Croatia 04

Eastern Europe to the Black Sea

Grand Circle Travel

16 Day Tour/River Cruise 2004

September 12 to September 27, 2004

Under TRAVELS, click under CRUISES, Danube River 04, and Bulgaria 04, Hungary 04, Romania 04 and  Serbia 04 for other parts of this vacation.

To speed up downloading time I have used small pictures in place of larger ones.  However, please "Click" on any small one and a larger picture will appear.  Click the "Back" button to return to this story.  

Croatia has approximately five million inhabitants with only a small percentage minority.  Zagreb, the capital, has nearly one million.  Croatia is predominately Roman Catholic and slowly making a comeback after years of communist suppression.  The Croatian language uses the Latin alphabet.  Along the coastline German, Italian and English are the most common foreign languages spoken.

Our schedule for Tuesday, September 17; a fun filled day.  This was the first year ever for Grand Circle Travel to tour in Croatia.

War devastated the port city of Vukovar in 1991.  It was nearly 90% destroyed as the proud Croatians volunteers fought for their independence.  They were able to withhold Yugoslavia which had the 4th largest army in Europe for three months.  More than two thousand were killed and another four thousand wounded.  Vukovar has an unemployment of 25% versus 18% throughout Croatia.

The area is the bread basket of Croatia with corn ranking number one.  Sugar beets, wheat, soy beans and sunflowers are grown in abundance.  Their shopping centers are much like the one below.  Storks normally reside near Vukovar but had left for their winter habitat by the time we arrived; at least that's what the sign said.

We spent some quiet and quality time in this beautiful church in Osijek, the fourth largest city in Croatia with about 100,000 inhabitants.  Please click any of the small pictures for the enlarged pictures and more description.

Our walking tour encompassed this old walled fort.  As we walked out the gate, we approached the Drava River which runs into the Danube River a few miles to the east.

We also walked in the center of the city of Osijek and drove through other sections.  The architecture was beautiful.

The highlight of the day was our home hosted lunch.  Please click on the small picture so you can view all the details of this colorful home.

Inside the home we were invited by Marija Stipetic, our hostess, to look around and take pictures of whatever we liked.  The nudes in the living room quickly captured our attention.  Marija later introduced her friend's daughter.

Marija had prepared our meal in advance and was ready to serve us as soon as we had arrived.  Her husband had died so she rented out part of her house for income and did these luncheons for Grand Circle Travel as well.  She had two sons and neither was married.  Her English was quite good so we had no difficulty understanding that she and her family had suffered greatly during the war.  Names and the details of our lunch are included with the larger pictures.  Click on the ones below and take a look!

Back on board our ship we attended a lecture on Croatia's Past and Present and that evening entertainers from the Slavonian Region of Croatia put on a fantastic show.  Please see pictures of them on the Danube River Cruise 04 page.

Posted on the Internet on 11/2/04, revised 1/3/05