Revised Schedule for Zagreb

It could not have been a more beautiful day to be in the countryside outside this big capital city if it tried.  I started to say busy city but it isn't.  Everything is closed on the day after Easter.  Luckily Tina arranged to shift the schedule and was had a wonderful day.  One of the best of the trip following closely on the heels of our remarkable Home Stay.

We started the day with champagne at breakfast.  Just skipped the OJ for it and enjoyed!  The hotel breakfast was pretty good.  Crepes were warm and donuts had jelly not chocolate so all good for me! I was up early because of the noise in the hotel, not outside.  Old hotels have thin walls and not much insulation.  I was glad to be able to get English Breakfast tea, fresh fruit and hot food pretty early.  They start serving here at 6:30 in the morning.  Business hotels usually do have earlier starts.

We set out at 8:45 and as we drove through the city I noticed that T-Mobile is a pretty big presence here.  They are the prime supporter of the Dynamo Futbol Team.

Here is just a note about this blog production:  Note the black line at the top of this picture below, it is part of the bus window.  You have probably noticed, dear reader, that this blog isn't really very well edited.  No time for that while I am traveling.  Also no time to crop, enhance, color correct or fool in any way with pictures.  There are seen here as they come from the developer which on this trip is just my Samsung Galaxy 7 Edge.  You see what I get, so to speak!  Usually after all the activities of the day and late dinners I may have only an hour or so to try to capture the spirit of my trip.  I know you understand and forgive this!

The name Zagreb means 'behind the hill.'  And it is.  From every side there are mountains.  We passed Bear mountain and heard the story of the Black Queen who sold her soul to the devil.  She tried everything not to pay the debt but in the end had to keep her bargain.  Such a cool story!

Tina also told us of the brother and sister skiers who made their home land so proud.  Especially the young girl who won all the awards and actually had them change the prize from a golden bear to a crystal crown.  She was the real Snow Queen!

The gallery and studio of the famed Croatian sculptor, Antun Augustinčić, was our goal.  What a wonderful surprise.  None of us knew his name but at least I had seen one of his great works of art.  The statue of PEACE outside the UN building in NYC.  When the headquarters was built every nation that was a member contributed to the building and grounds in some way.  Antun cast this colossus in bronze and it gleams proudly there still today.

This is the actual mold for the bronze casting of Mir, Peace.  The figure is a woman.  Appropriate to symbolize peace, don't you think!

This photo gives you an idea of the size of the final sculpture.

The bust for the his version of a Pieta with the little first model below.

The Comic Actor was in the Garden of the Gallery.  Karen is pretty comic herself!

A very modern gallery with a large room at either end and busts on pillars on both sides of the connecting passageway.

Moses.  Not sure if he is contemplative or angry.  What do you think?

The Klanjec village church seems a perfect backdrop for this calm horse.

In honor of his friend the famed Croatian poet and author.  I think it was Anton Branek but we got a lot of information very quickly.  It is an expressive piece though and that is what caught my attention.

This is Tito, life sized.  He and the sculptor were friends from neighboring villages.  When Augustincic began the tribute he had Tito mounted on a horse but the subject said no.  He was a man of the people.  SO the design changed to show him not as a dictator, lording above everyone, but as a humble man looking down for the welfare of his people.  The other original is in front of Tito's childhood home down the road a piece.

Love this horse on top of a hill created to display him with the pride he deserves.

This is called "Carrying the Wounded."  It is on the grave of Antun's wife, Nada.  She was five years older than her.  When he passed away his urn was placed here also.  Together in life and so together in death.

 We walked up the hill, past the church to the Studio.  The tour included the back room where the plaster molds are kept.  I was fascinated by the structure of these and the detail of horses knees, hands, feet and faces.  Many were the same figure in different sizes.  I was surprised to see how they were constructed of wood, papier mache, and plaster.  The had to be formed around the clay models and then become the negatives for the finished work. The skill required to make the molds, in my mind, almost outweighs the skill required to pour and finish the bronze.  I had never known that the artist could all subtle coloring to the bronze while in the process.  Definitely a behind the scenes look of a master's workshop.

