Zagreb (Gračani) - Sljeme (Leustekova steza)

Access to the starting point:
From the motorway, take the Zagreb-West exit, and then at the roundabout at the Billa shopping centre in Novi Zagreb, continue eastwards until the next roundabout, where you will turn in the route Zagreb-Centre. Continue over the bridge on the Sava River and you will be on Marina Držića Street. Just keep going through the underpass, past the bus stop and under the railway tracks until you reach Kvaternik Square. Here you will turn left west along Vlaška Street. Vlaška Street will start to climb after one slight right turn, we just keep going. Vlaška Street becomes Medvescak Street and becomes a dual carriageway. Go to the traffic lights, where you follow the signs for Gračani (there are also signs for the ski resorts on Sljeme along the road). Now go gently uphill all the way through Gračani. After the speed bumps you will see the entrance to the parking lot on the left (This parking lot is at the turning point of the tram line which ends at the top of Gračani. If you turn too late, there will be a short set of towers in the middle of the road). I recommend leaving your vehicle here, because the parking lots in Bliznec are always crowded and it is almost impossible to find a free parking space.
Zagreb is quite difficult to navigate. I recommend using a map and navigation.

Path description:
From the parking lot, go down the stairs and then continue along Nad Tunelom Street. The path along the street climbs in two bends and goes into the forest (it is also possible to choose the variant that goes through the tunnel - in this case you will be on the asphalt for a longer time and the route is also more difficult in terms of orientation).
You will climb some steps through the forest and then cross the next road (if you went through the tunnel, you will return to the trail here). After crossing, the path will be laid once you reach the bunker. The downhill part is usually quite muddy. The path then goes from the eastern to the western slope, where you will see a resting place on the left and an unmarked path joins from the parking lot in Bliznec on the right.
From here, our route, which has until now been marked as route No 17, joins route No 14, which starts in Gračec-Pustodol. Just after this crossroads, the trail splits into two parallel trails. In rain and mud, I recommend the narrower route above. The two paths join at the next crossroads, where there is also a resting place. Here the path for the abandoned sanatorium Brestovac branches off to the left, and we continue straight ahead.
The path will now start to climb gently along a wider forest path, and during the climb we will pass a small spring, where the path is muddier, and we will also cross three watercourses, over which small bridges lead. After the third bridge, the path leads to the Adolfovac shelter, where you can rest. We are about halfway there.
From Adolfovac, we continue through a short lane of spruce forest, and the path leads us to a clearing. Here is the only place where you can miss the trail - when you reach one of the bends in the plum road, go back, or before the left turn, into the clearing. The path through the coppice leads us back to the road, which we cross and we are in the forest again.
In the forest, we follow a wider path, and the forest is a little thinner in this part. The way forward leads us past another information board and another resting place. When we reach the next bend in the sljemen road, we are at the next crossroads. To the right on the road is the path to the Runolist mountain hut, and we go straight onto a wide footpath. From here the path starts to climb steeply and leads us to an exposed part where we are helped by a fence. The ground is a little rockier on this part of the path. When the fence ends, the path will be laid and we will be in a belt of sparse and low forest. The path takes us a little further into the forest again, where it leads us past a spring and then past a stone abandoned resting place. Just a little further on, we come to wooden steps which lead to the road (the Leustek path officially ends here).
Continue along the asphalt to the right and you will quickly reach the Stara lugarnica mountain hut, where many mountaineers also finish their climb. On the next steps, go right from Stara lugarnica and the path leads to Činovnička livada, where you go up (beware - the livada is a ski slope in winter!) and arrive at a crossroads of many paths. Trail 1 climbs quickly, crosses the ski slope and after a minute or two of further walking leads us to the top of Sljeme, where there is a huge TV tower. To get a view, you have to walk a little further to the Vidikovac restaurant, from where you get a great view to the north.
The path is named after Albin Leustek, who wanted to make a path to Sljemen that everyone could walk. Leustek is also buried on Medvednica near the Runolist mountain hut. This is the most visited trail from Zagreb and there are often quite a few people on it.

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