We were up and about just
before 6:00. Daybreak hadn’t quite arrived. The heavy rain continued through
much of the night but had eased by the time we were mobile. As it gradually got
light I noticed the river had, as predicted by the humourless receptionist,
overtopped its banks. The lower part of the camping ground was under water, the
water level was partially up one side of the tent we had noticed last night
close to the river. I walked over to take a photograph and to my amazement a
man emerged from the tent and began wading through the knee deep water towards
me. I asked if he was OK, he was and was grateful for the offer of coffee for
him and his partner shortly after.
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| Sam and Sheena's Tent |
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| Amazingly, No Water Got Into The Tent |
The couple were Sam and Sheena who were less than impressed the camping ground hadn’t warned them about the rising river when Sheena had asked to stay a second night last night. Fortunately, they had moved most of their belongings up to a covered eating area the night before and water hadn’t actually got into the tent, although their mattresses were floating – “like being in a water bed, said Sheena”.
Sam and Sheena were
cycling from England to Viet Nam. Unlike Peter Gazzard they were not doing the
whole trip overland planning to cross the Black Sea by ferry to Georgia, fly
UAE to India and India to Korea. Nevertheless it was an impressive expedition,
particularly for Sheena who hadn’t done much cycling.
Sheena is an Irish civil
engineer who had been working in Middlesborough. Some of her classmates had
moved out to New Zealand. Sam is a geologist with a Masters in the health
effects of silicates on quarry workers in Indonesia.
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| Sam and Sheena |
We talked for about an
hour, Sheena’s pronunciation of the letter ’R’, being expressed as ”or”, was a
source of confusion until Sheena explained it was the letter between Q and S.
She told us she had friends in Scotland with Rs in their postcodes who were
thinking seriously about moving houses to get over the problems caused when
trying to give people their post codes! Sheena
giving Jane good tips on southern Ireland and reinforcing much of the plan Jane
had been developing. Later, when Sam and Sheena were ready to set off they came
over to say goodbye giving us a card with details of their blog and facebook
page. For anyone interested they are:
The rain had stopped
altogether and the sky, while still grey, was noticeably lighter by the time we
set off in Smarty. Jane was keen to do all the driving today to close the gap
between us in terms of kilometres driven. First stop was in the nearby town of
Karlovac where we eventually found an ATM and I was able to withdraw some Kuna.
From Karlovac we took the E65 motorway northwards and then the E59 which
skirted the west side of Zagreb.
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| River Mreznica In Flood As We Crossed In The Morning |
We left the motorway and
drove into the region known as Zagorje which lies between Zagreb and the
Slovenian border. We were on a good two lane road and heading for the village
of Kumrovec situated very close to the border with Slovenia. 5 or 6 kilometres
short of the village the road was closed and we found ourselves on a country
lane, too narrow for two cars to pass. Fortunately we didn’t meet any oncoming
traffic. The gently rolling countryside was very green and reminiscent of parts
of England or Switzerland. We saw lots of vineyards and lots of fields with a
crop that we disagreed on whether it was corn or maize. The houses reminded us
very much of Switzerland and most were large. We wondered whether Croats live
as extended families?
We found the museum in
Kumrovec after a drive around the village. We thought its main tourist
attraction would be signed, but it wasn’t and it took a while to find the
museum and another orbit of the village to find the car park. The village is
the birthplace of Josep Tito who became the communist dictator of Yugoslavia
after WW II. The house where he was born was turned into a museum during his
lifetime and, subsequently, some of the surrounding properties were restored to
provide an example of an early 20th century Zagorje village.
We started our tour of
the museum at Tito’s birthplace, a small single story cottage with adjacent
farm outbuidings. Born Josep Broz, the seventh son of peasant smallholder he
trained as a blacksmith and metal worker. As an officer in the Austrian army in
WW I he was captured by the Russians. He joined the Red Army and fought in the
Russian civil war before returning home in 1920. He added Tito to his name when
he joined the central committee of the Yugoslav Communist Party. He was
charismatic, vain and a ladies’ man. He was regarded with affection by the
Yugoslav people and his communism was softer than that of the Soviets. He led
Yugoslavia through an era when living standards rose and is considered
fortunate to die before the economy turned to custard in the 1980s.
