12 June

12 June

Mother Nature is playing havoc with Viking.  We were supposed to be in Belgrade Serbia all day today.  We've been coming up the Danube and have been watching the water rise as we've progressed westward.  Last night plans were changed and we were told that we had to be back to the boat by 1300.  This morning as we were just about to leave on our bus tour, we were told the boat would be leaving at 0900 and that passengers would be bused to Novi Sad which is about an hour and a half bus trip through the Serbian plains.  We did our bus tour of Belgrade, starting with seeing the old fortress that went around the city started by the Romans and expanded by subsequent reigning powers up until about the 1800s.  Then we visited yet another Orthodox Church.  The tour through Belgrade was a history lesson on all  the regional problems since the Romans, including a drive by several buildings that were bombed by NATO in 1990.  The city isn't all that impressive, and there are lots of communist built buildings that add to a dreary place.  It was raining off and on, so that didn't help make the city more impressive.  The church that we visited was started in the 1920s and isn't finished, because construction is funded by donation.  Considering that there was WWII and 45 years of communist rule by an extremely oppressive dictator, Marshal Tito, when Serbia was part of Yugoslavia.  The church appears to have it's superstructure completed by the interior is unfinished concrete.  I think the reason why we were taken there is to have a better understanding of the effect of communism and to see a big empty shell of a church.

We had to carry our passports while in Serbia, because they are not part of the European Union.  This is the first time we've seen our passports since boarding and I can happily report that our passports have been getting stamped as we pass through the various countries.

My most loyal reader request pictures of our boat, room and so I'm including them.  Our room is plenty adequate and we're happy with our little window.  If we want a bigger view, we can go to either the lounge or sun-deck (when its not raining.)

Off to Crotia this evening, as our boat made it under the critical bridge.  The Danube is definitely full and creeping up the sea walls and out of the banks in low lying tree or farm areas that weren't protected by levies.