nequine

Good use of solar power!

Somnifer

The railings are new. It is an art installation that takes in solar energy, stores it, and releases it at night in patterns of intensity matching the absorption rates on those little segments you can see in the photo. It used to be open for everyone to walk on but earlier this year, a drunk (tourist?) dude decided to smash a bunch of the panels so they fenced the whole thing off.

Also, no highways in Croatia were built by Chinese companies.

pjs

Sorry, I shouldn't listen to anything said by Uber drivers.

pjs

We were up around 07:00 and went down to the breakfast buffet, and…turned around and went back upstairs. The hordes of tour groups were overwhelming. At 08:00 the crowd had thinned out and we were able to get near the buffet. It was a good spread, but I should have insisted they let us have room service at no charge given the crazy crowds and the number of tour groups all scheduled to leave at 07:30.

We left after breakfast and walked to the funicular, which we took up to old town.



There's an interesting shrine right near the entrance to Old Town.



Statue near the entrance to Old Town.


We first visited the Museum of Broken Relationships which is a small, funky museum and hard to explain. It’s definitely worth a visit.




We went to a café and grabbed a coffee while we waited for everything else to open up. Next was The Museum of Naive Art, which had some interesting works by country farmers and peasants from Croatia.





We spent some time shopping in old town and walked down to the Dolac Market and the cathedral.





I found some GoT souvenirs for my kids at a funky store that were cheaper than in Dubrovnik/Split.



We stopped for a drink and snack at a cute little bar/café as the heat started to become unbearable. While it was only around 90F, it felt hotter than that in the concrete jungle.




I bought some strawberries from the market and brought them back to the hotel where we snacked on them and cooled off. Once we were back in the A/C, it was hard to get motivated to get back out.

We went back to Gallo for dinner and had the same waiter. We got a giant whole fish baked in salt. He gave us a second bottle of wine, which was nice and I used the last of my Czech Kuna toward our last dinner.





We really enjoyed Zagreb despite the heat and it provided a nice contrast to the Dalmatian coast.

Up next: Air Francey ain’t so fancy

pjs

We were up at 06:00 and finished packing. We braved the breakfast tour group rumble at 06:30 when the restaurant opened. We were able to get some food before it all disappeared. After we checked out, we got an Uber to the airport around 06:55.

We got to ZAG at 07:20. Croatia Airlines even weighed our hand baggage (8kg limit) even though we were in business. Luckily we packed most of the heavy things in our checked bags.

Following a quick security and immigration process, we went to the PrimeClass lounge. It was OK, but quite busy at that time of day. We just had coffee and sat until it was time to board. For some reason, the TV was showing a classic Popeye cartoon.



OU 470 ZAG-CDG 09:00

Boarding was orderly and pushed back on time. Legroom was not bad in this typical Eurobusiness configuration, but there were not too many interesting planes to spot at ZAG.




We were wheels up by 09:11 and the seatbelt sign was off soon after. There was a cold breakfast served which was decent enough.



There were some nice views over the Swiss Alps, but it also got a bit bumpy.



The flight attendants would not serve coffee while the seatbelt sign was on. When I did finally get some coffee, it was strong (according to my notes).

We landed at CDG at 10:55, and arrived at our gate right on time at 11:05. We were at gate 68 in Terminal 2D. There was no wait at transit security and we were soon on the bus on the way to 2E(M) for our next leg.

The lounge in M was large and fairly crowded. The food (when the line wasn’t too long) was good and the Taittinger champagne was fine for my unsophisticated palate. My wife enjoyed the wines on offer as well. We checked on the spa, but no appointments were available during the limited time we had in the lounge. Sorry for the crappy pics.





AF688 CDG-ATL 13:30

Around 12:30, we walked down to our gate. There were individual security questions being asked of each passenger in line at the gate. At 12:50, we boarded in Group 1, along with 100 other people.




Menus and amenity kits were passed around at 13:15.








While the soft product is not great, it’s OK for a daytime flight and better than flying in the back (or below in the back). I do like the cameras available on the A380.



We had a short delay which I assume was due to late-arriving connecting passengers.

There was not much of interest on the IFE so I left the camera on and watched the final season of House of Cards I had downloaded to my iPad. The aircraft was pretty warm when we boarded but soon cooled off. No individual air vents on this soon-to-be retired A380.

We finally pushed back at 13:55 and had a fairly long taxi. We were wheels up at 14:18. Around 15:00, drinks were served and I received my lunch around 15:30. The food and wine were good.







In between meals, there were snacks in the galley. About three hours before landing, ice cream was offered.

The pre-landing meal was not memorable but it killed some time I guess.



I really wanted to fly on an A380 and now that I have checked this off, I'll be sure to try and catch a better configuration the next time on Air France (although I flew this same flight again in July on the way back from Israel - duh).

We landed right on time in ATL and then my wife and I did our global entry interview on arrival. Our pre-check was due to expire next year so I had used two GE credits from various credit cards and signed us up. We had to wait about 10 minutes for an interview but it was fairly painless.

We grabbed an Uber, who fought the rush hour traffic for us, and got home by around 19:30. It was a great trip for us. Croatia (and the surrounding countries) were beautiful, friendly and definitely worth visiting. Iberia and Air France (A380) business were good value on this trip but definitely toward the low end of the business class options to/from Europe.

Hope you enjoyed re-living this trip with me. Since this trip, I’ve already been to Israel to see some family in July, but I didn’t bother documenting that one. Next big one is Peru in December.

nequine

Thanks for a very enjoyable TR. I have enjoyed reading your report.

Romanianflyer

Thanks for the excellent trip report pjs! Brings back great memories of my own Croatia trips to Zadar and Zagreb. I can completely second your opinions. Dubrovnik is beautiful but horribly busy in summer season (personally I found it already too busy when I once visited in early June - and that was even before the GoT craze!). Zadar is indeed a lovely town and a great mix between local life and tourists - even in Summer I always found it bearable enough (and that comes from a person who avoids most of the Med in summer because of the crowds). Alfred Hitchcock was absolutely right when he once said that Zadar sunsets are the best in the world. Zagreb is in my opinion one of the most underrated of all European capitals. And that Museum of Broken Relationships is one of my favourite little museum in all of Europe, hilarious and touching at the same time!

Glad you liked all of your travels and managed to have some excellent fish dinners.

PS. Congratulations with the Liverpool win in last season's Champions League - well deserved!

pjs

Thanks for the kind words.

Thanks - I also enjoy your reports. We've already won another trophy last week as well