Day 109: Zagreb - Zadar

JULY 21 - Eat up all the extra food we’ve accumulated in the fridge and head out for a 10:00 bus to the coast. The trip is about four hours.

I will just mention one thing more about Zagreb. A large river does flow though the city, as one does for almost every city we’ve been to in the last few months, though in this case the river (Sava) is a ways south of the part we walked around. I noted that this river is lined by dykes, about 10 meters in height. Due to the flat nature of the floodplain on the south side of Zagreb, this river is prone to flooding. An episode in 2020 caused a great deal of damage in the city and caused a halt of all transport. Another in 1964 did the same, and records back to Roman times indicate that this is nothing new. What is new is the sprawling urban development around the river.

As we get close to Selce on the main highway, we pass through an extensive old growth oak forest. This is the only place in Europe I’ve seen such a thing. Also of note is that we pass through several short tunnels that function as wildlife corridors.

The watershed of Croatia, as with Slovenia, is unusual, in that most rivers in both countries flow to the east, ultimately draining into the Black Sea. The Adriatic only gets a narrow corridor of drainage off of the west side of the Dinaric Alps, a range running parallel to the coast of the Balkans.

It is through this range that bus takes us southwest. The vegetation changes drastically as we cross over to the west slope. Thick forests and dark green plains give way to dry scrub and the rough tumble of limestone blocks. We wind down to the sea, leave the bus at Zadar, and sit at a bus stop until an olive tree, baking in the heat.

The apartment we are staying at is west of downtown, in a residential area that looks almost completely given over to the B&B business. Feels luxurious after our basic Zagreb room.

Walk down to the sea, eat, and go across a pedestrian bridge to the peninsula on which the old city resides.