AMAPrima Black Sea Voyage Live Blog/Review Sept 2014

[Familygoboston]

Mohacs Bike Tour

 

Guided Bike Tour along the Lower Danube

 

The AMAPrima docked in Mohacs

 

 

 

 

 

A memorial in the center of the small town

 

 

 

 

 

We had two bike guides, one worked for the National Park along the route and the other worked for the municipality that owned a Stork Museum that we would visit. Because they were government employees, they would not accept tips.

 

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Tipping Guides: Ordinarily we tipped the guide for 1/2 day tour about 1 euro per person and 2 -3 euro pp for full day. We tipped the drivers about 1 euro per couple for 1/2 day and about 2-3 euro per couple for a full day. We made change at reception for this and kept a little pouch of Euro coins and small bills or local currency in our day bag. I got entirely too much Romanian Leu and was actually running my own little black market exchange on the bus when other guests learned Euros would not be accepted at some places. My exchange rates were reasonable and I didn't charge fees!

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The AMA bikes ready for our tour

 

 

 

 

 

Ready to roll!

 

 

 

 

This gives you a pretty good idea of the elevation involved in the bike tours (for this itinerary that would be NONE!) The tour sheet describes the bike tours as a difficulty level 5. I didn't agree with the interpretation. Some people felt intimidated by that rating, thinking they needed to be fit regular bike riders (we are and we didn't break a sweat on these bike tours) Really anyone who can ride a bike, is comfortable managing one in a group, and is in good enough shape to ride one for 5-10 miles on level ground should be able to manage these tours. Each one we took had slightly different level of difficulties so I will "re rate" them based on the conditions so any reasonably fit person who is comfortable on any kind of bike could do it.

 

On this tour we rode on a dike built between the Danube and the agricultural land on the other side. It was a dedicated bike path, completely flat and with very few intersections or other traffic. The only challenge was distance (about 5 -7 miles) and getting through a couple of narrow gates (see below) designed to prevent vehicular traffic. I give this one and EASY rating.

 

 

 

 

A guide on the trail to measure the river levels.

 

[Familygoboston]

Mohacs- Guided Bike Tour Along the Lower Danube

 

One of our guides- This National Park Guide was very passionate about not only preserving the storks which live here, but preserving the history, environment and rural way of life of the land and people who live in the area. He spoke very eloquently about this and I felt very privileged to have a bike tour with 20 people in a National Park and the National Park Ranger who was very open about his mission and his feelings about it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Duna_Drava National Park Wildlife plaque along the trail

 

 

 

After a little while we came to a small village where we road about one block to a Stork Museum, where we had a guided tour of the museum (which was closed but the young lady who guided our tour was a docent there and opened it up just for our group and explained all about the work there, as well as introduced us to Lily, a rescue stork who lives on property and has had male company fly in for seasonal visits, but as of yet has not produced any chicks of her own.

 

Stork museum

 

This is a map of the Danube Watershed, the protected area by the national and other parks, and has the storks nests noted on it. In addition to being a museum, this institution does on going research.

 

 

 

 

 

An example of a stork nest in the village; storks find a high tree and keep adding to their nest each year. The males return to the same nest each year arriving early to work on it and the females arrive a bit later. If she doesn't find the nest acceptable she will pull it all apart and make him do it all over again (For you DIY'ers, does this sound like anyone you know???)

 

Because the telephone poles are now the highest things around, oftentimes they are the "tree of choice" for the storks, which unfortunately used to result in the death of chicks falling onto live wires. Now the electric service creates platforms above all poles so if a stork chooses it, it will be a safer environment to protect these endangered birds!

 

 

 

 

 

Here's Lilly; despite the fact that her permanently injured wing will never allow her to migrate again or live in the wild, she clearly enjoyed her role as stork ambassador, preening and posing for us!

