13 June

13 June

When life gives you lemons, try to make lemonade.  At least that's what Viking is trying to do.  We are as far west as we can get up the Danube.  It is closed to navigation at Novi Sad Serbia.  Therefore we're tied up three abreast in Novi Sad with our boat being the furthest from the river wall.  Yesterday the boat got to Novi Sad with less than a meter to spare under the lowest bridge on the Danube.  We've been watching graffiti on the opposite side of the river wall and the graffiti I picked out as a frame of reference is 3/4 of the way covered now with the rising water.  Supposedly the Danube is going to crest sometime today.  However it will be several days for safe navigation to resume.  So today Viking offered us a plan B, which was to take a bus to Ilok Croatia, which is less than 60 km away, but we have to go through two border controls.  One for leaving Serbia and one for entering Croatia, and of course the opposite upon our return.  Viking was estimating that it would take the buses about half an hour to do the border crossing.  This was extremely optimistic, as it took well over an hour to get through passport control to leave Serbia and about 45 minutes to enter Croatia.  And unfortunately the town we went to visit was not worth going to in my opinion, despite being told by Viking that it will be "a fantastic experience".  The town of Ilok was more or less spared destruction during the 1990s Serb/Croatian war.  The people abandoned the town to the Serbs and fled to safer places.  Consequently there was little destruction of the town, other than Serbian looting and general neglect of buildings for about 10 years until the locals started to migrate back to their abandoned homes.  Ilok was chosen by Viking to tour, because there is a palace that was of historical significance in the 15th thru 19th century.  The Palace was restored and in the literature is also referred to as a Castle, because there was a wall around the town that protected the grounds.  There is a museum inside the Palace, that has artifacts that date back to the first century AD.  The Palace has been restored, but the walls around the palace are still being excavated, so there really isn't much to see, except for the small museum that is housed inside the Palace.  The curator of the museum was very proud of the museum's exhibits, and I'm glad nobody burst her bubble, because there was very little to be seen in each room.  After the museum tour we headed to the other side of the compound where the Ilok Winery is.  We were promised a wine tasting of three types of wine, but were given barely enough to wet our whistles.  One lady took advantage of an empty seat at the table and got two samples each.  We were served two white wines, and one red.  Roger and I both liked the first white the best.  The claim to fame of the Ilok Winery, is that allegedly this wine was served during Queen Elizabeth II's coronation celebration.  This left us wondering what have they done in the last 60 years, other than to survive communism and the Serb/Croatian War.  Roger and I went for a stroll, but overall today was a bust especially considering how much time was spent waiting, either at the borders or for the restroom.  Although the women did take over the men's room at the Winery.  There was a man who informed us that we were using the men's room and I simply asked him if he had a men's room at home or if he and his wife shared a toilet.  He told me they shared, and so I said he could share here too.  His wife thought this was funny.  Of course what I should have also said to him that his fly was undone, but I told his wife and she said that it was wise of me not to further embarrass him.    After we left Ilok we spent 45 minutes clearing the Croatian border and just 10 minutes at the Serbian border.  We got back to the boat and everybody was glad to get back after our uneventful day.

Tomorrow we're going to get a fortification tour of Novi Sad's fort. Which from what we can see from the boat, promises to have more to show than the ruins of Ilok palace.  A couple of people have walked around Novi Sad and say it is a nice place to stroll.