But we left the party on that my last night in Janja Gora early, and I had a good night’s sleep before getting up for sunrise. That day however, Friday November 11th, was cloudy, though there was sunshine for me to read after breakfast. Lunch then was late, for a friend from Zagreb was visiting, with Daniel having arranged for him to take me there that night.

He was also immensely kind, and between him and Daniel they found a decent hotel for me, after which he set off for some work, kindly returning to pick me up. His conversation was fascinating, as we drove into Zagreb, for he dabbled in many fields, including a project for a game based on marine archaeology on which the twins too were employed, having graduated from Edinburgh University in Classics with a most impressive record.

Irwine took me to the hotel and made sure I was well settled, though I turned down his offer to take me out the following evening, for I knew I would be tired having tried to see everything I could of Zagreb the next day. But he would not take no for an answer when he said he would pick me early on the following morning, Sunday the 13th, to take me to the airport.

The hotel had no restaurant so I popped out to get some crisps for supper, and then spent the evening planning my exploration of Zagreb. I had coffee next morning as soon as the restaurant opened, and then breakfast, setting off early to walk through the lower city to the upper one. But then I found that almost all the museums and the churches were closed, since the city had suffered an earthquake two years previously and repairs were slow. Indeed in Ivan Mestrovic’s house, which I managed to find, when I went in the chap in charge peremptorily ordered me out, though then he was very friendly, and explained that there was danger still of bits of the building falling down.

But I much enjoyed walking through the city, seeing its iconic churches from outside, popping into a Sri Lankan restaurant that Daniel had told me about – though the Sri Lankans whom he had encouraged with visas were not around – and finding very quaint the Museum of Broken Relationships, the only one I found open, which Daniel had told me I should not miss. It was a collection of items contributed by individuals with notes about how these illustrated a relationship that had concluded.

But then, for it was a gloomy day, I went back to my hotel, though I did pop out again in the evening to try to see something more of the town. Walking back I saw the magnificent opera house, which sadly had no performance that night, though ‘Nabucco’ had been on the previous week.

I had a very filling pizza near the hotel, and then for about the first time in the trip looked at television in the hotel before falling asleep. And next morning there was time for not one but two cups of coffee before Irwin appeared to pick me up, another act of kindness in a holiday full of old and new delights.

The pictures are of the central square and the open market behind it, St. Michael’s Church and the cathedreal, both under repair, the opera house and a quaint statue I suddenly came across, the Sri Lankan restaurant and its delivery van which I looked at carefully when I saw Lion Lager depicted on its sides, a statue of St. George and the dragon, a much visited shrine in a small city gate, an orthodox church and the clocktower high above the city.

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