Competitions done. Teams are heading home. We are heading to Salzburg for a short visit to Mozart/Sound of Music land. Today is a transit day, but with extra time in Zagreb between check out and when we get on the train. It's a beautiful Sunday morning for wandering this city.
First stop was the station to drop our luggage in a locker. Walking out the station directly to the charging King Tomislavu at the start of Park Josepa Jurja Strossmayera.
Having walked through the park in the past few days, we stayed to the edges of the part to pay more attention to what borders it. The rows of buildings of a certain age in different phases of repair. Lots of graffiti that seemed to be part of the street scene. Comfortable and accepting.
Walking up toward the main square, we came across an interesting sign Zagreb Cannabis Museum - one of a list of interesting museums around here, including Museum of Broken Relationships and Museum of Illusions, that we didn't have time to visit.
On the way to the Competition finals, I saw the Nikola Tesla Technical Museum from the tram window - noted for a future visit.
Early Sunday morning and the streets are just beginning to get traffic - families, friends, club groups. Some combining family and cafe with play spaces.
Ban Jelacic Square quietly gathering other wanderers and groups meeting up for their own adventures. Kids discovering the "pharaoh statue" actually moves. Teammates gathering with time for pics on loaner bikes. Sundays in walkable, public friendly spaces are places to enjoy, even from the fringes.
Heading through Dolac Market to the Upper City and the Cathedral neighborhood. The Cathedral is closed while restoration from the 2020 earthquake is underway. While the towers are worked on, images of how they should look are hung on the scaffolding.
In front of the Cathedral is the monument to the Assumption of Mary, with the Virgin and Angels wrapped in gold.
Meanwhile, leftovers from last week's Easter celebration with eggs and brown chicks out front of the Cathedral. Time to head back down to the station...
...back down through the park, past the rainbow popcorn. Bye-bye to Zagreb and off to Salzburg.
The train this time is about 7 hours with one transfer. Much of the countyside out the window is dotted with old mini-castles and farmland.
Our destination, the Alps, are on the horizon.
Of course there was an interruption when a disruption at Ljubljana meant we needed to get off and take buses to the next station on the line.
We finally arrive to our room in the little schloss - which turns out to be an actual historical site: Rauchenbichlerhof. In addition to hosting the Trapp family, it apparently included Csar Alexander I on the way to a post-Napoleonic European congress. Apparently it was also owned at one time by a former mistress of Napoleon. Then there was us...
...lounging like Romance Era bourgeoisie...