Now off to Croatia !

When we finally got on the train to Zagreb, the train porter more than made up for the rude waiter in Venice. The porter explained all the facilities of the train, brought us drinks (beer and Pepsi) and told us there would be a passport check by the Slovenian police at 3:00 AM for which he would wake us in time to prepare. We were very grateful for the rest and glad we had a private compartment since the space was quite limited. The porter warned us to be sure to lock our compartment door, we did. We slept soundly, the porter awoke us for the Slovenian border, the checked our passports and was well. Then the Croatian police followed a bit later, still no problems. We arrived in Zagreb at 4:30 AM after having coffee delivered by our gracious porter.

It was still quite dark when we arrived in Zagreb however the cafe in the terminal was open and we had coffee there. Rich had some cookies left over from our B&B in Venice and I had a food bar. That was breakfast in Zagreb. We walked around a few blocks once the sun came up and took a few pictures. Zagreb did seems very eastern European in the architecture and the people we encountered. As we were returning from our walk, Rich noticed our train, which was not on the track we had anticipated. But we verified we were indeed in the correct place and boarded. The train was very comfortable and we slept off and on during the trip.

The countryside was very scenic. Our train was only four cars long so no dining car but the porters offered drinks and snacks for purchase during the trip. We saw lots of very tiny little towns, beautiful scenery, mountains, farmland, another castle and several stations.

Split is amazing. The harbor is ringed by white buildings with red roofs and Diocletian's Palace is in the very center, see photo on the left. The sidewalks and streets in the Old Town are all marble. The photo to the right is the walkway in front of Diocletian's Palace.

We climbed to the top of Marjan Hill after checking into our B&B. The picture in the center above is the exceptional view of the harbor from the top of the hill, 150m up. The Guide Book says we can see Bosnia from here but Rich said he thought we could see Egypt also and maybe NYC. We have now toured Diocletian's Palace, the Archaeological Museum and a sculpture gallery. Tomorrow AM early, we board a ferry for Dubrovnik. We will update more later. Wish you were here.