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| Tito's Birthplace |
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| Tito Statue |
We visited the many restored houses that gave a good glimpse of village life. It was very much a collective where everyone contributed and all the trades required by the village were present. We started at a house depicting the scene before a wedding with the bride dressed for the occasion with her dowry of coins at her feet. In a next door room the table was laid for a wedding feast. Over the road was a weaver’s cottage with a display showing how flax was woven to give linen. We learnt that in order for a woman to marry she had to provide flax and pay the weaver (a man) to weave her bed linen. Once married she became part of the extended family spending her days with the family and nights in a separate building with her husband. We noticed there was no form of heating in the bedrooms.
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| Bride With Her Dowry |
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| What Jane Wouldn't Give For One Of Theses! |
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| Married Couple's Bedroom |
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| Wedding Banquet |
There was a good display about volunteer fire fighters, an important service in isolated towns and villages. Fire fighter roles were prestigious and reserved for the rich. A bushy and impressive moustache seemed a mandatory part of a fire fighters uniform. There was an original hand pump as well as the cart with coiled hoses that accompanied it. I pressed a button on the wall and got a stirring rendition of a fire fighters anthem.
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| Fire Fighter's Hand Pump |
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| Moustaches Very Much Part Of A Firefighter's Uniform |
Some buildings, such as
the blacksmith’s forge had been restored to their original form while others,
while restored, were filled with contemporary pieces depicting life at the
beginning of the last century, but not necessarily what the buildings were
originally used for.. All very interesting.
Here's some of the buildings we saw and their interiors:
Here's some of the buildings we saw and their interiors:
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| Blacksmith's Forge |
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| Cooper's Workshop |
There wasn’t a lot of choice as to places to eat in Kumrovec. Just along the road from the museum was Hostel Kumrovec with a board outside advertising food was being served. We took seats at a table and asked if they were serving food. Getting a positive response we ordered a beer and a coke. They arrived with a bill, I looked at it and noticed that it included food we were thought we were yet to order, It turned out we were wrong. Lunch arrived in due course, it consisted of a large plate of what I think was ćobanac – a paprika rich goulash served with mashed potatoes, carrots, salad and bread. While the food choice was limited – essentially take it or leave it, the meal was plain, filling and cheap.
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| Lunch |
From Kumrovec we drove
north to Veliki Tabor where we wanted to visit the castle which came into view
on a hilltop well before we reached the village. It lived up to our guide
book’s description of being everyone’s idea of what a medieval castle should
look like, a large squat almost barrel shaped building dominating the
surrounding countryside. We drove through the village and turned into a narrow
road signed to the castle. We go about 200 metres before coming to roadworks
that included a trench across the road. We weren’t going tp get to the castle
after all!
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| Veleki Tabor Village |
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| Castle and Excavator That Stopped Us Getting There |
Disappointed, we drove
east to the town of Krapina and its highly regarded Neanderthal Museum. Finding
the town was easy, finding the museum wasn’t. As in Kumrovec the main tourist
attraction wasn’t well signed and we had to drive up and down the town’s main
road a couple of times before we finally found the car park and then the
museum.
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| Krapina Neanderthal Museum |
The effort was well worth
it, the museum’s modern building built partially into the hillside was an
architectural gem. Celebrating the find of Neanderthal remains in the area our
visit started in a large glass fronted atrium where a video depicting what life
would have been like in the area ggggg years ago. Short and tough would be a
succinct summary. Next came exhibits of archaeologists’ finds in the area and
the contrasting views on man’s provencae. These ranged from the scientific
based on painstaking archaeology and Darwin’s evolutionary theory to a bishop
who from careful research of the bible determined the exact moment the earth
was formed and by exact I mean time, day and date.
The main part of the
museum dealt with the formation of our solar system and man’s evolution. I
would imagine the bishop and creationists wouldn’t want to linger there, but we
found it quite remarkable. Following a visual representation of the Big Bang the
museum floor spiraled its way up the cylindrical building telling the story of
evolution. We walked past full sized models of apes, early man all the way to
modern man, spaced on the ramp according to the timing of their appearance on
earth. Panels on the wall gave key details of each step along the way including
such things as brain size. It was extremely well done.
Unfortunately photography
was not allowed in the museum, but here’s a shot taken from a pamphlet I
picked up.
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| Evolution Of Man As Told By The Museum |
It was getting dark and
starting to rain when we arrived back at Mabel. We settled down for the evening
after eating bread, cheese and salami.
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