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| Sunrise from my hotel room |
Another gorgeous sunrise from my hotel room and then breakfast and then time to move from the Admiral Remisens Hotel across the street to the Grand Hotel Adriatic as the other didn't have any availability for the few additional nights. The new hotel is really lovely and even less expensive than the first which is incredible and they have a sea salt swimming pool as well on the 8th floor so the view is spectacular.
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| View form my new hotel room |
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| Rijeka building design elements |
I took the public bus to the neighboring town of Rijeka which is really a large city and to be exact "...the principal seaport and the third largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 128,624 inhabitants (2011). Historically, because of its strategic position and its excellent deep-water in the Port of Rijeka, the city was fiercely contested, especially among Italy, Hungary, and Croatia, changing hands and demographics many times over centuries. The city's economy largely depends on shipbuilding and maritime transport. For over two centuries theatre tradition has been continuously promoted in the City of Rijeka and they now have a Croatian National Theatre named after composer, director and teacher,"Ivan Zajc" which was first built in 1765. The city has also had a University with it's roots dating back to 1632."
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| Rijeka building design elements |
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| Interesting fountain in a small plaza near the clock tower |
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| Rijeka Flower Market |
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| Super Grapes with orange and flowers (there is a flower box outside y hotel window) |
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| Rijeka Food Market that was packed with shoppers |
I walked around for awhile and came to a large outdoor flower and food market near the marina and bought a small slice of Italian style bread filled with cherries for lunch and then a warm cheese filo dough Burek which is a Croatian-Serbian cheese pie for dinner later as well as a small bunch of gorgeous dark red huge grapes named "super grapes" and a couple of small blood red oranges. I also got a slice of the Croatia version of the Slovenian cheese dessert, gibanica that the Slovenians bring to church on Easter to be blessed with the other special foods they have in their Easter basket.
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Rijeka food market and fruit stand where I bought my grapes and oranges. Man on the right turned up
in several pictures which happens when you take random crowd pictures. |
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| Interesting building decor Rijeka |
The bus back to Opatijca took only 25 minutes and dropped me off right across the street from my hotel, so perfect. And I got an hour or so at the pool before heading down to my room to have my open air market delicacies for dinner and then off to the Church of The Annunciation for 6:00pm Holy Thursday mass.
Not a huge crowd but that lent perfectly to the solemn, beautiful service with quiet, contemplative music played. The church interior is so beautiful in it's simplicity with large vaulted ceilings of exposed red brick and massive marble pillars lining the two side isles. The are a series of somewhat small stained glass windows along the top but since it was dusk when I arrived it was difficult to see the images well. The church history "as early as 1906 the bishop of Trieste, Franjo Nagl, laid the foundation stone for the neo-Romanesque edifice with its pronounced green cupola that can be seen from afar, but once again the departure of Austria postponed the completion of the building that was designed by architect Karl Seidl. During the war itself, the barely covered construction served as a shelter for mules, and on one occasion the entire roof caved in. The Italians continued building it with stone supplied from Kastav by means of the New Road (the “Upper Road” or “High Road” that was penetrated in 1908, but was not asphalted until 1930), whereas for the interior decoration donated stained glass were used and pictures by Kralj, a Slovenian artist."
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| National Theatre Park |
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| Pigeons snacking around the Ivan Zajc statue in front of the National Theatre |
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| National Theatre Rijeka |
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| Rijeka Marina |
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| Interesting old buildings across from the National Theatre |
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| Rijeka Marina |
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| Rijeka Marina with seagull posing for his close up |
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| Rijeka Marina |
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| Small square with tulips in bloom near the bus waiting area |
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| Rijeka Marina |
After mass the weather had gotten oddly warmer considering we are expecting rain but there was a comfortable soft breeze which was so refreshing and my 10 minute walk back to my hotel was lovely past all the brightly lit hotel entrances and lots of people out strolling along the main road.
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| Park near my hotel in Opatija |
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| Church of the Annunciation |
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| Church of the Annunciation Interior |