 

[Familygoboston]

Dinner and Face Check

 

 

 

 

After our tour, we had our briefing and dinner. We had a late night, because we had to cruise just over the border to Croatia and then have the Hungarian border police conduct a 'face check"; matching each person with their passport. ordinarily on most cruises, border and customs does this all at once with the purser and if they have concerns they might call a passenger or two down for a closer look or questions. But the Hungarians wanted to see everyone and our TM warned us that despite the arrival of the vessel at the border at 8 PM, the police were at their leisure to check the faces when they wanted to and sometimes they might put that off till later, even after 10 PM (one reviewer reported they were awoken at 2 AM to do it). I'm ever hopeful it's because there is some other pressing border business that is preventing them from being there promptly, but in these places, who knows!

 

In any case our check happened around 9:45, so it was not overly late for most folks. We were called to the lounge, lined up around the bar and passed through the lounge to the other side of reception where our passports were retrieved from the file box by a crew member, handed to the border police, who looked at your face, stamped your passport, then the crew member returned it to the file box and you were on your way. The whole procedure didn't take 15 minutes, but it did feel like something out of Midnight Express!

 

After all the face checks, the AMAPima moved on to the Croatian port of Vukovar

[H2Otstr]

So nice to see photos of Mohacs and Pecs. We missed both of those ports because of the 500 year floods.

[Familygoboston]

So nice to see photos of Mohacs and Pecs. We missed both of those ports because of the 500 year floods.

 

Yes! I told many people about your review and the things that happened because of the floods. This guides ran down and showed us on the level measurer just how high the floods were, they were way over his head, so I can understand that a river ship could not dock on what was probably the main square of the town!

[Familygoboston]

Money

 

One of the challenges of this trip is that most of the countries on the itinerary are not using the Euro as currency, so unlike other river cruises, several currencies are needed.

 

 

 

 

 

I made myself a spreadsheet to make it easier. I listed each expense in our itinerary down one side (by day and country; each tour, tips for the guides, money for meals or shopping) Then across the top I listed all the currencies I would need and how much for each item. Then I used the spread sheet to add the total we expected to need for each port. I also kept a little 'cheat sheet" with the conversion of each currency to USD for 1, 5 and 10 dollars. This just helped me get a ballpark about the cost of something quickly, or for making a quick decision on tipping. Because its very easy to get very confused when using so many currencies. Suddenly, I'm waiting to get off the bus with 15 Leu, and a pair of 2 euro coins to tip the guides, I like to do a quick check to make sure I'm over tipping or stiffing anyone!:eek:

 

Here are the currencies we needed for this trip:

 

Hungary- Forints: We arranged to get these at our our local exchange desk at home ahead of time because rates are better when you get the money in a larger lump sum (flat fee covers more money exchanged) and because we would need money as soon as we arrived and didn't want to be beholden to the airport exchange (which in our experience in other places can be unstaffed or not conveniently located when you land, plus they often charge higher fees) We had tours to pay for in cash and also wanted to use Forints in places where Euros are not accepted. Euros were accepted in many tourist areas and you could probably get away with more Euro and less local currency in your mix here than in other places.

 

 

Croatia-Croatian Kuna: Because we were only in town for a short 1/2 day, we did not get this currency ahead of time; we decided if we bought something sizable, we would use a credit card and if we needed to tip guides we would use Euro.

 

 

Serbia- Serbian Dinar: We did not get this currency ahead of time, and decided to exchange some money at a bureau of exchange in Novi Sad. We exchanged 30 US dollars and had way more than enough money for incidentals, and used a credit card for larger purchases. We used Serbian Dinars to tip our guides because we had so much left, but they accept Euro also.

 

 

Bulgaria- Lev: We did not get this currency ahead of time and decided to use our credit card for larger purchases and Euro to tip the guides. The shop (ART) right at the dock which had wonderful locally made souvenirs took Euro and Lev and credit cards.

 

 

Romania- Leu: We arranged to get these at our our local exchange desk at home ahead of time. On the bus tours there was little time to get to an exchange bureau, and laws in the country required many "official" places and established businesses (such as restaurants, museums, official buildings) to accept only Leu. Street vendors could flout the law a bit and would take Dollars or Euros, whatever they could get. Credit cards are accepted for larger purchases. We tipped our guides in Leu, but they accepted Euro too.

