Walking around Samobor Town

Friday 27/01/17  Photos of our walk around the town of Samobor.

Samobor is a town 25 km away from Zagreb.  It is one of the oldest and most popular excursion destinations for residents in the capital, hikers and tourists.

We managed to collect some brochures from Samobor Tourist Board.



According to the brochure there are 19,000 inhabitants in Samobor.  We do not see many people walking around though.  Are they all still working?  Maybe it is winter time.



What is a Flying Dutchman doing here?







St Anastasia's Church.



Gradna Creek







Bridge over Gradna Creek.



The statue of the first and so far the only honorary mayor of Samobor, Ivica Sudnik, is installed in front of Samobor Museum.  There is a video of what is in the musuem at this link.



King Tomislav Square, the administrative, governing and cultural center of the town.  It is also the marketplace, where festivities, church feasts, political meetings, etc, are held on a daily, weekly or annual basis.

You can drink tap spring water from a bricked up well in its centre of the square.



Sections have been cordoned off with barricades as the ice has not melted off the square.



Umbrella folded up and kept aside when food are not served outside the restaurants during winter.



A sign showing how to get to Grgos Cave.



Overall this looks like a nice place to walk or cycle through.

Samoborska Kremsnita

You can't leave Samobor without trying out its 'Kremsnita’, an egg custard with puff pastry cake, a dessert which is popular in several Central European countries.



It is available at U Prolazu (Passing By) Cafe and Bar, located on the main Samobor square.  They are renowned for their Samobor kremšnita.



This is how it looks.



Waiting to be served our coffee and popular dessert.



Do we like it?  The puff pastry is soft and it is not too sweet.



I still prefer our crusty local egg tart.

Samobor & Food Wine Tour

We picked up this trick while traveling with tour groups.  It is best to save time and day light hours, when you are traveling in winter, by starting your tour right after getting out of the airport.  Since we are traveling on our own, we would have to pay a airport transfer fee to get to the hotel, and time will be wasted checking in.

Friday 27/01/17 So, we paid a surcharge of EUR35 (260 Kn) to have Mladen picked us up from the airport to start our Samobor & Food Wine Tour. That is a 33km ride which would take us 28 minutes to reach according to croatia-taxi.



This is what Mladen drives, in order to be able to pick up four passengers with luggage for 13 days trip.


Opel VIVARO mini-van

When Mladen asked if we are afraid of heights, this was where he had in mind to take us to, the Pyramid at Anindol.  It is 14 meters high.



It is a walking distance away from the main road.





See the red circle on the tree.  Markings on made on them to show the direction to tourist destination.



Yes!  We all made it to the top for a breathtaking view of Samobor, Samobor hills, Medvednica and Zagreb.



I checked the weather forecast while I was still in Malaysia.  In January, the weather is expected to be from 23 to 32°F (-5 to 0°C) and sunny.



That is so accurate as you can see us squinting away with the sun shinning brightly into our eyes.



On a good day, we should be able to see Slovenia in the distance as it's border is only 25 kilometers away from Zagreb.





We are very proud that we made it to the top...



...and managed to climb back down safely.  Have all Croatians been there?

After this, we traveled down to the Grgos Cave in Otrusevec where we had our lunch.

Locating a guide in Zagreb

As the local travel agency was not able to provide land tour in Zagreb, I did a search and managed to find the Tourist Information Centers there.

Turistički informativni centar / Tourist Information Centre
Turistička zajednica grada Zagreba / Zagreb Tourist Board
Trg bana Josipa Jelačića 11, 10000 Zagreb
tel: + 385 1 4814 051; 4814 052; 4814 054
fax: + 385 1 4814 056
Email : info@infozagreb.hr
Web : www.infozagreb.hr
Web : www.meetinzagreb.hr
Web : www.lovezagreb.hr

I was informed by them that I can do a self-guided tour of the city by picking up a free copy of the Step by Step brochure at any of their Tourist Information Centers.

I decided to go for their second option;  locate a guide to take us around from their website.  And that was how I found Mladen Car.

Mladen emailed me a photo of himself.  So, we did not miss him when he came to pick us up from the airport for our Samobor Town Tour.



Mladen Car
Funky Zagreb Tours
info@funky-zagreb.com
www.funky-zagreb.com
Mobile / Viber / WhatsApp
+385 91 160 22 22