Tuesday 27 May.This morning saw us head off by bus on the 2hour 40 minute journey from Rijeka to Zagreb. We arrived in the capital to find it a sweltering hot day. Thank goodness the Central Hotel has air-conditioning. It was quite draining doing our first spot of sightseeing. We also took the opportunity to purchase our train tickets for our final journey to Budapest before flying home on the 30th. The railway station building is quite magnificent.
Railway station
Nearby we found a huge undeground shopping centre that seems to sell everything and is open from 6am until midnight. We couldn’t believe the number of people who were down there as well as the huge number of people above ground waiting for the city trams. It seems to be quite a young and very busy city. The cafe culture here is a very significant part of the social scene. I don’t think I have ever seen so many people at so many pavement cafes. We finished our sightseeing 
for the day by taking a look at the art deco foyer of the Regency Esplanade Hotel. It is another grand building. An excellent iced coffee on the hotel terrace made a rather nice end to our first day in Zagreb.
Wednesday 28 May. Today is another very hot day. Too hot for sightseeing, but it had to be done! We have spent an enjoyable if weary day walking around both Donji Grad (lower town) and Kaptol and Gradec (upper town). There are so many grand and interesting buildings. Fortunately these have not been targetted by graffiti as have some of the other buildings. A visit to the Gallery of Naive Art was a refreshing change from the usual galleries. The paintings are by the peasant artists of the Hlebine School originating in rural northern Croatia. We walked through the Botanic Gardens which weren’t particularly inspiring but did provide some welcome shade. We finished our sightseeing with another iced coffee at at the Regency Esplanade Hotel.
Our last meal in Zagreb was at the excellent Bobans Italian restaurant. It is hidden away in a vaulted ceiling cellar and was full when we arrived. It was worth waiting for a table as the food was good and the surroundings very atmospheric.
Tomorrow we travel to Budapest by train.