 

 

Turkey- Turkish Lira: We arranged to get these at our our local exchange desk at home ahead of time. We used TL for most things in Turkey, as well as tipping our guides. The Grand Bazaar and Spice market will price goods in whatever currency you have! You'll get a better deal at the markets if you can offer cash, instead of a credit card, so it's worth having enough cash for things you plan to buy in the markets. Street vendors and small shops price things in TL, but will occasionally accept Euros.

 

Euro: We arranged to have Euros for tipping guides and for any places that would accept them if we were running low on local currency, figuring the Euro is the best currency to "hang onto" and use another time (we have a trip to the Caribbean this spring where we can use Euro) I would not exchange large amounts of the other currencies as they are not likely to "make it" till the next trip to these places. But I didn't mind having a little left over as a souvenir and as an investment in the local economy!

 

Credit/Debit cards: Most larger places where you could spend something significant (restaurants or shops) accept credit cards, but most US credit cards do not have a chip, and they can be rejected by the systems in Europe. its worth getting a card with a chip in it before you travel. In Europe if you want to use the credit card they bring the machine to you, you indicate you will need to sign (most US cards are not the chip and pin number kinds of cards that Europeans have) rather than enter a pin. Our chip card worked in most places except for a couple of smaller restaurants, where it rejected, (possibly their system ONLY accepts chip AND pin cards) in Turkey, but we had Lira to cover the bill. It's also well worth getting a card that will not charge you a foreign transaction fee when you charge in a foreign currency (the banks are already have a more favorable exchange rate for themselves, so no need to pay a per transaction fee too!)

 

Some folks prefer to bring a debit card and use a local ATM to get local cash as they go. This worked well for some, but my SIL had trouble with her debit card in ATMs in Vienna and Prague. It's not something I would even consider doing unless I brought along a debit card that was not linked to our bank accounts in any way. Protections on debit cards are less than protections on CC's and with fraud being a matter of "when" rather than "if", I would never carry my entire bank account around in my pocket while traveling.

Also, if you arrive in a place with a tour group, or late at night, you have to find an ATM and then hope its a legitimate one (and not skimming your info) and that the rates are reasonable. Some of these towns were quite small and had only one or two ATMs listed on the map...but AMA does list them and money exchange bureaus on the maps if you decide to go this route. The AMA port maps for all our ports are linked here at the bottom of the page:

 

http://www.goseeittravel.com/amaprima-2014-black-sea-daily-cruisers )

[Familygoboston]

Vukovar, Croatia

 

Our starboard cabin was on the water side

The port side cabins faced a wall and welcome "barge"

 

 

 

 

 

Coming into port

 

[Familygoboston]

Vukovar

 

Civil War Tour

This tour was very interesting, but also a little difficult. In 1980 Tito was killed in Bucharest, and without a unifying dictator, the Balkans had many different ideas and began making plans for self governance based on ethnic boundaries. The Serbs were generally against this idea, and still are to the extent that our guides in Serbia all expressed in one way or another that they get pushed round as small countries, but united, they would be stronger. They saw the Croatian's quest for independence as a civil war.(I can see their point) But the Croats (and others in places we did not visit on this trip) felt that with after being under Tito's thumb, they preferred independence, they wanted self rule and the Serbs and Yugoslav army invaded their land and murdered their civilians and refer to the conflict as the "Croat War of Independence". (I can definitely see THEIR point too)

 

I can also see that this is very complicated! And it would only get more complicated seeing both Croatia and Serbia IN THE SAME DAY! Really, this day had one feeling like Solomon, how does one judge, how does one decide?

 

Most of us concluded that there were steps taken to advance positions, that should never be taken; such as killing and torturing civilians, dumping people in mass graves, ethnic cleansing. No one wants to be a hypocrite and judge, since our own governments in the west have sometimes made some of these same choices, and yet, it was impossible to see the atrocities and not feel sympathy.

 

I concluded at the end that a day or two is not long enough for me to form an informed enough opinion; I observed what I observed and it will inform my own choices going forward, but I'm not about to make snap judgments. I accepted people we met as they were and was happy for their hospitality and moved by their stories.

