Zadar

The walled city of Zadar has been around for a long time, with evidence of habitation dating back to the Stone Age.  Today it is a beautiful city with narrow cobblestone streets, churches, coffee shops and high-end boutique stores.  To get ready for a day of exploring we fortified ourselves with the breakfast provided by Hotel Niko, so here is the food shot of the day:

After stuffing ourselves we waddled out to our little red VW Up, threw in our bags and took off for the city.

The actual town of Zadar was originally settled by Lilburnians, an Illyrian tribe that controlled the area in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. (Lonnie - weren't you once a Lilburnian?)  It became an important Roman city, but it was destroyed by an earthquake in the 6th century.  The Goths ruled Zadar in the 9th century, when the St. Donatus Church was built.

The St. Donatus church is shown above on the right.  In the foreground is some of the reconstructed foundations of the old Roman city, with some of the broken architectural pieces displayed.  The next photo is a close-up of the base of the St. Donatus church, where they used the rubble from the destroyed Roman town as the foundation of the church.

One unique feature in Zadar is the Sea Organ, designed by a Croatian artist/architect named Nikola Basic.  It is a series of pipes, like a pipe organ, built into the waterfront, with the only evidence of it being a series of small holes in the marble walkway.  The motion of the waves makes random harmonic sounds that can be heard from some distance away.  Really unique and pleasant to hear!

Back in the old city we came across the Cathedral of St. Anastasia, a beautiful church with the best gargoyle I've ever seen.

On the right side of the church, where it meets the adjacent building, is the cutest little happy cow gargoyle.

After a few hours of roaming around Zadar we left the old walled city through this gate.

This is part of the defensive wall around Zadar. Unfortunately these walls did not protect Zadar from extensive damage during Croatia's war for independence in the early 90s.  Early in the war the southern part of Croatia was cut off from the rest of the country near Zadar and the town was bombarded with artillery shells by the Yugoslav Army and Serbian separatists.  After over a year of isolation the area was rejoined to Croatia following a battle at the nearby bridge in Maslenica.  In an earlier post Annette talked about the signs in the central plaza in Zagreb telling people not to forget the heros from Maslenica.  We didn't really see much evidence of damage in Zadar, so apparently everything has been repaired or rebuilt in the past 20 years.

Our Dalmatian Coast of Croatia Adventure - Part I

Annette did our blog entries on Zagreb and our brief visit to cold and snowy Slovenia, so the rest of our grand tour down the coast of Croatia falls to me.  It has taken me a couple weeks to get the courage to look through the 2300+ photos we took on the drive, but here goes . . .

First things first, I've got to include a reference maps -

After the cold of Ukraine, Zagreb and Slovenia we were anxious to get to the coast, where we were hoping to find some warmer weather.  So we left Slovenia and zipped down the freeway toward Rijeka, finally leaving the snow as a white accent on the mountains behind us as we headed down the road toward the Adriatic.

This was our first view of the Adriatic and the island of Krk in the distance.  Annette's cousin Yada has a place on Krk so we hope to spend some time there later in the year after Annette's Kosovo work is over.

We avoided the faster inland freeways and drove along the coast as much as possible.  The views just kept getting better and better as we went south!

This is the town of Senj, one of the oldest towns in the northern Adriatic, which was first mentioned in Greek documents from the 4th Century BC.  The structure on the hilltop is the Nehaj Fortress, built in the mid-1500s to protect the area from the Ottoman invasion.

At Prizna we decided to take a ferry over to the island of Pag.  This is the ferry that took us on our very short Adriatic "cruise".

Annette snapped a photo of me on the ferry.  It was a cold day, however, so we didn't spend a lot of time on the deck.

Looking back on Prizna, with the Croatian flag in the foreground.

When we arrived at the ferry dock on Pag it was like we had taken a short boat ride and somehow ended up in the middle of the Nevada desert.  But a quick drive across the island brought us to the town of Novalja, where we did a little sight-seeing, bought some groceries, and put a few liters of petrol in the car (in case you are wondering, the gas price was 10.65 kunas/liter).

