We had booked an escorted tour through Grand Circle Travel, a company with which we had traveled several times before and had always been very satisfied.  Since the trip departed from New York's JFK Airport so we took the opportunity to spend time in the city to see friends and some Broadway shows.   

Our European tour would start in Zagreb and end in Dubrovnik three weeks later.  We chose Croatia and Slovenia as they are re-emerging on the world travel scene after the war in the early 1990s.I

After World War II, the Tito years saw a period of peace and prosperity. During the 1960s Croatia again became a popular international tourist destination.  During the 19th century it had been a favorite watering hole for European royalty and nobility.  But following Tito's death in 1980, an economic crisis set in, and relations between Croatia and the Serb-dominated Yugoslav government deteriorated.

In 1989, the Croatian Democratic Union was founded, calling for an independent Croatia, while in Serbia the nationalist leader Slobodan Milosevic rose to power.  The events that followed led to civil war.

In 1991, incited by Belgrade media reports that Croatia was returning to the days of the World War II axis practices, Croatian Serbs proclaimed the Republic of Serbian Krajina, arguing that if Croatia took autonomy from Belgrade, they would demand autonomy from Zagreb. Thanks to backing from the Serb-dominated federal Yugoslav People's Army, by the end of the year Krajina, which represented nearly one-third of Croatia, was under Serb control. 

The two sides, Croatian Serbs and the Democratic front went to war.

In January 1992, Croatia was recognized by the European Union, and United Nations peacekeeping troops were sent in to oversee a ceasefire. After a period of relative calm, Croat forces crossed UN lines in May 1995 and took back a Serb-held enclave in western Slavenia. Encouraged by their success, they launched the surprise Oluja (Operation Storm) that August, overrunning the Krajina and causing 200,000 Serbs to flee the country.

Now peace has returned to that part of the world.

To assist  in navigating around the website, each major stop has its own page and can be reached by clicking on the name of the city.