 

If this kind of emotional and political heavy lifting is not your cup of tea, go have a drink instead! Choose tour B and go wine tasting! Or there is always tour N (NAP!)

 

 

 

 

 

Our guide, Domargoy at the Cross Monument on the Danube.

 

 

 

 

 

He spent quite a bit of time filling us in on the history of the war. Then we walked all around town, where we could witness the damage done to buildings during the war. Some have been rebuilt or renovated such as the Eltz palace from the Baroque era , but the economy is still devastated and there was very little happening in town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Familygoboston]

Vukovar

 

On our way by bus to The War Victims Memorial, we saw the bombed out water tower flying the huge Serbian flag. That will never be repaired as a reminder to all of the war. My one nit pick with this tour was they did not stop or slow the bus so we could get a good photo of the water tower, it was even difficult to see through the bus windows.

 

The War Victims Memorial Cemetery

 

 

 

 

 

 

The War Memorial with Eternal Flame, with crosses for the missing and unidentified in the background

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 brothers died within months of one another

 

 

 

 

 

Some Muslims in Croatia also fought and were honored for their sacrafice

 

Edited October 21, 2014 by Familygoboston

[Familygoboston]

Vukovar

 

Ovcara Memorial

 

This memorial was our last stop before rejoining the ship in Iloc (the ship moved down river for the wine tasters and we were bused downriver to meet it at the end of our tour.) It was a very difficult scene; this farm is where Serbs rounded up 263 men and 1 woman from the local hospital, after they took over the city, then tortured them, and shot them nearby into a mass grave.

 

The amazing story is that one young boy, just 17, jumped off the truck and ran away on the way to the mass grave site. He was caught in Serb held town not far away and didn't tell anything he knew, the locals were prepared to kill him anyway, when a Serbian Officer heard the commotion and forbid it, instead he was held in jail until a prisoner swap years later after NATO got involved in ending the war. Then the young man came forward with his tale, led authorities back to the site and they unearthed the grave. Until then, 264 people were just missing, their whereabouts unknown to their families.

 

This memorial is a place to remember the fate of these innocents and for their families to leave their keepsakes. 5 men were indicted for these war crimes, 2 died before trial (including President Slobodan Milosevic), one was acquitted, and two were sentenced to very little time, so you can imagine that the resentment from this period only 20 years ago, is still very fresh, The buildings still wear the wounds, as you can see from these photos and even though you can't see the wounds, so do the people of Vukovar.

 

Bullet shells were embedded in the floor of the memorial.

 

 

 

 

 

Faces of the victims come and go, symbolizing the lost nature of these people.

 

 

 

 

 

Families have left artifacts from their loved ones

 

[Familygoboston]

Novi Sad

 

We took the bus to reboard at Iloc and sailed to Serbia during lunch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Petrovaradan Fortress, the locals are very proud of this fortress, as it was never taken by the many conquering empires passing through. Now it's home to artists and and an art school. The bus/walking tour goes over there, but we didn't get over there on our bike tour

 

 

 

 

Bike security? He looks happy to see us though!

 

 

 

 

 

Passing under the Bridge to the fort from Novi Sad

 

 

We were a little late getting cleared in Novi Sad Serbia, so our tours started about 45 minutes later than planned, but they just pushed dinner back a bit to accommodate the tours.

Edited October 21, 2014 by Familygoboston

[Familygoboston]

Guided Bike Tour of Novi Sad

 

 

Our bike tour was led by Ylena, a hot ticket who we all decided could have her own reality show. And Bora a thoughtful young man whose English was so excellent that you would honestly think he grew up in Seattle! Like all our guides they were well educated, well informed, and personable, maybe a little TOO personable!

 

In another romantic move, on our 27th anniversary trip, my husband renewed his wedding vows...with Ylena, the tour guide! But more on that later!

 

First a quick review of this bike tour for difficulty.

