just £2.20 each! The photo proves our memories hadn’t exaggerated.

Whilst sat enjoying our burgers, we were reassured to see that we were under the protection of the Croatian Navy. Two vessels were patrolling the bay close to the shore. But it seemed all wasn’t going too well. They were both wreathed in smoke from the engines, and one in particular appeared to have trouble manoeuvring. The photo shows the ship after most of the smoke had subsided. If the Serbs were going to mount another invasion, this was their chance.

Sibenik Birds of Prey Rescue and Study Centre

It wasn’t quite what we were expecting. This wasn’t the usual bird show with owls skimming noiselessly over the crowd and eagles swooping down to snatch a morsel of meat. Here they treat injured birds of prey and returned them to the wild. They also study the birds’ role in the ecosystem. As Emilio the proprietor explained, we really have no complete idea of how the ecosystem works, except that everything is inter-dependent; with so many bird species on the endangered list we don’t know what will happen if these disappear.
The Centre’s mission statement is to sustain raptor species in Croatia in order to preserve the natural balance, and at the same time to add some knowledge of how it all hangs together.
It wasn’t all theory. Emilio’s gloved hand was holding this magnificent eagle owl as he was talking to us. It looks cross, but actually isn’t, although you need not to stare eyeball-to-eyeball as this is threatening, as in the human reaction, “What are you staring at, mate? “

Instead of the set-piece performance, Emilio let us handle the birds under his supervision and here is Jane with a Harris hawk having landed on her glove. Harris hawks are not to native to Croatia and these were bought from credited breeders for display purposes, as the Centre doesn’t want to be accused of exploiting Croatian birds brought in for treatment.

There is a high-tech operating theatre on site and a local vet with special training who comes in to treat the sick birds. There is also a retired English lady who helps out and who ran a raptor centre herself in Monmouth. She raced cars before that. This sort of place appears to attract dedicated but offbeat characters. Emilio for instance had orange dyed hair!  

The final photo seems to sum up the essence of a hawk: focussed and fearless. However, their aggression is different to a dog’s. If you try to take a dog’s food away, it will probably go for you. The hawk’s reaction is to continue to eat what it can still get at: it just concentrates on the food.

Krka National Park

This is our main reason for being here, and Camp Marina is right next door. In fact, Mr Marina and Son of Marina run mini-bus tours into the park. We take a tour with them, and it is excellent. We also go back, ourselves, several days later and explore in more detail. The blog description combines both visits.
Krka Park covers the lower reaches of the Krka river valley. The river is set in wooded hills and falls through several series of waterfalls within the Park. It is incredibly picturesque.
Let’s look at some of the scenery. The waterfalls were created by the erosion and depositing of limestone and so flow in multiple levels rather than one big drop. The next three photos are examples.

Going upstream 10 miles or so is an island monastery, again in an idyllic setting. It’s currently occupied by only 6 monks.

The Krka Serbian Orthodox Monastery is perhaps the more interesting and is a fully working teaching establishment. These are its serene cloisters.

It was badly damaged during the homeland war. As in other parts of the country, this damage was repaired so well as to be mostly undetectable. The only parts that give the game away are the wall paintings, which were renewed. Their colours are too fresh to be more than a few years old.

The Park supports a tremendous variety of wildlife. This is not surprising with such an abundant water supply for trees, plants and animals. The water is also very clear and supports a large fish population. The next photo is looking down into one of the pools, but could have been taken in an aquarium.

The park is serviced by a network of wooden walkways that thread through the watercourses and through the trees and undergrowth. We didn’t see any of the wolves or wildcats claimed to be around somewhere- but how about an iridescent dragon fly

At a practical level, the Krka River was an important former source of power. There were mills of every description, and cloth fulling. In fulling, the water was used first to wash the cloth and then hammers, powered by water wheels, pounded the cloth until the fibres matted into felt. The next photo shows the washing area. It could be the witches’ cave in Macbeth.
Interestingly, after the cloth fulling business ceased, the locals used to come to wash their own clothes here, and then dry them using the fullers water-powered hammers. Presumably they removed their garments much sooner than the fullers would have done, to prevent them being turned into felt.

Here's a photo of those hammers located in the chamber next door to the washing. Mind your fingers when putting your clothes in!

Now, what have we got here? Looks like a set of giant dumb-bells. It’s actually a turbine from the hydroelectric plant that was installed here, and is about 2 metres tall. Not knowing much about Croatia, we vaguely think that they’ve done well to catch up with our technology. Not so: the hydroelectric generating station at Krka was commissioned in August 1895, only 2 days after the Niagara Falls plant that was the world’s first. Both Krka and Niagara generators were based on a powerplant design by Nikola Tesla, a Croatian born less than 100 miles from the Krka site.

Krka was a truly captivating place.

