Day 9 (July 27, 2015): What a city!

We woke up early and eager to take a chomp out of Belgrade.  After breakfast at the hotel, we left at 8am and tried to figure out how to buy a bus-pass card at one of the news kiosks that are everywhere here. English is in short supply though, and the kiosk clerk couldn't understand a word we said. We luckily found a passerby who was willing to help - a South African woman with Serbian roots who spoke English and French. People have been very helpful and kind throughout the Balkans. We have been impressed. 

Our bus ride ended at Republic Square, which is at the heart of Belgrade. And that's where our exploration began. Knez Mihailova is a pedestrian street that runs from the Square to the huge Kalmegdan Citadel, which dates from Celtic times and has seen 115 battles. It made for some great walking around and offered an excellent view of the point of convergence of the Sava and Danube Rivers. 

Republic Square

The Transformers had taken over the Square temporarily 

The Knez Mikailova pedestrian zone

What an ingenious 21st century use for a moat, at Kalemegdan Citadel. 

Main gate to Kalemegdan Citadel

The convergence point of the Sava and Danube Ricwrs, as viewed from Kalemegdan Citadel. 

West gate of the Citadel 

After the Citadel, we walked to the Saborna Crkva Orthodox Cathedral and the Palace of Princess Ljubica.  It quickly became clear to us that choosing to visit Belgrade on a Monday was going to limit what we could see. There are more museums here than you can shake a stick at, but ALL are closed on Mondays!

Saborna Crkva Orthodox Cathedral

Palace of Princess Ljubica

From the Citadel, we started a 4-km walking route that took us to the Gallery of Frescoes (closed), the only remaining mosque left in Belgrade -- Bajrakli from 1575, St Aleksander Nevsky Church, and St. Mark's Church. 

Bajrakli Mosque 

St Aleksander Nevsky Church

St. Mark's Church

From St. Mark's, we cabbed it to the largest Orthodox Church in the world - Sveti Sava.  

Sveti Sava - world's largest Orthodox church 

Another cab took us to the "Parliament of Belgrade" (a.k.a. city hall), with the Serbian National Parliament across the street.  The latter had many large protest banners at street level, shaming the Americans for the NATO bombing deaths of Serbians in 1999.

Parliament of Belgrade

Parliament of Serbia

By this point, we were feeling peckish and decided to join the ranks of such historial figures as Albert Einstein, Indira Ghandi and Alfred Hitchcock by eating at the historic Hotel Moskva (Moscow).  

Hotel Mosksva

From there, we took another cab to see the mausoleum of former Yugoslav President Tito, only to arrive and be told even the mausoleum was closed on Mondays!  Back in the same cab to the West Bank of the Danube for a short river walk.  Enroute, we saw several large buildings that had been bombed out by NATO forces in 1999, when Belgrade came under heavy bombing for three months.

Untouched reminders from NATO'a bombings in 1999

The view from the west bank of the Danube

We then walked the bridge back over the Danube to Republic Square, where the day began, for frozen yogurt. 

We returned to our Hotel Zira to freshen up before a planned Danube River cruise at 6pm. But the heavens opened up just before we were to leave for the boat, so we cancelled. A late afternoon cappuccino in a trendy coffee shop near the hotel, followed by a great end-of-vacation dinner at the hotel, complete with piano player, rounded out the day.

It's going to be a 3am rise for our flight to Germany, so I will sign out from Belgrade and hit the hay.

A fun Belgrade pic to close off an excellent day