 

This one was probably the most difficult tour because Novi Sad is a small city, and we were riding around in the early evening. While I wouldn't exactly call it rush hour (no one is really rushing anywhere in an economy with more then 30% unemployment) but the streets did have cars, lots of pedestrians, including little kids and other bikes. In addition to riding in traffic, with stops at lights and having to keep up with the guide at intersections, some of the roads were rough with holes or curbs to negotiate.

 

The terrain was level and the pace was not fast, but I would still rate this a moderate difficult ride because you need to be very comfortable on a bicycle to ride in a city with a group. The walking tour did a very similar route and we saw lots of our folks in town, including the captain in civvies sitting in a cafe who said as we passed; "Hey, are those my bikes?" No one noticed him except me and I said as I passed "yes sir, they are!"

 

Jeff and I

 

 

 

 

Our fist stop was on the pedestrian walkway along the Danube, a Monument to the Victims of Fascism

 

 

 

 

We rode into town and noticed a lot of the Communist era apartments. One thing Ylena pointed out and it is true, is that as awful as they look because they were cheaply built, because there was no profit motive in building them, as there would be with a private developer, and the land had "no cost" to the government (since they took it from people) they were built with enough space between them on the land so the apartments would have lots of light in them. Once a private concern buys land to build they will of course maximize the buildings on the land and no one gets light because there are more buildings built on the same amount of land casting shadows on each other. I had never though of it that way, but time and again we heard from our young local guides that they often preferred those communist buildings because they had the best locations and amenities even though they might be ugly!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also stopped in front of the Synagogue, we were told that after the murder of Jews by the Fascists, there really were not enough Jews remaining in Belgrade to justify keeping this a huge synagogue active, so the building was donated to the city with the stipulation that it had to be used for music and arts.

 

[Hydrokitty]

Pictures and narrative continue to delight! When we were at the Christian burial we took the elevator down because the stairs were quite steep and I have problems going down stairs, well, the elevator got stuck and all I can say if Thank GOD the walls were glass and I could see out because I get claustrophobic!! TM heard me banging and was able to open the door from the outside! Needless to say I did not take the elevator back up. We had lunch in a little restaurant across from the fountain, did you eat there too?

Did you see the "locks of love" on the other side of the fountain? I'm sorry, but that's the dumbest thing I've ever seen, well, right up there, anyway.:D

[Hydrokitty]

My previous post should have been placed after you finished with Mohacs and Pecs! We had a home hosted lunch in Vukovar with a young woman of Croatian descent married to a Serbian man before the "troubles" as she called them. They escaped to Germany for the duration with their young children. Both of them lost friends and family members and she told us that there are still relatives and old family friends that will have nothing to do with each other because of the hostility. She also told us that the schools are "segregated" with Serbian and Croatian children in different classrooms. A vote was being held the following week to integrate the children as the younger generation is more interested in the present and future than the past. We also drove by fields where there were signs along the roadway warning pedestrians and visitors to be careful of mines! One of the most moving things I saw was right near our dock....a bombed out apartment that had not been repaired, but the owner came every year and planted flowers in the window boxes. I took a picture but haven't figured out how to get it from Shutterfly to CC...but I will never forget it.

Edited October 21, 2014 by Hydrokitty

[Familygoboston]

My previous post should have been placed after you finished with Mohacs and Pecs! We had a home hosted lunch in Vukovar with a young woman of Croatian descent married to a Serbian man before the "troubles" as she called them. They escaped to Germany for the duration with their young children. Both of them lost friends and family members and she told us that there are still relatives and old family friends that will have nothing to do with each other because of the hostility. She also told us that the schools are "segregated" with Serbian and Croatian children in different classrooms. A vote was being held the following week to integrate the children as the younger generation is more interested in the present and future than the past. We also drove by fields where there were signs along the roadway warning pedestrians and visitors to be careful of mines! One of the most moving things I saw was right near our dock....a bombed out apartment that had not been repaired, but the owner came every year and planted flowers in the window boxes. I took a picture but haven't figured out how to get it from Shutterfly to CC...but I will never forget it.

