In mid April, Diana and I took a trip to the UK and after a few days there we paid a visit to Croatia and Bosnia. We flew from Manchester to Zagreb, landing there just after midnight. Though we had booked an airport hotel, the Royal Airport Hotel, it wasn't exactly walking distance from the airport so we took a taxi. The hotel was all closed up at that hour. Fortunately, there was an envelope with my name on it near the door and that contained a key to the room. It was a reasonable hotel and perfect for a late arrival and early departure.
The next morning after breakfast we went back to the airport to pick up our rental car. We were using a small local rental car company, Avantcar, and they surprised us with a few extra charges - 50 euros for being over 60 and 50 euros for traveling into Bosnia. They did a fine detailed inspection of the car for scratches before we were allowed to leave.
We did not stay to look around Zagreb since we had both been there before. We drove straight to Plitvica National Park. It was around 80 miles and it was quiet a pleasant drive through the countryside. The weather was not great and there was a fair bit of rain along the way. We had a hotel in Plitvica, just outside the park, the Plitvica Falls Cottage. We arrived around noon and checked in and left our bags before going into the park. It was raining off and on so we were a little damp and I did not know what to expect. We were rewarded by some stunningly beautiful lakes and waterfalls and a nice trail alongside the lakes and river.
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| Plitvica Falls National Park Map |
Basically, the park surrounds a valley containing several lakes joined by waterfalls until at the end of the park the Korana River flows out downstream. Even on what was a damp grey day the water in the lakes was a beautiful turquoise blue.
At the downstream end of the park there is the largest of the waterfalls (waterfall in Bosnian is slap). This fall spills over the top of the cliff and falls down into the many small lakes below.
From the lower end of the park we hiked up the trail to a point where we could catch one of the park buses up to the other end of the park. We knew we had to get back to the boat dock in time to catch the 4:30 boat, the last boat back to our starting point and our car. There were various routes we could take and after a little confusion we settled on a path that would allow us enough time to catch that last boat.
We were now at the upper end of the lake complex and we walked down the series of cascading lakes from this upper level. Much of the trail was a wooden boardwalk skirting around one lake after another. The waterfalls where one lake spilled over to the other were simply spectacular.
There wasn't a lot of wildlife along the way, the occasional bird and a few fish, but then we came across this wonderfully colored salamander - what a beauty. Apparently it's bright colors are an attempt to mimic poisonous species. Since many colorful species are brightly colored the salamander, which is not toxic, avoids being eaten.
We caught the boat back across the lake to our starting point. There was a Jewish group on the boat who once we got going started a communal prayer service. Lots of chanting and bowing of heads. I thought it a bit intrusive on the other non-Jewish passengers on the boat.
At our hotel that night we had a wonderful meal - fresh trout. All in all, a wonderful day despite the rain.
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| Jajce |
The next day the weather was better and we drove over the border into Bosnia Herzegovina on our way to Diana's home town of Zenica. On the way we stopped for a coffee in the town of Jajce. The town was quite interesting - a mosque, the old city walls, an old castle and an impressive waterfall.
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| Jajce waterfall - Vrbas River |
We drove on towards arriving just after 12:00. Zenica is a moderate sized city that was once a significant iron and steel producing town. The iron works are now a shadow of their former self and employ far fewer people. The Bosnia river flows through the town and the river side parks in the city center make it quite attractive.
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| The Bosnia River, Zenica |
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| The family |
In the late afternoon Diana's cousin Nina (and her daughter and grandchildren) visited and they all talked in a mysterious language while I responded to the occasional question and acted as the family photographer.
It was Diana's birthday, so there was a bit of a celebration.
The next morning, after breakfast in the apartment, we went out to view the town. Our first stop was to buy a mattress to make our sleeping conditions on the fold out bed a little more comfortable. That done we walked through town - the concert hall, the market, the museum, the river walk and park.
In the museum there was a picture of Diana's father (just the back of his head) in a meeting with Tito - very impressive. There was also the camera used by a photographer in Sarajevo to take the well known picture of Gavrilo Princip, who assassinated Franz Ferdinand and got the ball rolling on World War I.
Near the main bridge across the Bosnia River and close to Alice's apartment there was another apartment building that I found to be quite impressive. A thirty odd story edifice with all sorts of different height sections. It was looking a little shabby now but I loved it.
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| Zenica |
In the evening, I went out for a walk by myself. I found a flower shop nearby and bought Diana birthday flowers and Alice a similar bouquet. They were well received. I then went on to walk around parts that were once a part of a thriving city and now were part of its decaying past - the railway station, the steel works, the coal mine.
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| Zenica Railway Station |
The railway does not carry passengers anymore and the old station looks quite sad. The steel works are still operating but at a reduced level and they are foreign owned. The coal mine is now closed.
