Zagreb just gets better

Today I played tour guide and took Ian to some of the sights from my self guided walking tour yesterday. On arrival on the tram at Trg Jezuitski we stumbled upon a market with stalls and many locals in period dress. The Croats seemed very Nordic with their robes, their boots, their headdress helmut and long braids. I was fascinated with a trio playing "bagpipes". Same sounds, same music but with rudimentary instruments and a drum!  

Second stop Museum of Naive Art. ( Not another museum I hear you say ) The artists on display were local, contemporary and mostly called Ivan. Naive art could be termed quirky  and if any one knows of Ian's brothers art, I would tend to called that naive art defined by the paintings I saw today. Ian of course was in seventh heaven loving many of the paintings, and coming away with a print and numerous postcards.  

Speaking of things astral , in the square about 2 m up on one of the buildings is a stainless steel model of Venus. A contemporary artist, told you they were quirky, has placed around the city, scale models of the other planets in relation to the sun. Each one is relative in size and distance. Apparently it took the residents of Zagreb sometime to find the others placed around their city. My guide book told me where 2 were with a footnote to look for the others on line. If only there was time,

Another quick trip around the produce markets to stock up on fresh cherries and apricots which seem ridiculously  cheap. $4kg apricots   $3.50 kg cherries NZ. 

Our last  tram trip was up into the "mountains" Mount Sljeme, which to my eyes are like foothills that surround the city. Croatians take walking and hiking seriously and dedicated trails through the rather tall aspen or beech trees criss crossed the road to the summit. I'd miss read the bus timetable at the tram turnaround so we finished up hiring a taxi to take us to the top, only to discover the bus was right behind us. The top offered splendid views of the city and surrounding areas, a castle and a fantastic world renown ski slope minus the snow of course in this a very temperate 30 degrees. It's hard to picture a ski run down a trail between the towering trees, currently green with grass and open to hikers. It's hard to get my head around the fact that you ski down and catch the tow back to the top to your car, totally the reverse of NZ. Beautiful, picturesque  and green are words that spring to mind. Tomorrow we head to Ljubljana on the train, through the "mountains". 

Tonight as we sat in the evening sun people watching from a cafe, one couldn't help but notice the number of people that ride push bikes around the streets. Bikers are allowed to ride on the footpaths which are considerably wider than NZ. Wide enough for cars to park on the foot path as well and still leave quite a space for pedestrians. Bikers quietly negotiate around the pedestrians who just keep walking and going about their business and  no one seems surprised or under threat. Harmony prevails.