 

That lunch must have been an amazing experience! I also found it disturbing to learn that the children are not educated together (Serbs learn Cyrillic and Croats learn Latin alphabets) until high school. That means that prejudices are set and the kids are already in "gangs" at that age. I work with preschoolers and the only way to solve the problem is to put the 3 yo's together; they have no hate in their hearts and won't care! I have a motto that "you can't hate who you know".

 

We saw several signs about projects funded by the EU or NGO's to remove mines, I have one coming up.

 

We did see the "locks of love" and I cynically commented to my hubby at the time "betcha 2/3 of those couples aren't even together anymore..get me the bolt cutters!" ;) ) Jeff took some pictures, don't know why they didn't make the cut!

Edited October 21, 2014 by Familygoboston

[Familygoboston]

Guided Bike Tour of Novi Sad

 

We biked into the main baroque square of the town, which had some lovely architecture.

The Serbians we encountered were very interested in our tour group. These boys draped themselves on the statue of Jobah while our guide talked to us about it. Unfortunately I was so charmed by them, that I have completely forgotten why a statue of this man is in the square at all! I even tried to google it, nothing...so he was important enough to the Serbians to erect a statue, but not important enough to stick in my middle aged brain!

 

 

 

 

In addition to these two curious boys, we also picked up tow teenage boys who were on their bikes. They followed our tour till the end, just listening to the English, I'm not sure if they understood any of it, or if it was just fun to follow around all the old people on bikes! They weren't threatening or seeking anything from us, they didn't weren't street kids, they seemed very well cared for and just seemed to to be looking for something to do! Or maybe they had a crush on our tour guide Ylena?

 

We also biked through a pedestrian area filled with cafes and more modern architecture- including this theater

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

___________________

[Familygoboston]

Guided Bike Tour Of Novi Sad

 

Well, it's finally time for the vows!! Only they weren't mine! Once we got to the Serbian Orthodox Church, our guide Ylena wanted to show us all about how a traditional Orthodox wedding works, she selected a witness for herself, the bride, then took her time to select my husband to be her "pretend" husband. She asked him to pick witness and in his panic he picked me! (awkward!) Ylena pantomimed the ceremony (arm in arm) with my husband, her attendant "pretending" to hold her dress, while I trailed him, actually holding, you guessed it, his camera. The bad news, since I had the camera there are no wedding photos!

 

This is the interior of the Serbian Orthodox Church

 

 

 

 

 

And this is my husbands new bride, Ylena (she's actually posing here with a bust of her grandfather who founded the science college in Novi Sad)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you blame him? It's an upgrade...but I did remind him, he's got a nearly 18 yo at home..just about ready to launch! The tour guide, yeah, she's got an 18 mo old at home!

 

OK, I've had a little fun at Jeff and Ylena's expense, it was all in good fun, and Ylena was a wonderful guide! She had personality plus and was very funny, well informed and charming. Bora, her straight man, was also very helpful and friendly. Everyone on our bike tour had a lot of laughs and learned a lot about Novi Sad and Serbia in general, even if we can't remember the names of the guys in the statues!

 

An as tempting as it might be for Jeff to move away to Serbia with his new bride (and her toddler)and for all the times he's taking photos while I'm sighing over gorgeous sunsets, or beautiful scenery; he truly is a romantic guy. In fact, his photos are one of his most romantic gifts...I have a lifetime of memories of our 30 + years together documented one little moment at time.:D

[Familygoboston]

Dinner and an evening stroll around Novi Sad

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner the ship remains in Novi Sad till midnight. There is a nice little shopping district a few blocks from where the ship is docked. A few little shops and cafes remained open late until abut 10 PM If you choose you could actually eat dinner off the ship, but we always feel if we've already paid for the meal why buy another. But we did go out after dinner.

 

Our TM told us that it was very safe to walk around there at night. We decided to go with our new friends Lisa and Basil, we felt better going with a group of 4 (and frankly neither Basil or Jeff at 6'4" and 6'6" look like anyone you'd really want to mess with!) and of course we enjoyed the company!