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| Zenica Coal Mine |
The next day after breakfast we set off on the short 35 mile drive to Sarajevo - an easy drive on the toll road. We came into Sarajevo and went to visit Diana's friends, Uncle Mesud (not really an uncle) and his daughter Biljana. Mesud was 102 and very fit for his age. He has had an interesting life what with World War II and then the 4 year siege of Sarajevo in the 1990's. Biljana evacuated from Sarajevo on the last train to leave but her brother stayed and was killed during the siege while waiting for a bus to go to work.
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| Biljana, Mesud, Diana |
Everyone has such dark and troubled stories from that time. It really made me realize that I and most of my friends have had such a lucky and untroubled life.
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| Sarajevo from Mesud's Apartment |
The apartment Mesud lives in and lived in throughout the siege is quite nice. The balcony has a great view over the city and the surrounding snow capped mountains. During the siege he built an interior wall away from the main windows so they could live out of sight of the snipers firing into the city.
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| Sarajevo Art Academy |
We left our car by Mesud's apartment and went for a tour of the town with Biljana. Sarajevo is a wonderful old city with many fine buildings. We walked downhill past the Olympic Museum (the 1984 winter olympics were held in Sarajevo), the National Theater, the park with the Orthodox Church, to the River Miljacka. The finest bioldings are along the river. By the Art Academy there was a nice modern bridge and sculptures suspended on wires over the river.
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| Sculptures over Miljacka River |
We had a cup of coffee at a nice pavilion in a park at the side of the river. Over coffee Biljana told me her life story of her escape from Sarajevo with her young children to Serbia and then back to Croatia and eventually to asylum in the USA, in Los Angeles. What a story.
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| Archduke Ferdinand's Assassination Memorial |
This park was near an older bridge, the Latin Bridge and it was near this bridge that Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Ferdinand which of course was the trigger for the First World War - how insane was that. There is a plaque denoting the spot from which Gavrilo fired the shot that changed the world.
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| Mosque in Sarajevo Bazaar |
We moved on from the river to the old town bazaar, Bascarsija. Here there is the 16th century mosque, the Gazi Husrev-beg mosque, and a clock tower as well as narrow pedestrian streets full of restaurants and tourist shops. The Gazi Husrev-Beg mosque was the first mosque in the world to receive electrical power back in 1898.
We wandered the streets of the old town and ended up at the city hall. This was destroyed in the war but has been totally rebuilt. It is a beautiful building inside but there is a very dark exhibit of the atrocities that occurred there in the 1990's and the subsequent war crimes trials in the Hague. Some terrible things happened in Sarajevo during that relatively recent period.
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| The Robert De Niro Room |
Biljana then left us and we checked into our hotel - the Hotel Presidente. It was quite a nice hotel on the side of the Miljacka River and close to the old town. We were surprised that we had been given the Robert De Niro room. He stayed in that same room when he was a judge at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
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| Sarajevo Cathedral |
After a short rest in the hotel, we set off again to walk around town. This time we visited an old Orthodox Church and the larger Catholic Cathedral. In the pavement outside the cathedral there are several small pock marks created by the explosion of mortar shells that have been filled in by red resin. There are apparently some 200 of these Sarajevo Roses around the city and they mark the spots where at least three people were killed during the siege.
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| Merkale Market |
Further along from the Cathedral is the Merkale Market. The market was bombed by Serb forces bombed killing many civilians. It was bombed twice and the second bombardment was the reason that NATO forces launched air strikes against the Serbs. There are examples of the Sarajevo Roses in the marketplace but I didn't see them.
We then went back to the old town and again met Biljana for dinner in a restaurant called Pod Lipom. After we had dined we noticed a photo on the wall showing Bill Clinton had dined there.
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| The Olympic Museum |
We walked back through the streets to Mesud's apartment to pick up our bags from our car. We left the car there and walked back to the hotel.
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| Memorial to the Children lost during the Siege, Sarajevo |
The next morning, a Sunday, I got up early and walked around the now quiet streets of the city. There was a disturbing monument to the siege comprised of a collection of blood stained children's toys. I spent some time looking at the posters outside one building - they were all anti-UN, anti-USA, anti-Zionist. Quite an interesting display. Somehow, Tom Waits picture was also in the mix.
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| The old bridge Mostar |
After breakfast at the hotel, we checked out and walked with our bags back to Mesud's and to our car. We left Sarajevo and drove the 75 miles over to Mostar. Mostar of course is famous for its 16th century bridge over the river Neretva. The bridge was destroyed in 1993 by Croatian forces but was later rebuilt. It is a remarkable bridge in a remarkable setting. It is now a major tourist destination. I was more than a little put off by the number of tourists and the number of restaurants and tourist shops in the surrounding area.
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| Preparing to jump |
As we walked over the bridge we saw that there were several men in swimming trunks that looked like they might be ready to jump from the bridge. We walked over and down the other side to the beach below the bridge while one of the men stood on top of the bridge as the others passed around the hat. After a long period of money collecting finally they were ready and one guy jumped off the bridge. It wasn't a dive, just a jump. Still it was pretty amazing; it is almost a 90 foot drop to the water.
