Nature and culture trip to Bosnia, in organisation of Maiann Suhner with help and assistent of tour agency Arcatour will consist from unforgetable travel from Zagreb to Sarajevo, on the way between Occident and Orient through the Bosnian mountains travel for German speaking tourists only in period from 05.10-15.10.18.
On easy hikes through the vast karst landscapes of the plateaus, accompanied by the call of the muezzin in remote villages, past gold-decorated Orthodox churches and Franciscan monasteries, the beauty of the Bosnian cultural landscape captivates us. We travel in the footsteps of Yugoslavian authors, artists and politicians. We stop at important places of the Bosnian royal period, the Ottoman rule and the Austro-Hungarian occupation. We taste sugar-sweet oriental specialities and, thanks to personal contact with the locals, we gain a deep insight into the challenges facing those left behind after the war of the 1990s.
Information about the hikes
We will mainly travel on foot and by bus (22-seater Mercedes Sprinter). The walks are easy and last from 1 to 5 hours. For longer hikes you can shorten the hike or use the bus.
Day 1, Friday, October 05: Zurich-Zagreb
With the night train EuroNight we travel from Zurich to Zagreb.
Day 2, Saturday, 06 October: Zagreb, the Austro-Hungarian gateway to the Balkans
We get an insight into the lively capital of Croatia, which knows how to merge its Austro-Hungarian heritage with Yugoslavian character. Walk through the elegant lower and the cosy upper old town, visit to the weekly market, where Dalmatian specialities from the south of Croatia (fig cake, pomegranates, olive oil), from the north sauerkraut and pickled in all colours and forms are offered. Guided or free city tour and overnight stay in Zagreb.
Day 3, Sunday, October 07: Hike along the canyon "Una" to Bosnian Krupa
Welcome to the land "in the form of a heart", as the locals call their young state. From the medieval castle of Ostrožac we have a fantastic view over the endless hills of the Bosnian mountains. Ostrožac was built in the 13th century by Bosnian princes and in the following centuries fell to the Ottomans, later to the Austrians and then to Yugoslavia. Situated on the picturesque river Una, the town of Bihać awaits us with a first tasting of oriental baklava with Turkish coffee. In the city centre there is a sacral building with a very special architecture: a converted church with a minaret and an Arabic inscription above the Gothic door arch. Dinner and overnight stay in the family business "Villa Una".
4th day, Monday, 08th October: Una National Park
We walk to the thundering waterfall of the Štrbački buk and to the Slapovi, the tuff stairs of the blue-green river Una in the national park of the same name. The river forms the border between Croatia and Bosnia. Several bridges were destroyed during the war of the 90s, and the narrow-gauge railway, which used to take families, workers and other travel enthusiasts on picturesque routes to the Dalmatian coast for their holidays, is still waiting to be reopened. The landscape, characterised by the wild riverbed of the Una, surrounded by the colourful autumn forests, has remained a tourist magnet and attracts more local and international guests every year.
Day 5, Tuesday, October 9: From Federacija BiH to Republika Srpska, with the ornithologist and member of the "naše ptice" bird protection association
Next stop Jajce, the former royal city of medieval Bosnia. From afar, the traveller can hear the song of the muezzine and the sound of the famous Jajce waterfall. In 1943 the "Anti-Fascist Council for National Liberation" under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito decided on the federal organization of Yugoslavia in this city. According to the politicians, Goran Topič, ornithologist and responsible for bird counts in Central Bosnia for the NGO "naše ptice", will lead us from the lakes of plivska jezera to the karst springs of the river Pliva, where he will tell us about the challenges and successes of the nature conservation organisation "naše ptice". The dome roofs of the churches of Šipovo show that we are here in Republika Srpska, the mostly Serbian Orthodox part of Bosnia.
