Varazdin, a charming city in Croatia (and a perfect one day trip)!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be perfectly honest, we would probably never visit this town, if our dentist (see the post) wouldn't live in Varazdin (Croatia). That would definitely be a terrible mistake! A small Baroque town with an imposing old fortification, the central part of the town, numerous museums and galleries as well as a renowned Varazdin cemetery took us by surprise.

Varazdin is located on the right bank of river Drava in the northwestern Croatia. From Maribor, it takes about 1 hour to get there and probably the same from Croatia's capital city Zagreb. Though, you need a car if you start in Maribor. Bus and train connections between Maribor on one hand and Varazdin and other Croatian cities are either non-existent or apalling. What a shame!

Varazdin has a long and rich town history. The first written documents about Varazdin are from 1181 (If you want to read more about history of this beautiful town go to Wikitravel.)

We were totally impressed with the town centre which has been beautifully restored. Because we visited Varazdin on the hottest day of that summer, cafes and restaurants at every corner of the town helped us to enjoy the town even more. Trust me, it can get really hot in this part of the world and refreshments around every corner come in very handy.

Unfortunately, the "Stari grad" (or the Old city) was closed when we were there, but it is definitely 'a must see' for our next visit.

My favourite building in the whole town is a rococo-style Sermage Palace (built in 1759) It actually hosts a Gallery of Old and Contemporary Masters which holds more then 3000 art pieces from the 15th and all the way to the end of the 19th century.

Like always when I travel somewhere, it is food that seals the opinion. We were lucky and discovered a lovely traditional Italian trattoria called Angelus right in the Varazdin town centre.Verdict? Fabulous food, fabulous service and something we ought to repeat!

Oh yes, one more thing. You will need your passport. As I write this, Croatia is not a member of the EU so regular customs and border controls apply. Croatian currency is called "Kuna" and I recommend buying Kunas with Euros in Maribor.

Dinosaurs for kids!

 

 

If you are wondering where you can see these fabulously realistic dinosaurs in Maribor I have to 'disappoint' you straight away. This is not a new tourist attraction in Maribor (sigh - I wish, I wish).

It's thanks to Maribor's fantastic geographic position right in the middle of Europe that we can visit this beautiful Styrassic park in Austria. First, there is a 10 minute drive to the Austrian border and then less then 60km to Bad Gleichenberg and you are there, at the heart of a very authentic 'forgotten world'.

Summers are great for visiting Styrassic park. We can hide from the heat in a beautiful woodland and spend the whole afternoon in the cool shade of majestic trees (summers in Maribor can be very, very hot and every opportunity to cool down is more than welcome).

82 life-size and up to 10 m high dinosaurs are dotted all around the park (from the Plateosaurus to Tyrannosaurus Rex). They look all too realistic so I kind of get this 'strange' feeling that something's going to grab my neck :). Of course, children don't experience this kind of fear-ridden problems. They are little explorers, excitedly jumping around every dinosaur no matter how it looks and cry their souls out when we have to leave. I keep repeating that we'll be back again but to no avail (ah, kids, you know what I mean).

The trip to this magical world of dinosaurs is just one of many one day trips that we experience when on holidays in Maribor.

The are plenty of other one-day trips to Croatia, Hungary and Italy but more about this in my next blog posts :)