The drive from Split to Zagreb is about 5 hours and we took the freeway, which meant that we quickly came to appreciate how rugged and mountainous Croatia is and how short of arable land.  The road is an engineering marvel of arial bridges between mountains and long tunnels through them.  We guessed one tunnel to be about 5 km long.  The tunnels generally have only two lanes and the speed limit drops to 100 kph as opposed to 130 kph on the open road.  Rain threatened for much of the journey but didn’t start to fall until we were about half an hour out of Zagreb, which was lucky.  The rain really set in and we got quite wet finding our hotel, transferring luggage and returning the rental car.  After weeks of hot weather we were reaching for sweaters and socks.  Rain must have a huge impact on the restaurant trade because there were hundreds of empty outdoor tables and dripping umbrellas.  We had a great meal at an Italian restaurant ( real risotto) and were grateful to walk into warmth and red wine.

It was still raining this morning when we set off to explore the Upper Town/Old Town but it had cleared by lunchtime.  We visited one of the more unusual museums in the city, the Museum of Broken Relationships.  The museum offers a chance to overcome an emotional collapse by contributing to its collection.  There were some very strange mementos and accompanying stories!  

Zagreb has a lovely feel and we both wish we would spend longer here but we fly to Doha tomorrow, homeward bound.

Nikolas Tesla in the rain

Dolac Market

St Marks Church

Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary , a largely Neo-Gothic structure dating from the late 19 th century

The Croatian State archives, topped with groups of globe-bearing owls symbolising the library’s educational purpose

The Well of Life, National Theatre, one of the many sculptures to be found in Zagreb

A couple of OAPs busking

Zagreb, Old Town

Not a sculpture this time but a real, live frog in the Botanical Gardens