Annette checking out a small church in Navalja, the first of many churches we would visit along the coast.

The small town of Simuni on Pag.  The island of Maun in the distance.  This is a more typical view of Pag than the "desert" scene that greeted us getting off the ferry.  OK, if you are still trying to do the math, I'll help - the gas costs just about $7.00/gallon.

The dry parts of Pag had extensive rock walls which I imagine help conserve any rainfall and also seemed to be used as pens for the many sheep raised on the island.  Later that night we had some excellent cheese made on Pag.  Pag is also well known for the intricate lace work done on the island.  We saw several beautiful examples of Pag lace later on our trip in Dubrovnik gift shops.

Here are some of the sheep on a part of the island that actually has some grass for them to graze on.

The town of Pag, situated on the drier side of the island, has two bays that open up into the Adriatic.  Looks like a fine place to have a sailboat!  After driving across the little isthmus in the town of Pag we continued south, crossing a bridge back to the mainland.  From there  it was a short drive to the outskirts of Zadar, where we found a pleasant place for the night.  Here is the view from the patio of our room  in Hotel Niko looking toward the old walled city of Zadar across the water.

I enjoyed watching 5 small sailboats racing each other while I was waiting for the sunset.  Wish I could have been on one of them!

After a long but fun drive we were tired, so decided to stay at Hotel Niko for dinner.  It was an excellent choice.  Here is the required food shot for this blog entry.  We ordered an appetizer plate with local seafood, cheeses, olives and some good bread and wine.  It was so good that Annette even ate some of the octopus!!!

After the big appetizer we were too full for entrees, but not too full for desert, so one more food shot to end this entry.  Try not to drool on your keyboard!

A Croatian version of flan and a walnut semifreddo.  We went to bed very happy that night.

Slovenia for one day....

After leaving Zagreb, in about 20-30 minutes we arrived at the Slovenian border.

We were told that we had to purchase a ticket to drive on Slovenian freeways.  It was somewhat of a ripoff because your only choice was to buy a ticket for 7 days that cost 15 Euros.  We were only going to be in Slovenia for 1 day and didn't drive on any freeways - only country roads, but we still had to buy the ticket.  We stopped at the first gas station, and they had nice snack choices, as you can see, and good macchiatos.

This is the sign for Novo Mesto.  My paternal grandmother, Frances Hoffer (Ursanovich) Sabo was born in the smaller town of Metlika nearby as was my Aunt Kate Jerman, her sister.  I'm not sure if they lived in Novo Mesto also for a while.  Their father was from Karlovac, Croatia which is within 30 miles of Metlika.  My maternal grandfather, Anton Plese, lived in Lokve, Croatia which is only 60 miles from Metlika.  It is strange to think that both sides of my family lived so close to each other in Europe and ended up in Pueblo, Colorado.  Both branches of the family considered themselves Austrian since this area was part of the Austrian-Hungarian empire in the 1800s.  Of course in the late 1800s, travel was still rather slow by horse or on foot, so the villages of my ancestors were relatively far from each other. Somehow both branches of my family ended up in Pueblo.  My maternal grandfather, Anton Plese, came to work in the steelmill.  My paternal grandmother Frances Hoffer Sabo from Metlika came with her family as a very young child to America.  Grandfather Hoffer (Ursanovich) was a cabinetmaker and also made tamburitzas, the mandolin-like instrument.  The family eventually settled in Chicago and performed on their tamburitzas at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893.  They eventually moved to Pueblo because St. Mary's in the Grove needed an organ player and recruited my grandmother's older teenaged sister, Aunt Kate Jerman, who was an excellent musician.  My Grandmother Frances was also a great musician and played the piano in concerts in Pueblo and in the silent movie theaters.

View from the car of Novo Mesto. The first people settled in this region back in the Stone Age. The Novo Mesto area was one of the most important European cultural centers from the 8th century BC to the 1st century BC.  The town of Novo Mesto was founded in 1365 Duke Rudolph IV of Habsburg.