Day 6, Wednesday, October 10: Travnik, the former Ottoman capital of Bosnia
Travnik was the political and cultural centre of Bosnia for 150 years. Here the Ottoman vesirs ruled over the Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim population. In a literary-historical tour we follow the events of the novel "Vesire and Consuls" by the Nobel laureate in literature Ivo Andrić. We hear everyday stories from the 19th century, when first Napoleon opened a French consulate in Travnik, and shortly afterwards the Imperial Court of Vienna opened an Austrian consulate in Travnik. In the morning we will hike up the hill of Vilenica with a view of the city, which is characterized by Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and Socialist architecture. During dinner together with Enes Škrgo, curator of the birthplace of Ivo Andrić, we have the opportunity to discuss the war past, which is still very present in the country, as well as the current political and social situation in Bosnia. Dinner at the Konoba Plava Voda, accompanied by a small concert with a local musician, who will conjure up oriental-slavic sounds from the traditional Bosnian instrument, the "Saz".
7th day, Thursday, 11th October: On the variety of flowers and medicinal herbs of the wide heights of the Schafberg Vlašič
Directly from the old town, past the medieval castle of Travnik, we climb the high plateau of Vlašič on a narrow path. This mountain range is rich in lime- and warmth-loving plants and singing short- and long-feelers, dotted with remote villages, on whose facades the war waged here is still clearly visible. We are very likely to meet flocks of sheep and enjoy views over the central Bosnian mountain landscape. We walk along the paths of Erich Brandis, a botanist of Swiss origin who described the legendary Rosa Brandis here. On the way back we stop at the Franciscan monastery Guča Gora and visit the modest herb kitchen of the pharmacist Emsa Grabus, who knows the locations of the medicinal plants of Vlašič like the back of his hand. Only in company of the connoisseurs locally the ways may be partly left, because of still existing mine danger.
Day 8, Friday, October 12: Hike to the "Stećci", the medieval tombstones of the Bogumilen
The "Stečci" are limestones decorated with reliefs reminiscent of Celtic tombs. They were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2016 and bear witness to the grave rituals of the 11th - 16th centuries. Buried among them are members of the Bosnian Church of the Bogumiles. On the way back we stop at a 20th century work of art from Bogdan Bogdanović. The architect and urbanist from Belgrade was inspired by the medieval tombs for his sculptures, which were conceived and created between 1952 and 1988 in more than 20 places in former Yugoslavia as memorial places for victims of the civilian population during the Second World War.
In the afternoon there will be time for individual walks in the small town of Travnik.
Day 9, Saturday, October 13: Via Arcelor-Mittal Zenica to Sarajevo
On the way to Sarajevo we make a short stop in the city of Zenica. The small town came to great fortune after the Second World War, when during Yugoslavia's first five-year plan, the 10km-diameter area of the Zenica iron and steelworks was expanded and smelted metal with full capacity and around 23,000 employees over several decades. The National Theater Zenica, an award-winning building of socialist architecture from the late 1970s, testifies to the heyday of the city, which, however, suffers particularly in the winter months from the emissions of the Arcelor-Mittal conglomerate. With the local train, in compositions of the socialist-Yugoslavian 70s, we drive directly to the centre of Sarajevo.
Day 10, Sunday, October 14: Sarajevo
It smells like Bosnian coffee, Rahat Lokum and freshly baked baklava, the muezzines call polyphonic sounds from the minarets - are we really still in Europe? Sarajevo has a lot to offer and testifies to its centuries-old eventful history. We have time to explore the old town, past the scene of the assassination of Archduke Franz-Joseph and his wife, the meat and cheese market, the artisan quarter,... If you like, you can take the brand new cable car to Trebević, the "Olympic Mountain" with its bobsleigh track of the 1984 Winter Games. The magnificent view of the city, built along the Miljacka, surrounded by at least seven mountains, is worth it!
Day 11, Monday, October 15: Bus and train journey Sarajevo-Slavonski Brod-Zürich
On Monday morning we travel by bus from Sarajevo to Slavonski Brod, from where we take the night train EuroNight to Zurich. The return journey can be organized individually on request.
12th day, Tuesday, 16th October
We reach Zurich at 09h20.