 

Its about a 2 block walk up the pedestrian walkway along the Danube and then about a block to the pedestrian square where there are shops and cafes. Most everything was closed earlier, but a few shops and cafes and the gelato shop were open for business. Probably because they knew the ship was in port.

 

Enjoying gelato with our friend Basil ( I only had one...the other belongs to Jeff who was using the camera!)

 

 

We exchanged a little US money, figuring about $30 would cover our incidentals for an evening of dining or small souvenir shopping and we'd use the CC for any larger purchases. We underestimated how far a dollar goes here, I could still be living in Serbia on that initial 30 dollar investment, but instead after buying 3 gelatos (for the equivalent of $3.50) tipping our Belgrade guides the next day, we just kept the rest of our Serbian Dinar as a souvenir and an investment in Serbia's economy!

 

We'd been told that the Manual stores had very nice Serbian leather goods, and I was in the market for a couple of things. The prices were amazing for the quality of leather and I did buy both a small bag (Serbian leather) and a pair of boots (they were Italian, but so well priced compared to home, I could not resist!)

 

Manual Shop

 

 

 

 

 

The nice little leather bag I bought at Manual, Lisa also bought a colorful clutch she carried on Captain's night! So we did our part for the Serbian economy!

 

[Hydrokitty]

Guided Bike Tour Of Novi Sad

 

Well, it's finally time for the vows!! Only they weren't mine! Once we got to the Serbian Orthodox Church, our guide Ylena wanted to show us all about how a traditional Orthodox wedding works, she selected a witness for herself, the bride, then took her time to select my husband to be her "pretend" husband. She asked him to pick witness and in his panic he picked me! (awkward!) Ylena pantomimed the ceremony (arm in arm) with my husband, her attendant "pretending" to hold her dress, while I trailed him, actually holding, you guessed it, his camera. The bad news, since I had the camera there are no wedding photos!

 

This is the interior of the Serbian Orthodox Church

 

 

 

 

 

And this is my husbands new bride, Ylena (she's actually posing here with a bust of her grandfather who founded the science college in Novi Sad)

 

 

Hubba Hubba!

 

 

 

 

Can you blame him? It's an upgrade...but I did remind him, he's got a nearly 18 yo at home..just about ready to launch! The tour guide, yeah, she's got an 18 mo old at home!

 

OK, I've had a little fun at Jeff and Ylena's expense, it was all in good fun, and Ylena was a wonderful guide! She had personality plus and was very funny, well informed and charming. Bora, her straight man, was also very helpful and friendly. Everyone on our bike tour had a lot of laughs and learned a lot about Novi Sad and Serbia in general, even if we can't remember the names of the guys in the statues!

 

An as tempting as it might be for Jeff to move away to Serbia with his new bride (and her toddler)and for all the times he's taking photos while I'm sighing over gorgeous sunsets, or beautiful scenery; he truly is a romantic guy. In fact, his photos are one of his most romantic gifts...I have a lifetime of memories of our 30 + years together documented one little moment at time.:D

 

They can do all the lookin' they want, it's who they come home to that counts.:D

[Familygoboston]

They can do all the lookin' they want, it's who they come home to that counts.:D

 

So funny!! He's still embarrassed about it because all the guys were ribbing him all week! But, yes, he sailed home with me ;)

[Familygoboston]

I forgot to post a couple of videos from Hungary!

 

Here are the Hungarian Violinists at dinner

[YOUTUBE]uVYUDV8AVy4[/YOUTUBE]

 

 

Cruising through the Hungarian Countryside

[YOUTUBE]a5q3u0812TA[/YOUTUBE]

[Familygoboston]

Belgrade: Belgrade City Tour

 

We were docked next to Arosa on water side and a Viking ship on docking side. Our cabin was water side. The port docking area here was not very scenic, with no pedestrian promenade. We were actually docked in the Sava River which meets the Danube here. There was a decent view of Fort Kalemegdan on the peninsula between the Sava and Danube rivers.

