20110905  Belgrade, Serbia

We woke with the ship already tied up in Belgrade. Breakfast was normal. After that, we did the city tour by bus.

The tour included the Belgrade Fortress at the junction of the Danube and Sava rivers, a huge old thing begun by pre-Roman tribes of the area. It got hotter and more muggy as we went.

Then a stop at Republic Square with a half-hour on our own to shop. We looked and bought one small cookbook. Hotter.

We went to Saint Sava's cathedral, begun in 1890 and still being constructed. We looked into the little church first which has been complete for years, then the big one.

Then we went back to the ship with a couple of detours en route and one stop to let off people who had decided to stay ashore longer.

The afternoon was free until 1730, so we can get underway again at 1800. 

I did lunch, then took up the challenge and went ashore. I walked up the hill and as far as Republic Square again, but I didn't find anything I wanted. I did stop to get 500 dinar, the local currency so I could buy D some toothpaste in the pharmacy. It cost 100 dinar for a 100ml tube of Colgate. So now I have two 200-dinar bills. I'll keep one as a souvenir and give one away.

Hotter. Muggier.

So I walked back to the ship. I'll pay with stiffness for this excursion tomorrow.

Owen Photos     Dolores Photos   

Later:

The group congregated in the lounge in the mid-afternoon. We sipped beers and played with iPods, iPads, and other geek stuff for a while. Then at 1800, two local university students came to the podium and answered questions posed to them by our aged audience. We thought they were forthcoming and well-spoken. Of course, our history is ancient history to them – and they have a background we can't know. But they were good and hopeful and had good ideas. Nice.

We did dinner with all kinds of wine, some ours, some other people's. Then a gathering in the lounge for dancing and nightcaps. Good fun.

A weather front passed by around 2000. We backed out and turned upstream for Vukovar, Croatia, where we'll play tomorrow in cooler weather