Up the Coast to Šibenik

The whole coastline is scenic bays and inlets, and the main road following these twists and turns was surprisingly good, and not too slow. 30 miles north of Dubrovnik we had to cross the 6 mile stretch of Bosnia and Herzegovina that reaches right down to the sea, thereby cutting Croatia in two. So more border formalities but nothing too long-winded. Bosnia and Herzegovina (what a mouthful- why didn’t they call themselves B&H, like B&Q!) was allocated this strip in communist times to prevent their state from becoming land-locked. They built the port of Neum to handle the exports that were expected but never came, and today practically all exports leave by road from the other end of the country.
We left Camping Kate to arrive by mid-afternoon at Camping Marina. Ladies must have influence in Croatia. Marina herself ran out to shake hands and welcome us to her camping. Her husband, who can only be thought of as Mr Marina, came and lopped off some tree branches so the caravan would fit into our chosen pitch. The site had got a nice laid-back feel, which perhaps means slightly untidy; for example, Mr Marina slung the lopped-off branches on the back of the pitch. However, the facilities were spotless.
Just one photo now, of the site entrance, with a rally car doing a nearly-handbrake-turn. This was the day following our arrival when a rally was held on the road outside.

The Homeland War

Yugoslavia as a country dates from 1918, an amalgamation of small states of different religions and ethnic origins. In 1946 a major change occurred with the creation of a communist regime under President Tito when the original states became republics under a central communist control, as in the USSR itself.
Following Tito’s death in 1980 ethnic loyalties became more focused, and tensions were further heightened from 1987 when Milošević, President of the Serbian Party, started a propaganda campaign promoting Serbian mistrust of other ethnic groups. The Serbs were the largest ethnic group in Yugoslavia, and Milošević wanted Serbian fears translated into total support for his attempts to restore hard-line communism under Serbian central control.
Croatia and Slovenia, regions with different ethnic majorities, naturally found this policy unacceptable. They had anyway moved towards more democratic government. So, in June 1991, these two states declared full independence. Slovenia was better prepared, and their militia ejected the Yugoslav army units stationed within their borders. Croatia didn’t have a military force, so set about creating one and obtaining weapons from the Yugoslav Army bases in Croatia. Amazingly, they were quite successful in this.
I couldn’t establish whether this army base-cum-holiday complex near Dubrovnik had been attacked or not, but it certainly looked like it. The next three photos show a state of decay far greater than would be expected than from simple abandonment.










































They also had the skills to make some military hardware, for example this gunboat on display in Dubrovnik port under the inscription “ The First Battleship of the Croatian Navy”














Bitter fighting occurred between Croats and Serbs living both within and outside Croatian borders, and with the Yugoslav army, which also encouraged and armed Serbian aggression. The conflict lasted from 1991 until 1995 and is known here in Croatia as the Homeland War. Finally, through the efforts of the international community and UN forces, a negotiated settlement was reached in 1995.
Croatia now looks forward and has done a brilliant job of repairing the physical damage to the main towns, although there is plenty of evidence left in ruined buildings inland. However, every opportunity is taken to remind residents and visitors of the aggression perpetrated by Croatia’s neighbours. But Croatia does not come out with a clean slate; all sides have been called to answer charges of ethnic cleansing, another name for genocide.

May 2nd: Trsteno Gardens

In 1502 a Dubrovnic nobleman built his summer villa here at Trsteno, with extensive formal gardens laid out according to the fashion of that era. The villa and gardens were maintained by the same family until 1948 when the newly installed communist regime confiscated the estate as part of their removal of the aristocracy. Today it is still run by the state, the Croatian Academy of Science, which has further developed the grounds to include an arboretum.
The setting is stunningly beautiful, high up and directly overlooking a coast of little bays and a sea dotted with islands. The first photo is a typical example.

Being an arboretum, it was full of obscure trees, and they don’t come stranger than this one. Remember a sci-fi book called “Day of the Triffids”? The trunk on the right just above the hedge line looks like it might be waving to us. And are those two discs its eyes?

Odd trees, now big trees. It’s 150 years old and has grown to well over 100 feet tall. The discs on the trunk are identification data (I bet you guessed they weren't really eyes), but we didn’t remember to note down the details. It’s not clear who is propping who up between Jane and the tree.

We ate our sarnies in this shelter overlooking the sea. The islands seemed to go on forever into the distance, getting hazier and hazier. A perfect spot, we all agreed.

After lunch we descended the steps at the side of the shelter into a terraced, overgrown garden. A real suntrap, and just the sort of place that would attract snakes. Not that we considered such a possibility- until I nearly stepped on one: a large brown snake basking at the edge of the path. It rapidly shot off into the undergrowth, and has defied our efforts since to ID it. We have internet access so were able to discover that there are 16 species of snake in Croatia, some with sub-species, in the case of the grass snake, 8 sub-species. Paul is quick off the mark with his camera, and got the tail before the creature disappeared. So, what do you think it was? Post answers on the blog. Winner gets a Monty Python or Black Adder DVD.

Walking on a little more carefully through the rest of the garden, we came to the mill, a rather dilapidated structure full of old equipment to do with milling, and pressing grapes and olives. It was covered in dust, bits of wood and rubble, looking more like a medieval torture chamber that had laid undiscovered in some castle dungeon for centuries.

The formal features of other great estate gardens were there too: the herb garden, roses and box hedges, a fountain with classical statues, and so on. The water feature shows a glum looking Neptune with trident, presiding over a goldfish pool, flanked by female aides. It’s getting him down that in all these years he’s not managed to spear a single goldfish.

The gardens were well worth searching out. There was no sign from the main road and then no indication where the entrance was on the tiny perimeter road we found after passing through a campsite. Trsteno Gardens website is all about praising its own horticultural achievements, so perhaps the management doesn’t see direction signs as part of the job, which is ironic because the tree descriptions (the discs in the photos) were clear and comprehensive!