zagreb, HR

what is on the half way between bratislava, SK and southern dalmatia, HR? yes, you are right, it is zagreb, the capital of croatia, CRO. well, after the funeral of my mother we were happy to move forward, see s.th. new and leave most of the sad thoughts for some time behind us ....

our hotel dubrovnik was in the very city center in the lower old town, so it was a great starting point for the sightseeing. any insider hint? if planning to sleep there, book your stay directly at the hotel website. why? you can park for free then and otherwise you have to pay a quite high parking fee of about (10-)15-20 euro per night, you know?

zagreb (ZG) looks often somehow broken and destroyed, but really nice, if you asked me. enjoy few pictures 😄

the night life street with restaurants, bars, music. 'our' restaurant 'pivnica mali medo' aka 'cellar small bear' with croatian craft beer and live music from the 1st floor through an open window 😄

the old name of zagreb was AGRAM. author: Janez Vajkard Valvasor, 1689. source wikipedia

on the road: the drava river (drau) short after entering croatia from hungary

zagreb, old city center in the lower town

cathedral in kaptol in upper town (gornji grad)

many beautiful facades out there

this smelly passage is the shortcut from the parking place to our hotel dubrovnik

hotel dubrovnik in zagreb (ZG), hrvatska

there was a loooong tunnel between the lower and upper city center and a cable car, too

view down from the upper town

two of us inside an orthodox church in the upper town

the central church in the upper town

many. many prayers out there

old meets new in zagreb

the market in the downtown city center

leaving zagreb --> my worst ever rain while driving the car ⛈☁🚙 ... 

but the stupid man-made traffic jam at the highway toll station in direction ljubljana (slovenia) + the next jam only few minutes later at the croatian-slovenian border were worse than the rain 😇

do YOU see the road? 😇🚗🍀

more pictures here.

3 + 3 weeks in croatia

we have spend a lot of beautiful time in croatia (+ slovenia + bosnia and hercegovina) as it was one of the very few easy to reach destinations with not too many corona restrictions for us 😄

we came as soon as they opened the borders for tourists without mandatory corona test in early june for 3.5 weeks and in july & august for 2.5 weeks again #CRO #HR

roman colosseum in pula + istria peninsula

let's try to sort my memories first, then add some pictures & insights later. shall i?

the stops at our spontaneous round trip were: 

• 3 days at the istria peninsula (istra, istrien) in and around the city of pula (pola) ~ stinjan, fazana, brijuni NP (brioni), colosseum in pula
  
• kotli waterfalls - istria peninsula
• senj (zengg) with its interesting nehaj fortress (tower) above the harbour
• velebit massif mountains ~ unesco heritage
• pag island - lun with its olive trees, la luna hotel, city of pag, bosana nature park & beach
  
• city of zadar ~ unesco heritage
• sukosan - not a nice place at all, if you asked me 😈
  
• biograd na moru + nature habitat lake vransko jezero (crow lake) which was unfortuntely connected to the sea by a small man made canal which causes a huge loss of sweet water in rainy winter time when the water level in the lake is high
  
• 2 days in plitvice cascade lakes NP (plitvicka jezera) ~ unesco heritage
• city of krk on the krk island
• cres island with its two tiny man made canals which divide the geological entity cres into 2 (not 3 😂) islands cres + losinj. just to make the confusion complete, on losinj, there is a city called mali losinj (small losinj, lussinpiccolo) which is much bigger than the city veli losinj (big losinj, lussingrande) and both cities mali losinj & veli losinj are located on the same part of the losinj island separated be the above mentioned 2nd man made canal 😂. there is a lake vransko jezero (crow lake) on cres, too. and close to mali losinj they've found the 'croatian' apoxyomenos (apoksiomen, HR) statue in the sea which you can admire in a museum in mali losinj
  
• mošćenička draga at the istria peninsula
• ljubljana (slovenia, SLO) - old city center
  
• --- back home to munich for 1 month ---
  
• opatija (abbazia)
  
• island city of trogir ~ unesco heritage
• neretva river delta - kite surfer paradise, tasty local agricultural products cooled by river water, the ugly industrial harbor city of ploce, beautiful inland city of opuzen
  
• bacina lakes (close to ploce)
  
• neum (bosna i hercegovina, bosnien und herzegovina, BIH)
• slano
• 5 days in the city of dubrovnik ~ unesco heritage ~ south dalmatia region (dalmacija)
  
• 2 days in krka NP ~ unesco heritage ~ krka river waterfalls integrated in pubs (former mills in roski slap) ~ cities lozovac, skradin, visovac island, ...
  
• beach at tribunj (close to sibenik) - not a nice place at all, if you asked me 😈
• ribnik - the border village with an interesting castle at the slovenian border
  
• ljubljana (slovenia, SLO) - castle hill above the old city
  
• --- back home to munich --- 

pula (pola), istria

our beach at stinjan close to pula

the box legend mate parlov + me in fazana, istria

kotli waterfalls

senj (zengg, segna)

ferry to the pag island

city of pag on the pag island

 mr. turtle

skradin, krka river NP

waterfall skradinski buk, krka NP

birthday. best of all wives 💓 in dubrovnik

 

sladenici, an abandoned camping site

neretva river delta

opuzen at the neretva river

kite surfers in the neretva river delta

bacina lakes

trogir, unesco heritage

trogir (left) meets opatija (right)

 krka river

opatija, istria

moscenicka draga, istria

city of cres at the cres island

mali losinj

veli losinj

artatore, our airbnb home

artatore, my mobile work paradise for a week

mr. scorpio

man made canal which divides the losinj island in 2 parts

frankopan castle in krk on the krk island

so true 😃

 

albert einstein

nicola tesla, the serbian genius electrical engineer was born

close to the plitvicka jezera NP in today's croatia

plitvicke jezera NP

zadar

vransko jezero

capers (kapern)

many, many, many more pictures here. so just scroll over (if interested), the pictures are intended to save my own nice holiday memories for the years to come, you know? 😉