We are off to Zagreb today and I pick the group up at
09:00 at the top of the hotel.
The parking man had picked me up at 07:50 and taken me to
the coach where I gave it a bit of a clean before setting off.
The road to Zagreb is all motorway with the last hour
being through the mountains and at times it is like driving on Christmas Day,
there is so few cars about.
We have a comfort stop while I call our guide, Mario, to
tell him we shall be ten minutes late of our expected time of 11:00.
I drive into Zagreb on the more modern side which has a
road system in grids so it is easy to find your way about (won’t be so easy
later coming from the other side!) and reach the concert hall meeting point on
time but there is no Mario. We wait a couple of minutes and then I call him
just as he appears around the corner. The first part of the tour is by coach
with the remainder on foot. I explain that we have some slow walkers and he
says he will take it easy and finish at the cathedral by 14:00 where I will
pick them up at 15:30.
Mario is very knowledgeable and is rightly proud of his
city but he does have the very irritating habit of saying er, er, er between
most words! I am probably doing him a disservice, especially as I don’t speak
any Croatian, but it is annoying!
We have a stop at the large cemetery where Mario realises
just how slow some of the group are! We are late leaving here and soon after I
drop them all off near the cathedral which he will walk them down to.
I hear later that half the group dropped out of the
walking tour and those that continued didn’t finish until 14:45, making it a
very late and fast lunch!
I pick them all up at 15:30 and try to find my way out of
the city. I have put my sat nav on for the first time this week (I don’t like
using it) and sure enough takes me to a railway bridge I can’t get under! In
the end I have my map and the signposts to follow and eventually find my way
out. It isn’t easy because you have to drive through the centre to reach our
road home.
We have a comfort stop on the way back and return to the
hotel at 18:15, just as it is about to storm. I manage to park in the town
centre coach park so only have a ten minute walk back to the hotel. A very wet
walk I might add!
I have to finish my bookwork so spend another hour
working in my room after which I feel a little irritable and need to go for a
walk. I end up going for a beer and then treat myself to a pizza at my
favourite restaurant here. The pizza is delicious but cannot finish it which is
not like me at all!
I have enjoyed today as I like cities but another guide
next time please!
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