Just to give you an idea of the scale of some of the larger works of art.

 We continued down the road, or perhaps actually up the road as we climbed further into the hills of this area on the Slovenian border.  Here we stopped at the Museum Village of  Kumrovec.  Yugoslavian Dictator, Josip Broz Tito was born here.  When people saw where he lived they thought he had been born rich.  Not true.  When a grandfather died his father kept the property.  Tito's aunts divided the money and other goods.  Tito's father was a farmer.

Here original buildings and arts and crafts are preserved.  Even though it is a museum there are five families that still live here and not in the larger village outside the museum land.

Original Bronze by Antun Augustincic.  That is not bananas hanging from the barn but corn.

Interesting that in the duplex shared with his grandfather the Tito family cleverly had a bench against the bed.  At night they flipped the back down and added a mattress to widen the bed so more could sleep in it.  In another room the table flipped completely over and had a mattress beneath that was then on top for sleeping!

Croatian make a lot of crepe paper decorations.  I thought this was lovely against the white wall above the bed.  The bed, of course, is in the one room the whole family used for everything.  It was near the hearth, or more accurately the ceramic back of the hearth.  The opening was the bred oven in the kitchen.  The kitchen had a second oven so the back of that was in the grandfather's side of the house.

Like most in this area of Croatia, the Tito family were very religious Roman Catholics.

Bread oven that backs into the living room.

One side of the house was as Tito's immediate family lived and the other was a museum of displays.

These are just two of the batons filled with messages.  One was given each year, presented to Tito by the Young Pioneers.  The baton was the chosen emblem because he had been a relay racer. 

Here Karen is presenting a baton!  Museums always have fun stuff for the kids to do.

The modest home sometimes had as many as twenty-four of the extended family living here.  At the entrance was a small hall with the kitchen straight ahead.  Floor space in the kitchen was about 8' x 10' at the most. Tito, his parents, and siblings lived the right of the front door while, to the left were the grandparents, some aunts and uncles and cousins of the young Tito.  In the front on each side was one large all purpose room.  A second but also multi-use room was behind and about the size of what we would think of as average, modern walk-in closet!  As an adult and President of the country the house was outfitted for him and his wife to enjoy on occasional visits.

In another building there was a wedding display.  Here the bride is bedecked with crepe paper flowers and 'blessed' with coins.

The whole village would come to a wedding mainly because the food would be abundant!

When we had all finished visiting the blacksmith demonstration, the bakers house and all the aspects of village life we returned to the bus to drive further up the mountain to a delightful lunch stop.  We passed the castle where the sweet Veronika is buried alive in the castle walls! You can get an idea here but the real story is much more romantic!  Dark Secrets of Croatia!

Fredrik and Veronika still in love.

Our restaurant was part of an Alpine-ish complex.  Because it is the holiday families, especially with young children overflowed into the outdoor seating, as did we.  Long picnic tables adorned with red checkered cloths were under roofs, out in the open, and up and down the long and very steep driveway.  Elva and I hitched a ride with the owner to avoid a falling opportunity on the climb up!  Tina insisted!

We had a turkey dinner cooked on a bell.  You may remember that this is then in an outdoor oven.  In this case a special hard tortilla like circle is baked on the outside of the bell.  When it is time to turn the turkey it is cracked up and place together with the turkey absorbing much of the juices and turns itself into a very tasty but irregularly shaped noodle.  Fresh sald like I enjoy, good bread and butter were also served.  Very, very delicious apple strudel and coffee or tea finished the meal beautifully.  The view was great.  To see kids playing in the pretend castle and on the various climbing apparatus was fun.  IN the distance we could hear the shots being fired at the castle.  Oddly the winner has to have the loudest gunfire as well as the longest distance.

Tina is waiting for Elva to come to the car for the ride down the rocky, slippery slope.  Back on the bus we had about an hour of the most beautiful scenery to entertain us.  We could actual see Slovenia all along the way.  It is separated from Croatia only by a little stream that is dry in the summer and a low wire fence.

Back at the hotel my pigeon friend kept me company outside my window while the many bells of the city signaled Vespers.