Belgrade

After going through the Iron Gates we sailed with Serbia on the west and Romania on the east until we had Serbia on both sides. We sailed on into the night. The next morning we woke up docked in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. After breakfast we went on a bus tour of Belgrade and we saw many old buildings that are new because they had a war there recently. 

We saw some buildings that are still bombed out from the recent Balkan wars. This was a foreign consulate or something, a direct hit by NATO bombs. Yeah, we did that.

Belgrade is at the confluence of the Danube and the Sava rivers and has been a strategic position for many hundreds of years, changing hands over and over again numerous times. The tour guide made it kind of a joke telling us how many times ownership has changed.

Currently Belgrade is a bustling capitalist city, marketplace and tourist destination. We went by local bus to the central marketplace where they try to sell you anything. A guy there tried to sell me a TV remote control. I told him I didn't have a TV. He questioned me and the I told him I didn't need one in Serbia but at home I have four remotes for one TV. He laughed and said that he had the same problem.

Belgrade is dominated by the Kalemegdan Fortress on the hill above the confluence of the rivers. After hearing how many times it had changed hands over the years, I thought to myself that it really wasn't a very good defensive position after all.

One interesting thing is that there is a Danube River Bike Trail that follows the length of the Danube through Serbia and evidently one can check one's progress at certain places.