Tuesday 21st July
Today we visited Zagreb. It’s a very laid back, pretty capital, which suits us as we were both feeling quite tired.
Here’s a few photos.
We did learn a bit about the place from the free guidebook we picked up, but it was nothing too interesting (just things like when the cathedral was built, who various statues depict etc.) but there was one interesting story I did learn…
There’s a fountain in the main square which is built over the source of a spring, where legend has it that a Croatian warrior (maybe the King) requested a fair maiden fetch him water after battle. The fair maiden scooped up the water for him – the word for scooping up water is “zagrebitka” (something like that), and this is where Zagreb got its name from!
Here Eric depicts the fair maiden.
More photos.
We had a nice lunch, lazed about in a park and came back.
The people in Croatia have been really friendly. My glasses needed fixing, I took them to an optician and he did it for free, and then said ‘Enjoy the rest of your stay’. How kind!
In the evening 3 more cycle tourists had set up camp next door to us: two Poles and a Dutchman. We had a bit of a chat with them before bed.
Wednesday 22nd July
We decided to stay another day as we were still feeling really tired.
After a relaxed morning doing a few jobs we had a fun time hanging out with the cycle touring Dutchman, Stephen. He’ll be cycling around the Balkans for the next few weeks. We persuaded him to do his most serious cycling pose here.
A long game of cards in the afternoon led to the following final scores:
Stephen – 900
Penny – 480
Eric – 0
Oh how we laughed. Poor Eric.
After Stephen headed off we got some food. Eric thought he could eat half a watermelon by himself.
He couldn’t.
He eventually admitted defeat after I had told him several times that he had nothing to prove, and that I didn’t want him to get a stomach ache. In the end he said he would stop for me. Thanks Eric. I’m so lucky.
captain of the back seat 