Crossroads of Adriatic Day 4

May 03, 2007 - Thursday - Zagreb-Optional Tour

We woke up at 7 AM to high clouds but a pleasant 65° day. Our breakfast was in the hotel again with the same excellent varieties and very conscientious service.

Our optional trip to the Ethnographic Village of Kumrovec, Tito's birthplace was canceled as only five of us wanted to go. This is the first time in eleven OAT trips that this has occurred. Tammy knew we were disappointed so she made several calls to arrange alternative transportation for us.

We met Judy and Marion, from Maine, at 9 AM to discuss our options with Tammy. We agreed to meet again at 9:45 as Tammy had hired a car and driver to take us the Tito Heritage Village.

We met Eddie, our driver, who had a brand new Mitsubishi vehicle. Eddie spoke English very well so we had an informative trip out of the city. We stopped for gas and then headed north north west on one of Croatia's major highways. We left the main road and traveled through rural hilly areas of this beautiful green country know as the Zagorje Region.

We passed many small farms houses with red tiled roofs with large garden plots. It is very forested with both pine and deciduous trees. We arrived at Kumrovec at about 11 AM and spent about two hours visiting Tito's birthplace.

Known to the world as Marshal Tito, Josip Broz was born there in 1892 and ruled Yugoslavia for four decades, through much of the Cold War era, until his death in 1980. Though he was a dictator, he often defied Russian communist authority. He rose from a common soldier to be the "dictator" of Communist Yugoslavia.

Now part of a museum known as Staro Selo (old village), the simple peasant house where Tito was born and the surrounding 20+ homes have been restored to recreate traditional turn-of-the-century village life in the rolling hills of Croatia's Zagorje region.

At 1 PM we left the village and met Eddie who was waiting patiently for us. We had an opportunity to ask many more questions about his country on the drive back to Zagreb. We arrived at our hotel at 2 PM, thanked Eddie, and then organized our notes and photos of the day.

It was such a nice day so we walked around the city again, this time going the other direction to the major railroad station, a beautiful and classical building still in use today. Near the station is Zagreb's major modern shopping mall so we explored it for a bit. The mall was filled with young people, a cell phone in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

We have been noticing that the people of Zagreb seem to be very fit as they do a lot of walking like people do in most big cities. The majority of men and especially the women are very tall, stately, and well dressed.

We strolled along the busy streets in more of the residential areas where huge buildings have been divided into individual apartments. There is a considerable amount of "tagging" (graffiti) and much exterior restoration still to be done. The government and private enterprises are working on restoration, but it is an expensive and slow process.

Dinner tonight was on our own so we went back to that great Italian bistro by the cathedral to try another of their specialties. It was a great meal. We walked back to our hotel, still seeing a lot of people enjoy the early evening.

The temperature was again a balmy 69°, the humidity was a little higher at 54% and we walked 9.88 miles today. A great day in Zagreb!

Palace Hotel - - - Meals: B

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Day 11: Mediterranean Navigation

Light House of Malaga

Overnight Ferry

Olive Oil Grinding Stones

Terra Cotta Oil Containers

Home Hosted Group

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