In Zagreb and to Slunj (Rastoke)

Day's Summary
"We moved the camper to a parking area closer to the old city and then cycled in to the main square. Got information from the tourist office and then went up to the cathedral. From the cathedral we went to explore the upper town before catching the short funicular back down to the lower town. After a bit more looking about we cycled back to the camper and then set off for Split taking the scenic mountain route. Got as far as Slunj where we explored the many water mills and spent the night in a campsite overlooking the town."

We had realised that we a bit too far from the city to be able to easily cycle in. As the crow flies, it was about 6 km so would probably be a 10 km ride in, making about 20 km total, probably taking about 2 hours. This was not feasible, so we went back to Park4Night and this identified a large free parking space about 4 km from the centre. This looked very feasible so we set off, although, because of the one way system around our park we had quite a long drive before we could get going. We stopped a couple of times to take photos, especially of the Croatian sporting greats posters. The one I photographed was Franjo Puncec, a tennis player who was ranked at no 4 in the world in 1939, and who moved to Johannesburg with his wife after the war, winning the South African open in 1949 and dying in Johannesburg in 1985. It was strange that I picked probably the only "great" with close South African connections.

It was quite straightforward driving to the parking area. It was a large open space attached to old industrial buildings, with a very high brick chimney as a beacon. There were also very clean ablutions, completely unattended. I dread to think what similar facilities would have looked like in South Africa.

With the bikes off the camper, we headed into town. It was a bit tricky picking up the way. As the direct route was down a one way street and rather busy, we took a side route that sometimes had bicycle routes and sometimes they disappeared. Our route was dead straight, went through a small park and a couple of blocks further on turned left to get into Ilica Street, the main tram route. As it was still quite early there was very little traffic and it was an easy ride to the “Main Square”. We arrived at 9h35 to find the square almost deserted and found a place to secure the bikes. We needed to get tourist info, but found the office closed for renovations. Marianne managed to find its new location on the other side of the square. Armed with information we retired to the nearby McDonalds for a breakfast snack and coffee. After deciding what we could do, we walked back through the square which was now getting busier and headed up the hill to the Zagreb cathedral. As usual it was partly
scaffolded, which doesn’t make for good photographs. It is the tallest building in Croatia and very impressive. It was beautiful inside and there was much to photograph outside too - the old city walls, information about the restoration and the Golden Tower of Angels.

We continued walking up the hill, going past the church of St Mary’s with its gold decorated onion dome tower. Then we took a shortcut through a garden with a spectacular graffiti drawing of a modern day Gulliver, dressed in denim and sneakers tied down by little people. We dropped down to a seriously touristy Tkalciceva Street lined with restaurants and with a beautiful statue of a lady with an umbrella – Maria Juric Zagorka, Croatia’s first female journalist. From here we turned into the market, which was highly recommended in the guidebooks but it was a bit disappointing. It was a decent market, but lacked the excitement and vigour of African markets. From here we headed to St Mark’s church, famous for its portal and the roof tiled to represent the coat of arms of Zagreb. We headed back down to the city going through some lovely spaces, and taking the easy way down – the city’s mini-funicular. While waiting we had lovely views over the city’s roofscape, and had a good look at the Lotrscak Tower, a 13th century fortified tower built to guard one of the city gates. Then it was a very short ride down to the lower town, which was now much busier than earlier. We spent a bit more time in the Square, taking photographs of the statue of Ban Josip Jelacic, the centrepiece of the square. (A noted army general, remembered for his campaigns during the 1848 revolutions and his abolition of serfdom. The title of Ban, is an ancient one in the Balkans where in early (11th century) days it was the equivalent of a king. (In the 19th century it was the equivalent of prime minister). It was now 12h15 and time to go. We collected the bicycles and realised that there was now much more traffic. So we did what the locals did and rode between the tram lines following the trams. One waits for a tram to pass and then rides fast between the lines, making sure to get out of the way if another tram catches up. So we moved back rather fast. When we got to the place where we turned off, Marianne went to buy bread rolls for lunch and then we make our way back to the camper the way we had come. We had lunch at the camper and then asked Google girl to guide us to Split, taking the scenic mountain route shown on our map. We managed to get diesel before getting onto the big road and then drove along the A1 before turning onto the E71 at Karlovac and then heading south through beautiful scenery. The road was a little narrow and there were lots of trucks and even worse tourist buses that went very fast, so the driving was a bit tense. What amazed us that there were cyclists on the road and that the road was a recommended cycle route in the tourist guides. As one drives into Slunj (not mentioned in the guide books) there is a sharp turn and I was about to drive through the town when I was forced to stop and turn around by Marianne.

Thank goodness that she had had her eyes open as the scene below the road was absolutely remarkable, unlike anything either of us had seen before. Deep down there was a village of stone and wooden buildings with red tiled roofs interspersed by rivers, streams and waterfalls. And lots of Chinese tourists. We battled to find a place to park, but there was a sign showing a campsite at the top of a steep hill. We decided to drive up and see if we could park there. We could certainly park, but it was a long way up and a long walk down. Oh well, we had bicycles! We flew down the hill and rode around the village and down to the lowest point we could reach.

It is a remarkably romantic place, with watermills used for grinding corn (apparently 22 in number) forming part of their owners' houses. The area is apparently very poor as the mills are no longer useful and much of the population does not have proper employment. Tourists also drive in to look, but few overnight in the town. We took lots of photographs, enjoyed watching a young fellow doing some amazing slack lining over the river and then rode back up the hill to the camper. We were in fact at a campsite, and although the ground was roughly levelled using building rubble, there was power and the were excellent ablutions in the ten pin bowling alley across the road and the view was tremendous. It was also cheap as the staff were not there and the owner who Marianne spoke to didn't really know what the price was. Another camper arrived a bit later. We had supper in the camper and then looked around going to the nearby ancient castle that overlooked the town and a Napoleonic era warehouse and enjoyed the setting sun from a lookout over the river. This gave lovely views of the town’s onion domed church. We both had excellent showers and went to bed after a very full and eventful day.

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