After our visit to Zagreb we drove north-west to a hilly area dotted with little houses and vineyards, where we went to explore a castle at the border to Slovenia and an important discovery of Neanderthal men.
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| Veliki Tabor |
There are no straight or even roads in this area, we were driving up and down like on a roller coaster, but it was a lovely area and we had great weather.
Finally we reached the Castle Veliki Tabor, which sits on one of these little hills close to the border.
The castle’s present appearance dates back to the 16th century. Most of it was built by the Hungarian noble family of Ráttkay, in whose ownership it remained until 1793. Today it is owned by the government and was thoroughly renovated during the last years.
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| Lovely clock tower |
In Krapina, the biggest town of this area, the most important fossil remains of Neanderthals in Europe were discovered in 1899 at a rock shelter below the cliff.
In 2010 a modern museum opened which is dedicated to the Neanderthal men and evolution in general. The tour through the museum started with a film, which was very professionally produced, showing the people and their life in this area, according to the finds.
After we had left the museum the weather was grey and rainy we wanted to spend the rest of the day at a thermal bath in Varaždinske toplice. When we arrived at this not very nice looking village we discovered that the hotel and spa complex was under renovation which was probably a good idea from how the buildings looked. At the end we left Croatia this day and drove into Hungary where we went to the thermal bath and spa of Zalakaros the next day, which was a nice experience.