Monday, 29 September. As we got up at 7:00, the early fog was already clearing. After breakfast, we
packed and put our suitcases out in preparation for our disembarkation in Serbia. Then we sat on deck
to enjoy the beautiful weather and the much improved scenery. Now that we were on the up-river side of
the Iron Locks Dam, the river was much wider. On the Romanian side, there were farms and villages
with sizable hills behind them. On the Serbian side (south), there was even an occasional steep cliff along
the bank, and we passed the ruins of the Gulubac Fortress (14th century).
We arrived at Veliko Gradiste, Serbia, about 10:30, had an early lunch on board at 11:00. Tipping the boat's personnel was on a collective basis, one envelope to be divided among them. The disrupted schedule meant we had spent much less time on the boat than we otherwise would have, and I'm sure the crew suffered for it. When we finally cleared Serbian customs, we went ashore to our buses about 1:00. By then the sky was becoming overcast.
It was just over 60 miles to Belgrade. Passing through many villages along the way, we reached the Intercontinental Hotel at 2:40. Belgrade sits at the confluence of the Danube and Sava Rivers, making it an ideal site for successive settlements (Celtic, Roman, Bulgarian, Serbian) at least as far back as the 3rd century B.C. Our hotel was located in New Belgrade, next to the Sava (Congress) Center and across the Sava River from the old city. The river bank was lined with a shanty town of makeshift shacks that our guide attributed to Gypsies.
We didn't bother to unpack since we would be leaving in the morning. At 5:30 we had a briefing on
Yugoslavia over the last 15 years. At 6:30, the buses took us to Skadaraska Street, a very quaint old
area with cobblestone streets and filled with restaurants. Each of the four groups went to a different
restaurant. The blue group went to the new Three Hats Restaurant. Musicians entertained us with
everything from O Sole Mio to Serbian folk music. An actress, somewhat past her prime, who regularly
makes the rounds of the tourist restaurants stopped by and sang several songs.
Our bus ride back to the hotel turned out to be a very nice tour of Belgrade by night. All the landmarks were lit up, including the several bridges and the Kalemegdan Fortress. It was about 9:00 when we got back to the hotel.
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