We were looking forward to taking the kids to the embassy in Zagreb for a Halloween party. They just cancelled because of the H1N1 virus scare. "Boo" Hoo :(

On the plus side, we met our first American at a shopping mall who lives in here in Rijeka. They have kids the same age as Guy and Josie!

Here is a blowup shot of where we live in Kantrida which is a suburb of Rijeka. Our house is just above the arch which is where we take the kids for swimming.

We went with some new friends to the village of Veprinac which dates back to 1374. It has a small jail and Guy got locked up in shackles.

As the village was on the top of a nearby mountain I was able to take this shot of where we live in Rijeka.

Bear meat anyone?

 

We are still trying to get used to the markets here. This is a stall that sells game. We are talking deer, big horn sheep and ...bear. At least that's what I think was the black hairy thing hanging down on the end of the rack.

Horsemeat anyone?

Last Survivor

 

This gave me a moment of pause as we passed by this exhibit in Kastav near where we live. The last survivor of a concentration camp died recently in this community.

Our Lady of Trsat Church

We took some Fulbright guests from Zagreb to see the Church of Our Lady of Trsat which has long been a pilgrimage site attracting large numbers of followers. We met up with a monk who was giving a tour to some American university students and invited us to join in. We got to go to the treasury. It contained a 'miraculous' icon of Mary, considered to be a painting by St Luke who lived at the time of Christ, which was donated to the church in the 14th Century. There also were many other gold treasures including one that caught Guy's attention as it contained parts of bones of various saints.

Roman Arch in Rijeka

Stara vrata - the Old Gateway - or the so-called Roman Arch is definitely not a triumphal arch, as was once believed, but rather a representative portal of the main entrance to the Praetorium, a military command in the late antiquity. I think they are doing some excavations behind it.

The Ice Cream Truck

The ice cream truck comes every two weeks on Sunday night at 7pm and the kids run up to the music. The cool (forgive the pun) thing is that they also sell frozen fish!

Another Beautiful Day

We have been enjoying weather still hovering in the high 70s although the Bora is on its way. The Bora is a north wind that brings cold temperatures.
These are views from our deck.

Parking in Croatia

This is so typical. They park on the sidewalk and they know exactly how wide their cars are. Hard to slip a parking ticket between the car and the wall.

The next picture is the first marble driveway we've seen.

Soccer is very serious here!

We went to a soccer game last night which is just 5 minutes from our house. They had an incredible amount of security there and were patting down everybody. They even checked Josies jacket. Later we stopped at a local pizzeria where the beer and wine is cheaper than coke.

Where I've Been Update

Entrance to the 7.8 kilometer (5 mile ) tunnel that borders Austria and Slovania. There is no way to hold your breath through this tunnel!

Castles of the day seen on our trip back to Rijeka.

This is the church at Oberammergau.

Oberammergau was our next stop, The town's residents vowed that if God were to spare them from the effects of the bubonic plague ravaging the region in 1634, they would perform a play every ten years thereafter for all time depicting the life and death of Jesus. We might try to go to it as they are going to start doing the play again in May next year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberammergau_Passion_Play

We went to Linderhof castle which was the winter residence of Mad King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Everything was gilded in gold inside. Pretty over the top. The kids again asked a lot of questions and our tour guide was very responsive to them even though there were a lot of other tourists. The other building shown was the King's teahouse.

We went back to the town of Lenggries, south of Munich for the weekend to return our rental car.

In 1731 there was a fire that burned down the last remaining wooden gate to the city. In the ashes they found a picture of the Virgin Mary and Christ that had miraculously survived the fire. Today it is a shrine that many people come to pray at. I took this picture through the impressive iron gate. See: http://www.fivestars.hr/did_you_know/MTYz/

They have several markets including the clothes market, meat market and the fish market. The kids didn't like the smell of the meat market so we left there and I told them there was one more smell they needed to experience. You should have seen their faces as we entered the fish market. I gave Guy the camera and he ran around taking these pictures. I am sure he will post others on his blog.

Zagreb Market

Took the kids to see the Zagreb market with its bounty of fruits and vegetables. I was riveted by a little old lady trying to sell her 20 blemished apples and some flowers. She was carefully placing them so that the blotches were not that visible. I sent Josie over with 50 Kuna ($10) to buy one of her apples. She wanted us to go get change as she didn't have enough money to make the difference from the 2 kuna price she wanted. I told her to keep the change and she gave us the biggest toothless grin I have ever seen. Josie picked a big one but when she turned it over it had a big 2 inch blotch on it so she chose one of the smallest ones.

Zagreb Cathedral

The Zagreb cathedral is the tallest building in Zagreb. It is unusual to let the public go behind the alter but it allowed us to view the sarcophagus which is the tomb of the Zagreb bishop and archbishop.

Some pictures from around Zagreb.