The Green Horseshoe and a Museum

Trees at the Botanical Garden, part of the Green Horseshoe
Trees at the Botanical Garden, part of the Green Horseshoe

This morning, I went on a walking tour of Zagreb that started in one of the parks that, together, go by the name of the Green Horseshoe, a string of seven parks in a U shape, originally intended to be a continuous park, but now a series of separate parks. (Damn. I should have just told you to read this morning’s entry. That would have avoided the temptation to use the preceding run-on sentence.)

This afternoon, I walked through more of the Green Horseshoe and checked out the Zagreb City Museum.

Zagreb Botanical Garden, Part of the Green Horseshoe

The pond at the botanical garden

The weather forecast calls for rain tomorrow. If that happens, it’ll be the first rain that falls on me during this trip. I’ve already been in Croatia for two weeks. So I probably shouldn’t complain. After all, you know what they say. Into every schlemiel’s life a little rain etc., etc.

Of course, that notwithstanding, if it does indeed rain, I’ll likely complain anyway. If I don’t, the International Curmudgeon Association will revoke my membership.

Flowers at the botanic garden
Flowers at the botanic garden

The forecast for the next day, my last day in Zagreb, predicts sun (followed by rain throughout my stay at my next and last stop). But every time I look at the long-range forecast it shifts the predicted rain days, adding some, taking away others. So I thought it best to take in the outdoor sights today, yet another sunny, warm day here.

(The forecast also calls for the temperature to drop tomorrow and stay somewhat cooler than it’s been so far in my trip. But it’s not supposed to get so cool that I won’t be able to stay comfortable with the clothes I brought.)

For one of those outdoor activities, I visited the Zagreb Botanical Garden. As you no doubt figured out from the heading on this section, it’s one of the parks in the Green Horseshoe. Of course, if you’re the sort of person who doesn’t read headings closely and jumps right into the body, welcome to the club! I’ll show you the secret handshake later.

Japanese-style garden
Japanese-style garden

The Zagreb Botanical Garden is approximately the equivalent of one long city block wide and four long city blocks long. Although, some buildings take small chunks out of that space.

The garden includes a wide variety of evergreen and deciduous trees. At least they looked like the sort of trees that, back home, are deciduous. But they all still had all or most of their leaves in mid-October. So I’m not sure.

The garden also has some short palm trees. But they are smaller than what I thought palm trees could be. So maybe I’m wrong about what they were.

Palm trees (?) at the botanical garden
Palm trees (?) at the botanical garden

There are also a few small flower beds, a small pond with water plants, a Japanese-style garden of raked gravel, a few rocks and a few shrubs, and a small lawn. Speaking of lawns, I walked by a small grove of bamboo, which I always have trouble believing fall into the grass family.

I was about to say that paths crisscross the garden. But that implies that they form a grid. They don’t. There are several paths, but I don’t think any of them are straight for their entire length. And few, if any, intersect at right angles.

Verdict: I quite enjoyed my time in the garden.

King Tomislav Square, Also Part of the Green Horseshoe

King Tomislav Square, also part of the Green Horseshoe
King Tomislav Square, also part of the Green Horseshoe

After leaving the botanical garden, I walked to another park in the Green Horseshoe, King Tomislav Square. It’s a grass and tree park that also has a fountain, benches, and a statue of a man on horseback.

I assume the statue is of King Tomislav, but I didn’t investigate to make sure. Nor do I have any idea who King Tomislav was. It won’t surprise me if one of the keeners among my readers searches the internet to investigate that.

In my opinion, the “square” is too big and green to be called a square. But the locals are free to name it whatever they want.

Intermittent fountain
Intermittent fountain

A smaller public square, one I would indeed call a square, sits immediately adjacent to King Tomislav Square at one end. It might even be part of King Tomislav Square, for all I know. I went through it before I got to King Tomislav’s place.

The smaller square has a small, circular pool, out of which jets of water shoot. At least they did when I first spotted the square and until I got close. I pulled out my phone to take a picture, but before I could take the shot, the water jets abruptly stopped.

Disappointed, I sat on one of the benches a bit back from the pool for a while. The jets eventually started again and I took a picture. I guess they didn’t realize I was still there. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have fired up.

At one end of the square/park that I do know is King Tomislav Square, or part thereof, sits a largish stately yellow-orange building with a small green dome. I don’t know what it is. I may find out later in this trip. Or I may not. We’ll see.

Across the street from the other end sits Zagreb’s modestly handsome train station.

The mention of the station engenders the need for a clarification of something I said in yesterday’s post.

Clarification

Zagreb train station
Zagreb train station

Yesterday, I hypothesized that, because I thought the train station was near my hotel, but across the street from my hotel is a partly ad-covered corrugated wall blocking the view of the tracks, the station must be on the other side of the tracks.

I discovered today that my hypothesis was wrong. The station is on the same side of the tracks as my hotel. But it’s a few blocks further down the street. A more careful look at a map would have told me that. But because I didn’t need the station this trip, I didn’t take that closer look.

After leaving the square, I walked through more of the Green Horseshoe, including the park where the walking tour started this morning, to upper old town and to …

Zagreb City Museum

The Zagreb City Museum is a two-floor museum that tells the story of the City of Zagreb, including before it became the City of Zagreb.

Excavated area at the Zagreb City Museum
Excavated area at the Zagreb City Museum

The museum organizes its exhibits in a mostly chronological order. It starts with the fact that they know for certain that people lived on the land that is now Zagreb since at least the turn of the 9th and 8th century BCE. The displays then progress from then.

The artifacts on the lower floor consist mainly of archaeological finds, such as urns, bowls, and structural elements. But there are also statues and a few paintings.

Some portions of the ground level have been excavated down half a floor or so to show what was there.

On the upper floor, artifacts are more modern. There are a lot more paintings, but also furniture, phonographs, clothing, phonographs, consumer product containers, including a large collection of liquor bottles, and a bunch of other stuff I’ve forgotten.

Statues at the Zagreb City Museum
Statues at the Zagreb City Museum

The chronology in the museum ends in the late 20th century.

Panels throughout the museum have text in three languages, each panel describing a part of the history of Zagreb, and its predecessor settlements, or one of its buildings. At the top of each panel, in a larger font, the language, is, I assume, Croatian.

The other two languages appear beside each other below that in a slightly smaller font. English sits to the right. I think the language to the left is German. But I’m not positive.

That was great, but beside each artifact, there’s a small placard that says what the artifact is, provides a date and, in some cases, provides a brief paragraph or just sentence describing the artifact. At least, that’s what I think the placards say. They carry only one language, I assume Croatian. For all I know, they might describe unrelated local culinary delicacies. Probably not, but I wouldn’t know.


That concludes our programming day.

Ha. I just realized that for young people who aren’t familiar with television that broadcasted only over the airwaves and didn’t broadcast in the middle of the night, “That concludes our programming day,” might mean something completely different. It’s been a long time since I’ve done any computer programming.


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