 

Kalemegdan Fort

 

 

 

 

 

We met our guide Radi, and driver Mr "Dan" dockside. We took the Belgrade City Tour because we decided we did not want to see the Tito's Memorial tour. Tito, was the head of the Yugoslav partisans during WWII and became the first president of Yugoslavia (and pretty much the only one for the decades he ruled) he kept things running pretty well in Yugoslavia and he is still beloved by many in Serbia. When he died, Yugoslavia fell into years of various civil wars and wars for independence that created the Balkans as they are today, with Serbians fighting to hold the states together. Eventually, these conflicts caught the world's attention and NATO stepped in with bombing and eventually negotiated an end to the wars.

 

However, Belgrade has struggled for centuries with occupations and being conquered, so the first thing our guide Radi did was give us a "one minute history", he literally just ran through a list of who has held or conquered Belgrade since the beginning of time...it's a long list and gets wryly humorous when he gets to the part where Belgrade was torn back and forth between the Hapsburgs, Ottomans, Hapsburgs, Ottomans, Hapsburgs etc! We all laughed but it did help you see why they fought so hard to try hold a larger empire together more recently.

 

 

 

The city tour took us by bus through the center of Serbia. The city is still rebounding from the wars and NATO bombings. Our guide showed us the buildings bombed by NATO and amazingly, the damage was confined to the strategic government buildings, but they were destroyed and most have not been renovated in any way.

 

Ruins of government buildings bombed by NATO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Signage in Belgrade; we did pass the zoo, which looked really pretty cute, but we didn't stop to see it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did slow down on the bus to see Tito's Compound

 

 

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[Familygoboston]

Belgrade City Tour

 

Our first stop was at the St Sava Serbian Orthodox Church. In the 16th century St Sava's remains (holy relics) were carried to Belgrade by soldiers, but the Ottoman's stopped them and burned the holy relics and scattered the ashes. Hundreds of years later, in the early 20th century, the Patriarch decided the Cathedral of St Sava should be built on the spot where the ashes were scattered. Unfortunately for the Church, with the fits and starts and more wars in the middle of the 20th century, it's still not complete. We saw what has been completed and many people visiting to worship at the icons even though the church is not complete.

 

St Sava Church

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a mosaic waiting to be installed...it was very detailed and a beautiful piece of art...with this kind of detail, it appears it may be many more years before it is completed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Familygoboston]

Belgrade City Tour

 

We spent a lot of time looking at buildings on the bus, including Parliament, the oldest tavern and Pashish Square. Honestly, most of this didn't make an impression on me because of the bus, even though our guide was well informed. In Belgrade the ship is close enough to the city hire a good local guide (and maybe a driver) and do this city on your own, or with a small group. A guide could easily meet you at the dock and arrange for you to see more sights on foot and customize the places you get to see. It's what I would do if I were to return.

 

 

When the bus stopped at St Sava's we walked as a group to Republic Square, the main shopping district, and we were given some about 30 minutes on our own to walk around. We took a bunch of photos because there really wasn't time to actually shop or stop in a cafe before meeting the bus again. I also didn't feel compelled to shop because most of the shops were the same major chains that we have in any major shopping district in the US, and I prefer unique local shops. One could have left the tour here (always letting the guide know) and stayed in town for the afternoon and it would be pretty easy to either walk back or find a cab, because the distance was not far to the ship.

 

Park with the Serbian Parliament's green domes in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

Cafe

 

 

 

 

 

Courtyard apartments

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying popcorn on the main shopping arcade, I did the math, this cost me about 30 cents!

 

 

 

 

 

Shops

 

 

 

 

 

Street musician

 

[Familygoboston]

Belgrade City Tour

 

The bus took us to the city park where the Kalemegdan Fortress is located. This gave a panoramic view of the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers.

 

Kalemegdan Fortress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is lots to see here, it's a large complex that gets a lot of use from the locals as a park, sports area and place for exhibitions. there was an interesting exhibition of cannons including more modern one from WWII and and more recent wars.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the Serbian Crest on the fort...

 

 

 

...the Cyrillic CCCC in the middle stands for "Only Unity Saves Serbs"; again this was illustrative of the mentality of the Serbs we met.