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| Mosque in Capilijna |
After leaving Mostar, we were heading for Split on the coast. We stopped off in Caplijna on the way. There is a nice mosque and an old castle there.
We stopped to fill up with cheaper Bosnian petrol and then continued on to Split. In Split we stayed with Diana's friend Maca (Matza). She has a nice house with great views of the Adriatic and the harbor below.
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| View of Split Harbor |
That evening we dined in a fish restaurant at the yacht club below the house.
Both Diana and I had been feeling a little off color recently and Diana was now really suffering - coughing, congested, sore throat. She stayed back at the house while I went off to return our rental car and explore Split.
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| The Waterfront, Split |
The esplanade in front of the harbor is lovely and the old town has some interesting old structures from the Roman period. I checked out the harbor where large ferry boats seemed to be always coming and going. We had a catamaran ferry to Dubrovnik the next day so I confirmed the location and timing.
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| St Domnius' Bell Tower |
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| Grgor Ninski Statue |
It was a little hot and I was also not feeling my best so I did a relatively quick walk around the old city - Franjo Tudjman's statue, the St Domnius Cathedral with its magnificent bell tower, Diocletian's Palace, Diocletian's Cellars, the massive bronze Grgur Ninski statue with it's polished toe, the Old City Clock.
I did not go into Froggyland, a collection of some 500 stuffed frogs. That didn't seem appropriate. However not far away was a wonderful art-deco building with statues on the side of the wall. I think it was just an office building but to me it was one of my favorite buildings in Split.
We dined with Maca at her house in the evening and then I went out to walk into town for a few cakes for desert. I found an excellent cake shop and overdid the purchase. We had enough for breakfast the next day.
The next morning we left for the ferry to Dubrovnik. It was a high speed catamaran that traveled down the coast stopping at various islands along the way. The first stop was the town of Milna on the island of Brac, then came Hvar on the island of Hvar and Korcula on the island of Korkula. Finally there was a stop on the island of Mljet which is a National Park.
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| Signs of a lot of tourists in Dubrovnik |
As we approached Dubrovnik there was a large cruise ship in the harbor signifying that we were going to see a lot of tourists in the city, The whole trip was around 4 1/2 hours. We took a taxi from the port to the old city gate, the Pile Gate, and from there we walked to our hotel, the Hotel Celeste. We were staying in the heart of the old town just off the main street, Stradun. There was no hotel reception but up on the third floor of this old building we found the front door to the hotel which was open and a key was in one of the three rooms inside. We assumed that was our room and moved on in.
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| Lovrijenac Fortress from the Dubrovnik City Walls |
Diana was still feeling under the weather and had seen the sights of Dubrovnik before so she rested whilst I walked around the city walls. I was surprised at the 35 euro charge for walking the walls but it was well worth it. It was quite a hike too - up and down numerous steps all around the old city.
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| Dubrovnik Old City |
In the evening we walked around the city for a while and settled on dinner at one of the restaurants by the harbor. We had a nice simple meal with the accompaniment of a rather good pianist who was playing all the songs from the American Popular Songbook. After dinner we walked home. Diana was feeling a little better but I was fading fast. We were both sub par.
The next day I got up early, as is my habit these days, and took a walk around the town. It was nice to see all the streets without the crowds of tourists at that early hour.
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| The Knight Orlando |
We then had a nice breakfast just across the way from the statue of the knight Orlando. Orlando was being restored so we did not get to appreciate his statue without supporting scaffold.
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| Marin Drzic Statue |
Next to the restaurant was the statue of the playwright Marin Drzic. This statue is so much abused by tourists who sit on his lap and touch his nose. Those parts are all shiny.
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| The Church of St Blaise, Dubrovnik |
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| Church of St Blaise, Dubrovnik |
We walked around the old town some more - the cathedral, the mosque, the shops of the old town. I was a bit disheartened by the number of tourists. Once they allow cruise ships into a port everywhere becomes overwhelmed with roving groups of tourists following some flag bearing guide. It is all a bit much for me.
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| Dubrovnik Old Town from the Excelsior Hotel |
We walked outside of the old town up to the Excelsior Hotel. This is where Diana's daughter had part of her wedding reception a few years ago. It started to rain so we sheltered indoors for a while drinking coffee and eating cake.
We then visited a nearby art gallery where there was an interesting exhibit of local women artists. Now it was my turn to flag and go to the room for a rest while Diana walked around the old town.
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| Fine Dining - Restaurant 360 |
In the evening we had a wonderful meal at Restaurant 360, a Michelin Star restaurant. For both of us it was the first time we had dined in a Michelin Starred restaurant and it didn't disappoint. A truly excellent meal. Afterwards we walked back to the hotel in a slight drizzle.
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| Old Town Dubrovnik |
The next morning we packed our bags to leave. We had time for a nice breakfast in the same cafe as the prior day. Then we walked back out to the Pile gate to catch a cab to the airport. The airport was quite a long way out of town - it is neither quick nor cheap.
Our Jet2 flight took us home to Manchester after a wonderful few days in Croatia and Bosnia.
