"Are you ready to rock Zagreb!"
The tour begins...with a upward walk of course.
The cathedral looms above - we'll see more of it later.
We're heading to the market - fingers crossed - oh no, yes, it's the Feast of Corpus Christi, so with Croatia observing this as a national holiday, along with only a handful of other nations, there's no market this day.
They must really love BBQ at the market.
Back to the square/plaza, passing the statue of the "kumica" before we head back down.
Not a whole lot of people out today doing Corpus Christi, and we confirmed as the tour book described, Zagreb is a hidden treasure amongst a small tourist following. We did hear some amount of accent-less English (North Americans) here and there however.
Our tour book guided us to see a couple of tunnels which provide short-cuts under a ridge-top neighborhood. These were also used as bomb shelters during the Kosovo War in the 1990's.
Ah, this must have something to do with Corpus Christi - we were tempted to follow, but decided otherwise.
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Gerri reads that the origin of the neck-tie can be traced back to Croatian mercenaries serving in France during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). The French king took notice and initiated the popularization. Tim snaps a photo.
Yes, yes, as the dude is pointing out, "to the funicular!". The smallest we've ever seen (and the cheapest at 60 cents). Our timing was perfect, as we were able to walk right on, along with a small tour-guided group.
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At the top, Burglar's Tower, a watch tower from around the 13th century. Before we ascended the funicular, we heard a fairly loud boom, like an "oh-shit" kaboom, but found out that a canon is fired from the top right window of this tower at noon everyday to commemorate a victory over the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century.
Ala "Monty Python": "...and now for something totally different...
A museum that collects artifacts from broken relationships, be it separation/divorce, death, family members that "walk away", or those that end even as they barely start.
"A mobile phone - it was 300 days too long, he gave me his mobile phone so I couldn't call him anymore."
"A parachute rig: I met him on my first parachute jump. I was really scared but this handsome man, who was my tandem jump instructor, 'saved' me. Later he helped me to jump solo. We loved to play in the sky and we loved each other. Then he died in a parachute accident."
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On May 24 1892 Nikola Tesla, a local hero, proposed to city hall that Zagreb become the first city in the world to build an A.C. power station, they rejected it, so he went to America and Buffalo NY accepted the proposal.
The Prime Minister's offices, Church of St. Mark, and the parliament building.
This turn in the street, through a segment of the original city defensive wall, contains a tiny chapel.
And now Zagreb Cathedral, Roman Catholic Gothic, from 1217 A.D. It suffered from Mongol attacks before the end of that century, and then earthquakes in 1880 and on March 22, 2020
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Behind Gerri are remains of fortifications to defend against Ottoman-Turks in the 15th century.
One of the tower spires were removed after the 2020 earthquake, the other tower spike did fall off striking an adjacent building. To the right is displayed what centuries of weathering damage has done to poorly chosen stone (soft sand stone), with a replacement readied for taking its place.
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"Have tour-guide book, will travel..."
Another replacement piece getting prepped to replace worn parts above.
Apparently steel put in place to support earthquake damaged walls. It's also possible this is where one of the tower spires toppled over landing on this roof top.
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Do you see any you'd like?
Zagreb has a ton of green space.
Some of modern Zagreb.
"Here's to Zagreb!"
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