Neanderthals

Posted on by Scott

On Saturday I rented a car and drove up north of Zagreb to explore a bit. First I visited an excellent and thorough museum about a large Neanderthal find (the largest Neanderthal bone collection in the world), then after a drive through some beautiful autumnal countryside scenery in the mountains, I explored an old hilltop castle.

My Kia rental car
For the kids, I suppose
Some of the many remains found here in a cave
A guess of what Neanderthals looked like and what they might have been up to
The cave where they were found
A nearby restaurant has embraced the “caveman” motif
Trakoscan Castle
View of surrounding hills
There was a big emergency training exercise across the street. For a long time I believed it was a true emergency, but I just couldn’t figure out why a car was so damaged in a field (with rescuers using the “jaws of life” to rip open the car) and why someone was also performing a rescue in a tree above the car! Then a helicopter came too. Luckily someone told me it was an exercise. I was getting worried! It seemed like a car with a parachute had fallen from the sky above. I’ve been watching too many action movies.

By the way, I’m happy to report that I figured out and have mostly resolved the skin breakout around my eyes.

Today’s limerick:

North of Zagreb Neanderthals were found
Along with other species underground
Bones rotted in a cave
There was more than one grave
The museum will most likely astound.

Today’s dad joke: What do you call a prehistoric version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with characters played by cavemen?

Neander-Dahl!

Today’s bonus musical interlude: This is a real tangent, but during these travels I’ve been getting back into Metallica’s Master of Puppets album, which is, I believe, one of the very best albums of all time. And the title track itself has got to be one of the most complex and interesting songs ever (and tiring). Anyway, YouTube recommended a stupendous piano rendition which is almost as powerful as the original song, so I thought I’d share for interested readers:

How does someone play a piano like this?!

Today’s travel quote:

Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.

Benjamin Disraeli

3 thoughts on “Neanderthals”

  1. What a cornucopia! Impressive all around. I’m glad you finally got to that museum. How does one play piano like that is right? Hours and hours of practice. It’s so cool to see what people choose to do with their time, and apparently this lady was learning a Metallica song!

  2. The neanderthal on the left looks as if he is taking a photo of the others!

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Published by Scott

Mangling foreign languages and generally looking lost and out of place.