Frank on the bridge over the Krka River with Novo Mesto in the background

The Novo Mesto town hall located on Glavni Trg (main square).  The original town hall, built in 1720, was replaced with the present building in 1905.  The facade has the coat-of-arms of Novo Mesto and an image of the town's founder, Rudolph IV of Habsburg.  You can also see that there are two busts right in front of the building.  One is the poet Dragtin Kette and the other is of the writer, Janez Trdina.  These are works of the sculptor, Jakob Savinsek. 

Novo Mesto city center.  My friend Anita Zupancic Walter will be happy to hear that there is a Zupancic promenade in Novo Mesto named after the Slovene poet and playright, Oton Zupancic.

Novo Mesto and the Krka River.  The Krka embraces Novo Mesto like a "faithful lover" as Dragotin Kette wrote in his poem.  The river protected the people of the town from military invasions and provided water and recreation. 

Frank walking up the pomontory from the city center to the cathedral on the hilltop

View of Novo Mesto and nearby mountains from the top of the hill where St. Nicholas Cathedral is located.  The cathedral is also called Novo Mesto Chapter Cathedral.

Interior of St. Nicholas Cathedral which has an unusual architectural feature: The altar is constructed at an angle to the rest of the church.   I imagined by great-grandparents attending church here. 

One of the treasures of the cathedral is the painting of St. Nicholas behind the altar by the Italian Renaissance painter Jacopo Tintoretto.

Stained glass windows of the cathedral

Painting of Marija Pomagaj (Mary, help me) a popular version of the Virgin Mary in Slovenia which is displayed in the cathedral. St. Mary's Church in Pueblo is named after Marija Pomagaj.  The original painting of Marija Pomogaj is in the village of Brezje in the northern part of Slovenia near the Slovenian Alps.

The organ in the cathedral

The granary at the cathedral where supplies were kept

View from the top of the hill walking down from the cathedral back to the city center

View from our car of the cathedral in Novo Mesto

In Novo Mesto, we went to the tourist bureau on the main square and asked about a restaurant in the area that served traditional Slovenian cuisine.  We were directed to the village of Dolenjske Toplice - about a 20 minute drive from Novo Mesto.  I took this photo of the countryside from the car.

The village of Dolenjske Toplice is known for its thermal spa waters.  The first hotel built here in 1776, Hotel Vital, is still operating.  I'm hoping we can return in the summer and relax at one of the spa hotels for a day.

The traditional Slovenian restaurant, Ostarija, in Dolenjske Toplice.  We arrived around 4:00 p.m. and hadn't had lunch, so we opted for an early dinner.

The dining room in Ostarija restaurant

Frank and I had to start off our meal with Lasko beer made in Slovenia!

When we were in Croatia with Yada and Darko, we got used to having soup before our main entree, so I ordered the beef soup with handmade noodles.  Frank had barley soup, and both soups were delicious.

Frank's entree was roasted pork with sauce and roasted potatoes.  The presentation was lovely, and the dish was just as tasty as it looks.

I ordered Ljubljana steak which was a chicken filet filled with cheese and ham and served on a bed of potatoes.  It was also yummy!

For dessert, we shared the prekmurska gibanica which is a traditional Slovenian pastry made from nuts, cottage cheese, poppy seeds, and apples.  I love to make strudels and have made Slovenian pastries (either strudels or poticas) using all of these ingredients, but I have never had a pastry with all of them used in the same filling.  Prekmurje is a region settled by Slovenes that lies between the Mur River in Slovenia and the Raba Valley in the most western part of Hungary. I googled the dish and none of the photos online looked as lovely as this dessert served at Ostarija.  After enjoying it, I hope to try to master making it when I return to Colorado. 

This is Branco and his wife who are the proprieters of the Hotel Pri Belokranjcu in Novo Mesto.  We had hoped to stay there, but there was no vacancy after we had dinner in Dolenjske Toplice; however, it is a family business, and Branco and his wife were driving to Metlika - about 30 minutes away - where they had another hotel with vacant rooms.  We had planned to go to Metlika the next day anyway, so this was perfect.  We followed them to Metika and had a nice, big room to enjoy. Our neighbor, John Petric, had given me the contact information for his relatives in Novo Mesto and Metlika, so Branco graciously tried to contact them.  We were able to arrange a meeting in a small nearby village, Dragomlja Vas, at the home of John's first cousin, Drago Kramaric.  Since Branco was returning to his other hotel in Novo Mesto the next morning, he took us to the village on his way.

