We started the day by going into the village of Sanobor to have the famous Sanobor Kremsnita cake – basically a big custard slice. It was the Croatian Victory holiday so locals kindly told us we didn’t need to pay for parking.

Everyone was looking very relaxed wandering around in town and having coffee. We found the recommended cafe for the cake – U Prolazu.

People come from Zagreb to eat this cake here – and a poem was written about it. Here is the translated version.

We enjoyed it very much with the good coffee and then got on the road.

We drove for around an hour crossing into Slovenia for most of it and then crossing back to Croatia just at the end. It was very hilly country with lots of windy roads.

We saw a few castles on the way as there had been threats from the Ottomans in the 15th century,

We went through the town of Dvorce – and came out together.

We arrived at the Veliki Tabor Castle and had to go up a steep cobbled road – and just made it up with a little wheel spin.

The castle was built in the 1500s and is structurally different from others having a central pentagon tower with 4 large round towers around it. Wine was made in the cellar.

They had some very large decorative padlocks and keys.

The castle had been recently renovated as it had been allowed to deteriorate since 1945. It’s looking very good now.

The views were lovely. The restored decorative tiled heaters were amazing – from the 1700s.

There were many exhibition rooms containing weapons, sewing machines and anything used around the castle.

Glenn had fun with the torture instruments.

There is a famous legend associated with this castle – the Veronica of Desinić Legend.

It originated a long time ago when the mighty count Hermann II of Cilli ruled these lands. While riding around the Veliki Tabor Castle, Hermann’s younger son Frederick met a beautiful local girl – Veronika. They have fallen in love immediately. However, Frederick was already married to Elizabeta Frankopan, a member of another important noble family. Since they no longer lived together, Hermann and Frankopans arranged a meeting of spouses in the city of Krapina. They hoped the two will reconcile. However, the following day Elizabeta was found dead. The rumour was Frederick himself murdered her, but that was never proven correct.

Following these events, Frederick and Veronika fled to the Fridrichstein Castle in Slovenia, where they secretly married. Count Hermann found out about the wedding soon and sent an army to capture the lovers. Frederick managed to get Veronika out of the town and sent her to hide in the small village of Sveta Margita. However, he was unable to do the same. He was captured by his father’s soldiers and prisoned in the Cilli Castle in Slovenia. The tower in which he was imprisoned is still called Frederick’s Tower. He spent four years there, and when finally released, he was mentally broken.

Veronika didn’t have any better luck. After some time, Hermann’s soldiers found her as well. They have taken her to the Veliki Tabor Castle for a trial. She was accused of being a witch who seduced Frederick. A trial lasted for two days, and on the evening of the second day, the judges decided she is not guilty.

But, Hermann wasn’t satisfied with that verdict. So as soon as the judges left, he ordered his servants to drown Veronika. They sealed it inside the wall that connects the pentagonal tower with the castle’s entrance to hide her body. They say you could still hear the silent cries of poor Veronika today, especially during the long windy winter nights.

We didn’t hear any cries when we were there thank goodness!

After checking everything out we then moved on to an aire that was close by in Rogatec – which was just over the border in Slovenia – the 3rd time we had crossed the border that day.

It was a lovely spot just outside the village with a deer farm opposite, an active horse training paddock beside us and fields – one which looks like it had been terraced hundreds of years ago.

We wandered into the village to do a little bit of shopping. It was quite old – with a couple of weird modern sights.

We got some icecream in the way home – they were a little large but delicious! We managed to cope with them – just!

After a little yapping dog was shut up about 11pm we had a peaceful night.