Samabor

Our last day in Croatia, and guess how we spent it? We drove around the back roads west of Samobor trying to get lost. This is beautiful Alpine country with twisting, up and down roads, more one lane than two. Actually, we did have a destination, named Rude, which is pronounced Rudy in Serbo-Croation. We wanted to hike like Germans. There are a lot of Germans in these Alpine parts, and boy do they like to hike. Yesterday,on our way to Samobor, we took a detour off highway A1 and its 140 kilometer per hour Grand Prix raceway. We went to Plitvicka Lakes Park. As we drove through gate 1 I could tell we were in trouble. No place to park and tour busses everywhere. In popularity, this park is like Yosemite or Yellowstone in the US. As we hiked, actually hiked is too energetic, as we shuffled in single and double file over wooden bridges and trails, we saw beautiful waterfalls, rushing streams of water, and aqua marine blue lakes. We felt like we were uninvited guests at a European Union conclave. Italians, Germans, French, Poles, Czechs, Slovenes, Dutch, even Finns. You must think we are incredible linguists. On the contrary we suck at deciphering languages. Shuffling along in our line to the next waterfall was pure babel to our ears. It's the license plates. Each EU country has the blue stars in a circle along with their abbreviation on their license. I is Italian, P is Polish, CZ is the Czech Republic, and D is German. On the trails the Germans were the groups (they're always in groups) passing everyone, with their hiking poles and lederhosen. Ok, that last one is over the top. So today, our last day in Croatia, I, rather than we, wanted to hike like a German. We got a map from the Samobor tourist agency, directions to Rude from a Croatian chap and headed out for a day of hiking not shuffling. In the the village of Rude we couldn't tell which trail to take from the local church to the botanical garden, which was our destination. Across the street from the church was a local villager and  I asked him, Gde je (where is) garden? He didn't speak a lick of English, but by pointing at the map to where we wanted to go he pointed to the trail across the street. Thank goodness we have fingers and arms. So we hiked like Germans, with determination and resolve to a lovely garden on the side of a mountain. It is the first private herb garden created in Croatia to provide hundreds of varieties of herbs to pharmaceutical companies. After our hike we drove into wine growing country and got lost and found many times. I call it Crete Alpine driving. Downshifting, ducking oncoming cars, and dramatic views that take your breath away. We stopped at a church with an awesome view, walked through a cemetery, and let me tell you their cemetery's beat ours all to hell, and ate boiled eggs, a banana, and an orange for lunch. The moment was a perfect coda to our vacation. We drove back to Samobor and drank bielja kava and cake at an outdoor cafe. This town is famous for its cakes. That's why we came here, so we can have our cake and eat it too. 

We'll be home soon.

Dave and Ann