The village of Dragomlja Vas, Slovenia: population 106.  This is what the Dolenjska region of Slovenia looks like - rolling hills with mountains in the background and a church steeple at the top of many of the hills with a surrounding village.

Dragmlja Vas direction sign.  It is about a 10 minute drive from Metlika.

There aren't many stop signs in Dragomlja Vas, but many crucifixes and small  roadside chapels.

Snowy Dragomlja Vas view

Drago Kramaric (John Petric's first cousin) and his wife in their home with their son, Bojan.  When we arrived, Drago and Bojan were working on sheets of wood in the yard.  They are master carpenters, and all of the beautiful wood furniture in Drago's home was made by them.  The table you see is the perfect size for rolling out potica!  We had already had a full breakfast at the hotel, but the Kramaric family graciously served us a bite to eat.  First were were given a delicious honey brandy made by Drago.  This was followed by homemade bread made by his wife and served with sausage made by Drago.  Finally they opened a bottle of red wine which was made by Bojan. John Petric said that Bojan has a large vineyard on a hillside near the village.  We enjoyed all of the food and drink even though we aren't that used to consuming alcohol at 10 o'clock in the morning! Metlika is known for its excellent wines and slivovitz. 

The Kramaric home in Dragomlja Vas.  You can see all of the wooden accents crafted by Drago on the outside of the house.

Drago and his wife. 

A small roadside chapel about a block from Drago's home

View of a neighboring village from in front of Drago's home

View of Dragomlja Vas. I think that the larger house was John Petric's father's home, but it is now owned by someone else.

Another view of Dragomlja Vas

Dragomlja Vas in late January

View from Dragomlja Vas, Slovenia

Dragomlja Vas, Slovenia in winter

Another village near Metlika

View of Metlika town center.  Metlika was first mentioned in written sources in 1228 and is the heart of Bela Krajina (White Carniola) in southeastern Slovenia.  "Metlika" means "goosefoot" in Slovenian, and the town was named after the goosefoot flower that blooms in the Spring.

Metlika city center photo taken from the car

Metlika

More of Metlika

I'm looking forward to spending more time in Metlika this summer before returning to the U.S. It is a beautiful area, and there is a lot to explore.  One site near Metlika is the Tri Fare Pilgrimage Center where there are three Gothic churches built right next to each other and enclosed by a high churchyard wall probably for protection from Turkish raids.  The first mention of the church in this complex dates back to 1228.

Frank walking towards the church in Metlika 

St. Nicholas Church in Metlika dates from the 14th century, but it was reconstructed in the Baroque style after a town fire in the early 18th century.

St. Nicholas Church. .. it was difficult to get a good photo because the street in front of it is narrow.

The nativity scene in St. Nicholas Church rivaled the one we posted about in Skopje, Macedonia.  This nativity scene was too expansive to capture in one photo.

More of the nativity scene

Shepherds on the outer part of the nativity scene.  Frank said that this was the first nativity scene that he has seen with frogs displayed.

Altar of St. Nicholas Church.  Sorry that it is so dark.  I can imagine my Grandmother Frances Sabo possibly being basptized in this church.

St. Nicholas Church

The organ in the back of the church

Paintings on the ceilings of the church

Even though it was winter in Metlika, there were still flowers blooming on the street.

We went inside this cafe to have a quick coffee and possibly lunch.

The menu was limited, but they did have hamburgers.  These were the biggest sandwiches we have ever been served! The hamburger bun was hug, but the patty inside was about half its size. 

View of another church on the outskirts of Metlika

Before leaving Metlika, we dropped by the post office to mail a few postcards.  We were driving a mini red car, and I absentmindedly opened the car door of another mini red car when I came out of the post office.  The old man inside was surprised, and I apologized and ran to our car parked a few spaces away.  Frank was confused about what happened - at least I gave the old guy something to talk about around town!