SewDiva with lunch - much yummier than her face makes it look
Church at the Parliament
Incline tram
Inside Cathedral
Bear with August Senoa, author & poetWednesday we were ready to “tourist” again. We trammed into the old part of Zagreb. It is historically divided into two parts: Kaptol which surrounds the cathedral and was administered by the church and Gradec which was on the adjacent hilltop and administered by civil authorities. They fought all the time and the bridge joining the two parts was called “Bloody Bridge”. There is now a funicular that runs from the town square up to the top of what was Gradec and is now the location of the Croatian parliament. This means we have visited 4 major European cities and ridden incline trams in each one. Perhaps another tourist attraction for Seattle: an incline tram from the waterfront to the market, or maybe reinstitute the one up Queen Anne Hill. We wandered the streets of Zagreb taking in the sights and ambience. It is a “girl shop” city, shoe and jewelry shops everywhere! Too bad Bug has gone home and I don’t have her to goggle the windows with.
The high point of our day was the food (imagine that!) For lunch we went to a restaurant, Didvo san, which translates to Grandfather’s Haven. We had the house special, Didova tava, grilled meat and veggies in a casserole dish. It was fabulous as were the little salty fried bread balls we had for an appetizer with local soft cheeses. Another thing Bug would like: we finally found someplace where they salt the food enough for our American tastes (and we thought we didn’t use much salt!)
Croatians must eat earlier than the rest of Europe. Other than the fancier restaurants the kitchens close about 8:00. Now the bar doesn’t close until about 2:00 and only 1 in every 10 or so places serves food so I would say drinking definitely takes precedent over eating. The other wonderful thing is that all the restaurants are non-smoking, unlike the other countries we have been in on this trip. So, anyway, for dinner we wanted to try a little bistro a couple of blocks from our apartment with a patio surrounded by rose bushes. We didn’t get started on our way until after 8:00 and, guess what! The kitchen was closed. So we were off to find someplace else. We had noticed a fancier restaurant a couple of blocks in a different direction but from the outside it had all the ambience of a bowling alley. Boy, were we mistaken. It was THE BEST. The inside had fabric swaged across the ceiling, linen tablecloths and napkins and roses on the tables. And the food . . . . The only thing open was the grill (our waitress called it the barbeque). So we had grilled meat and vegetables. Bear had the ground beef stuffed with thin sliced ham and some mild cheese. SewDiva had a pork cutlet stuffed with the same ham and cheese. I cannot emphasize enough how good they were. The wine we ordered was excellent so Bear asked the waitress what kind it was. She brought the bottle and explained that it was one of their best and they didn’t usually sell it by the glass but since this was our first time at their restaurant the wine was on them. We ate until we were ready to roll on the floor. And then after we were done the owner came by with a haunch of dried salted ham (very similar to Spanish jambone). He started shaving off slices for us to taste and then had the cook bring us a plate of cheese (similar to Parmesan), pickles and olives to go with the cheese along with another glass of the wine. What a feast! And we felt so welcome.
The high point of our day was the food (imagine that!) For lunch we went to a restaurant, Didvo san, which translates to Grandfather’s Haven. We had the house special, Didova tava, grilled meat and veggies in a casserole dish. It was fabulous as were the little salty fried bread balls we had for an appetizer with local soft cheeses. Another thing Bug would like: we finally found someplace where they salt the food enough for our American tastes (and we thought we didn’t use much salt!)
Croatians must eat earlier than the rest of Europe. Other than the fancier restaurants the kitchens close about 8:00. Now the bar doesn’t close until about 2:00 and only 1 in every 10 or so places serves food so I would say drinking definitely takes precedent over eating. The other wonderful thing is that all the restaurants are non-smoking, unlike the other countries we have been in on this trip. So, anyway, for dinner we wanted to try a little bistro a couple of blocks from our apartment with a patio surrounded by rose bushes. We didn’t get started on our way until after 8:00 and, guess what! The kitchen was closed. So we were off to find someplace else. We had noticed a fancier restaurant a couple of blocks in a different direction but from the outside it had all the ambience of a bowling alley. Boy, were we mistaken. It was THE BEST. The inside had fabric swaged across the ceiling, linen tablecloths and napkins and roses on the tables. And the food . . . . The only thing open was the grill (our waitress called it the barbeque). So we had grilled meat and vegetables. Bear had the ground beef stuffed with thin sliced ham and some mild cheese. SewDiva had a pork cutlet stuffed with the same ham and cheese. I cannot emphasize enough how good they were. The wine we ordered was excellent so Bear asked the waitress what kind it was. She brought the bottle and explained that it was one of their best and they didn’t usually sell it by the glass but since this was our first time at their restaurant the wine was on them. We ate until we were ready to roll on the floor. And then after we were done the owner came by with a haunch of dried salted ham (very similar to Spanish jambone). He started shaving off slices for us to taste and then had the cook bring us a plate of cheese (similar to Parmesan), pickles and olives to go with the cheese along with another glass of the wine. What a feast! And we felt so welcome.
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