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Published: June 22nd 2016
Woolly says – I had only been out of the apartment for five minutes when I saved a life! Ok well I helped to save a life......well I shouted encouragement as Zoe saved a life. Taking her life into her hands she raced across the road to pick up the little guy who was gamely trying to cross over, holding him tenderly she put him into the shady depths of a bush and we watched happily as the small tortoise hurried off into the grass. The Croatian lady who had watched our sterling performance grinned at us and let us onto the bus first, who says doing something nice doesn’t pay dividends! As he discussed bravery medals for Zoe and her efforts we changed onto a tram and as Jelacic Square came into view he seemed to have decided that maybe a George cross might be a little over the top! Before he could start searching out wifi to notify the Palace I led him swiftly through the square and headed in the direction of the first call of the day. Woolly says – I wondered why we had stopped at a junction and even though the green man was flashing Jo was far busier snapping away at the rounded building in front of us. Looking up I noticed for the first time the lovely ceramic tiles that covered parts of the façade, very art nouveau. Kallina House had been constructed in 1904 but it looked as though it had only been finished yesterday. As Jo put the camera away I spied a granite statue and as I hurried over I realised that it one of the most important people to have come out of Croatia, someone who had not only helped in developing x rays, remote controls and radio waves, well to be fair without him we wouldn’t have internet and mobile phones today if it wasn’t for him. Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Smiljam, Croatia before moving to America where most of his work was developed. Having raised my hat, metaphorically speaking to him, I followed the women further through the streets.
So many beautiful buildings are everywhere I felt as though I was stopping every two paces to take yet another picture. Finally making our way into what is known as Flower Square we stood and admired the Serbian Orthodox Church and having noticed that people were going in and out went up the steps and through the doors.
Woolly says – Why am I looking at a clothes shop! Having stared at the summer line for a few minutes I realised that Jo and Zoe had entered what appeared to be a church, I dashed up the steps and through the unassuming wooden door to be stopped dead in my tracks. Stunning, truly stunning were the only words I could utter as I tried to take in the golden iconostasis that was designed in 1795 along with the 34 icons and 4 free-standing walnut pillars, what a find, from the amazing walls and ceilings to the chandeliers hanging high above us, even better pictures were allowed! Having prised our eyes away we wandered past the street cafes and bars pausing at the rather impressive Zagreb University before crossing over the tram lines to look at the Croatian National Theatre. Woolly says – Set in Marshal Tito Square named after the former Yugoslav President the Neo Baroque building was opened to the public in 1895 and appeared to still be hosting ballet, drama and opera today. Jo seemed to have vanished and as I glanced towards the entrance I could see Zoe disappearing inside, have we got tickets? What are we seeing? I do love a good pantomime!
The splendour of the building outside had made me wonder if we might see more of the craftsmanship on the inside and working on the premise that if you don’t ask you don’t get I asked a lovely lady at the ticket desk if we were able to peek inside the grand theatre. She shook her head sadly but showed us a picture of the interior..... Woolly says – it looked incredible and far better than Birmingham Hippodrome, I gave the nice lovely my cutest stare but that didn’t seem to work, she handed Jo a list of the coming performances so I turned my cute stare to Jo. ......Having looked at the prices for tickets it didn’t appear to be very much to get seats, hmmmm I might come back to that! Woolly says – as it didn’t appear that I was going to see the delights inside at that moment and with a promise from Jo that she would think about things I bounced back down the steps and trotted across the road to the next port of call. The Museum of Arts and Crafts appeared to be one of the biggest and grandest buildings we had seen so far. Constructed in 1888 by Hermann Bolle, it is one of the first purpose built places devised to merge the functions of a museum and an art school. Stylistically the building is a grand Historicist palace in the spirit of the German Renaissance, it was impressive and as Jo paid the small entrance fee I gleefully set off to see if the inside was as grand as the outside. The first area seemed to be full of portraits and family trees and was completely modern, having read about the first son of the noble family, Vranyczany-Dobrinovic, I quickly grew bored and realising that Jo and Zoe had the same view we took the grand staircase to the second floor. Everything was modern with white plaster and not a hint of how grand the building must
have once been there were however lots of furniture to see, lots and lots and lots. Passing chairs, tables, dressers and some rather bizarre looking ceramic objects I could hear the girls giggling away in front of a mirror, maybe it was one of those mirrors that you find at the fair, I hurried over to see.
It was a lovely wrought iron mirror but for some bizarre reason a modern lady cleaning her teeth had been stuck over the reflective area which just made it strange, very strange. Woolly says – We couldn’t think of a single reason why the museum might have done it other than to possibly stop ugly people feeling sad on seeing themselves! (Yes Jo told me off for that comment) The place seemed to be never-ending and as we trotted past religious icons and Bishops attire we still had another floor to see. Clocks, glasses, costumes and pots were everywhere, there were thousands, spotting a bell I peeked into another area to find a whole collection of them, one had a rope handing down.....well it just had to be done! As the bell rang shattering the silence I looked around waiting for someone to tell me to remove my small companion but was greeted by a smiling lady who told us we could ring it as many times as we liked....NOOOOOOO!
Woolly says – Well that was an open invitation if ever I heard one, why does Jo have to hold my paw so hard? I tried kicking her ankles as she removed me from the rope and the room and before I had chance to scream I found myself outside. No amount of glowering seemed to work and rather than be left on my own I followed the meanies further down the road whilst enjoying a good sulk. Passing the Mimara Museum housed in a splendid Renaissance PalaceI didn’t think we could cope with any more exhibits for a while and that maybe something outside would be nice. Woolly says – past the impressive Art Nouveau building that is home to the countries archives I waved at the owls that sat on the corners of the roof as we entered the green and shady Botanical Gardens which have been here since 1889. My first find was a prehistoric tree which had been found and bought to the site in the 60’s, this is something my ancestors would have walked past every day, how thrilling is that! I noticed that Jo and Zoe had become fixed to a bridge that crossed over a small pool of water which with it’s lilies looked rather sweet but not sweet enough to be oohing and arrhing as much as they were. I peered into the water and saw terrapins with red stripes, yellow stripes and spots swimming through the green water below my paws, ok so they were cute but did the girls have to make so much fuss over them! Having finally insisted that we move on I led the way towards what appeared to be some flower beds when a park official shouted something at me, I didn’t appear to be breaking any rules and my paws were defiantly on the path not on the grass, I shrugged and carried on but he shouted again before realising that we obviously didn’t understand and then repeating himself in English told us the garden for closing for lunch.....oooooo now that sounds like
a good idea.
Lunch it was and as we shared bowls of noodles we decided that our last touristy thing of the day would be the observation tower. Woolly says – hehehehe time for Jo to go green again! Luckily no steps were involved and as a lift deposited us onto the 16th floor and we were led to a glass door, I waited for the green tinge to arrive, she looked shaky but seemed to be surviving possibly due to the number of bars that blocked our views somewhat, but meant we wouldn’t fall into the streets way way below us. The views were brilliant, three hundred and sixty degree’s worth of them, we checked out the places we had already been to on foot and the areas that we still had to look forward to, what a brilliant city even if they had strange views on mirrors!
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Nice clocks
Does anyone really know what time it is?