Often one hears the statement that “it’s a small world” and on this morning it proved to be case once again. It happened that friends of Chris and Diana were not just staying in the same small hillside village as us but they were accommodated in Villa Plitvice Lodge too. We all had breakfast together and then it was time for us to head for the bus.
Zoran and his associate drove the six of us 15km from Villa Plitvice Lodge near gate 3 back to gate 1 and dropped us off at the bus stop. We waited in sunny but quite cold conditions for our bus and in the meantime we watched busloads upon busloads of tourists arrive and unload just nearby to gain access to the Plitvice Lakes National Park through gate 1. As was the case yesterday we were astounded to see the number of people with dogs entering the park. On the comparatively narrow walkways these dogs, even on leads pose a considerable risk to safe passage.
Although fifteen minutes late, eventually our bus to Zagreb arrived and we headed north through Slunj to Karlovac, the unimpressive town we’d visited two day’s ago. After three hours of travelling we arrived at the bus depot in south eastern Zagreb.
Zagreb, the capital of Croatia has a population of just over a million and is situated between the north bank of the Sava River and the mountains behind that form the border with Slovenia. Zagreb is a sprawling city, its suburbs filled with high-rise apartment blocks that look singularly uninspiring. Sadly, graffiti on many buildings is all too commonplace. Although our bus travel skirted the heart of the city we could see some hints of the Kaptol in the partly scaffolded twin spires of the cathedral.
We then said farewell to Chris and Diana as they head to Venice today whilst we are staying overnight in Zagreb.
The four of us then caught a bus to Zagreb Airport and arranged for a shuttle to take us to our hotel nearby called ‘Cool Rooms’. The hotel is small but new and very comfortable. The hotel’s daily tariff being €45 seems very reasonable in comparison to some of our previous accommodation charges.
After a quick surveillance of the neighbourhood we discovered a corner store and bought provisions for a late lunch which we consumed back in our hotel room. In the evening we had a pleasant meal in a nearby restaurant where apart from two others we were the only dinner guests.
As John and Janet leave tomorrow morning at 05:15 we said our farewells tonight wishing them well for their onward journey to Austria.
We too leave Croatia tomorrow and fly at 08:35 to Copenhagen and then change flights to travel down to Düsseldorf to stay with Edel. We are so excited to be catching up with Edel after all these years.
Our Eastern European holiday has come to an end and without doubt it has been an utterly fantastic adventure encompassing different cultures, amazing architecture, fascinating history and spectacular scenery experienced with wonderful friends in extraordinarily good weather conditions.