The Savage Traveler: Gateway to the Black Sea-#7: Belgrade, Serbia

Thu. June 11--Belgrade, Serbia: We arrived in Belgrade around 7:00 in the morning after sailing all night. Right after breakfast we had a marvelous and intense lecture on "Modern Serbia" to prepare for our time there. It was followed by a bus tour of the old city, including time to walk at Kalemegdan Fortress and learn its many-century history high on the hill at the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers. People from across the area have taken and razed the city 54 times since B.C.E. Like the rest of the Balkans, the written history pretty much began with the Romans for the first three centuries of the Common Era, followed by the Ottomans for five centuries, then the Habsburg royalty of the Austro-Hungarians. For many years the Moslems and the Serbs took turns ruling and destroying each other’s mosques and churches. World War II found Serbia on the Allies' side and next door Croatia on the side of the Nazis. The Balkans became united as Yugoslavia under the Communists and life was actually pretty good with Tito, who was revered for being willing to say "NO" to Moscow, in charge and Belgrade as the capital. However, everything fell apart when Tito died and rule was supposed to be shared by the leaders of the 7 states of Yugoslavia. Milosevic was in charge in Serbia and he was, in the name of our afternoon guide, "Cray-cray" (crazy) and so the Homeland War broke out in 1991 with much ethnic cleansing taking place and many hard feelings especially between Serbs and Croatians. (More on that later). NATO finally took control of things by scheduling bombings in Belgrade (so people could get out of the buildings) and Serbia and Croatia became free and separate countries. There are still some buildings remaining that show the effects of the bombings. Our tour ended at Republic Square where we walked a short way to the shopping district where an entire street has been closed to traffic for many blocks for people to shop and eat and drink. Belgrade today is a hustling, bustling, modern city and it seems very European although it is not yet part of the European Union. The bus continued driving around to show us the sites of the city before returning us to the ship for lunch.

One of the gates into Kalemegdan Fortress

Ancient Fortifications

View of New Belgrade and Zemun

Saint Sava Cathedral

In the afternoon the Macks and Dunns had one of the highlights of our trip when the concierge helped us arrange a biking trip. Our guide, Stephan, took us on a 10 km. tour across the river to New Belgrade and the old village of Zemun, which still shows the Austro-Hungarian influence in its buildings and cobblestone streets. The Danube channel that runs along between the land and the island is lined with parks, floating restaurants, carnival rides, vendors, etc and was full of people and life. Stefan took us by the building Tito had built so that he could gather the leaders of other independent countries and form a League of Nonaligned Nations. We also saw the empty lot where the "accidentally" bombed Chinese Embassy stood, the once fabulous Hotel Yugoslavia, and more. About halfway out we stopped at "The Anchor" for a beer on Stefan’s favorite floating bar. It was an absolutely wonderful way to spend the sunny, 91 degree afternoon. We were all drenched with sweat and tired but happy when we got back to the ship and took long cold showers.

Black line shows our bike trail

Tito's nonaligned nations meeting building

Ross, Peggy, Marv, Pat & Stefan raise a glass at Anchor

Timber buildings and cobblestone streets of Zemun

Trudging up the long steep hill to the lookout in Zemun

View from the lookout over Zemun and New Belgrade to the
fortifications of Old Belgrade

Biking through the park in the triangle between the Zava River and the Danube Canal

The Talija Ensemble of dancers and instrumentalists entertained us after dinner with an energetic set of dances from across the regions of Serbia. At the end of this very full day Marv and I went on deck to watch the lights of Belgrade recede as the ship set sail once more, this time to Croatia.