The Closed Castle

Have you ever stuffed your family in the car, along with your out-of-town guests, and traveled through hill and dale to see a castle, only to find out when you get there that there is a huge crane in the front lawn and that the castle is closed due to renovations? No?? Well, that's what we did a couple weeks ago.

It was a beautiful sunny day and we were enjoying the Croatian countryside as we trekked through little villages on our way to Veliki Tabor. Suddenly, in the distance, on a hill far away, the castle came into view.....


As we got closer, I could see the crane jutting up in the air next to the castle, and wondered to myself, "Why is there a CRANE by the castle, for goodness sake?" That "Oh, no, something is wrong" feeling began to creep into my stomach.

We wound our way up the castle hill, closer and closer, until the castle was finally directly in front of us. Another car (the ONLY other car) was parked beside the plastic orange fence, which plainly sent the message we didn't want to hear... CLOSED.

(Lesson Learned: Call Ahead and verify that the castle you want to visit is indeed OPEN, regardless of what the website says. This will save time and prevent embarrassment!)

Like all tourists who have traveled far to their destination, only to find their hopes dashed and their children disappointed, we made our way around the fence so that we could inspect the castle grounds. It was the least we could do, especially since we had brought our poor friends all that way to see the castle. After a quick walk around the castle's "back yard," we could see why it was under renovation... It seemed to be in need of a little TLC.



The panoramic view of the country surrounding the castle must have been even more stunning at the top of the castle's tower than what we were able to see from our on-the-ground vantage point. Katie and I posed for the camera while our children dashed off to inspect more of the castle grounds, no doubt hoping that the back door was somehow left open accidentally.



We tried to make up for the loss by zipping once again through the countryside in hopes of making it to the other famous castle before it closed, but as you can probably guess, we arrived about 15 minutes before closing time. The visit wasn't a total loss though, since we could tour the castle grounds and the lake. Katie and I enjoyed a cappuccino on the floating dock cafe while the kids and my husband rented a paddle boat and had a grand time paddling around the lake.

All in all, it was a great day anyway! We got to see two beautiful Croatian castles, and spend time together with friends that we haven't seen in a few years. I figure this was a day we aren't likely to forget since it didn't turn out at all as we had planned!