BELGRADE, SERBIA

City Impressions

            Cruising into Belgrade, Serbia early in the morning, we gazed upon the green terraced lawns of the castle facing the water. The city looked more prosperous   than anything we’ve seen, and the apartment buildings looked relatively new---a nice change from the communist buildings of the previous couple of days. 

            Our local guide met us at the pier on the Sava River and while walking us up to the fort she said, “Turks occupied this area for 500 years, and there was no Serbia on the map. You can see old walls here in this part of the fort. The Turks used bricks and the Austros used stone so it is easy to tell who built what. Over here are some old Roman ruins which date back to the 4^th century. Over the years two million Serbs died fighting for freedom, and the Turks were finally defeated in 1867.”

             Located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, Belgrade has always been on the important east--west trade route serving as a gateway from the Balkans to Europe. Belgrade, whose name translates to white city, has a 2500 year history, is Serbia’s capital and the country’s largest city. It also was capital of the old Yugoslavia. . One of Europe’s oldest cities, it is the center of the country’s political and cultural life. After years of repressive communist rule, the country is just emerging into the tourist market.

Conquered and rebuilt by Celts, Romans, Slavs, Turks, and Austro-Hungarians, the Kalemegdan Fortress anchors the city to its strategically important position. Belgrade suffered heavy damage during both WW II and again in the Kosovo war of 1999. The city has been razed to the ground 44 times while involved in 115 conflicts/wars!     The old battleground,  is now a peaceful retreat from a bustling city. From its walls one can see the modern regional economic center and the hi-rise buildings of New Belgrade rising across the river that give one a feel of the importance of this crossroads-city.

The fort has four walls and three gates. The outer moat has been filled in and now houses tennis and ball courts. The inner moat, also filled in, displays military equipment. The huge park is shaded by many old trees. The fort covers a very large part of the city and also houses museums and a zoo on the grounds. There are seven miles of tunnels under the fort, and like many old cities, Belgrade has an upper town and lower town.

One outside wall of the zoo (1936) displayed art work of animals done by school children. They were colorful, all the same size and made a most unique cheerful wall. From the fort grassy area we had a good view of the Victor Monument. Erected in 1928 it represents all Serbian fighters of WW I. Originally the monument was to be in downtown Belgrade, but the warrior is naked and the residents just would have no part of a naked man overlooking the city, so he faces the river. He holds an eagle in his left hand and a downward pointing sword in his right.

It was a Sunday and we spent the afternoon walking the large shopping district/mall. It was a lovely sunny day that had many families out enjoying it. People were very friendly. We stopped to watch various street performers and did a bit of shopping at some of the sidewalk vendors. Most of the numerous upscale stores and boutiques were open. I was impressed with the city and would have liked a bit more time to enjoy it.

THE GROTTO in LUGANO

                      Interesting Restaurant Experience

Lugano is the Italian part of Switzerland. The climate, geography, homes, language all are entirely different from the rest of the country. My travel buddy on that trip wanted to extend out stay and visit Lugano, and that was fine with me. Our guide  insisted that we should visit a certain grotto restaurant. He drew us a map, gave us directions and assured us they spoke English and accepted credit cards.

We were game. We took the city bus to Paradiso and walked the short distance to the gondola station to get to the top of  Mt San Salvador. We had a spectacular view and after walking a footpath to an old church and climbing a flight of stairs to the observation deck we had an even better 360-degree view above the tree line of the city and lake.

Back at street level we found our way to the post bus stop where we had a short wait for the bus. As we boarded the bus I showed the driver a card from the restaurant to make sure we were on the right bus.  Little did we know we were in for a hair-raising ride over a narrow switch-back, hairpin-turn road up, up, up! At one narrow overpass the driver had no more than an inch of space on either side of the bus. He was good!

The driver alerted us at the proper stop and pointed us in the right direction. It was a Saturday and we never thought to ask when the bus returned. We followed the cobblestone alley for quite a distance and I was beginning to wonder if we really were in the right place when around the next curve the grotto restaurant appeared. 

English—forget it. No one, even the other diners, spoke any English. The menu of course was in Italian, which neither of us spoke.  We had been told to sit at a stone table, but for the life of me I can’t remember the significance of why. But we did it anyway. We could figure out pizza and salad on the menu. I opted for the former and my buddy the latter. Both were good, but we were a bit surprised when the tomato salad arrived and  a large bowl of quartered tomatoes was set before us!. The setting was lovely, cool, picturesque with flowers and greenery everywhere.

We paid our bill and made our way back down the alley. The bus schedule was posted on the outside of the post office. It was a bit confusing so I walked next door to another restaurant and found an English-speaking gentleman who informed us the bus was due in five minutes; then the next and last bus would be 3-hours later.  Talk about unexpected good timing!

After an equal hair-raising ride down the mountain we were happy to be back in Paradiso where we decided to walk back along the waterfront to Lugano. It had been a fun day.