Wednesday morning, August 10th.
Well, Monday and Tuesday have flown by. We should warn you that we are having a very interesting vacation (for us) but we are too old to have anything 'exciting' happen to us... Yesterday we slept late and lazed around almost all day while our hostess Marijana caught up on some projects at her work. She is on semi-vacation, so we have to share her with her job. Anyway, we were glad to rest, and Linda was able to work on her early photographs. Linda says that it will be a few more days before she will be able to release the photos. Please be patient.
At 5:00 PM Monday Marijana picked us up and took us to her family homestead, around 10 minutes from where we are staying, and thus about 20 minutes from downtown Belgrade. We met her mother Nana, father Nikola, brother Sasha, sister-in-law Gaga, one-month-old nephew Jovan and seven-year-old niece Helena. We were greeted and treated like long-lost members of the family. We were served a typical Serbian dinner, with two different meat dishes, meat and vegetable stuffed zuchini, tomato and onion salad, and a lovely banana/mandarin orange cheesecake. It was all very delicious, and we tried very hard to make Marijana's mother proud by eating all that we could. Marvin showed remarkable restraint by eating only two portions of the dessert.
After dinner we went up to the top floor terrace of the homestead. The house is three stories tall, typical in its neighborhood. It sits on a bluff about 300 feet above and a quarter mile set back from the Danube river. There is no industrial development here, so the gorgeous view is of a lot of greenery and the slow-flowing Danube with the city in the distance. We sat here and talked with Marijana, Sasha, and Gaga as we watched the sun set slowly in the west and then watched the city lights come on. It was very calm and peaceful, and we felt very welcome and relaxed.
Tuesday we had another lazy day. We loafed until noon, and then Marijana picked us and took us back downtown, where we continued our tour of the Kalemegdan Citadel. "Lonely Planet" says this about the citadel:
Well, Monday and Tuesday have flown by. We should warn you that we are having a very interesting vacation (for us) but we are too old to have anything 'exciting' happen to us... Yesterday we slept late and lazed around almost all day while our hostess Marijana caught up on some projects at her work. She is on semi-vacation, so we have to share her with her job. Anyway, we were glad to rest, and Linda was able to work on her early photographs. Linda says that it will be a few more days before she will be able to release the photos. Please be patient.
At 5:00 PM Monday Marijana picked us up and took us to her family homestead, around 10 minutes from where we are staying, and thus about 20 minutes from downtown Belgrade. We met her mother Nana, father Nikola, brother Sasha, sister-in-law Gaga, one-month-old nephew Jovan and seven-year-old niece Helena. We were greeted and treated like long-lost members of the family. We were served a typical Serbian dinner, with two different meat dishes, meat and vegetable stuffed zuchini, tomato and onion salad, and a lovely banana/mandarin orange cheesecake. It was all very delicious, and we tried very hard to make Marijana's mother proud by eating all that we could. Marvin showed remarkable restraint by eating only two portions of the dessert.
After dinner we went up to the top floor terrace of the homestead. The house is three stories tall, typical in its neighborhood. It sits on a bluff about 300 feet above and a quarter mile set back from the Danube river. There is no industrial development here, so the gorgeous view is of a lot of greenery and the slow-flowing Danube with the city in the distance. We sat here and talked with Marijana, Sasha, and Gaga as we watched the sun set slowly in the west and then watched the city lights come on. It was very calm and peaceful, and we felt very welcome and relaxed.
Tuesday we had another lazy day. We loafed until noon, and then Marijana picked us and took us back downtown, where we continued our tour of the Kalemegdan Citadel. "Lonely Planet" says this about the citadel:
Capture the hill protected by the junction of the Sava and Danube Rivers and you control the land to the south. This explains why there has been a fortified settlement here since Celtic times, but such prime real estate attracts enemies. Over the last 2300 years some 115 battles have been fought over this site, and parts of it and the outer city have been razed 44 times, as one conqueror removed another.
What remains today dates from the 18th century. The core of the fortifications is the Upper Citadel, accessed by several massive gates and bridges (now wooden) over deep moats.
The main entrance is the Stambol Gate, built by the Turks around 1750, which leads to the Military Museum.
Most of the Upper Citadel is now parkland, and the massive walls are a favorite place for Belgraders to snatch an alfresco lunch on work days, or for young couples to find a bit of romantic solitude.
We enjoyed our afternoon at the citadel, and we finished the day with a leisurely dinner at a Spanish style restaurant at the water's edge.
We 're not sure what Marijana has in store for us today. We do know that we will be spending the weekend with Marijana and Helena at a mountain resort called Zlatibor near the Montenegro border. At Zlatibor we will be joined by Marijana's best friend Adriana and her husband and three-year-old son. We first met Adriana in the USA in 2004, and she and her family will be our hosts in Montenegro starting on the 22nd of August.
YAZOO! Photos soon, we promise!
What remains today dates from the 18th century. The core of the fortifications is the Upper Citadel, accessed by several massive gates and bridges (now wooden) over deep moats.
The main entrance is the Stambol Gate, built by the Turks around 1750, which leads to the Military Museum.
Most of the Upper Citadel is now parkland, and the massive walls are a favorite place for Belgraders to snatch an alfresco lunch on work days, or for young couples to find a bit of romantic solitude.
We enjoyed our afternoon at the citadel, and we finished the day with a leisurely dinner at a Spanish style restaurant at the water's edge.
We 're not sure what Marijana has in store for us today. We do know that we will be spending the weekend with Marijana and Helena at a mountain resort called Zlatibor near the Montenegro border. At Zlatibor we will be joined by Marijana's best friend Adriana and her husband and three-year-old son. We first met Adriana in the USA in 2004, and she and her family will be our hosts in Montenegro starting on the 22nd of August.
YAZOO! Photos soon, we promise!
Get over it. Now matter how you add it up you're not that old.
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