Dear Readers,
Marty & I have been traveling through Croatia for the past 10 days. It’s been fun, but exhausting. I was going to forego writing a Haber Report, but my readers (well, one of you!!) have been clamoring for one, so here goes.
We started our trip in Zagreb. It’s the capital of the country. I didn’t find it to be particularly charming or interesting. There was a major earthquake there 4 years ago. At the moment the entire city is being renovated. Almost every museum and church is closed. Can you imagine? NO museums!! We did walk all through both the Upper (old) Town and the Lower (new) Town. We did a lot of walking on this trip; about 10,000 steps every day.
On the other hand, we had the most amazing dinner in Zagreb in a Michelin starred restaurant. Over 15 small dishes, one more beautiful & complex & delicious than the next one. A truly memorable experience. We’ve had a lot of really nice meals on this trip, but this was the stand out.
From Zagreb we drove 2 hours south to a town called Rastoke where there are a series of waterfalls. We all know how much I love waterfalls. It was fun to see.
From there we continued on to Plitvicka Jereza (Lakes) where we spent the following day. Plitvicka Lakes is a national park and a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is just gorgeous. There are 16 beautiful lakes (some emerald, some blue) with crystal clear water connected by a series of lovely cascading waterfalls. We rode on a tram and on a boat and we walked and walked. Marty was a good sport!
The next day we continued wending our way south toward Split. On the way we stopped at Klis Fortress where part of Game of Thrones was filmed. And no, I’ve never seen it, but apparently a lot of it was filmed in Croatia & it’s brought in thousands of tourists (especially in the summer months; so glad we are here in May). Anyway, Klis Fortress is a medieval fortress with LOTS of slippery stone steps. Again I must say: Marty was a good sport (or pretty good!)
Eventually we reached Split which is considered the unofficial capital of Croatia. I liked it much better than Zagreb. I decided to hire a private tour guide to show us around Diocletian’s Palace which was built in 298. This was a good decision as it is huge and we would have been totally lost. Among other places that he took us to was a tiny synagogue (within its walls) which is the 3rd oldest synagogue in Europe.
On our own we visited the Mestrovic Gallery; at last, a museum! Mestrovic is considered the Rodin of Croatia. He made sculptures of many Biblical figures, including Moses.
There are many islands off the coast near Split. We spent the next day on Hvar which is usually referred to as “sunny Hvar”. Unfortunately, it rained the entire day which put a damper on the day; pun intended. We took a catamaran to get there & back & rented a (different) car to get around the island. No lovely views from either the boat or the top of the mountain on Hvar.
As I mentioned earlier, the food has been great. At one of the restaurants in Split we had sea bass served in 4 different ways: as a ceviche (my favorite), in a soup, in a brodetto (fish stew) & finally as a filet. Quite unusual and tasty.
The next day we continued driving south. Our first stop was at Grgich Winery for a wine tasting. Mickey Grigich was (he died last December) a Croatian wine maker who went to Napa Valley in the 1950’s & started the Grgich Hills Winery. In 1976 his wines beat out all the French wines in a blind tasting in Paris. You can imagine how nuts the French went. For our 30th wedding anniversary in 2000 Marty & I went to Napa Valley. It may have been our 1st wine trip. Included in our itinerary on that trip was Grgich Hills because we really enjoyed their wines. In 1996 Mickey Grgich went back to Croatia to start a small (very small) winery in his native country. So we were quite excited to be going there. It was a bit of a disappointment, but we were still happy we went (& it wasn’t too far out of the way).
As we left the winery, I saw a sign for the town of Ston which intrigued me. I looked it up and decided we should go; it was on our way. It had an amazing stone wall which reminded me of the Great Wall of China. While we climbed the latter, we did not walk on this one, but I was glad we stopped by. It’s one of the reasons we travel by ourselves; so we can do whatever strikes our (my!) fancy whenever we want.
We then drove another hour south to Dubrovnik; our last stop (but not our last destination!) on this fun trip. Dubrovnik has proven to be our favorite city in Croatia. It is bustling and full of life. It has a fabulous old city. (As an aside, I am so glad I thought to bring sneakers with me!)
Here too I hired a private guide to give us an overview of the old city. He gave us lots of history, took us to the highlights of the old city as well as to another tiny synagogue. This synagogue is the oldest Sefardic synagogue still in use today & the second oldest synagogue in Europe. It was established in 1352.
On our own we walked the City walls (including 300+ limestone stairs), saw the Big Onofrio Fountain, the Fransiscan Monastry, the main streets, Rector Palace, the Cathedral and even a small art museum. In addition, outside the old city we rode a cable car to the top of a mountain for a terrific view of Dubrovnik.
As Dubrovnik is also off the coast of the Adriatic Sea, there are several islands nearby. Today we took a boat to Lokrum Island. There are peacocks all over the island. Unfortunately, the one time a male peacock spread its gorgeous feathers, my phone went on the fritz. I have no idea what happened, but I am proud to say that after a while I managed to fix whatever happened! On the island we went to a botanical garden (very interesting greenery but no flowers) and a monastery and we walked & walked on a rocky path that felt like it had been abandoned. Again, Marty was a terrific sport!!
I am looking forward to a lovely dinner tonight.
Tomorrow is our last full day here. We are actually going on an all day private tour to Montenegro so we will get to go to another country! I think it’s less than an hour to the border.
Thank you all for traveling with me. I hope you enjoyed my report. I look forward to your comments.
❤️
Your intrepid reporter,
Irene